Used sans metronome, I can see its appeal. That is, cool grooves in the studio may be related to low listener expectations. I mean, J Dylla grooves are cool precisely because they violate listener expectations. Funk is the art of surprise.
However, with metronome, it is unusable on a Chromebook from USA. Getting my ictus to agree with the metronome was impossible, presumably because the latency from the key press to the recording of the event vs. the sounding of the metronome. I'm guessing the author knows this.
I thought it had latency as well, but I think it might be deliberate. It only lets you define 16 evenly spaced notes. Logically it has to wait until the next beat to play the sound, meaning if you are a little late on one input, it will be pushed back to the next beat. Just a guess but I think it explains the issue.
It's not just the input. The playback is pretty screwy. Try filling every slot with hi-hats. At least in my browser, the playback is quite stuttery and I can't really entrain to it.
It sure is neat though! I love how the icons for each instrument can combine together, and the dynamic page title is fun.
Worth mentioning, since the post you replied to name-drops Dilla, that this renders it completely impossible to make a "Dilla"-style beat, let alone add any swing at all.
IMO it is just missing a way to turn off quantize and then turn it back on so you can both be on the grid and also swing or be ahead/behind the beat.
As typical though with anything related to web audio, it is neat one off parlor trick to show web programming skill but isn't worth the effort.
A circle is a compact way to make a useless quantized beat but if you want to take this further it will just end up reinventing the DAW wheel timeline. Otherwise, you have to have a sequencer for the circles, and then a timeline and then just get rid of the circles and have the timeline. In other words, a piano roll.
On another level, it is the coolness but uselessness of circular data visualization.
I guess it makes sense that binary design underlies rhythmic fascism. I'd prefer minimalism that is not lossy. Either that or I don't want to work hard at triplets or be forced into faking them.
However, with metronome, it is unusable on a Chromebook from USA. Getting my ictus to agree with the metronome was impossible, presumably because the latency from the key press to the recording of the event vs. the sounding of the metronome. I'm guessing the author knows this.