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Show HN: I built a WebMIDI sequencer to control my hardware synths (simplychris.ai)

43 points by simplychris ↗ HN
Hey HN,

I’m an ex-Google engineer trying to get back into music production.

I needed a way to sequence my hardware synths using AI contexts without constantly switching windows, so I built this.

It runs entirely in the browser using WebMIDI. No login required. It connects to your local MIDI devices (if you're on Chrome/Edge) and lets you generate patterns.

Tech stack: [React / WebMIDI API / etc].

Link: www.simplychris.ai/droplets

Code is a bit messy, but it works. Feedback welcome.

9 comments

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vermon
Vibe coded? Asking because it looks very similar to my vibe coded webmidi project which is a beatmatching practice for DJ’s :) https://beat.maido.io/
Mattrou
It definitely was made with gemini, you can tell by the fact that gemini shoe horned AI features that only work with a google api key.
rcarmo
This is pretty cool in concept. Need to go and get stuff to plug into my laptop to test :)
gbraad
I wrote mine also, integrating an Akai Fire, at https://music.gbraad.nl/meister as part of a tool to do live performances. This controls some of my remix tools, mixxx and vj tools too.

Edit: my usecase is more integrating different tools and devices, Bitwig, Electribe, mixxx, my mod/protracker remix tool, etc. I guess your usecase is more to generate music, less my thing, but possible. I just have a particular sequencer/tracker use. Generation happens in bitwig

Aldipower
This does not solve the underlying problem at all, which makes today's MIDI, coming from a normal computer, almost unusable for serious sequencing. This is timing and jitter issues! So, may I asked, what is the actual use-case for this sequencer? I would like to see/hear some music you made with it. Or is this just for the sake of using AI?
Libidinalecon
If you have hardware synths you are going to have a decent midi and audio interface that this is not a problem. It wasn't even a problem 25 years ago. There is no reason for consumer grade audio to be able to do this because most people will never use it.
jauntywundrkind
PipeWire with rtkit works incredibly stably with wildly short buffer lengths (low latency). Given the short buffer size, there's not much chance for big timing issues to arise (unless there's underruns with dead air, which doesn't seem to be the case).

This was a surprising assertion to hear. Maybe on some OS, doing reliable timing is a problem. But with modern audio pipelines, things feel like they are in an extremely good state.

srameshc
Thanks this looks intersting and I am going it to try it later. I have old Axiom 49 and it really doesn't work that much with modern DAW as it is assumed it's old and outdated. But I like the form factor and it is solid. I hope I can make it work witht his one ?