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  An happy synthetizer

🎵 MIDI Silly Fantasy - About the Project

💡 Inspiration

What started as a wild idea for a "chaotic xylophone on steroids" quickly became something much more bigger. Why not put some order into this chaos?

And it's how I came up with this interface inspired by some videogames (FFVII Rebirth, Wandersong, The last of us, ...). The AI came up with the idea to let users share what they played. I didn't thought it was possible and the proposed design surprised me!

That was perfect for Reddit! Something challenging, creative, where people could share and challenge others with their creation!

That's definitely the kind of content that will make people upvote without knowing why!

🎮 What it does

MIDI Silly Fantasy turns any Reddit post into a musical playground. You get two gorgeous circular instruments that feel almost magical to use. The left one plays individual notes while the right creates rich, layered chords. Whether you're clicking with your mouse, tapping on mobile, or plugging in a gamepad to use the analog sticks, the experience feels incredibly natural and expressive.

The real magic happens when you start recording. You can capture your musical moments and share them directly as Reddit comments using a clever encoding system. Then other users can copy that code, import it, and experience your exact musical creation. It's like sharing a piece of your creativity in a completely new way. The interface itself is a feast for the eyes, with glowing pie-slice indicators, smooth animations, and note labels that pulse and dance as you play.

🛠 How I built it

This project was a perfect example of human creativity meeting AI capability. I brought the vision and musical direction, while Bolt.new handled the heavy technical lifting. The collaboration was fascinating - I'd describe what I wanted musically, and the AI would translate that into Web Audio API magic, complex trigonometry for the circular interfaces, and seamless integration with Reddit's Devvit framework.

We went through countless iterations, refining the audio engine to make chords that actually sound musical instead of chaotic, perfecting the visual feedback so every interaction feels satisfying, and ensuring the whole thing works beautifully whether you're on desktop, mobile, or using a gamepad. The technology stack ended up being surprisingly elegant - vanilla JavaScript, Web Audio API, and some seriously clever CSS animations, all wrapped up in Devvit's webview system.

🚧 ChallengesI ran into

The trigonometry gave me some headache! Mapping circular touch positions to musical notes required some serious angle calculations that I definitely couldn't have figured out on my own. Then there was the audio synchronization challenge - making sure recorded compositions play back exactly as they were performed, with perfect timing.

Getting gamepad support working smoothly was another adventure. Making the analog sticks feel responsive and musical while also supporting mouse and touch input seamlessly took quite a bit of back-and-forth. The biggest musical challenge was making chords that actually sound good together instead of like a cat walking across a piano. That required diving into music theory and understanding how different intervals create harmony or dissonance and again, the AI was there to explain it to me.

The visual effects were tricky too - creating those beautiful pie-slice animations without having them get all warped by CSS transforms was like solving a puzzle. I hate CSS and I was happy to have the AI taking care of it.

🏆 Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm honestly amazed we (the AI and me) pulled off that circular interface! The trigonometry that seemed impossible at the start now feels like second nature, and the result is this intuitive, beautiful instrument that anyone can play.

Getting full gamepad support working was a huge win. There's something incredibly satisfying about using analog sticks to create music, and the precision you can achieve is remarkable.

The sharing system turned out even better than I hoped - being able to encode entire musical performances into compact strings that work perfectly in Reddit comments feels like magic.

But what I'm most proud of is how musical it actually sounds. It's not just a technical demo - it's actually fun to play with.

📚 What I learned

This project completely changed how I think about rapid development. Working with AI tools like Bolt.new showed me how quickly you can go from a crazy idea to a working prototype when you combine human creativity with AI execution. I dove deep into the Web Audio API and learned about oscillators, filters, envelope shaping, and audio effects. That kind of stuff would have taken months to figure out on my own.

The gamepad integration taught me about input handling in ways I never expected. Supporting touch events, mouse interactions, and analog stick input simultaneously was like learning three different languages of user interaction. Understanding Reddit's Devvit platform opened up a whole new world of community-driven development possibilities.

Most importantly, I learned how to translate musical concepts into code. Taking abstract ideas about harmony, rhythm, and user experience and turning them into something people can actually interact with was incredibly rewarding. The whole process showed me that the best projects happen when you combine technical capability with genuine enthusiasm for creating something people will enjoy. In the end, music is math.

🚀 What's next for MIDI Silly Fantasy

The musical adventure is just getting started! I'm excited about adding more instruments and multiple tracks. Imagine adding drums! "Boum boum chak" "boum boum chak".

The community aspect has so much potential too. Real-time collaborative jamming sessions where multiple users can play together, community composition challenges with monthly themes, and maybe even a full composition library where people can browse and discover amazing creations from the community.

MIDI Silly Fantasy feels like just the beginning of what's possible when you combine creativity, technology, and community in unexpected ways. It's not just about making music, it's about bringing people together through the universal language of sound and rhythm! 🎵

I'm really happy about this opportunity offered by Bolt.new and Reddit!

Built With

• devvit
• html5
• javascript
• webaudio