Every protein is a chain of amino acids — the building blocks that give it its shape and function. There are 20 standard amino acids, each represented by a single letter.
In Splice, each amino acid is assigned a unique frequency, ascending from G (Glycine) at 130.81 Hz — a low C — up to R (Arginine) at 440 Hz — concert A. The 20 amino acids map across roughly two octaves.
Frequency Map
When you click a letter, its protein sequence plays from left to right — one amino acid per note, 110 milliseconds apart. Each note is two slightly detuned sine waves layered together, filtered through a low-pass and dissolved into a long reverb tail. Every fourth note adds a sub-tone one octave below.
The visualizer shows the pitch contour of the full sequence. Taller bars are higher frequencies. Click any bar to hear that amino acid's note in isolation.
You can also paste any amino acid sequence from AlphaFold or UniProt to hear a protein of your own choosing.