How the instrument works.

Picks the note. The scheme decides how hue becomes pitch.

Top of the canvas is high, bottom is low. Each vertical zone covers an octave.

Sets velocity. Pale colours speak softly.

Opens the lowpass filter. Vivid hues ring brighter.

Routes to a noise percussion voice. Use it for taps and breath.

Seven diatonic colours mapped to C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Folk, bright, plain.

Twelve chromatic colours arranged by the circle of fifths. Richer, more strange.

The transport key. Or press Spacebar.

When on, the scheduler wraps to the start of the canvas. When off, it stops at the end.

Beats per minute. The grid is 48 sixteenth-notes wide, so a loop at 96 bpm runs 7.5 seconds.

Time signature. Only changes where the bar lines fall on the overlay. Try 3/4 for waltzes, 6/8 for jigs.

Key signature. Shifts the scheme root by semitone. C is no shift. G is a fifth up.

Transpose. Adds a constant semitone offset on top of the key. Use it to move the painting up or down an octave without losing your colour choices.

Soft additive paint. Size in pixels.

Colour picker. Any sRGB hex works. Greys go to percussion.

Saves the canvas as a still image.

Writes the painting into the URL as a compressed string. Copy the URL, send it, and anyone can play your phrase.

Renders the loop offline through OfflineAudioContext. Pick the loop count from 1 to 16.

Real-time MediaRecorder of the canvas plus audio. Saved as a WebM. Picks the loop count from 1 to 16.

Upload any JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, or AVIF. The page samples it at the grid and plays the photograph back as a phrase.

Toggle play and stop.

Paint a stroke. Touch works the same.

Toggle erase mode. The brush will remove paint instead of adding it.

Switch back to paint mode.

Undo the last stroke.

Redo. Cmd/Ctrl + Y works too.

Click any pad in the palette, or open the colour wheel and choose anything.