Show HN: What if your synthesizer was powered by APL (or a dumb K clone)?

I built k-synth as an experiment to see if a minimalist, K-inspired array language could make sketching waveforms faster and more intuitive than traditional code. I’ve put together a web-based toolkit so you can try the syntax directly in the browser without having to touch a compiler: Live Toolkit: https://octetta.github.io/k-synth/ If you visit the page, here is a quick path to an audio payoff:

• Click "patches" and choose dm-bell.ks.
• Click "run"—the notebook area will update. Click the waveform to hear the result.
• Click the "->0" button below the waveform to copy it into slot 0 at the top (slots are also clickable).
• Click "pads" in the entry area to show a performance grid.
• Click "melodic" to play slot 0's sample at different intervals across the grid. The 'Weird' Stack:
• The Language: A simplified, right-associative array language (e.g., s for sine, p for pi).
• The Web Toolkit: Built using WASM and Web Audio for live-coding samples.
• AI Pair-Programming: I used AI agents to bootstrap the parser and web boilerplate, which let me vet the language design in weeks rather than months. The Goal: This isn't meant to replace a DAW. It’s a compact way to generate samples for larger projects. It’s currently in a "will-it-blend" state. I’m looking for feedback from the array language and DSP communities—specifically on the operator choices and the right-to-left evaluation logic. Source (MIT): https://github.com/octetta/k-synth Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47386983 Points: 67

Comments: 28