Show HN: Patchcab – Modular Synthesizer Made with Web Audio API and Svelte

12 points by degif 4 years ago | 5 comments
  • svantana 4 years ago
    Nice work! I'm also working on a browser-based music app and here is my immediate reaction, would be interesting to know if you agree:

    1. There should be a global play/pause/reset on the top or bottom of the page, and also a main volume knob. It takes some work just to figure out where the patching starts and ends.

    2. You should have a bunch of well-named presets for newcomers to get a feel for what it can do and also use as starting points.

    3. The volume "sliders" look like level meters. The first impression is that everything is on max volume constantly. Probably better to have a physical-looking slider. On that note, it would be nice to see the current output of each CV port. It could be just a fading LED if you want to stay "realistic".

    A separate question, did you consider porting VCV (using emscripten) instead? If so, why did you choose this route?

    • degif 4 years ago
      Hey, author here. Thanks for the great feedback! I totally agree on all of the points. I've already considered the global play/volume controls with a main output patch point and will redo the slider to look more as an actual slider. The presets and tutorials/documentation is something that just needs a lot of time, which is really limited for a side project :)

      Patchcab started as an exercise for myself to learn the basics of modular audio and music theory. Working with tools I already know seemed the best idea and the Tone.js was a prefect fit for this. The exercise then turned to an idea of a modular (code and audio wise) Javascript/Typescript synth that would resemble VCV visually. Porting VCV itself to a browser is a really interesting idea and has been done to some extent https://github.com/miRackModular/Rack, but is really out of scope for what I wanted to build :) That said, I feel like porting some open source Eurorack modules (Mutable instruments, https://github.com/pichenettes/eurorack, I'm looking at you) would be a really nice next step.

      • svantana 4 years ago
        A classic catch 22 for stuff like this is that it feels wasteful to make presets during development, as one may need to change the file format. On the other hand, it's a good way to force yourself to consider forward compatibility and various gotchas around load/save. Presets are also great for quickly checking for bugs/regression during development.
    • johnluani 4 years ago
      I love this. On the one hand it's so sleek and cute and then again it has a seriousness to it due to mimicking real hardware applications.

      The only comment I do have is that I find it very hard to turn some of the dials. It appears as if my mouse action isn't registering properly.

      • melicerte 4 years ago
        just had a 10 minutes fun with it while looking for svelte information on HN, and here is what I end up with: https://patch.cab/avobxvgk