AudioWorklets, MIDI, recording and the details that make a browser instrument dependable. Small experiments you can understand and take on stage.
Use the open application and its web preview to investigate a musical idea before building firmware. A small, reversible change teaches more than an unexamined collection of features.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Separate the audio clock from the moving lights. A small look-ahead scheduler is the start of a playable sequencer, and its behaviour during edits matters as much as its steady beat.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Design a browser voice path with clear input, monitoring and recording states. The first effect to understand is the processing that may already be happening before your patch receives audio.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
An exported engine is the beginning of a browser instrument. Build the loading, control and recovery experience around it so another musician can understand what is ready to play.
4 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
A web instrument earns trust through a clear signal path, honest connection states and a recording you can take away. The browser is a host; the performance still needs designing.
5 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Build a parallel effects route whose level and purpose remain clear. A dry path, a send and a return give different kinds of control, and confusing them makes an instrument harder to play.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
A useful MIDI-learn system remembers more than a controller number. It also makes device identity, channel, range and takeover behaviour visible to the musician.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Before a custom processor becomes a distinctive effect, make it pass sound predictably. Channel handling, parameter changes and silence are part of the instrument’s design.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
A slow-feeling browser instrument can have several causes. Separate event arrival, audio processing, output and display before trying to improve the whole system at once.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
A browser instrument should be tested where the music is most demanding. Build a realistic stress phrase, observe the failure and simplify the work that actually causes it.
3 MIN READ / PRACTICAL STUDY
Part three of Nick Hwang’s RNBO-to-web series focuses on exporting a patch for the browser. Use it as a worked example alongside current RNBO web-export documentation.
Export the smallest working RNBO patch you can: one oscillator and one level parameter. Make it audible from an explicit Start button before adding MIDI, presets or animation.
Nick Hwang continues the RNBO-to-web series with JavaScript functionality. The next step after a successful export is making a browser interface control the audio patch.
Connect one HTML control to one exported parameter and display its value. Test the minimum, middle and maximum, then reload to check that the starting value matches the sound.
Ben Morss and Hongchan Choi discuss creating music on the web. The speaker’s project page places the talk around WebAssembly, AudioWorklet and browser audio processing.
Draw your instrument as two columns: interface work and audio-thread work. Move animation, file handling and text updates out of the audio column; identify one parameter that needs sample-timed control.
Share a changed device, a patch, a performance or a useful failure. Add your own photograph or a video link and explain what made the difference. Contributions are reviewed before publication.
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