← WorkWarble

Everyone has the same ringtone

The Warble interface: instrument and scale pickers, a step sequencer, and the transport mid-playback
Role
Designed and built solo
Period
2025
Owned
Concept, interface, audio engine and export — six instruments, four scales

I like Apple’s ringtones — the marimba, the xylophone, that whole sound. The trouble is everyone has the same one, so the thing that is supposed to tell you it is your phone ringing tells you nothing at all. Warble is a tool for making one in that aesthetic that is actually yours: pick an instrument and a scale, draw a pattern, export a WAV. The eight rows are the notes of a scale rather than a chromatic keyboard, so there is no wrong note to place — which is the thing that makes it possible to sit down for two minutes and come away with something you would genuinely set. There is plenty still to do to it. It is fun, it is quick to pick up, and what comes out is good enough to use, which was the bar for putting it up here at all.