motif/README.md

Wario Synthesis Engine 8-Bit Midi

Turn any song into a Game Boy version.

Live Demo

www.wario.style

About

Search any song. Get the 8-bit version. It's that simple.

WARIO SYNTH grabs real MIDI files from the internet and runs them through a fake Game Boy sound chip built entirely in your browser. Four channels of crunchy lo-fi goodness:

• Two pulse waves — bleepy melodies
• One wave channel — thicc bass
• One noise channel — tsss tsss drums

No server audio, no samples, just pure Web Audio oscillators doing their best 1989 impression.

Try it → wario.style

Features

• MIDI search from BitMidi and other sources
• Browser playback with soundfont piano preview
• Wario Synthesis Engine: procedural Game Boy-style synthesis from parsed MIDI structure
• Share links with dynamic social previews
• Works on mobile (iOS audio unlock included)

Quick Start (Local)

# Install frontend deps
npm install

# Install backend deps
cd server && npm install && cd ..

# Run backend (http://localhost:3001)
npm run dev:backend

# Run frontend (Vite prints the URL, typically http://localhost:5173)
npm run dev

How It Works

1. User searches for a song
2. Backend searches MIDI sources and returns ranked candidates
3. User picks a MIDI source
4. Frontend parses MIDI into normalized note events
5. Wario Synthesis Engine maps tracks to Game Boy sound channels
6. Web Audio oscillators generate the retro sound

Embed Widget

WARIO SYNTH includes an embeddable widget at /embed:

<iframe
  src="https://www.wario.style/embed?song=Hotel%20California"
  width="420"
  height="260"
  style="border:0;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden"
  allow="autoplay"
></iframe>

Tech Stack

• Frontend: TypeScript, Vite, Web Audio API
• Backend: Express, Node.js
• Deployment: Vercel
• Built with: Claude Code

Credits

A non-commercial project by @b1rdmania for lols. Please don't sue me.