Procrastinatrix.net: Band Site as Instrument Lab

Procrastinatrix is a solo electronic music project: 444+ tracks, 13 albums, BBC Radio Wales airplay, running since 2020 from a home studio in Abercraf on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. The website at procrastinatrix.net is the public home for all of it.

But it's not just a band site. It's an interactive laboratory of browser-based audio experiments, each one a playable instrument or toy built from scratch.

The experiments

LAB — A full modular arp rig running in the browser. Drums with kick/snare/hat patterns, a bass sequencer, a stylus theremin, an FX pedalboard (dirt, wah, chorus, phaser, echo, verb), a looper with glitch and crush controls, and a master transport with tempo, record, and save/recall slots. This is not a demo. It's a production tool.

Palmsynth — A hand-gesture synthesiser that uses the webcam to turn your hands into a musical instrument. Left hand controls volume and FX sweep; fist to start recording, open to play the loop. Right hand maps X to pitch across 3 octaves, Y to brightness. Pinch fingers for tremolo, rotate for overdrive, spread for chorus. Six modes: theremin, chord, lead, bass, arp, and pad. Scale and root selection built in.

HEXATRIX — A hex-grid sequencer with MIDI output and Launchpad support. Sequencing reimagined on a hexagonal grid.

CADENCE — Chords first, then play progressions step by step. A compositional tool that inverts the usual sequencer workflow.

Experimental Synth — A cuboid touch synth with multiple waveforms (sine, triangle, saw, square, piano), drum sounds, attack/decay/filter/reverb controls, and a two-octave chromatic keyboard. Designed for touch screens.

Sequencer Web Toy — A browser-based beat sequencer for creating patterns from scratch.

Interactive Visualizer — A music visualizer that responds to audio input in real time.

SPURT — Draw glowing, colourful ribbons in 3D space. Touch and drag to create. A visual toy with audio.

Spherical SoundCloud Player — A novel spatial interface for browsing and playing SoundCloud tracks, reimagining the playlist as a navigable 3D object.

Why this matters

Each experiment is a self-contained browser application using Web Audio API, WebGL, WebRTC (for Palmsynth's hand tracking), and Canvas. No plugins, no installs. They load on a phone at a gig or a laptop in a studio.

The site is simultaneously a musician's portfolio, a playground for visitors, and a proving ground for the audio and interaction techniques that feed back into the music itself. The tools and the art are the same practice.

Originally posted on Contra: https://contra.com/p/PFEZcEOo-procrastinatrixnet-band-site-as-instrument-lab