Liner notes

A1Meet Loafie

Loafie hangs out on the Catnip FM rooftop. She wanders around, loafs, grooms herself, watches the city and eventually falls asleep if nobody bothers her.

Pet her. Drop her a fish. Tap Z and she curls up for a nap. Touch the board and she's awake again. She has a cardboard box and strong opinions about when to use it. The rest you'll figure out.

Tap the little cat key to change her coat: grey tabby, orange tabby, white, calico, Siamese or black. She keeps it, and so does the cat on your cassettes.

A2Focus: three stations

Hit FOCUS and step around the dial with ◀ ▶. None of these are recordings. Catnip FM composes them while they play, so another listen won't come out exactly the same.

Nine Lives

8-bit, between levels. Blow on the cartridge first.

Late Shift

Warm Rhodes and a lazy beat. Built for working late.

Rooftop

House drums, synth bass and a soft pad. The upbeat one.

A3Calm

Hit CALM for purr, rain, ocean, fireplace or brown noise. No songs, no talking, nothing demanding your attention.

A4Three looks

Tap the display key to flip through them.

808

Red, orange, yellow and cream glowing pegs. The default.

VFD

Cyan and orange, like an old stereo receiver.

Red LED

The clock radio on your nightstand in 1987.

Until you choose one yourself, the display can follow the music. After dark it settles down on its own.

A5The rooftop

Loafie spends her nights on a concrete ledge above the city. Windows come on and go off. A red light blinks on the tower.

When Rain or a rainy mixtape is playing, it rains across the whole rooftop. Sometimes it rains anyway.

A6Leave it running

On a computer, Float keeps Loafie in a little window above whatever else you're doing. You can still pet her and feed her there.

Got an old tablet? Add Catnip FM to the home screen, leave it plugged in and you've got a little rooftop radio sitting on your desk.

Once it's loaded, it works offline.

A7Nerd stuff

Nothing you're hearing is an audio file. The drums, bass, keys, rain, waves, fire and purr are synthesized in your browser with the Web Audio API while you listen.

It's procedural, not AI-generated. Notes are kept inside the harmony underneath them, which is why you can stack different parts without immediately making a mess.

A mixtape link is just a handful of choices and a seed. The other person's browser makes the sound.

No keyboard shortcuts on purpose. You're probably typing somewhere else and a stray key shouldn't stop the music.

The whole thing stays small because a rooftop radio with a cat on it shouldn't need 40 MB of JavaScript.

A8Credits

Music and sounds

Catnip FM's own code, played in your browser.

Fonts

Doto and IBM Plex Sans (SIL Open Font License).

The cat and the board

Made for Catnip FM.

A9What's the catch?

There isn't one. It's free, there are no ads and there's nothing to sign up for. I like cats and beats, so I made this. If you like it, send it to a friend.

A10Say hi

Something broken? Got an idea? Got a good cat picture? hello@catnipfm.com