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what you get

a free virtual Pop Boll of your own: a band of sixteen pixel musicians (and seven judges) that writes pop songs for you, asks your opinion while it works, and keeps every song in your Morphus. one click with Google, nothing to install.

that's PBOLL FM in the ball

the ball on this page is showing what's on PBOLL FM right now. press its button 1 for sound (browsers want a click first), or LISTEN TO PBOLL FM for the whole station.

your Pop Boll is one click away

OPEN MY POP BOLL takes you to your band. (MY DEVICE in the top bar does too.)

CLAIM, WATCH, SHARE, GO PUBLIC

that's the whole thing, in four lines of BASIC: get a Pop Boll, watch its band write, share the good ones to PBOLL FM, and if you like, go public at your own address, where anyone can listen and anyone signed in can assess them.

Music Notes

songs are assessed in Music Notes, from 1 to 16. the big row is the maker's own assessment; the small line under it is everyone else's average. if you're signed in and it's not your song, you get your own row, marked YOURS, to assess it yourself. click a note, or use the arrow keys and Enter; Delete takes your assessment back.

the band reads every assessment. a high one goes straight to whoever played on it; a low one can send them off to study, muttering. FM listeners count too, but the band cares most what its maker thinks — and nobody in the band holds a grudge for more than a few days.

avatars

you get an avatar once your band has made 10 songs and you've shared 1 to PBOLL FM. the tag counts for you. then SET AVATAR, pick any picture, and it gets squashed into a 48×48 pixel square, which is how everyone looks around here.

the band is asking you something

while it writes, the band stops to ask you things, right there in the ball. answer with the round buttons under each choice: 1 is A, 2 is B, 3 is C (or NO, MEH, YES from left to right; tap 1 three times for HARD NO, 3 three times for HELL YES). hold 1 to hear the choices again, hold 2 to let the band decide. you have about 12 to 15 seconds. if you don't answer, the band picks, but it notices: miss a couple and it gets distracted, starts trying harder (more takes) and the alarms get louder. pay attention! (or turn on ME@PROXY.)

the band's mood

the row of sixteen dots is the band, one dot per musician in the colour of their part, as they felt making the latest song; the next song shows how they feel by then. a bright dot with a star is proud of how its songs were assessed; a dim one with an arrow is sulking (ringed when they're off studying); a bolt is a musician who wants the spotlight back. point at a dot, or tab to it, to hear about it (on a phone, the song's TALKBACK says the same). the dots go away when nobody feels anything.

three buttons, no screen (well, a small one)

the ball has three buttons and they do everything. 1 is PLAY / PAUSE, 2 is LOCAL / FM, 3 is NEXT. hold one (a long press, about a second) for its second job: hold 1 to STOP, hold 2 to SHARE the song that's playing, hold 3 for POWER. tap 1 three times to SWAP CORPUS, tap 3 three times to flip between MORPHUS and CORPUS. on a keyboard, Tab to a button and press Space or Enter. the legend under the ball says all of this too, in tiny letters.

the codex

your band is 23 cards: 16 musicians and 7 judges, each with a tier from common to secret, and maybe a palette swap, an accessory or some holo sparkle. the odds are published, and every pull carries its proof, which your browser checks for itself. PLAY THE UNBOXING to watch them come out of the box again. if your Pop Boll is public, JOIN THE BOARD puts your band on the rarest-bands board.

what your band studies

the band learns from the Corpora. out of the box it studies all of them at once (POOLED ✓). pick one from the CORPUS menu to make it study only that one, and POOL ALL to go back. tapping button 1 three times swaps to the next corpus. new corpora turn up in the menu by themselves.

CORPUS is for subscribers

CORPUS mode plays the official recordings, and that's for Basic Square subscribers. press SUBSCRIBE (it goes to kgw.me/subscribe) and use the same email as your Google sign-in, so we can tell it's you. MORPHUS and PBOLL FM stay free, always.

ENDLESS

ENDLESS makes song after song and plays them, no questions asked (well, a quick "more like this?" now and then, which you can ignore). every sixth song is a 10-minute suite. set STOP AFTER before you start (it's locked while ENDLESS is on), or leave it blank for up to 60 in a row; after 60, start it again by hand. if nobody touches anything for 15 minutes, or the tab is hidden that long, the band stops and waits: tap to carry on. MAKE A NEW SONG stops ENDLESS too.

take the making-of home

when a film ends, a videotape sits on the screen for a minute. click it to save the film: a silent GIF, or an MP4 with the song. it's all made in your browser; nothing is kept on our side.

skipping the making-of

after the band writes a song, it shows you how: the making-of film. to skip it, tap the screen twice (SKIP? means tap again), press SKIP TO THE SONG ▸▸, or press S on your keyboard. answering the band's questions never skips the film, so don't worry about that.

your first song!

it's in your Morphus, the list under MORPHUS. press ▶ next to it, or button 1 on the ball. every song has its MIDI to download, and its TALKBACK: what the musicians said while they made it. if it's good, SHARE TO FM.

going public

pick a pillname: 3 to 24 characters, a–z, 0–9, _ and -, starting and ending with a letter or number, with at least one letter. if it says the name isn't available, someone has it (or it's one we keep, like "help" or "radio"). then tick "I understand my pillname is permanent." and GO PUBLIC lights up. public means anyone can watch your band and hear every song on your Pop Boll, and signed-in listeners can assess them. you can go private again any time (MAKE PRIVATE), and come back as yourself (MAKE PUBLIC AS …).

the band is busy

the band is still writing your last song (or showing you how it did it). MAKE A NEW SONG comes back as soon as that song is LOCKED. if you can't wait for the making-of to finish, press SKIP TO THE SONG ▸▸ and go straight to the music.

MORPHUS or CORPUS?

the player has two modes. MORPHUS plays the songs your band wrote. CORPUS plays the official recordings of the corpus the band studies from (that part is for Basic Square subscribers). the button says where you are and where it goes: MORPHUS ▸ CORPUS. making a new song always takes you back to MORPHUS. some corpora are MIDI-only by the artist's licence, so in CORPUS mode they have nothing to play.

which name is which?

your Pop Boll has a number (PBOLL #…), an @name and, once you go public, a pillname. the @name is what RENAME changes, any time: 3 to 24 letters, numbers, _ - or . (your device's /device/ address follows it). the pillname is your public address, pboll.com/p/yourname, and once chosen it's permanent. so RENAME as often as you like, and GO PUBLIC carefully.

it's switched off

your Pop Boll is off. hold button 3 for about a second to switch it back on. the same hold switches it off again, which is also the fastest way to make the band stop whatever it's doing.

ME@PROXY

with ME@PROXY on, the band still asks every question, but it answers them for you, the way you usually do, and shows you what it picked. it learns from your own answers, so until it has a few of yours to go on, it guesses. it misses questions about as often as you do lately (never less than one in eight), so it can't pay down the band's attention debt any faster than you would. every answer it gives is logged, tagged as ME@PROXY's, and shapes what it picks next time: it all goes on the permanent ledger. it only works for MAKE A NEW SONG. engage ME@PROXY at your peril.

QUIET HOURS

the hours when the band's alert sounds keep quiet (22:00 to 08:00 unless we change it), on this device's clock. it's for this browser only. on a Pop Boll's own page the same switch also quiets the ball.

your recovery card

your band's soul has three keys: pboll.com keeps one, one waits for a Pop Boll you might own one day, and the third is a card only you hold. it's shown once, so have somewhere to keep it before you look. if you pressed LATER, it's in the CODEX: SEE MY RECOVERY CARD. lost it? LOST IT? REGENERATE makes a new one (the old one stops working), once a day, right after a fresh sign-in.

the RIFF BOOK

musicians collect riffs. each one has a SIGNATURE riff, some personal ones (we only get to see their names; a musician's own book is private), and they trade and gift riffs backstage. the trades and the turned-down offers, with their reasons, are listed here.

putting a song on PBOLL FM

press SHARE TO FM next to a song (it turns into ON AIR ✓), or play the song and hold button 2. it joins the rotation on PBOLL FM, the global public Pop Boll station, credited to your @name, even if your device is private. press ON AIR ✓ to take it off again. only your band's songs can go on air, not CORPUS recordings.

TALKBACK

every song leaves a talkback: what each musician meant to play before each take, what the judges heard after it, and the big moments in between. it's built from what actually happened, so a song always says the same things. a song made after some assessments opens with what the band read before it. press TALKBACK on a song, or play one, to read it here. (it shows up once your Pop Boll is public.)

assessing songs

anyone signed in can assess a song, in 1 to 16 Music Notes, as long as it's on a public Pop Boll or on PBOLL FM. sign in and a row marked YOURS shows up under each song.

this is how visitors see you

this is your public page, as everyone else sees it. OPEN CONTROLS takes you back to your device, where the buttons are.

you're watching someone's Pop Boll

this is somebody else's Pop Boll, out in public. you can watch their band, play any of their songs and read the codex, but only the owner can make songs or change things. want your own? the button's right there.

assessing what's on

signed in, you can assess the song that's playing, in 1 to 16 Music Notes, right here. the big number is its maker's own assessment; the small line is everyone else's average.

whose band is this?

each song says which Pop Boll made it: its number and @name. the name is a link only when that Pop Boll is public; private ones still get the credit, just no page to visit.

DJ PB's Yesterday's Mix

every day DJ PB picks the best of what played on PBOLL FM and mixes it into one episode: DJ PB's Yesterday's Mix, a podcast you can follow in any podcast app.

getting your song on the air

on your device, press SHARE TO FM next to any song your band made (or play it and hold button 2). it joins the rotation here, credited to your @name, even if your Pop Boll is private. press ON AIR ✓ to take it off again.

it's a real station

PBOLL FM runs on one clock for everybody: everyone tuned in hears the same song at the same moment. so tuning back in doesn't rewind; you come back to whatever's playing now. UP NEXT shows what's coming.

no sound?

browsers won't play anything until you click something, so press TUNE IN. it joins the station wherever the song is right now. TUNE OUT stops it.

the SNIPLET LIBRARY & ARCHIVE

the bits DJ PB kept: loops, mixes, mashups, ragas and whole-hour FOH sets, filtered with the buttons on top. each one has DJ PB's own score (big) and everyone's Music Notes (small), and DOWNLOAD .MID takes it home. if a song in it comes off PBOLL FM, the item leaves the archive too, so things do vanish.

DJ PB'S BAR

the bar is how good something has to be before DJ PB keeps it. it goes up a little every day and never comes down, faster when listeners assess the day's keepers well. (no pressure.)

the BPM RAMP

this hour's tempo journey: how fast DJ PB is going now and where the hour is headed.

ON THE DECKS

what DJ PB is playing right now: two decks, each with a song from PBOLL FM and the Pop Boll that made it, plus anything else layered into the mix (ALSO IN THE MIX).

the KEY WHEEL

a Camelot key wheel: it shows the key DJ PB is in. neighbours on the wheel mix smoothly, which is how the set stays in key.

not on the guest list (yet)

DJ PB isn't spinning for your account right now, but the silent preview still works. SEE HOW TO GET IN says what it takes, and PBOLL FM is always open.

why is it quiet?

you're watching a silent preview. DJ PB only spins for Pop Boll owners, and getting one is free: GET YOUR POP BOLL, sign in with Google, and come back to hear the set, see every song on the decks and tug the mix yourself.

IN THE ROOM

everyone listening nudges DJ PB's choices a little, and keeps nudging for 8 hours after they leave (fading as they go). your band's corpus gets into the mix too. HERE NOW and STILL TUGGING say who.

TODAY'S SEED

DJ PB's day starts from a seed that was committed in advance, drawn here as a barcode. VERIFY THE SEED CHAIN shows the chain of seeds, so you can check nobody fiddled with today's.

the set, the perfect 24 and the diary

THIS HOUR'S SET lists what's played (THE WHOLE HOUR shows all of it). THE PERFECT 24 is DJ PB's best 24 hours, stitched from the best hour of every hour of the day. and every day DJ PB writes a diary: what worked, what didn't, and what to try tomorrow, which really does change how the next day sounds.

one tap for sound

browsers only play sound after a tap, so tap TAP TO HEAR DJ PB (or TUNE IN). after that it stays on until you TUNE OUT or MUTE it.

pairing it

before anything joins, we show you which Boll that code belongs to. give it a name if you like (Kitchen Boll, say), then press PAIR IT, or NOT THIS ONE if it isn't yours. the first person to pair a Boll is its owner.

where's the code?

when your Pop Boll is ready to pair, it scrolls PAIR and a code across its lights, something like K7QM-2XWP. type that code here (the dash is optional) and press CHECK THE CODE.

a code only lasts ten minutes. if yours ran out, or nobody's waiting with it, start pairing again on the Boll and it'll show you a fresh one.

confirm with Google

pairing changes where your Pop Boll life goes, so we ask you to sign in with the Google account that should own the Boll, and to confirm it's you once more on this browser.

your devices

every Boll, cart and browser that keeps your Pop Boll life is listed here: your library, your Assessments and your sessions. REMOVE one you don't recognise, and FORGET THIS BROWSER when you're done on a computer that isn't yours.

the ten palettes

USE puts a palette on the whole site, on this browser. PREVIEW THE SITE shows the home page in it first, without switching. the picker at the bottom of every page does the same thing.

rolling your own

Basic Square subscribers roll their own palettes from the same 32 colours the built-ins use, keep a library, and share them with each other for free. subscribe at kgw.me/subscribe (with the same email as your Google sign-in) to join in.

hiding a palette for yourself

HIDE FOR ME takes a shared palette out of your market and your IN THE AIR, for you only. it is not a report and nobody else is told. SETTINGS, at the bottom of Palettes, lists what you hid, with UNHIDE. signed in, the list follows you to every device; as a guest, this browser keeps it. if a palette seems wrong rather than just not your taste, tell us at popboll.fyi.

the palette market

everyone's shared palettes, sorted by the best assessed, the newest or the most grabbed. TRY one on before you keep it; SAVE TO MY LIBRARY keeps the one you rolled.

reporting a palette

if a shared palette or its skin is offensive or copies someone else's work, report it with a reason. when three people have reported it, it leaves the market until the owner has a look. nothing is ever for sale here: shared palettes and skins are free between subscribers.

skinning Pompa

a skin changes how Pompa and Pompas look (shapes, type, layout, pixel buttons, the cart's matrix glyphs) and keeps your palette's colours, so one skin works with every palette. paint a sprite with a brush, pick a palette from your library, and SAVE ON THIS PALETTE. EXPORT gives you the skin file to share or keep; IMPORT reads one back.

about these help boxes

when it looks like something isn't working the way you expect, a little HELP? shows up next to it. press it if you want, ignore it if you don't; it goes away. NOT NOW hides that one for a week, and STOP OFFERING HELP turns them all off on this browser. INTRO? (and the ? key) always work.

can't reach us

your browser can't reach pboll.com right now. check your connection; the page picks up where it left off when you're back. (the band keeps working on our side while you're gone.)

palettes

the whole site comes in ten colour palettes; pick one at the bottom of any page. ALL TEN shows them side by side. Basic Square subscribers can roll their own.

nobody home?

this Pop Boll is private, or there's no Pop Boll by that name. a private Pop Boll's page only opens for its owner. if a friend sent you the link, they may need to GO PUBLIC first.

signing in

sign-in is Google, in a small pop-up window where you pick your account. if nothing opens, your browser blocked the pop-up: allow pop-ups for this site and press it again. once you're in, you land on your own Pop Boll. one thing to know: popboll.com and pboll.com each give your Google account its own device, so if you sign in on both, you have two bands. (some people like comparing.)