Jazz.Computer

Jazz Computer is an interactive song by Yotam Mann, author of the Web Audio toolkit library Tone.js, with visual design by Sarah Rothberg. You advance through the song, and its visuals, by scrolling through the page. This action changes the tempo and transitions chords algorithmically. Web Audio hackers might like the GUI mode where the various parameters that control the piece can be tweaked.

Matt McKegg at CampJS

Matt McKegg performed a live set of music and visuals at CampJS in Melbourne this week which from the youtube videos that are available looked to go down a storm. He used his application for the performance loopjs which is a very polished sample looper, sequencer and synth rolled into one. I particularly like the way it can be expanded to work with different MIDI controllers, supporting the Novation Launchpad out of the box.

Learn Web Audio at the Web Audio School

Also from Matt McKegg comes this series of interactive workshops teaching you the basics of Web Audio. Each lesson includes some theory, and some template code for you to complete. You know you’ve got the right answer when the sound you generate matches the reference provided. All of this can be completed directly in the browser without requiring an external editor, making it an excellent place to learn all about the API.

Synthesising Drum Sounds with the Web Audio API

I wrote this article for Opera’s developer blog about how to go about synthesising classic electronic drum sounds using the Web Audio API. I create a kick and snare sound, and then cheat a little bit by sampling a TR-808 hi-hat. I then show how to sequence these sounds together into a simple loop. Hopefully a fairly gentle introduction to the Web Audio API and the world of synthesis.

Practical Web Audio

A thought-provoking opinion piece from Brian Rinaldi on how we could use Web Audio to enhance our day-to-day application development, and some of the resistance we’d face from people who’s experience of audio on the web in the past has been a bad one (think auto-playing sounds and other gimmicks). As we push at the edges of what is possible with this technology, it’s worth taking some time to get the basics right.

Molgav

Molgav is a pattern sequencer and sampler with a lot of powerful features. I found the interface pretty hard to get to grips with at first, but the introduction and tutorial video helps. Try some of the examples first to get a feel for it.

Juno 106 Emulator

If you’re itching to try the Web MIDI support in Chrome 43 you could do a lot worse than to hook up your keyboard to this Juno 106 emulator for some classic, squelchy goodness.

Can I get an Amen?

I spent some time recently listening to the Amen break, the classic 8 seconds of percussion sampled on countless hip-hop records, for a talk I gave at ScotlandJS. It lead to me enjoying again Nate Harrison’s 2004 work ‘Can I get an Amen?’ and this BBC Radio 1 documentary from 2012.