Roland 50 Studio

And just like that, I said goodbye to all job productivity today. It looks like Roland took a cue from Google&#x27;s Blob Opera: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;artsandculture.google.com&#x2F;experiment&#x2F;blob-opera&#x2F;AAHWrq360NcGbw?hl=en" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;artsandculture.google.com&#x2F;experiment&#x2F;blob-opera&#x2F;AAHW...</a>

I love this, and also its predecessor <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;808303.studio" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;808303.studio</a> which was this but without the SH101 and with a less celebratory tone. The audio quality is absolutely splendid.<p>However, I really wonder why they don&#x27;t have any URL auto-sharing mechanism. Given that there are no patterns, no sequences whatsoever, it&#x27;s just one single 16 position loop per &quot;device&quot;, an entire song could easily fit on the URL. Eg the TypeScript playground live-updates the url as you type: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.typescriptlang.org&#x2F;play?#code&#x2F;FAYw9gdgzmA2CmA6WYDmAKABsK94BoACAMwEsAXKE0ieAQmGAGEAJQwedIOvPvffOeA3sADybQEQEhSdMJSuM+XMlKVzAJoqFMrZtna5zAEK7l+07pOFmABUuKd++wYBKAZV08zep5eAsAKnZeQbrAALKBwVEWXsAAMpExSY6xrgAiISnJqoYZnFkynnL53vrAAIJMmSrV0sCYAJQA3EA" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.typescriptlang.org&#x2F;play?#code&#x2F;FAYw9gdgzmA2CmA6WY...</a><p>That &quot;record&quot; feature is neat, but it&#x27;d be way neater if I can just share an URL with my composition with a friend and they can remix it.

In celebration of 50 years, Roland have collaborated with sound designer Yuri Suzuki to create Roland50 Studio, a digital reworking of some of their most famous and influential devices.<p>It&#x27;s a 808&#x2F;303&#x2F;101 in your browser.

If you inspect the network traffic you can see what the &quot;hidden&quot; additional devices behind the countdowns are.<p>SP404 2022-04-04T12:00:00.000Z<p>TR606 2022-06-06T12:00:00.000Z<p>TR707 2022-07-07T12:00:00.000Z<p>TR909 2022-09-09T12:00:00.000Z

Super fun. I use a 303 clone in some of my stuff. The physical interface is just a big gumption trap for composing, and this web interface is actually 100x better. I will likely use this to compose and hack around, and then plug it into my physcal 303 for its part. The extra fun is modulating with the knobs.<p>I use analog synths to get away from screens. Fun thing I&#x27;ve discovered that is specifically useful for the 303 is that loops and melodies with a prime number length against composite number beats are a source of free constant movement in otherwise repetitive loops. A 4 on the floor beat vs a 7, 11, or 13 step melody only cycles every 4 x n bars. I&#x27;ve been mulling one of the an 808 re-issues, or even investing in a collectors item, and playing this in my browser is removing my excuses for putting it off. Thank you!

Reminds me - of course - of ReBirth, from &#x27;back in the day&#x27;...when the iPad first came out I was incredibly pleased to find ReBirth had a port to it. (Edit: I&#x27;m sad to see it&#x27;s since been removed. Damn.)<p>I wanna say I first played with ReBirth in 2002&#x2F;3(?) - I was 12&#x2F;13 - and that was my introduction to - at least - the 303&#x2F;808&#x2F;909.<p>What&#x27;s great about these pieces of software, is that just by playing around of them, they are great tools to learn about the fundamentals of synthesis.<p>The Roland JD-XI is a more recent multi-layered synth that features a whole drum machine, an analog monophonic bass synth, and two polyphonic synths, all attached to a fantastic sequencer. I highly recommend checking that out if anyone is interested in a nice modern hardware equivalent to something like this.

Really, really well done!!! Was up and running with some cool music in just a few minutes. And being in the browser meant that I could do some unconventional things, such as playback a song in multiple tabs for some neat syncopation&#x2F;polyphony effects. Fun.<p>Looks like they partnered with the Counterpoint team on this (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ctpt.co&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ctpt.co&#x2F;</a>)

If you&#x27;re a Roland fan, this doc is insanely well-made. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=JcbpRMZIQ8g" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=JcbpRMZIQ8g</a>

I couldn&#x27;t resist taking a look at the code, because, well, the sound generation should be in there, and I found this:<p><pre><code> function qt(n) { return n !== n }</code></pre>

For those that prefer something with buttons, Roland has issued desktop module versions of some of their iconic machines under the name Roland Boutique. The equivalents of the devices they have in this online tool would be the SH-01a, TB-03 and TR-08.<p>E.g: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.roland.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;products&#x2F;sh-01a&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.roland.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;products&#x2F;sh-01a&#x2F;</a>

Out of the 4 instruments that are still locked I&#x27;d reckon three would definitely be Jupiter 8, Juno, and TR-909. I can&#x27;t confidently guess the last one though.<p>I&#x27;ll try them later at home. Do you think they&#x27;ll sound as good as the analog counterparts? Hahahaa

Looks like they also have countdowns to add 4 more units to the interface - check out the lock tabs on top or the Countdown link in the hamburger menu. Looks to be they will have new interfaces in about 1, 3, 4, and 6 months. Guesses as to what will be added?

Happy birthday, Roland! Coincidentally, the whole winter I was striving to get one of their synths. With no luck, sadly (thanks, politicians! &gt;:( ) The one thing I noted throughout Roland&#x27;s history - is that their products suffer from underappreciation for some time until they stop being produced :D And shortly after some jump right to being legendary. ))

Side question, what are some good free VSt or LMMS resources?<p>It has been a while since I last did music production, but I&#x27;m currently so bored of the web development process and it&#x27;s the year of the tiger so might as well pick up my teen and early 20s love again. My soul demands it

Any web midi support? For clock sync at least? I&#x27;m going to look into this more after work.

Reminds rebirth on desktop and audio-something, an app made in Flash.<p>The Flash app in the browser had better performances and stability though. This app panics as soon as one pressed the random button.<p>The Flash app had effects and more powerful synthesizers and it was 15+ years ago.

Anyone know why the Tempo control looks like a knob, but works like an up and down slider?

To this Day Rebirth-338 is still the funnest 303 clone software I&#x27;ve ever played with.

I&#x27;ve learned piano using my dear Roland FP-30, but now looking for an upgrade. Probably a kawai or Yamaha with warmer, more natural sound and more high end action.<p>Anyone have recommendations? P515? CA59? Other? Clp 745?

Wonder how good the emulation is compared to some of the other commercial solutions out there. Usually software implementations of this hardware don&#x27;t sound right<p>My current fav is Image-Line&#x27;s Transistor Bass

If you like playing with virtual synths and are on iOS: I recommend checking out the open source Synth One app if you haven&#x27;t already.

This is great. Too bad it doesn&#x27;t allow you any control over the individual sounds, at least as far as I can see.

Damn this sounds so cool. Accidentally clicked the red clear button and deleted score though :(<p>Would love a way to ctrl-z to save myself from myself.

I haven&#x27;t had this much fun with a random find on HN in a long time. So pleasant. Such a treat. Thank you Yuri &amp; Roland!

the sound is cracking on my iPhone