Hi there, my name is Jay. Making music and writing software have probably been the two biggest pleasures of my life -only after my family.
My team and I recently started a long journey of trying to completely change the way people create music, and as it usually happens with any long journey, it all starts with small steps. One of those small steps was to build https://drummy.io, or "Dummy Drums," a very simple yet useful drum machine that stores the entire drum pattern in the hashtag of the URL. There is no backend. Fully served by a CDN.
If you wanna learn how to build your own drum machine in Javascript using the WebAudioAPI, here's an amazing read: "A tale of Two Clocks." (https://web.dev/audio-scheduling/). Also, check Howler.js (https://howlerjs.com/), a rock-solid library with a great community.
Anyway, not long ago I noticed the dummy drums site hasn't been getting much traction, but I think I figured out why. Most of the new users are getting frustrated because it is very easy to get stuck trying to come up with a fresh drum pattern, and so https://twitter.com/DrummyBot was born! A function written in less than an hour that comes up with pretty decent rhythms. While not in any specific style, and no ability to choose settings or tune it, it may still be a great kickstarter for that new beat you just can't seem to find. It is like the opposite of a fancy AI that seems to be so hot these days.
If you think DrummyBot can help you get inspired, just follow it on Twitter. The bot publishes a new pattern every hour, and even tries to give it a name using PHP's Faker library. You can also simply go to https://drummy.io and use the magic wand button to get a fresh pattern with each click! The function is totally randomized, you will never get the same pattern twice, and customizing literally requires just a few seconds.
I hope you like it, and of course, all feedback is gladly welcome!