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Work · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to I made a tiny device for automatically recording digital pianos

Hey HN! A few years ago, I left my cushy big tech job to make hardware. And made the device I always wanted - an automatic piano recorder! I usually play piano improvisationally, and manually hitting record never meshed well with that. But there are always moments I wish I recorded, and now they are! Hopefully it scratches a similar itch for some of you as well! A few of the tech details: * built on an esp32-s3 * custom injection molded enclosure * BLE comms, sd card storage, DS1302 RTC * android & ios apps with Flutter * Shadertoy vfx support for video sharing - Chip

The Jamcorder is a small hardware device that automatically records digital piano performances to an SD card, designed for pianists who play improvisationally and want to capture moments without manually starting… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier. I made a tiny device for automatically recording digital pianos launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1
    Jamcorder▲124

    World's first automatic piano recorder

    2024 · jamcorder.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2
    Pianolyze▲149

    Hey HN, I'm a pianist who's always been obsessed with understanding how great players think through harmony. What voicings are they using? How do they voice lead through changes? What's actually happening under their hands? Back in 2022, I built Harmonic Analyzer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNgSgvUmiOs) – a Mac app that used ML to transcribe polyphonic piano recordings. It got some traction, but I never quite finished it. Requiring users to download a Mac app felt like unnecessary friction, and I didn’t want to limit distribution to Mac users. I just shipped Pianolyze…

    Nov 2025 · pianolyze.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    I trained a 125M-parameter transformer to autocomplete piano performances in real time (~108 notes/sec on an iPhone 15). The idea is basically GitHub Copilot or Tabnine, except instead of prompting it with code, you prompt it by playing a few notes on a MIDI piano. The model then continues what you played, entirely on-device. The app is free if anyone wants to try it. Happy to answer questions about the model, training, Core ML, or the many things that didn't work.

    Aug 2026 · simedw.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4AP

    I'm building a video conferencing app designed to facilitate better remote piano lessons. My hope is to solve a lot of the challenges piano tutors and new students deal with when taking lessons through Skype/Zoom. It leverages WebRTC's data transmission to send media, MIDI state, and (eventually) send sheet music files and other musical data. I'm surprised with how well the MVP has worked and would love to hear any feedback or suggestions!

    2024 · keyboardconnect.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Hey there! I made a little app that lets you to calibrate your turntable by putting on any record and tapping a button. It's called Grooved and it uses your phone's microphone to see how fast your platter is going, almost like magic. You can see what it looks like in action here: https://twitter.com/OKatBest/status/1795453042994680148 The app itself is free without ads, subscriptions, or trackers. It's a tool I built for myself, and I just thought someone else might want to use it too. I have never seen this technology being used before, all other apps require you to…

    2024 · grooved.okat.best · its alternatives →

  6. 6
    Haxophone▲526

    I built this during Covid. When I released it, some of the parts went out of stock or skyrocketed in price, no longer making this an economic DIY project. Now that things are getting back to almost normal, I thought I'd share it here and request feedback. This is a very niche project for people who like the same things I do: saxophones, Rust, mechanical keyboards and the Raspberry Pi.

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7
    Jam-Pod▲114

    A player for people who keep their own music collection

    Jul 2026 · testflight.apple.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8AT

    A tiny portable music looper that gets you jamming immediately.

    2020 · beeplab.one · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    JamCam▲59

    Capture and share life's musical moments in short videos.

    2014 · jamcamera.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    A simple & fun way to make music.

    2016 · jamlooper.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11
    Jambl▲199

    Tap into your creativity, produce hit songs from your iPhone

    2017 · jambl.app · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Make (and record) beats on your keyboard

    2016 · sampulator.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13
    Jamhub▲88

    An open-source, remote music collaboration app

    2020 · jamhub.io · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Hello HN! Here's Billard. It combines music and physics into a unique creative tool, as I explore various unconventional methods for generating music. Most traditional music composition tools revolve around the idea of a repeatable pattern. Billard is a webapp that never repeats itself. It generates music automatically based on the collisions of balls in a 2D space. Collisions trigger notes (or chords) in a given key. One can add balls or move them (y-position is pitch); the app remembers its state between reloads; or it can be reset with the 'init' button on the top left. Gravity can be…

    2024 · billard.medusis.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Simple audio notes recorder

    2021 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Learn how to play your favorite piano songs using ML

    2022 · nickplee.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17
    Klangio▲128

    Transcribe music into notes within seconds

    2025 · klang.io · its alternatives →

  18. 18
    MiniTAP▲235

    A music sequencer for the web

    2024 · minitap.io · its alternatives →

  19. 19
    Jammer▲97

    Turns songs into musical instruments anyone can play

    2017 · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hello all! I've been an avid fan of Pocket Operators by Teenage Engineering since I found out about them. I even own an EP-133 K.O. II today, which I love. A couple of months ago, Reddit user andiam03 shared a Google Sheet with some drum patterns [1]. I thought it was a very cool way to share and understand beats. During the weekend I coded a basic version of this app I am sharing today. I iterated over it in my free time, and yesterday I felt like I had a pretty good version to share with y'all. It's not meant to be a sequencer but rather a way to experiment with beats and basic sounds,…

    Jan 2026 · beats.lasagna.pizza · its alternatives →

  21. 21
    Musikcube▲107

    A fully functional terminal-based music player

    2017 · musikcube.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22TI

    Hello HN, Over the last 15 months, two friends and I developed the music recording app we felt we wanted based on our own needs as musicians. It's called Tape It [1] and has just recently hit the Apple App Store [2]. We put a lot of effort into a good UX to help musicians really focus on playing their instrument instead of pretending to be a recording engineer. The app records in stereo on newer iPhones (although that's a premium feature; the free version only records in standard mono audio quality). I would be really grateful for advice from this community on how to best approach marketing.…

    2021 · its alternatives →

  23. 23IU

    Hi Hacker News, This is definitely out of my comfort zone. I just wanted to show you guys because I'm super proud of it. It's a 100% faithful recreation based off of the schematics, patents, and ROMs that were found online. So please watch the video and tell me what you think https://youtu.be/auOlZXI1VxA The reason why I think this is relevant is because I've been a programmer for 25 years and AI scares the shit out of me. I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for…

    Jan 2026 · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    My friend built this and I'm blown away with how much fun it is and the high level of polish. It renders 9 different strange attractors (Lorenz, Rössler, Aizawa, Chen, etc.) as particle systems — thousands of particles tracing chaotic paths in real time. You can rotate and zoom with touch/trackpad in 3D. The sound is the part that surprised me. It's not a soundtrack — the audio is generated from the motion itself using spatial audio, so tones shift as the attractor's behavior changes and the sound moves around you as you rotate the form. Put on headphones. The Playdate version uses the…

    Jun 2026 · fieldbw.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →