Ambient Music Composer

A browser-based tape delay system inspired by Brian Eno's Discreet Music (1975).

Discovery

Most browser-based audio tools are either too simple or too complex for experimental music. There was a gap for a focused, tactile tool that could replicate the warmth of analog tape delay — directly in the browser, without plugins or installs. The reference point was Robert Fripp's Frippertronics system: two tape reels creating infinite, layered loops from a live signal.

Strategy

The goal was to keep the interface as close to a physical tape machine as possible — a single signal chain: microphone → EQ → tape delay → export. No DAW complexity, no MIDI, no presets. Built with React and the Web Audio API to stay fully browser-native. The tape delay algorithm uses a circular buffer to simulate the physical reel-to-reel effect, with half-speed export to recreate the classic pitch-lowering characteristic of tape.

Execution

• Built a real-time audio pipeline using the Web Audio API with mic input, 3-band EQ, and configurable tape delay
• Implemented circular buffer-based delay to simulate analog tape behaviour
• Added half-speed WAV export — the recorded output plays back at half pitch, characteristic of Eno's technique
• Deployed on Vercel as a standalone web app, accessible from any device with a microphone