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This isn't really a DAW. For those unfamiliar, a DAW is a fully-featured music creation environment including sound design, composition, recording, arrangement

This isn't really a DAW. For those unfamiliar, a DAW is a fully-featured music creation environment including sound design, composition, recording, arrangement and mixing in one interface. Examples include logic, cubase and ableton. While I suppose this does allow for all of those things, as much as any programming language with access to an audio API does, this would be better described as a web-based DSP livecoding environment. Apart from the naming quibbles, it looks excellent! I wonder what's generating the sound? I'm aware of the oscillator/filter primitives in the HTML5 audio API from the minimoog google doodle, but this seems more elaborate than that. EDIT: for fun times, load "need more 303," scroll down to the bottom, and change some of the numbers around. Setting the slide() call to 1/1024 yields a nice FM-ish sound. You can even overdrive the filter. Reach for the lasers!

stagas 12y ago
In my head, a DAW is exactly what it says. A workstation for digital audio. That said, this has the potential to evolve to something more similar to existing professional DAWs and maybe even surpass them. I'm glad you like it. The sound is generated purely by a JavaScript function returning sample values that are then handled by the Web Audio API and buffered. That's how you hear sound. On edit: It's really easy to remix tracks that way, even small changes to values yield quite different results. It's fun!
- nitrogen 12y ago
  Have you looked at the work of Bret Victor? Integrating some of his concepts for realtime feedback would be awesome (see http://worrydream.com/#!/LearnableProgramming http://worrydream.com/#!/LearnableProgramming and http://worrydream.com/#!2/LadderOfAbstraction http://worrydream.com/#!2/LadderOfAbstraction)
- vegedor 12y ago
  >I'm glad you like it. The sound is generated purely by a JavaScript function returning sample values i feel like this belongs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRPUv8V22o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRPUv8V22o - not in a DAW kinda sense, though
fat0wl 12y ago
which controls are usable? everything i click just gives me an annoying "gimme $$" popup, haven't actually found a function that works
- JonnieCache 12y ago
  I just loaded some example projects, hit the play button and started changing the code. The output responded immediately.
  - fat0wl 12y ago
    ah yah for some reason mine showed a blank file & couldnt expand projects. refreshed & its good, this is a pretty awesome project
svantana 12y ago
It seems their goal is to make a full-fledged DAW in the browser, but they are not there yet (and far from it from what I can tell). How they would be able to fund all that for $2k is beyond me. That said, it's a really clever idea to have all the source editable, since js is an interpreted language anyway. One can imagine a future where the community not only shares songs and sounds, but the DSP units themselves. Unlike desktop DAWs, which rely on dylibs (dlls) to supply external synths and effects, a js-based DAW can load, re-compile and hotswap units on the fly.
- JonnieCache 12y ago
  This kind of thing has existed in desktop/native form for some years. Look up supercollider.
  - fat0wl 12y ago
    & max/msp even included js but it operated at control rate, not audio, so you couldn't write synths directly as js
    - larme 12y ago
      Max now have gen[1] so you can write audio/sample rate code. [1]: http://cycling74.com/products/gen/ http://cycling74.com/products/gen/
      - fat0wl 12y ago
        yea want to try it but i'm stuck on max 5... max upgrades are more expensive than they're worth & now its splitting into multiple products (max4live,gen) so i'm kindof on an every other generation plan unfortunately. especially annoying when features you like get deprecated (pluggo, ms. pinky) though i understand gen & max4live both kinda serve as pluggo replacements. all in all its just hard for me to pull the trigger on a $250 upgrade for a few extra integration points on a tool that should be mostly open source anyway. http://puredata.info/ http://puredata.info/
nnnnni 12y ago
Yeah, it's definitely cool for what it is -- but it is NOT a DAW. I would call it the audio equivalent of OpenSCAD.
- leeoniya 12y ago
  just saw this reply, also thought same thing! http://www.openscad.org/ http://www.openscad.org/
tomphoolery 12y ago
> I'm aware of the oscillator/filter primitives in the HTML5 audio API from the minimoog google doodle, but this seems more elaborate than that. An oscillator and a filter modulator are pretty much all you need to create this particular app. There's no reverb, and any delay effects are being "hard-coded" with simple degrading velocities. All synthesizers are built from these ultra-simple components, maybe 2 or 3 more and you have everything you need to build a digital synth purely with web technologies.
sunpazed 12y ago
This is awesome! I'll certainly contribute to this. Will the source be opened up? Here's a delay filter: var delay_array = []; var delay_length = 5; var delay_feedback = 0.6; var delay_volume = 0.4; function delay(x) { y = 0; if (delay_array.length < (delay_length * 1000)) { delay_array.push(x); } else { y = delay_array.shift(); delay_array.push(x + (y*delay_feedback)); } return (x) + ( y * delay_volume ); } Include this in the DSP return code, ie; return delay(synth);
- Zubedar 12y ago
  Yes that's a good delay filter but it's also a good example why this type of user-programmable synth apparatus, which looks similar to CSound, won't catch on. There is much more going on in the typical delay sound itself than just a delayed iteration of a sample. A pure delay is boring. There is the possibility to model all kinds of analog and hardware digital delays with additional coding, but people have been doing that for years and it's no surprise really that commercial companies do it best (and they won't bother unless there's a way to protect proprietary code such as VST).
  - stagas 12y ago
    There's more to digital audio processing than code? I don't get it. Once the collaborative module system is in place (see milestone I) it'll allow for more complex stuff, as you'd be joining components and moving upwards in the abstraction levels, I don't see how big companies can compete with that.
    - Zubedar 12y ago
      No that's not the point I was making. I was saying that to make a good delay in software it can't just be a delay. To sound good, it needs additional algorithms to carry out at least 2 other DSP functions on the return signal.

stagas 12y ago

In my head, a DAW is exactly what it says. A workstation for digital audio. That said, this has the potential to evolve to something more similar to existing professional DAWs and maybe even surpass them. I'm glad you like it. The sound is generated purely by a JavaScript function returning sample values that are then handled by the Web Audio API and buffered. That's how you hear sound. On edit: It's really easy to remix tracks that way, even small changes to values yield quite different results. It's fun!

nitrogen 12y ago
Have you looked at the work of Bret Victor? Integrating some of his concepts for realtime feedback would be awesome (see http://worrydream.com/#!/LearnableProgramming http://worrydream.com/#!/LearnableProgramming and http://worrydream.com/#!2/LadderOfAbstraction http://worrydream.com/#!2/LadderOfAbstraction)
vegedor 12y ago
>I'm glad you like it. The sound is generated purely by a JavaScript function returning sample values i feel like this belongs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRPUv8V22o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRPUv8V22o - not in a DAW kinda sense, though

fat0wl 12y ago

which controls are usable? everything i click just gives me an annoying "gimme $$" popup, haven't actually found a function that works

JonnieCache 12y ago
I just loaded some example projects, hit the play button and started changing the code. The output responded immediately.
- fat0wl 12y ago
  ah yah for some reason mine showed a blank file & couldnt expand projects. refreshed & its good, this is a pretty awesome project

svantana 12y ago

It seems their goal is to make a full-fledged DAW in the browser, but they are not there yet (and far from it from what I can tell). How they would be able to fund all that for $2k is beyond me. That said, it's a really clever idea to have all the source editable, since js is an interpreted language anyway. One can imagine a future where the community not only shares songs and sounds, but the DSP units themselves. Unlike desktop DAWs, which rely on dylibs (dlls) to supply external synths and effects, a js-based DAW can load, re-compile and hotswap units on the fly.

JonnieCache 12y ago
This kind of thing has existed in desktop/native form for some years. Look up supercollider.
- fat0wl 12y ago
  & max/msp even included js but it operated at control rate, not audio, so you couldn't write synths directly as js
  - larme 12y ago
    Max now have gen[1] so you can write audio/sample rate code. [1]: http://cycling74.com/products/gen/ http://cycling74.com/products/gen/
    - fat0wl 12y ago
      yea want to try it but i'm stuck on max 5... max upgrades are more expensive than they're worth & now its splitting into multiple products (max4live,gen) so i'm kindof on an every other generation plan unfortunately. especially annoying when features you like get deprecated (pluggo, ms. pinky) though i understand gen & max4live both kinda serve as pluggo replacements. all in all its just hard for me to pull the trigger on a $250 upgrade for a few extra integration points on a tool that should be mostly open source anyway. http://puredata.info/ http://puredata.info/

nnnnni 12y ago

Yeah, it's definitely cool for what it is -- but it is NOT a DAW. I would call it the audio equivalent of OpenSCAD.

leeoniya 12y ago
just saw this reply, also thought same thing! http://www.openscad.org/ http://www.openscad.org/

tomphoolery 12y ago

> I'm aware of the oscillator/filter primitives in the HTML5 audio API from the minimoog google doodle, but this seems more elaborate than that. An oscillator and a filter modulator are pretty much all you need to create this particular app. There's no reverb, and any delay effects are being "hard-coded" with simple degrading velocities. All synthesizers are built from these ultra-simple components, maybe 2 or 3 more and you have everything you need to build a digital synth purely with web technologies.

sunpazed 12y ago

This is awesome! I'll certainly contribute to this. Will the source be opened up? Here's a delay filter: var delay_array = []; var delay_length = 5; var delay_feedback = 0.6; var delay_volume = 0.4; function delay(x) { y = 0; if (delay_array.length < (delay_length * 1000)) { delay_array.push(x); } else { y = delay_array.shift(); delay_array.push(x + (y*delay_feedback)); } return (x) + ( y * delay_volume ); } Include this in the DSP return code, ie; return delay(synth);

Zubedar 12y ago
Yes that's a good delay filter but it's also a good example why this type of user-programmable synth apparatus, which looks similar to CSound, won't catch on. There is much more going on in the typical delay sound itself than just a delayed iteration of a sample. A pure delay is boring. There is the possibility to model all kinds of analog and hardware digital delays with additional coding, but people have been doing that for years and it's no surprise really that commercial companies do it best (and they won't bother unless there's a way to protect proprietary code such as VST).
- stagas 12y ago
  There's more to digital audio processing than code? I don't get it. Once the collaborative module system is in place (see milestone I) it'll allow for more complex stuff, as you'd be joining components and moving upwards in the abstraction levels, I don't see how big companies can compete with that.
  - Zubedar 12y ago
    No that's not the point I was making. I was saying that to make a good delay in software it can't just be a delay. To sound good, it needs additional algorithms to carry out at least 2 other DSP functions on the return signal.