Polynode
Polyrhythm is what happens when you stop forcing everything to share the same pulse. A 5-step kick against a 7-step snare against a 3-step hi-hat — each cycling at its own rate, locking back into phase only at longer intervals. The result is rhythm that feels alive rather than metronomic.
Polynode is a drum machine built around that idea. It runs entirely in the browser — no install, no account.
Six instrument lanes — kick, snare, closed and open hi-hat, clap, and percussion — each run independently. Per lane you control step count (2–16), clock division (¼, ⅛, ⅛T, 1/16), offset, volume, pitch, mute, and solo. Changing any of these shifts that lane’s relationship to everything else without disrupting the others.
A built-in Truly Random Mode adds controlled unpredictability via a Chaos slider. At low values it introduces subtle probability jitter and pitch drift; at high values it becomes something closer to generative percussion. Randomize and Reset buttons make pattern exploration fast.
The 40 built-in presets span 8 categories — West Africa, Afro-Cuban, Brazil, India, Math/Ratios, Jazz, Funk/Soul, and Techno/Electronic — sourced from ethnomusicological literature and music theory. From Ewe bell patterns to TR-808 four-on-the-floor to Brubeck’s 5/4.
Built with React, TypeScript, and Tone.js for precise browser-based audio scheduling.