Open /creator and click once anywhere on the page. Browsers refuse to start audio until a real user gesture happens, so the creator boots its audio engine on your first click or key press — the status line at the bottom flips from engine: suspended to engine: running.

The first load builds a default patch: a VCO into a filter into a VCA, plus a drum machine and a digital synth, with a starter pattern in the sequencer. Press Space and it plays. Everything you change from then on is autosaved to this browser, so reloading the page brings your rack back.

No account is needed to patch, sequence, mix or preview. An account is required to download a WAV/MP3 render, to upload samples, and to submit a track to the library.

Modules are patched with the Signal flow panel in the rack's right rail (or the → selector on each module card): pick a source, a destination and a port, then press Patch. Audio ports are labelled in; modulation ports are named after what they move (cutoff, gain, pitch, fm).

  ┌───────┐    ┌────────┐    ┌─────┐
  │  VCO  ├───▶│ FILTER ├───▶│ VCA ├──┐
  └───────┘    └───▲────┘    └──▲──┘  │
                   │            │     │      ┌────────┐
  ┌───────┐        │ cutoff     │ gain├─────▶│ MIXER  ├──▶ master ──▶ out
  │  ENV  ├────────┴────────────┘     │      │ ch/pan │     limiter
  └───────┘                          │      │ sends  ├──▶ delay ──┐
  ┌───────┐   ┌───────┐   ┌───────┐  │      └────────┘   reverb ──┘
  │ DRUMS │   │ SYNTH │   │SAMPLER│──┘
  └───┬───┘   └───┬───┘   └───┬───┘
      └───────────┴───────────┴────── steps from the SEQUENCER

Every module also owns a mixer channel, so a module you have not patched anywhere still reaches the master bus — that is why a fresh drum machine is audible immediately. The master bus ends in a soft limiter you can switch off in the transport strip or on the mixer page.

The bottom half of the rack page is the trigger sequencer. Rows are tracks: the eight drum lanes first, then one row for every pitched module (synth, sampler, VCO voice) you have added. Columns are steps; beat starts are drawn brighter. Pattern length is 8 to 64 steps, set in the transport strip or the sequencer header.

• Click a step to toggle it, drag to paint several.
• Shift+click (or A on a focused step) makes it an accent — a louder hit.
• M on a row mutes it: the steps are kept and come back when you unmute.
• × on a row erases just that row.
• The playhead column follows the transport; swing delays every other step.
• Pitched rows play the note shown in the row label — Z/X shift the octave.

/creator/mixer shows one strip per module: fader, pan, mute, solo, a level meter and a send to each effect module you have added. Solo on any strip mutes everything that is not soloed. The master strip carries the output gain, the limiter switch, the output meters and a spectrum analyser.

Sends work by patching the channel into the delay or reverb module; the effect's own mix knob decides how much of the wet signal arrives at the master bus.

/creator/library lists the factory samples plus anything the community has uploaded and had approved. Filter by category, search by name or tag, and press ▶ to audition a sample without loading it.

Pick a destination in assign to — a sampler module, or one of the eight drum lanes — then press Load → on a row. The sample is decoded once and cached, so the next trigger is instant. Uploads (signed in) accept WAV, MP3 and OGG within the size limit printed under the file field; the server re-checks the real file type, so renaming an extension will not get anything through.

A patch is the whole state: modules and their parameters, connections, sequencer pattern, mixer settings, tempo and swing. Three places to keep one:

• Autosave — every change is written to this browser's local storage a moment later (bb.patch.autosave) and restored on your next visit.
• Server — Ctrl+S or File › Save patch stores it on your account, where it appears in the Patches rail and in File › Open patch. Requires an account.
• JSON file — File › Export JSON downloads the patch; Import JSON loads one back. Handy for sharing a patch with someone else.

File › New patch empties the rack; Default patch in the rack header rebuilds the starter voice if you want somewhere to begin again.

Ctrl+E (or Render in the menu bar) opens the export dialog. Choose a length — 8s, 15s, 30s, 60s, 90s, 120s — and:

• Preview renders offline and plays the result back, so you hear exactly what a file would contain. Available to everyone.
• Download WAV renders and saves a 16-bit PCM WAV.
• Download MP3 renders and encodes in the browser at 128, 192 or 320 kbps.
• Submit to library renders, keeps the audio in the browser, and takes you to /submit to fill in title, artist name, genre, BPM and description before publishing.

Rendering is offline and faster than real time, but a 2-minute render is still real work — the progress bar in the dialog reports rendering, encoding and writing separately. Downloading and submitting need an account: sign in or sign up.

Nothing plays

Click once on the page (autoplay policy — browsers keep audio suspended until you interact) or press Enable audio in the menu bar. Then check the master fader, the limiter and whether a strip is soloed on the mixer page.

“audio engine unavailable”

The page loaded but WebAudio did not start — usually a browser without WebAudio, a blocked script, or a private-mode restriction. The interface stays readable; reload after enabling scripts for bitbasher.dk.

Crackles or dropouts

Watch the load readout in the transport strip. Fewer synth voices, a shorter reverb and closing other tabs all help; offline renders are unaffected by live-playback glitches.

A sample will not load

Samples stream from sounds.bitbasher.dk. If one fails, the module keeps its previous sample and the status line says so — try another, or re-upload as WAV.

MP3 export is slow

Encoding happens in your browser, so it scales with the render length. WAV is instant; MP3 at 320 kbps of two minutes takes a while.

Lost work after a reload

File › Open patch › Restore local autosave reloads the last autosaved state. Local storage is per browser and per device — save to your account to move between machines.