A 16-control subtractive synth for microcontrollers (39k ELF, web demo)
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This toy retro synth installs and runs on esp32-s3 or p4 as an ELF file under BreezyBox firmware. It uses my work-in-progress immediate mode TUI library in C.Web-based version via emscripten: https://mini000.itch.io/beeperSource code: https://github.com/valdanylchuk/beeperDemo video running on Tanmatsu (esp32-p4): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCH9XYZ7QB0The main challenge I was going for was actually to find a nice minimal set of controls for a subtractive synth. Usually there are 40-50 of them in "simple" synths; I ended up with 16.In terms of TUI, I wanted to see if it would be practical at embedded C scale to use a modern approach similar to ratatui, Dear ImGui, or Nuklear. I am quite happy with it so far. Will keep using and extending it for more embedded apps.I did not publish the library as a separate project yet; it is not mature enough. Feel free to reuse it via good old copying for now if you like it.For those who remember my earlier post here about the BreezyBox ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46918429 ), a few updates from the last 6 months:* added sshd for inbound connections * extended shell with variables, loops, conditions, tar, grep, diff * added sound component, including pico8-themed sequencer, and a few example apps * ported my self-hosting C compiler for RISC-V (rcc700) * shared a full example firmware project for Tanmatsu (p4), in addition to earlier Waveshare (s3)Thanks for checking this out! I welcome any questions and feedback about the synth app, the TUI library, or the Breezybox firmware.
HN · launched Jul 20, 2026 · 6 upvotes (top 71%) · 1 view
Niche: software synthesizers and midi tools · 119 launches, 5 in the last 7 days ▼ -64% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Media & entertainment
- Hardware & robotics
- Prosumer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 119 launches in software synthesizers and midi tools →
Could you build this?
No Embedded audio synthesis running on microcontrollers like ESP32-S3 within a tiny 39k ELF footprint requires bare-metal C programming, DSP algorithms, and hardware audio buffering expertise.
What it would actually take: The architecture involves writing a digital signal processing (DSP) subtractive synth in C, implementing oscillators, resonant filters, envelope generators, and LFOs running under tight microcontroller clock cycles and memory constraints. It requires compiling against embedded toolchains (ESP-IDF/FreeRTOS) and using Emscripten for WebAssembly audio worklets, demanding specialized digital signal processing and embedded systems engineering knowledge.
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Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 386 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #277 of 387 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 264 days after the earliest competitor.
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