About this project

This project started as an attempt to simply record my drum kit and use the tracks as MIDI samples for my music projects. The samples would be triggered by a MIDI controller.

I picked up an Akai MPD218 MIDI drum pad controller and it worked perfectly. The design and functionality of the contoller inspired me to create a web app version to practice JavaScript. The idea was to trigger the pads via clicks or keyboard keys in a similar fashion to the MPD's pad inputs. Once activated, a pad would play the sound then light up.

After I programmed the pads to funciton properly, I thought it would be fun to display a little message on the interface. Many electronic instruments still use simplistic LCD screens, so I borrowed that aesthetic for the message display. I also included an option to play sounds recorded from my cat, Simon.

The app works best on desktop, but the mobile experience is not great—it's not a perfectly responsive design and even more laggy. I probably won't fix these things, and I wouldn't use it as a performance instrument, but it was still fun to build!

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