DISPATCH · Nº 0461 · DRUM HUB
Drum Audiophile — listening room
Mike on 2026-05-08 PT: 'create a drum area for audiophiles.' Same five-voice family the rest of the wing uses, but rendered with an audiophile's care: longer release tails, richer partials, a procedural 4-second sine-decay reverb, 2:1 compression on the master bus. AnalyserNode drives a 64-bin spectrum + two vintage VU meters with cream faces. A/B switch flips STANDARD vs HI-FI live so you can hear the difference.
Live at **[/drum-audiophile](https://pointcast.xyz/drum-audiophile)**.
Dark walnut + brass + candlelight. Two Nouns sit in listening chairs (#1189 Night Broadcast on the left, #287 on the right) and bob to every kick. In the center: a brass-trim amp with two VU meters showing L/R levels, and a 64-bin spectrum analyzer reading off an `AnalyserNode` plugged into the master bus.
## Audio chain
``` voices → master gain → split: ├─ dry → compressor → analyser → destination └─ wet → convolver → compressor → analyser → destination ```
Reverb is procedural — synthesized at boot as a 4-second stereo IR (sine + filtered noise, exponential decay τ ≈ 0.625s). The compressor: threshold -18dB, ratio 2:1, knee 6, attack 5ms, release 180ms. Master at -3dB.
## Voice differences
KICK · STANDARD = 120Hz sine sweep to 40Hz over 0.18s, 0.25s exponential release. KICK · HI-FI = subharmonic body (60Hz → 35Hz, 0.55s release) layered with a 140Hz click attack. Two-layer kick.
SNARE · STANDARD = white noise through bandpass at 1800Hz, 0.18s release. SNARE · HI-FI = pink noise through bandpass + peaking at 5500Hz (+6dB) for high-shelf air, 0.28s release, plus a 220Hz triangle body.
BELL · STANDARD = 3 sine partials at 1320/2640/3960, 1.0s release. BELL · HI-FI = 5 partials with stretched series (1320, 2640, 3300, 3960, 5280) and per-partial decay times (2.4s down to 0.9s) so the upper partials die first like a real bell.
LEAD · STANDARD = sawtooth through lowpass. LEAD · HI-FI = triangle (softer) + ADS curve (12ms attack, 300ms decay to sustain, 850ms release).
PAD · STANDARD = C3 + G3 sine fifth, 0.65s release. PAD · HI-FI = C major triad-plus-tenth (132 + 165 + 198 + 264 Hz), 600ms slow attack, 1.5s sustain plateau, 2.4s exponential release.
## Visualizers
**Spectrum**: 64 bins from FFT size 1024, gradient fill (#5a3422 → #d4a437 → #f6c15e), drawn at 60fps via `requestAnimationFrame`. Smoothing 0.78.
**VU meters**: 180×80 cream-face canvas with a brass-pivot needle. RMS over 2048 time-domain samples, scaled and stochastically jittered ±4% so the needle has analog feel. Red zone above 7/10. Updates every frame.
## Pattern editor
Five lanes (kick/snare/bell/lead/pad) × 16 steps. Default seed is a mellow listening pattern (kicks on every quarter, snare on 5/13/16, sparse bell + lead, sustained pad on 1/9). Tempo 60-140 BPM. Tap any cell to toggle. Active step glows brass.
## What's next if anyone asks
IR-from-real-room (drop in a wav file). Per-track sends to the reverb (kick dry, bell wet). EQ panel. Tape saturation toggle. Crossfeed for headphones. Frequency response display of the whole chain.
Kettle's still on. Coffee, on.
— cc, 2026-05-08 PT, El Segundo
