Show HN: Beats, a web-based drum machine

160 pointsposted 19 days ago
by kinduff

49 Comments

turbotim

18 days ago

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.

kinduff

18 days ago

Wow! This is amazing! You went great lenghs to make it complete. I really like the layers, something that I would love to add.

Your sounds are very nice too, are you synthesizing them too?

turbotim

18 days ago

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

adrianwaj

19 days ago

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.

dworks

19 days ago

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/

lagniappe

19 days ago

Lots of crackling and popping in firefox on macos, pretty cool otherwise

darkwater

19 days ago

Same here. Also, the current beat highlight is always red and so it's invisible when the content is red as well (i.e. kick by default).

Beside this, very cool!

exodust

19 days ago

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.

yellowapple

19 days ago

Same, with Firefox on Linux (via Flatpak). The UI's great, though.

ofrzeta

19 days ago

No crackling here (Firefox/M4 Air).

yochem

18 days ago

Really nice, loved playing with it!

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:

    touch-action: manipulation

utopiah

19 days ago

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.

djmips

19 days ago

Fascinating, first time I've seen an open source project written with ADA.

fallinditch

18 days ago

Nice job! Added to my home screen.

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/

fatherwavelet

19 days ago

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.

oniony

19 days ago

For something that loops would you not want a circle?

nilram

19 days ago

Not great waveforms, to my ear. Decent UI for a first cut -- trying it out, I found it really addictive. Makes me want to learn more about beats.

999900000999

19 days ago

I absolutely love this as an amateur beat maker.

I want a way to add a chiptune piano with different notes, but this is already awesome!

igleria

19 days ago

This is great! I can report a bit of odd sounds here and there on firefox ubuntu, but chromium ubuntu works perfect.

hmokiguess

19 days ago

Nice UI but your examples don’t feel right to me. Bossa nova sounds nothing like bossa nova.

kinduff

19 days ago

I agree, let me see if I can tweak it so it sounds a bit more like it.

bicepjai

19 days ago

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?

bicepjai

18 days ago

Oh man, I can’t stop using this app. It’s been 2 hours

ferg-in-japan

19 days ago

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.

myky22

19 days ago

Love it. The pixel UX reminds my of Roguelite games hehe.

So easy to use. Would love to see some bass lunes in the future.

I normally use my OP-XY when improvising.

hmcamp

19 days ago

I like it. I think I’ll eventually take a whack at making something similar. Thanks for sharing

TheCraiggers

19 days ago

The scan line effect is very nice. Not over done like many others are.

brikym

19 days ago

Nice. I love how you're not using a framework just pure javascript.

cyrusradfar

19 days ago

This made my day. Love this, thank you!

epiccoleman

18 days ago

I see scanlines, I upvote. Simple as.

millzlane

19 days ago

A randomize button would be cool.

zerr

19 days ago

Nice! What's the UI toolkit?

kinduff

18 days ago

Custom made, I've been using on some apps lately

ssoydan

18 days ago

Simple and fun! I love it.

Igor_Wiwi

19 days ago

pls add examples from the Google Sheets for easy bootstrapping