Tools

Free interactive tools

Small, focused, browser-based. No install, no account, no cost. They are ordered the way a track gets made: build a sound, understand it, shape it, arrange it, then mix it.

Instruments

• Synth

  A synthesizer builds sound from raw oscillators, not samples. Waveform, filter and envelope decide the character before a single effect is added, and the LFO sets one of those decisions moving on its own. Play with it here, from your computer keyboard or a MIDI one, no install required.

• Drum Box

  Perfectly quantised drums are not neutral, they are a specific aesthetic. Program a pattern here and nudge individual hits to hear how a few ticks of timing change the whole feel of a groove.

• Kick Designer

  Picking a kick by scrolling through a sample folder teaches you nothing about why one works and the next does not. Build one from its parts here, genre by genre, and export what you end up with as a .wav.

• Melodic Sequencer

  Twelve keys and ten scales, with a piano roll that locks to the scale. Import a progression from the Chord Progression Generator and write over the chord tones it marks on the grid.

• Chord Visualizer

  Minor does not simply mean sad and major does not simply mean happy. This tool shows chord shapes, inversions and genre progressions on a keyboard so you can hear the difference a single note makes.

Education

• ADSR Envelope

  Every synth sound has a shape in time, not just a pitch and a timbre. Attack, decay, sustain and release decide whether a sound feels struck or held, sharp or soft. This tool lets you hear each stage change in isolation.

• Oscilloscope

  Every waveform shape has a distinct sound, and seeing the shape makes the connection stick faster than any description. Watch the wave move as you play.

• EQ Visualizer

  Boosting and cutting the same frequency by the same amount do not sound like opposites. See the curve move as you shape it, and hear why cutting is usually the safer first move.

• Spectrum Analyzer

  Every sound has a shape across the frequency spectrum, not just a volume. Watch it move in real time and start connecting what you hear to what you see.

Effects

• Filter

  The most used gesture in electronic music, and the one most people apply badly by opening the filter too early and too fast. Sweep a low-pass filter here and watch resonance change what the movement communicates.

• Reverb

  Depth is not volume. Two sounds at the same level can sit at completely different distances. Adjust decay and send level here to hear a sound move backwards without getting quieter.

• Delay

  A delay's repeats fill the space between hits, which is a different tool from reverb even though both add distance. Sync it to tempo here and hear how note division changes rhythmic character.

• Compressor Visualizer

  A compressor's threshold, ratio, attack and release are usually abstract numbers. Here they're a meter moving in real time, so you can see exactly when and how hard it grabs.

Composition

• Structure Map

  Loops don't become tracks by accident, they follow a shape. See reference structures for House, Techno and Organic House side by side, section by section.

• Progression Generator

  Getting stuck on a chord progression is one of the most common places to get stuck at all. Generate one in any key and mode, hear it with bass and groove, and export it as MIDI.

• Tension Builder

  A good build-up is a sequence of small decisions, not one big effect. Stack the layers here and hear the difference between a build-up that pays off and one that just gets louder.

• Arrangement Canvas

  Drag blocks across a timeline to sketch an entire track's arrangement before opening a DAW. See the whole shape before committing to a single sound.

Mixing & Mastering

• Sidechain Visualizer

  Sidechain is usually taught as a mixing fix for kick and bass clashing, which is the least interesting thing it does. This visualizer shows the compressor's envelope against the kick in real time.

• Stereo & Panning

  Panning decides left-right position, width decides how wide a sound feels. They're different controls that get confused constantly. See both at once here.

• Limiter Visualizer

  A limiter is a compressor with a ceiling it refuses to cross, the last stage that decides how loud a master gets without clipping. Push it and watch the reduction pile up.