Zupiter: A Web-Based Modular Synthesizer | Hacker News Reader

Zupiter: A Web-Based Modular Synthesizer

pointersgonewild.com

147 pointsdmit25 comments

Really nice for quick things, otherwise there is also VCV Rack (https://vcvrack.com/) that is a open source virtual rack with modular synthesizers. It doesn't have the graph UI that Zupiter seems to have, but a more of a skeuomorphic UI.

VCV rack is pretty awesome, and you can do a lot of things with it that you couldn't with Zupiter. It's much more of a professional tool and as far as I know it's very well-regarded in the modular synth community, and a good way to pick out modules before spending hundreds or even thousands on physical hardware.

However, I think Zupiter is a nice way to get people who've never played with sound synthesis interested, and the sharing feature is one thing that differentiates it from most browser-based music apps out there. You can easily show your friends what you've made, or modify what other people made.

> it's very well-regarded in the modular synth community

Maybe. All but one of the modular synth guys I know are hardware purists. They look down on VCV and even semi-modular synths like the Behringer Neutron. You'd think some of these modular guys were in a cult, heh. (I've always just seen modular synths as just another tool.)

That does sound pretty cultish. I kind of get how VCV takes some of the fun out of modular for them. There's definitely something fun about playing with physical hardware and connecting it together. It's also a way to do something technical that doesn't involve computers. Another angle is that if VCV rack does a good job at emulation, it kind of highlights the foolishness of spending thousands on hardware. That being said, I might be biased. I actually own a Behringer Neutron :O

OP here. Feedback and questions welcome! Feel free to reply to this comment.

I also created a little subreddit to discuss Zupiter: https://www.reddit.com/r/musictools/

Very cool project! Do you have any plans for a Zupiter API? I'd love to build a utility module or two, maybe even a filter.

Thanks. Yes I do have plans for something like that. There's definitely a need for people to create new modules and reusable components, otherwise it gets too messy too fast.

It doesn't seem your oscillators are behaving correctly when you vary their frequency input. You seem to be doing something like phase = freq * time, which will break horribly when freq changes. Instead, you need to accumulate the phase over time based on whatever freq happens to be, like phase += freq * timeOfSingleSample.

So you think the oscillators should essentially be stateful? That might explain why I can't seem to implement 303-style slide correctly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerically-controlled_oscilla...

The more advanced version without aliasing: http://www.martin-finke.de/blog/articles/audio-plugins-018-p...

I implemented this last night, and it solves the problem I was having with portamento: https://z.musictools.live/#95

After fiddling a bit around, I would change the colors of modules that handle CV versus Audio or add even more colors to better comprehend a patch I've just loaded.

I was unable to figure out how to disconnect a cable. I tried alt, ctrl, shift click, right click, but none of it worked. I just wanted to add a second oscillator to the first example.

A larger mixer component would be very useful, like 6 in to 1 out.

Maybe add a highlight to the module I click on so I can use my keyboard to delete, move them around.

Do you plan to add MIDI out?

Really cool to have a "reactor" in the browser, keep it up :)

> I was unable to figure out how to disconnect a cable. I tried alt, ctrl, shift click, right click, but none of it worked.

I will likely implement that later today. Clicking on an input-side port will allow you to reconnect it to something else (or to drop the connection).

> A larger mixer component would be very useful, like 6 in to 1 out.

Agreed.

> Do you plan to add MIDI out?

I've thought about it. Right now, it supports MIDI play/stop/clock output, so you can synchronize it with a drum machine using the ClockOut node.

> Really cool to have a "reactor" in the browser, keep it up :)

Thank you :)

Update: edge disconnection is now implemented. Click on the the input-side port associated to the connection. This will leave you with a dangling connection which you can reconnect elsewhere, or click anywhere to drop.

It's probably on your backlog, but one thing would be useful is to build "components" with a container module. To group modules to a single entity, so they could be closed.

I'd assume it would have 3 inputs / outputs: gate / CV / audio and a custom label. Not sure how I/O is done in other node based editors, probably worth some investigation :)

Undo button would be nice, I keep making mistakes ...

Love the simple step sequencer with scale selection. Wish this was part of a "creative scratch pad" in every DAW (It usually is possible but it's often cumbersome to set up). I first saw one in the lovely http://www.tones.fm

This is great! Another favorite modular synth is the one that comes with Caustic.

I second this. Caustic 3 is awesome (and free for desktop use). I’m a bit sad that it hasn’t seen any updates recently, since I would love to have it play better with other iOS apps.

It’s totally awesome and so easy to use!!

Thanks a lot :)

The only thing I find a bit unfortunate is that despite many people trying it (wordpress shows over 5000 hits), very few people are using the share feature to share what they've created. I'll have to investigate what stops people. I'm wondering if it's just having to create an account, or if I've done some major UI design error.

I think people are just too afraid too share, as they are effectively doing fun things but... really they then think that it is just crap. We are too much in a society that is telling us that if we made it in less than an hour, it can only be crap. This is one thing the the near futur of the earth must fix ;)

If sharing IS important for you, change you design in the way that it becomes the default option.

I myself feel a little embarrassed when I realize how much is missing from Zupiter. There are still bugs, and people are asking for so many extra features, my TODO list is already pages long.

> If sharing IS important for you, change you design in the way that it becomes the default option.

How would you implement that, making it the default option?

That seems to be normal... I created a very similar platform (but text-based instead of graphical) and encountered the same problem. Despite the traffic, so far only 3 people shared anything on it: me, the guy who created the underlying language, and one brave soul who submitted cool bytebeat patches.

Maybe that's just the proportion of people willing to share their experiments. Maybe we need to create incentives for people to post (like... challenges?) It might also have to do with advertising to the right crowd.

Amazing app!!

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