sushiDAW

Inspiration

Responding to the "Unconventional Connection" theme, we decided to combine one thing we each loved, sushi and music. By mapping the flavor profiles and textures of sushi ingredients to specific synthetic waveforms, we created a workspace that turns music production into a cozy sushi making setup

What it does

sushiDAW is an interactive sequencer where ingredients serve as musical layers.

AI Sound Synthesis: Users can create custom ingredients via Gemini AI, which analyzes flavor descriptions to generate real-time synth parameters.

Groq AI Beat Engine: Users can prompt Groq (using Llama 3.3) to generate complex 16-step rhythms based on specific genres or moods.

Full-Stack Persistence: A custom Kotlin/Ktor backend with JWT authentication allows users to save their "Beats" and track their "Sushi History" (roll logs) in a MongoDB database.

Custom Producer Tags: Integrated ElevenLabs TTS allows users to generate personalized vocal drops, while an internal piano roll provides melodic control over every note.

How we built it

Frontend: A responsive vanilla JavaScript engine utilizing the Web Audio API for real-time synthesis (no samples used).

Backend: A high-performance Kotlin (Ktor) server managing authentication and data persistence.

Infrastructure: Frontend hosted on Vercel with Edge Functions; backend deployed via Render; database managed by MongoDB Atlas.

AI Integration: Multi-model orchestration using Groq for low-latency pattern generation, Gemini for sound design, and ElevenLabs for vocal synthesis.

Challenges we ran into

Merge conflicts were the bane of our existence

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We successfully built a fully functional, full-stack DAW in under 24 hours. We also think our ui and concept is novel in the music production space and we hope to develop this further.

What we learned

We learnt the massive potential of website hosting and how far pure frontend can go, before we even developed the backend.

What's next for sushiDAW

We plan to have a customisable feature for our ingredients so that they can control the synth waveforms, and roll out filters that they can apply to different layers. We are very personally interested in this project and would love to roll out a stable version to the public

Built With

• css
• elevenlabs-api
• gemini-api
• groq
• html
• javascript
• jwt
• kotlin
• ktor
• mongodb
• render
• vercel