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Show HN: Beats, a web-based drum machine (beats.lasagna.pizza)

160 points by kinduff ↗ HN
Hello all!

I've been an avid fan of Pocket Operators by Teenage Engineering since I found out about them. I even own an EP-133 K.O. II today, which I love.

A couple of months ago, Reddit user andiam03 shared a Google Sheet with some drum patterns [1]. I thought it was a very cool way to share and understand beats.

During the weekend I coded a basic version of this app I am sharing today. I iterated over it in my free time, and yesterday I felt like I had a pretty good version to share with y'all.

It's not meant to be a sequencer but rather a way to experiment with beats and basic sounds, save them, and use them in your songs. It also has a sharing feature with a link.

It was built using Tone.js [2], Stimulus [3] and deployed in Render [4] as a static website. I used an LLM to read the Tone.js documentation and generate sounds, since I have no knowledge about sound production, and modified from there.

Anyway, hope you like it! I had a blast building it.

[0]: https://teenage.engineering

[1]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GMRWxEqcZGdBzJg52soe...

[2]: https://tonejs.github.io

[3]: https://stimulus.hotwired.dev

[4]: http://render.com

36 comments

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nilram
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.
hmokiguess
Nice UI but your examples don’t feel right to me. Bossa nova sounds nothing like bossa nova.
hmcamp
I like it. I think I’ll eventually take a whack at making something similar. Thanks for sharing
lagniappe
Lots of crackling and popping in firefox on macos, pretty cool otherwise
brikym
Nice. I love how you're not using a framework just pure javascript.
ferg-in-japan
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.
cyrusradfar
This made my day. Love this, thank you!
utopiah
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.

adrianwaj
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.

Igor_Wiwi
pls add examples from the Google Sheets for easy bootstrapping
myky22
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.

igleria
This is great! I can report a bit of odd sounds here and there on firefox ubuntu, but chromium ubuntu works perfect.
zerr
Nice! What's the UI toolkit?
kinduff
Custom made, I've been using on some apps lately
dworks
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/
fatherwavelet
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.

millzlane
A randomize button would be cool.