Show HN: Browser based sythesizer, drum machine and squencer (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

21 pointsmadmonk10d ago4 comments

Inspired by the recent Boards Of Canada announcement, I've been in a low-fi electronica mood lately and was going back and forth with Claude on how to design similar instruments in the browser that fit the genre. One thing led to another and pretty soon I had a fully browser based polyphonic synthesizer / drum machine / sequencer.

The interface and workflow was heavily inspired by the Rebirth338 application released back in the 90's, but with lo-fi synth voices rather than the original 303 & 808 emulation.

I know there's a significant overlap of developers and musicians and I though some of you may enjoy playing with the app, or at least listening to the resulting album. I've also open sourced track 1 of the album via the performance script used to record it. It's in the repo.

Bandcamp link to the resulting album: https://madmonk13.bandcamp.com/album/yesterdays-tomorrow-tod...

4 comments

dr_kiszonka8d ago

I like the idea. The demo music is very cool. The problem with using tone.js for such projects is, as I have learned the hard way, that it is hard to avoid issues like clipping; and AI agents are surprisingly bad at optimizing such apps.

I test nearly every new model that I can access on building a modular groovebox and they keep making the same mistakes. Even a 4-channel 16-step with a playhead can give them trouble.

urlportz9d ago

Interesting project. The browser-based workflow and retro-inspired interface actually fit the lo-fi direction really well.

ichbinsoftware10d ago

Nice one, this is great, ps you have a double up/typo in your GitHub repo about.

madmonkOP9d ago

Thanks for the heads up. Fixed.

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