First WebSound app collaboration

[obensource]

@vine77 and I were just talking and think it's definitely time to get cracking on our first collaborative app! Something fun and simple would be rad just to get the ball rolling.

Ideas? (@vine77?)

[obensource]

I'll go ahead and paste @vine77's comments in our slack here:

"I was thinking about starting to hack on a web-based looping pedal, trying to combine some good parts of prior art like Boss looper pedals and Ableton Live Looper. You could even have a MIDI and an audio version with the same UX. Might be a fun project to collaborate on!"

[vine77]

Thanks for reposting that @obensource. Definitely agree that something fun/simple is the right place to start. Even if we were to have grand ambitions of audio plugin specs, web-based DAWs, or other big ideas, we should start with some small-scoped projects and explore the problem space. (Though there's nothing saying such a standalone project, e.g. looper, couldn't eventually become some spec-compatible "web-VST".)

Does anyone else have other ideas of potential projects that would be good (fun/small/collaborative)?

Also, under what GitHub org should such a project live? WebSound?

[vine77]

Thoughts @abstractmachines?

[luciusbono]

I think a looper would be a really interesting first project!

[abstractmachines]

@vine77 A looper could be a good project; how about remote MIDI looping that 2 musicians in different locations can sync in on? The MIDI can then be piped to control synths at each musician's separate location. That's what I was thinking.

So far as tech with looping pedals, the Ableton looper is fun to work with. I like the TC Electronics Ditto loopers, they outperform most looping pedals by far, from what I've seen, regarding timing and precision. I think the precision of TC Electronics loopers has a lot to do with the hardware switch type - a metal switch with a hard click.

[vine77]

A looper it is! I agree that Web MIDI is the right place to start.

@abstractmachines, I've been thinking the same type of thing! It seems like the looping paradigm could be a great way to sidestep network latency issues inherent in networked music performance.

I created https://github.com/websound/midilooper for the project. (We can change the name later.) Want to discuss next steps there?

[obensource]

@vine77 thanks a ton for pushing us forward. Super looper stoked about this! 👍

Looking forward to choosing a direction and starting to scaffold in the repo. 😎

[abstractmachines]

Sounds great!