
IO-808: A Web-Based TR-808 Drum Machine Using React, Redux, and Web Audio API - sebg
http://io808.com/
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S_A_P
Former 808 owner here, the UI is pretty good, and well done. The sound is,
well not an 808. I know this is more of a look what _can_ be done sorta
project, and maybe 100% fidelity wasnt your goal, but I would almost prefer
the rebirth approach to emulating an 808 by using samples at various settings
to match the knob values. In some ways I think you made a decent CR-8000
emulation with the sounds(the cowbell and hat remind me of that)

Anyway, dont want to take away from what was obviously a lot of work. I just
want it to sound more like an 808 :)

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vincentriemer
Thanks for the feedback. My goal for this project was to make a recreation
(maybe homage is a better word) _completely_ in the browser. Also I was of the
opinion that if I made this sample based the page size would skyrocket and I
don't really see people wanting to download an entire 808 sample library just
to fool around in a website.

~~~
lubesGordi
I would wait a few seconds to load the 20MB or so for the samples. Maybe this
would work: [http://trashaudio.com/2010/01/roland-tr-808-sample-
pack/](http://trashaudio.com/2010/01/roland-tr-808-sample-pack/) I'd expect
something like this to have some heft.

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dpflan
The 808 is such a fundamental instrument to genres of music like house music,
hip hop, electronic music, even pop. I recently listened to an episode of
"Switched on Pop" which analyzes pop music, and the episode reviewed the
influence and rise of house music sounds in pop music. A music historian
discussed this and the rise of house music - of note: how disco was very
expensive to produce (requiring professional string players and other such
musicians, studio sessions, etc). Instruments like the 808 allowed producers
to create "cheap" disco --> house music.

It's a good listen: [http://www.switchedonpop.com/41-breaking-down-the-
house/](http://www.switchedonpop.com/41-breaking-down-the-house/)

Keep making music!

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camtarn
Very interesting comparing this to Rebirth RB-338, which was my intro to "the
808" \- I never realized how much work Propellerheads had put in to streamline
and simplify the programming interface.

Also, I _really_ love the little linear scales that come up when you drag over
a rotary control: very sweet way to show the user that they should drag
up/down to control the value. The added functionality (that I only found on
experimenting) of changing the scale size on horizontal drag is brilliant,
although IMO when you drag horizontally the scale should preserve the value
you're currently on, rather than changing it.

Small nitpicks: the multi-position switches (instrument select, pre-scale,
variation, etc) feel like they should be draggable - but they only respond to
clicks.

Really nice work :)

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grimgrin
Is there a general point of view on when it's Good to user-select: none?

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/user-
select](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/user-select)

It seems appropriate on this. It's not going to be selecting text if you use
the dials correctly, but with a miss-click & drag, I was able to.

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ffog
Could you get the closed hat to stop the open hat? The interface is quite
nice. Also I suggest making the instrument labels clickable on the rotary as
well as each channel, to select the instrument, instead of only being able to
use the knob. We are in a browser after all, with luxuries like save and load.
Love this, cheers

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nix0n
For anyone who sees this and is inspired to get ReBirth RB-338 going, know
that modern versions of Windows no longer have support for 16-bit software...
but it works great in Wine.

~~~
errozero
I'm working on a web-audio app at the moment that allows you to import ReBirth
files. Emulates 2 303's and the two drum machines. - Will be released as
version 2 of this: [http://errozero.co.uk/acid-
machine/](http://errozero.co.uk/acid-machine/)

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tgamba
This is excellent work. Web Audio has so much potential. Are the drum sounds
sampled or synthesized?

~~~
vincentriemer
They're all synthesized:
[https://github.com/vincentriemer/io-808/tree/master/src/synt...](https://github.com/vincentriemer/io-808/tree/master/src/synth/drumModules)

~~~
tgamba
sweet!

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jarmitage
The pop-up slider visualisers are interesting, anyone seen those before?

Do they have a name?

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vincentriemer
Creator here: I don't know if they have a name but I based the design of that
interaction off of Propellerhead's Thor iOS app which is the only other
example of that overlay that I could find.

~~~
jpreiland
That's not in Thor on (desktop) Reason is it? I don't remember seeing it, but
it's a really cool feature imo. I always have trouble fine tuning knobs, and I
haven't figured out how to map them to my midi controller (the preset that it
said would work didn't work. I can, at most, get one slider to map to a random
knob). The pop up slider seems much easier to use with a mouse, even if the
motions are relatively the same.

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s_m
This is really cool. Nice one!

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anewhnaccount
Layout is wack in my Chromium.

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jharohit
best rename it to "Show HN: ..."

