subforge is a from-scratch 808 & bass synthesizer. every sound is rendered live with raw web audio — no samples, ever. build it, play it, download a clean .wav, save it as a preset, and share it with the community. this guide covers everything. tip: hover almost any control in the app for a one-line explanation.
the toggle at the top switches between the two halves of subforge:
you sign in once and your account, credits and avatar colour follow you across both.
two oscillators blend into one voice, layered with a kick-thump and an optional harmony note, run through your effect rack, sculpted by the envelope (applied after the effects, so release also ends fx tails), finished by a transient shaper, then gained, widened and sent to the output.
the big black scope shows the real rendered output. the orange shape on top is the amplitude envelope — you sculpt it directly on the waveform. drag a for attack, s for decay length & sustain level, r for release. drag between two points to curve that segment. the r point is where the sound ends — pull it left to cut early (kills reverb / delay tails too), park it at the right edge for the full natural length. a vertical gain fader sits on the right edge. double-click a handle, a segment, or empty space to reset it; the ∿ env button hides / shows the shape.
1-shot / loop (top-right of the screen) choose whether space plays once or loops & updates live as you tweak.
root / octave tune the whole 808 — keep an eye on the note readout to stay in key. stereo widens the highs while keeping the sub mono (club-safe). four tabs sit here, each with its own on / off switch so you can a/b it instantly:
pitch drop is the signature 808 move — the pitch slides down at the very start and drop time sets how fast. a deep, slow drop gives that diving sub attack; a short one adds a punchy knock. (each oscillator also has its own drop in section 02.)
each oscillator (a & b) has 13 waveforms (sine, triangle, saw, square, fold, metal, organ…) or sample mode — drop your own audio onto a panel. per oscillator: octave / semitone / fine tuning, pitch drop + drop time, attack / decay / drive / level, a polarity flip, and an offset to delay that layer (handy to stagger kick and body). the live scope shows each voice; fold a panel with [–] to save space.
the morph bar above the panels blends a and b — pick the mode:
the rack starts empty. + add effect picks from the list, drag the ⧉ handle to reorder, the checkbox enables / disables a slot, × removes it. bypass mutes the whole rack to a/b it. the count slider sets how many effects random fx rolls; mutate fx re-rolls the params of the effects you already have on (never adds or drops one). effects with a screen (filter, eq, erosion, ott, bloom, sub…) are draggable right on their visual.
the bar under the toggle shows the current preset — step through every one with ‹ ›, or click the name to open the full browser. inside: banks on the left, presets on the right. factory is read-only, my presets is your default save spot, and you can make your own custom banks (rename with ✎, delete with ×). drag a preset onto a bank to move it. export / import bank save and load a bank as .json for backups or sharing.
every preset also has a share code — a short text string. copy code to hand a sound to a friend; they paste it and hit load code. same idea for whole fx chains.
a chain is a whole rack saved as one reusable unit. flick through them with the ‹ › arrows above the rack (the bar shows the active chain and its effects as tags), or open the chain browser for the full picture: three built-in banks — clean (mix-ready glue), creative (texture & space), unhinged (destruction) — plus your chains. hit save next to the arrows to store the current rack, share to publish it, new to clear and start fresh.
the community page is two feeds — 808s and fx chains — sorted by hot / new / top, filtered by tags, and searchable by name or producer. it uses the real engine: everything plays and renders exactly like it does in your workshop.
each card is one shared sound. here is what the buttons do:
for fx chains, load chain drops the whole rack onto your current 808 in real time. beyond the feed there are three more views:
hit share on an 808 (or share a chain from the rack) to publish it — you name it and pick up to 3 tags. it appears in the community feed for everyone to play, vote and load. sharing is always free and unlimited.
you get 300 free credits every day — they reset daily, no stacking. only downloading a .wav costs credits (100 each). building, tweaking, importing, playing, favoriting and sharing are always free. run out and you can top up with credit packs or go pro for unlimited downloads. everything you make is yours — no watermarks, no samples, no clearance headaches.
set your producer name (shown on everything you share) and pick an avatar colour — tap a swatch or the rainbow for a custom colour, then apply. your colour follows you across the workshop and the community. you can also change your email, add a bio and links to your profile, and manage your plan from the account menu.
play notes straight from your computer keyboard — a–k are one octave and the layout is read automatically (azerty / qwerty). the full list:
you've used all your credits. recharge to keep building & exporting, or go pro for unlimited.
found something broken or weird? tell us what happened — the more detail, the better.