Rhythm 60

Playing the pads

Click a pad or use its keyboard key to play it. The selected sound appears above the knobs. Full level gives every hit maximum velocity.

Press Play to start the pattern. Stop ends playback. Space also starts and stops; Escape stops everything.

Making a pattern

Select a pad, then click its sixteen steps to place hits. Each group of four is one beat. Select another pad to add a layer.

A, B and C contain starter grooves. D starts blank. Press Record, then Play to capture pad hits to the nearest sixteenth.

Clear pattern removes all hits in the selected pattern. Undo restores the last edit.

Sound and timing

Tune changes pitch, Decay shortens the tail, and Level balances the selected pad. Drag up or right to increase; down or left to decrease.

Hold Shift for finer control. Double-click to reset. Arrow keys work when a knob is focused.

Enter a tempo or use Tap tempo. Swing is straight at 50%; increase it for more shuffle.

Samples and sessions

Use Load sample for the selected pad, or drop an audio file onto a pad. Choose a file under 10 MB and no longer than 30 seconds.

Save session keeps patterns, settings and imported samples. Open session restores them. Export WAV renders four bars of the current pattern.

Patterns and settings autosave in this browser. Save a session to keep imported samples.

The idea.

At Mercury, we have a tradition called Craft Crush, where we share people whose work inspires us. A recent session on J Dilla and his use of Akai drum machines stayed with me. I loved how much complexity and feeling he could create with a limited set of tools. It made me want to build an instrument of my own. This take on the classic Akai is a little ode to Braun’s industrial design and how much you can make with a simple device.

How it was made.

I built this with Codex using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The Web Audio API generates the starter sounds and handles playback. The materials and illustrations are drawn with CSS and SVG, with Standard by Bryce Wilner for the type.