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Show HN: I made a generative online drum machine with ClojureScript (dopeloop.ai)
chaosprint 12 hours ago [-]
> "The audio engine is built on a declarative audio graph (using `virtual-audio-graph`), inspired by React's virtual DOM, which makes managing the Web Audio API much cleaner. If you're building web based audio apps I highly recommend checking out this library. "

when you have more and more interactions on the gui web audio api will become a problem, check out audioworklet.

I am developing https://glicol.org/ and it has a js port on https://glicol.js.org/ a typical usecase is drum machine with very high time accuracy

iamben 14 hours ago [-]
This is great fun, congrats!

2 small requests that (I think) would help with the UX: consider moving (or duplicating) the play button - maybe directly in the middle below the editor, or on that panel itself. It took me a few confusing seconds to realise where it was. Also, could you consider making each fourth (or first) column a very slightly lighter grey? So if I want my kick on 1, 3, 10 and 11 it's really easy to see where to click without counting?

mockingloris 3 hours ago [-]
> Also, could you consider making each fourth (or first) column a very slightly lighter grey

This could be a component logic; a row of drop downs for customizing the UI and a good examples are color and grid count. This could even be a toml/json config file that can be imported/exported.

My own addition is ability to import samples from my own device.

ericyd 1 hours ago [-]
It's not very mobile friendly but on desktop it's a pleasure! The ability to generate waveforms feels pretty novel, well done.
gabriel666smith 10 hours ago [-]
Love this!

One thing I'd find frustrating if using this when working on music: "When beat is playing, get new sample for drum plays as soon as it generates".

If "this sample is programmed to play in playing beat", then it'd be good to do a silent replace, or have the option to, so that you don't get a weird unquantized snare sound, for example. I'm finding it puts me off the generated sound more if I initially hear it in a context where it doesn't fit.

dpoljak 13 hours ago [-]
Really cool! How come you've chosen ClojureScript, and did you regret that choice in the 2 years you've been working on this?

To be clear, this is pure curiosity on my part as I love Clojure(Script) and am consistently missing it during my day job.

raspasov 13 hours ago [-]
I think the question is for other projects: How come you've not chosen ClojureScript? ;)
h4ch1 11 hours ago [-]
This takes me back to 2019 when me and my team won HackInOut, a hackathon held in Bangalore, India by building Rosaline, a generative drum machine, that took in lead melodies (guitar tracks, piano samples, etc) and generated a full fledged drum track.

Used GANs & a lot of weird hacky optimizations, can't even find the code for it anymore, but it was a great time :)

https://devfolio.co/projects/rosaline

This is all that's left of it

marksholms 10 hours ago [-]
Thanks for building this. Really inspiring and great work.

ClojureScript is such an awesome secret weapon for building web apps. I started building a similar web audio looping app using borkdude's scittle version of ClojureScript. Only once the app had grown substantially, did I move on to proper ClojureScript. The cljs development experience is just awesome.

WesleyJohnson 8 hours ago [-]
Very cool and quite fun. I love that you used Clojurescript. I played with it years ago and have been meaning to get back to it.

One piece of feedback; I'd love an option to toggle background color of everything nth note. Makes it easier to place on beat.

RigelKentaurus 5 hours ago [-]
Cool tool! I often play odd time signatures, e.g. I'm trying to program the drums for Rondo ala turk by Dave Brubeck (repeating 2-2-2-3 pattern). Can you tell me how I can do that?
viccy-kobuletti 10 hours ago [-]
That background really captures the look of a dirty laptop display. I was actually taken aback at first, thinking that I must have somehow sneezed over my screen without realising!
weego 8 hours ago [-]
I really like it, and the FX option is a really fun addition on top of where most people get to. One ask I'd have is for FX to stay "on" and duplicate what was put down for each new cell until it's turned off again? It's a tiny thing.
amelius 12 hours ago [-]
Thanks for making this a web app, and not some app that only runs on half of the phones/tablets out there.
spapas82 10 hours ago [-]
I had also build a similar (non polished) app using js: https://boombox-agw.pages.dev/

It also includes a bunch of greek rhythms; try tsifteteli!

monneyboi 14 hours ago [-]
Dope!

One thing I notice is that the generated beats are very alike. Yeah it makes sense to play snare on the 2 and the 4, and to have kicks always fall on the downbeat, but you'd get more creative grooves if you allow for some more variation there.

It could even be a slider that allows you to stray away from the common patterns.

thw_9a83c 14 hours ago [-]
Nice work! Nice that you also implemented an MPC-style swing. How do you generate samples? Are they also procedurally generated or are they chosen from a fixed set of samples? I suppose you're not planning to release any sources for this...
s20n 8 hours ago [-]
I found some repositories related to this on OP's github page <https://github.com/chr15m?tab=repositories>

This is the repository for the webaudio functions <https://github.com/chr15m/cljs-dopeloop>

recursive 5 hours ago [-]
What is Mpc style swing? Does that mean you can push the swing beats all the way to the next time slice?
thw_9a83c 4 hours ago [-]
> What is Mpc style swing?

You can get an explanation directly from the MPC 3000 manual [0].

> Does that mean you can push the swing beats all the way to the next time slice?

At least the original MPC series couldn't move the note to the next time slice. The maximum setting was 75%. That made the first note of each pair of 1/8 or 1/16 notes three times the length of the second note.

[0]: <https://www.manualslib.com/manual/207365/Akai-Mpc-3000.html?...>

recursive 4 hours ago [-]
Thanks.

That sounds like a very normal and unremarkable swing implementation, like I've used in every DAW and sequencer. But maybe MPC did it first, and I've been using MPC-like swing this whole time.

dmje 9 hours ago [-]
Really great, very responsive, fun, like the fact you can download your work in lots of different formats. Ace!
raspasov 13 hours ago [-]
Very nice! ClojureScript rocks. Just curious, did you use any React for this, or is it vanilla HTML interop?
diggan 13 hours ago [-]
> view-source:https://dopeloop.ai/beat-maker/js/main.js

> CTRL+F "React"

> 93 matches

Somewhere there is a React lurking :)

Guessing it's via Reagent as it's also mentioned 8 times, and is a fairly traditional approach to frontend with ClojureScript.

mclau157 10 hours ago [-]
Is this able to be used with Strudel the code-based beat maker?
nonethewiser 10 hours ago [-]
Pricing page could say what the features are

Seems like a cool, simple app

asimpletune 11 hours ago [-]
This is wonderful work. Thanks for sharing.
sakrist 13 hours ago [-]
awesome tool! would be more usable to scroll horizontally as one page and ability to add verticals one at a time.
phrygian 13 hours ago [-]
very nice, enjoy listening to the beats. also good to see something come out of Clojure land after a while
hdb2 11 hours ago [-]
this is really great, I like it!
ratelimitsteve 9 hours ago [-]
already using this to practice randomized beats on my drum pad. this is dope, thank you.
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