This is nice, I'm similarly a fan of Teenage engineering and have been playing around with ToneJS and Sveltekit to make https://shantylab.com
It's been a really interesting way to understand the elements of putting together music for me. I started off thinking surely it can't be that hard to make a simple way of making music but as I added more and more functionality I found it tricky to keep the UI simple. I'm still plugging away and the challenge of chasing simplicity is what's keeping me going.
There’s some synth sounds and some samples, you can record your own samples in also and play them like an instrument. That part is loosely based on the KO2 which I have and love
Very nice. Would be great to see a "tap bpm" instead of setting numerically, also a way to run offline, and lastly a way to submit drum covers of popular tracks that used say the Linn 9000 and TR-808 drum machines - with those sounds available!
To really make it interesting, have a way to switcheroo the drum tracks of some cloud music to layer in one's own version instead.
One small improvement: could you disable the "double tap to zoom" on mobile browsers? This happens often when you press multiple squares closeby. Should be one line of css:
Love the UI. I think these browser-based products are great at removing the "mystery" around music making or DJing by making it accessible. All you need to do is type a URL and click a few elements to get started and you get instant feedback. I built a similar browser app but for DJing (I was also inspired by Pocket Operators): https://dj.t-tunes.com/
I'm getting a little popping on Firefox Windows, which disappears if I remove the kick step on second row of the default bosa nova. Nice work anyway, the UI is immediate and instant play.
The share button doesn't show up on Firefox for some reason?
Fun stuff! It would be nice to be able to make longer patterns. Maybe by having triggers that play randomly or every nth loop, like a lot of drum machines do.
I have messed around with making a number of different web drum machines but I really like the square step sequencer for something fresh instead of the standard row.
I notice right away how I am focused on the specific sound I am looking at compared to the step row that feels more focused on the pattern overall.
You could also make it so it plays samples for the drums instead of synthesizing them directly but I do like the default sounds too.
Very neat! I had a https://www.crowdsupply.com/wee-noise-makers/wee-noise-maker... but I don't always carry it with me. I do have my phone though most of the time in my pocket so having this on, Web based, is great! The author of ToneJS is very kind, if the documentation wasn't clear you might want to reach out to help clarify it.
PS: didn't check it but being a PWA to work offline would be quite neat, just in case the subway or train goes through a spot without connectivity.
I really enjoyed playing around with this, thanks for sharing. You can tell a lot of care and effort went into the experience. I’m curious: did you use any AI tools while building it or was that all done manually?
Wow this is cool! Inspiration to try making something like this myself. The 8-bit aesthetic looks great too. It would be cool if users could edit the tones - maybe a way to expand in the future.
It's been a really interesting way to understand the elements of putting together music for me. I started off thinking surely it can't be that hard to make a simple way of making music but as I added more and more functionality I found it tricky to keep the UI simple. I'm still plugging away and the challenge of chasing simplicity is what's keeping me going.
Your sounds are very nice too, are you synthesizing them too?
To really make it interesting, have a way to switcheroo the drum tracks of some cloud music to layer in one's own version instead.
One small improvement: could you disable the "double tap to zoom" on mobile browsers? This happens often when you press multiple squares closeby. Should be one line of css:
Fun!
I'd love to be able to add triplets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2xAjxpwFmw
Squeezing 3 hits (evenly placed) in the time that you'd expect to hit 2 hit.
Firefox on Android - seems to work perfectly.
Any plans to develop this further? I'm not sure how doable this is but I'd love to be able to program African polyrhythms on my phone.
I think the main dev challenges would be:
- add swing and humanization
- layering the polyrhythms on separate tracks
- adding different time signatures, e.g. 12/8 is common for African polyrhythms.
- allow independent cycle lengths per track
A good resource for further reading - https://djemberhythms.com/books/
Beside this, very cool!
Fun stuff! It would be nice to be able to make longer patterns. Maybe by having triggers that play randomly or every nth loop, like a lot of drum machines do.
https://beats.lasagna.pizza/?name=hakkernuse&bpm=141&i0=K100...
I notice right away how I am focused on the specific sound I am looking at compared to the step row that feels more focused on the pattern overall.
You could also make it so it plays samples for the drums instead of synthesizing them directly but I do like the default sounds too.
PS: didn't check it but being a PWA to work offline would be quite neat, just in case the subway or train goes through a spot without connectivity.
I want a way to add a chiptune piano with different notes, but this is already awesome!
https://erikburt.github.io/TSequencer/
So easy to use. Would love to see some bass lunes in the future.
I normally use my OP-XY when improvising.
https://glicol.org/demo#minitechno
like the online one here as well, but does have static glitches.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/se.tube42.drum.android/