Show HN: Mdrone – a microtonal drone instrument in the browser
1–5 of 5 posts
Re: Show HN: Mdrone – a microtonal drone instrument in the browser
#2Maker here. mdrone is a drone instrument: you hold one sustained tone, layer a few voices, and let it evolve for minutes or hours.
With microtonal tuning the partials beat against each other and "phantom" melodies start to surface that you never actually played.
It ships several tuning systems: Pythagorean, several just-intonation sets, Kirnberger III, 31-TET, plus maqam-leaning scales like Yaman and Bayati, and a custom scale editor. The same held interval is a different sound in each.
Tech: it's all client-side Web Audio + AudioWorklets, no backend, no account. The whole scene (voices, tuning, FX, two slow modulators) serializes into the URL, so a sound is just a link you can bookmark or share. There's a small adaptive-stability layer that eases off visuals/FX/voice count if it detects the audio thread struggling, to avoid dropouts on weaker devices.
Free and open source (AGPL): https://github.com/gdamdam/mdrone
Re: Show HN: Mdrone – a microtonal drone instrument in the browser
#3I can't hear it (Chrome on Windows). Do I have to enable something? I get a red blinking CPU sign on the top left.
Re: Show HN: Mdrone – a microtonal drone instrument in the browser
#4I can't hear it (Chrome on Windows). Do I have to enable something? I get a red blinking CPU sign on the top left.
what OS are you using? It normally works without issues on Chrome. It can be hard on CPU so better have no other tabs open on your browser.
Re: Show HN: Mdrone – a microtonal drone instrument in the browser
#5I can't hear it (Chrome on Windows). Do I have to enable something? I get a red blinking CPU sign on the top left.
what OS are you using? It normally works without issues on Chrome. It can be hard on CPU so better have no other tabs open on your browser.
After 30 seconds, I got a message
> Audio under load — reducing visuals.
and after another 30 seconds I started to get some sound, but it's not smooth. The sound also disappears from time to time, and then reappears after 15 seconds or so.
From the CPU blinking thing
> The audio thread is falling behind wall-clock, which usually means crackling. Try closing other tabs or apps, or disable heavy effects (shimmer, granular, plate).
It took a while but I found "shimmer" and "plate", and they are disabled (they are inside a brown rectangle instead of an orange one). I can't find "granular". I probably need a faster notebook.