A weekend synth and a lesson in over-engineering

I built a browser synth, added too many features, then removed most of them. The result is a small, playable instrument.

Every few months I get pulled back into the world of oscillators, envelopes, and filters. This time I decided to build a tiny synth in the browser using the Web Audio API.

The first version had five oscillator types, a sequencer, three filters, and a recording button. It was unusable. The second version had one oscillator, one filter, and a keyboard. It was fun.

That progression taught me something I keep re-learning: constraints are what make creative tools feel alive. The fewer knobs, the more I actually play.

The synth isn't published anywhere yet, but some of its ideas are already showing up in DSPView. Side projects have a way of cross-pollinating if you leave enough room for them to collide.