Building Groovie, an Advanced Web-Based Drum Machine / Beat Sequencer
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In 2012, the creator of Groovie built MusicToy, one of the earliest JavaScript music apps on the web. Unlike many drum machines with basic drum kits and single patterns, Groovie offers 150+ samples, up to 32 patterns, and a timeline view that enables sequencing multiple patterns simultaneously. With advanced features like variable-length patterns, polyrhythms, and per-sample volume and panning control, Groovie maintains an intuitive UI that works well on both desktop and mobile devices.
Like its predecessor, Groovie is fully static and includes a URL encoding system that encodes projects, samples, and settings into the fragment part of the URL. The system cleverly encodes information using fewer bits than a raw bitmap representation, allowing for longer links that can be easily shared on social media platforms and messaging services.
Written by urgent.news from Lobsters's reporting — not their text. Machine-written; read the original for the full account.
