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Show HN: What if your synthesizer was powered by APL (or a dumb K clone)?

https://octetta.github.io/k-synth/
39•octetta•3h ago
I built k-synth as an experiment to see if a minimalist, K-inspired array language could make sketching waveforms faster and more intuitive than traditional code. I’ve put together a web-based toolkit so you can try the syntax directly in the browser without having to touch a compiler:

Live Toolkit: https://octetta.github.io/k-synth/

If you visit the page, here is a quick path to an audio payoff:

- Click "patches" and choose dm-bell.ks.

- Click "run"—the notebook area will update. Click the waveform to hear the result.

- Click the "->0" button below the waveform to copy it into slot 0 at the top (slots are also clickable).

- Click "pads" in the entry area to show a performance grid.

- Click "melodic" to play slot 0's sample at different intervals across the grid.

The 'Weird' Stack:

- The Language: A simplified, right-associative array language (e.g., s for sine, p for pi).

- The Web Toolkit: Built using WASM and Web Audio for live-coding samples.

- AI Pair-Programming: I used AI agents to bootstrap the parser and web boilerplate, which let me vet the language design in weeks rather than months.

The Goal: This isn't meant to replace a DAW. It’s a compact way to generate samples for larger projects. It’s currently in a "will-it-blend" state. I’m looking for feedback from the array language and DSP communities—specifically on the operator choices and the right-to-left evaluation logic.

Source (MIT): https://github.com/octetta/k-synth

Comments

hmokiguess•1h ago
Pretty cool, one suggestion for the site would be to have templates you can quickly load, copy, edit, and share. Sort of like strudel.cc has!
octetta•1h ago
i wimped out and just have the patches being loaded from my github repo. good suggestion though.
xrd•18m ago
Did you know you can embed strudel?

https://strudel.cc/technical-manual/project-start/

hmokiguess•3m ago
I don’t think this is relevant to my analogy there, what were you thinking here?
steveBK123•1h ago
This is great
octetta•1h ago
thanks!
jart•1h ago
How do we get it to play Kompressor? https://youtu.be/9tlA0IyKjiI
octetta•56m ago
Wowie... Jart commented! I'm on it my friend. Certainly sequencing is a good thing to add.
octetta•57m ago
I have a CLI and desktop versions on github (all MIT license)

https://github.com/octetta/k-synth https://github.com/octetta/ksynth-desktop/

it's been a blast to play with... and a great excuse to learn array languages

jodrellblank•16m ago
Marshall Lochbaum's APL-derived language BQN has some nods towards audio synthesis too:

https://mlochbaum.github.io/BQN-Musician/synth/index.html

octetta•11m ago
BQN kicks-ass and I've spent hours listening to the Array Cast podcast while in SoCal traffic. I'll check his stuff out with an eye towards the audio stuff.

I'm an APL newb... while I've been writing code-for-cash forever (C, etc.) I've had a long-time interest in APL languages, but I'm just messing around after working on waveform generation for another sound project I have in the works (https://github.com/octetta/skred ... https://youtu.be/L5-3gBpJsAo?si=JdBlntzn4doY-c3s).

While I was working on this I remember the first book I saw in the public library on computer programming was about APL (probably sometime around 1976)... I didn't have access to a "real computer" for another year after that and no APL for decades, but some ideas stick around, LOL.

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Show HN: What if your synthesizer was powered by APL (or a dumb K clone)?

https://octetta.github.io/k-synth/
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