Makepad- Synthesizer Written in Rust (opens in new tab)

(makepad.nl)

173 pointshelsontaveras182y ago47 comments

47 comments

34 comments · 13 top-level

paulgb2y ago· 6 in thread

For those who haven’t seen it, Makepad is also an in-browser code editor with an open-source UI toolkit. Looks like this synth is one of the examples of the UI toolkit.

https://makepad.dev/

chaosprint2y ago

press option on mac. it's amazing

ledgerdev2y ago

Pressing Alt seems to invoke the same on linux/gnome, probably alt key on windows as well.

faitswulff2y ago

That is fantastic

ta9882y ago

What does it do?

1 more reply

csomar2y ago

It feels much more snappier than Electron-based apps.

paulgb2y ago

Rather than going through the browser’s rendering engine, it’s entirely rendered on the GPU. Super impressive.

chaosprint2y ago· 4 in thread

Very impressive UI work with Rust. As @rvdca pointed out the author had a great presentation. Definitely recommend it.

I notice that there is a bug when I open the console with cmd-option-J: a note will be triggered and stay there forever.

The audio worklet uses postMessages (https://makepad.nl/makepad/platform/src/os/web_browser/audio...), which is not GC free.

For those are interested, I am maintaining https://glicol.org/ which is also an Rust/WASM audio app in browsers.

rikarendsmp2y ago

We also have a much newer version however the workload of 'everything' has been a bit overwhelming since we aren't actually making a synth(thats just an example application) but an IDE, designtool and a framework.

chaosprint2y ago

So is it going to be a Figma style tool?

2 more replies

rikarendsmp2y ago

The audio worklet doesnt use postmessages anymore btw. I removed that way of commmunicating with the main thread. It's all shared memory in wasm now.

chaosprint2y ago

Cool. There is no doubt that you guys can nail it.

rvdca2y ago· 2 in thread

For anyone interested, the main author (if I understood properly) did a presentation at RustNL on the UI aspect that was quite impressive performance wise : https://youtu.be/rC4FCS-oMpg

usrusr2y ago

Technically, that talk is by the author of the UI system/IDE that uses the synthesizer as an extended hello world. The synthesizer itself is by a different guy ( https://thisisnotrocketscience.nl ) who's been calling his bassline synths somethingmetallicfish since almost forever.

rikarendsmp2y ago

The RustNL presentation is a nice up to date view of where we are with makepad.

38362936482y ago· 2 in thread

Cool and very smooth. Shame Firefox doesn't support it (yet?).

It's very blurry though? Seems like it's trying to run at ~1080p (on a 1440p screen)

rikarendsmp2y ago

It shouldnt be 'that' blurry tho, sounds like maybe you have a browser-zoom level thats not 100%. I try to deal with that, but there are browsers that mess it up (safari can for instance)

lostmsu2y ago

Worked on Windows with Firefox.

alkonaut2y ago· 2 in thread

Does anyone know if the native UI framework supports being "hosted" in the sense that makes it useable for audio plugin dev (VST3 and others)?

rikarendsmp2y ago

We can definitely support it being hosted, however this is extra work on the platform side. VST is a licensing nightmare tho, i didnt really feel like stepping into that for now.

odiroot2y ago

Maybe try going the CLAP way instead?

1 more reply

rapnie2y ago· 2 in thread

> Written in Rust

Mentioning that.. is this open source?

maeln2y ago

https://github.com/makepad/makepad

It's the iron fish project.

WhiteNoiz32y ago

The Makepad fractal zoom example crashed my browser in all kinds of of ways that a browser is not supposed to be able to crash.

2 more replies

elric2y ago· 1 in thread

As a hardware synth lover, I'm pleasantly surprised by how good this sounds. Great work!

rikarendsmp2y ago

Thanks :) All the work of 'this is not rocket science'

beezlewax2y ago· 1 in thread

This is awesome. I saw a talk on this the other day on YouTube.

This looks good even on my crappy phone. Is there a reason though that the html on hackernews renders text more sharply than the text on the makepad apps?

rikarendsmp2y ago

Yea we're struggling a bit with super sharp rendering on lower DPI screens. It's on our todolist.

thaway_thaway342y ago· 1 in thread

I got just a blank page in dark grayish/brown color

rikarendsmp2y ago

What browser/OS are you on? Works fine here. Needs wasm+webaudio worklets and shared memory to work

berlonce2y ago

It seems to be able to target app builds for everything but IOS. Is there a plan/timeline to add it?

srg02y ago

It's very impressive.

I'd suggest to reset sliders on double click like most plugin instruments do.

thumbuddy2y ago

Looks like old school synth software in a good way. Cool

bazeblackwood2y ago

The 6th note row from the bottom isn't working for me, for some reason! Otherwise, very cool.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

47 comments

34 comments · 13 top-level

paulgb2y ago· 6 in thread

For those who haven’t seen it, Makepad is also an in-browser code editor with an open-source UI toolkit. Looks like this synth is one of the examples of the UI toolkit.

https://makepad.dev/

chaosprint2y ago

press option on mac. it's amazing

ledgerdev2y ago

Pressing Alt seems to invoke the same on linux/gnome, probably alt key on windows as well.

faitswulff2y ago

That is fantastic

ta9882y ago

What does it do?

1 more reply

csomar2y ago

It feels much more snappier than Electron-based apps.

paulgb2y ago

Rather than going through the browser’s rendering engine, it’s entirely rendered on the GPU. Super impressive.

chaosprint2y ago· 4 in thread

Very impressive UI work with Rust. As @rvdca pointed out the author had a great presentation. Definitely recommend it.

I notice that there is a bug when I open the console with cmd-option-J: a note will be triggered and stay there forever.

The audio worklet uses postMessages (https://makepad.nl/makepad/platform/src/os/web_browser/audio...), which is not GC free.

For those are interested, I am maintaining https://glicol.org/ which is also an Rust/WASM audio app in browsers.

rikarendsmp2y ago

chaosprint2y ago

So is it going to be a Figma style tool?

2 more replies

rikarendsmp2y ago

The audio worklet doesnt use postmessages anymore btw. I removed that way of commmunicating with the main thread. It's all shared memory in wasm now.

chaosprint2y ago

Cool. There is no doubt that you guys can nail it.

rvdca2y ago· 2 in thread

For anyone interested, the main author (if I understood properly) did a presentation at RustNL on the UI aspect that was quite impressive performance wise : https://youtu.be/rC4FCS-oMpg

usrusr2y ago

rikarendsmp2y ago

The RustNL presentation is a nice up to date view of where we are with makepad.

38362936482y ago· 2 in thread

Cool and very smooth. Shame Firefox doesn't support it (yet?).

It's very blurry though? Seems like it's trying to run at ~1080p (on a 1440p screen)

rikarendsmp2y ago

It shouldnt be 'that' blurry tho, sounds like maybe you have a browser-zoom level thats not 100%. I try to deal with that, but there are browsers that mess it up (safari can for instance)

lostmsu2y ago

Worked on Windows with Firefox.

alkonaut2y ago· 2 in thread

Does anyone know if the native UI framework supports being "hosted" in the sense that makes it useable for audio plugin dev (VST3 and others)?

rikarendsmp2y ago

We can definitely support it being hosted, however this is extra work on the platform side. VST is a licensing nightmare tho, i didnt really feel like stepping into that for now.

odiroot2y ago

Maybe try going the CLAP way instead?

1 more reply

rapnie2y ago· 2 in thread

> Written in Rust

Mentioning that.. is this open source?

maeln2y ago

https://github.com/makepad/makepad

It's the iron fish project.

WhiteNoiz32y ago

The Makepad fractal zoom example crashed my browser in all kinds of of ways that a browser is not supposed to be able to crash.

2 more replies

elric2y ago· 1 in thread

As a hardware synth lover, I'm pleasantly surprised by how good this sounds. Great work!

rikarendsmp2y ago

Thanks :) All the work of 'this is not rocket science'

beezlewax2y ago· 1 in thread

This is awesome. I saw a talk on this the other day on YouTube.

This looks good even on my crappy phone. Is there a reason though that the html on hackernews renders text more sharply than the text on the makepad apps?

rikarendsmp2y ago

Yea we're struggling a bit with super sharp rendering on lower DPI screens. It's on our todolist.

thaway_thaway342y ago· 1 in thread

I got just a blank page in dark grayish/brown color

rikarendsmp2y ago

What browser/OS are you on? Works fine here. Needs wasm+webaudio worklets and shared memory to work

berlonce2y ago

It seems to be able to target app builds for everything but IOS. Is there a plan/timeline to add it?

srg02y ago

It's very impressive.

I'd suggest to reset sliders on double click like most plugin instruments do.

thumbuddy2y ago

Looks like old school synth software in a good way. Cool

bazeblackwood2y ago

The 6th note row from the bottom isn't working for me, for some reason! Otherwise, very cool.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse