TimeBox

Instructions

Click anywhere on the dark piano-roll rows at the top of the editor to place a note — TimeBox will play it immediately so you can hear what you're building. Click an existing note to remove it.

Notes live inside patterns, and you edit one pattern at a time. The numbered boxes along the bottom of the editor represent each slot in your song's timeline. Click a numbered box to jump to that part of the song, or click the arrow buttons on the currently selected box to change which pattern plays in that slot. You can have up to 128 bars and reuse the same pattern in multiple slots.

TimeBox supports multiple simultaneous channels — each channel has its own set of patterns and plays at the same time as the others. Most channels play pitched melodies or harmonies. The bottom channel(s) are reserved for drums and noise.

The purple loop bar beneath the pattern boxes controls which portion of the song repeats during playback. Drag it left or right to reposition it, or pull its edges to extend or shrink the loop. Drag it to cover the whole song to do a full playthrough.

The time signature widget at the top of the settings panel shows the current time signature (e.g. 4/4). Click it to open the time signature dialog, where you can set the numerator (beats per bar), the denominator (rhythm/steps per beat), and choose how existing notes are converted when the bar length changes.

In the pattern editor, click and drag horizontally on a note to stretch or shrink its duration. Click above or below an existing note to stack additional pitches, creating a chord — TimeBox supports up to 32 simultaneous pitches per note.

Advanced tips: Drag vertically from the middle of a note to bend its pitch over time. Drag vertically from the top or bottom edge of a note to shape its volume envelope. In the track view, drag across multiple pattern boxes to select a region, then copy and paste whole sections of your song at once.

TimeBox builds on everything BeepBox can do and adds much more. Explore the menus and sliders on the right side of the editor — click the label next to any control to read a description of what it does.

Want to see what the BeepBox community has created? Songs shared on Twitter before May 2023 can be explored in this interactive archive.

About

TimeBox is a mod of BeepBox, which was created by John Nesky.TimeBox extends BeepBox with 40 scales, a time signature system, dramatically expanded tempo and bar limits, 17 new chip waveforms, 18 new noise types, FM operators up to 128×, up to 128 channels, a 10-octave pitch range, new envelope targets, and a full purple visual redesign. You can view the full source code and changelog for TimeBox on its GitHub page.

BeepBox and TimeBox do not claim ownership over songs created with them — all original songs belong to their authors.

Neither John Nesky, BeepBox, Elii Josiohine, nor TimeBox assume responsibility for any copyrighted material played within the editor. No song data is ever sent to or stored on any server. All song data lives entirely in your browser's URL after the # symbol, and nothing leaves your device unless you copy and share that URL. No user data of any kind is collected, tracked, or shared.

You can find the official BeepBox release notes here. If you prefer an older, simpler version of BeepBox, you can still access version 2.3 or version 3.0.13.

You can download an offline version of BeepBox to use without an internet connection. The core features are the same as the online version.

The original BeepBox source code is available on GitHub under the MIT license. You can also use the synth engine directly in your own JavaScript projects — see this example to get started.