Choose a style, shape your beat, and drive through a neon sunset. Play the keys and take your mix home as a WAV or separate stems.
SYNTHWAVE MAKERPLAY & TEMPOSAVE & SHARE
BPM
POSITION
01 / 08
READY TO DRIVE
STEER INTO THE GLOWING TILESEach tile changes one part of your track.
01 / LATE NIGHT FM
Midnight Cruise
Warm chords. Open roads. Nowhere to rush.
DRIVE INTENSITY
32%
CRUISING
STEER
MPH = BPM
Start driving · MPH = BPM
MPH
PICK A DRIVE
Explore new combinations
01 Drum machine
16 STEPS
02 Synth section
Your recorded lead is playing. Clear it to use a generated melody.
PLAY THE LEAD · A W S E D F T G Y H U J K
Press Start driving to hear your track.
MAKE MUSIC ONLINE
Make your own synthwave soundtrack
Create retro electronic music with the free ButtonBass Synthwave Maker. Build drum patterns, shape warm synth chords, and add bass lines and melodies right in your browser. There is no signup or software installation, and the question marks explain every area for beginners.
How to make a synthwave beat
Choose a starting sound. Pick a drive style and press Start driving, or press Random Mix for a fresh combination that starts playing immediately. Random Mix chooses 75–185 BPM unless you check Keep Tempo.
Build your rhythm. Turn squares on or off in the 16-step drum grid. Try different drum kits, then change the chords, bass pattern, and synth sounds. Use the Mixer to balance each part.
Add your melody. Play the onscreen piano or the letter keys shown above it. Turn on Record lead to capture your notes in the repeating eight-bar loop. You can also steer with the arrow keys and collect pickups that change parts of the beat.
Save or share it. Export WAV downloads the complete loop. Export stems downloads its separate instruments. Share mix creates a playable link and lets you submit your creation to ButtonBass Community Mixes.
Four styles, fresh musical ideas
Midnight Cruise is warm and relaxed. Arcade Sunset is bright and bouncy. Cyber Chase brings energetic drums and intense synths. After Hours leaves room for slower, spacious sounds. These buttons generate variations within a style, so you can keep exploring instead of replaying one fixed song. Use Random Mix to explore more combinations, and check the Keep boxes to hold onto parts you like.
Questions about Synthwave Maker
Is Synthwave Maker free?
Yes. Making beats, playing the synth, and downloading WAV files or stems are free. You do not need an account or an app installation. Use a browser with JavaScript enabled, then press Start driving or Random Mix to hear your music.
Can I play my own synth melody instead of the automatic pattern?
Yes. Set Melody to Off and play the onscreen piano or the letter keys shown above it. If you already recorded a lead, press Clear to remove that recording. You can also set Arpeggiator to Off or mute Chords and Bass in the Mixer to leave more room. Keep Lead unmuted so you can hear your keys. Turn on Record lead when you want your playing to repeat and appear in exports.
What is the difference between a WAV and stems?
Export WAV saves your whole eight-bar mix as one audio file. Export stems saves a ZIP containing nine WAV files: kick, snare, clap, hats, percussion, bass, chords, arpeggio, and lead. Each starts together and has the same length, ready to line up in a music editor. Muted or unused parts produce silent stems. Exports include recorded notes, but do not capture your entire driving session.
Will refreshing the page erase my beat?
Your latest work saves automatically in this browser when browser storage is available. Returning on the same browser keeps your saved mix instead of generating a new starting beat. Clearing site data, using a different device, or ending a private browsing session can remove access to that save. Copy a Share mix link to reopen the musical settings later, and export a WAV when you want an audio copy.
Does everyone start with the same beat?
New visitors receive freshly generated starting mixes. Each drive style has its own character, and Random Mix combines more musical choices. This gives you many starting points, although some combinations may be similar. Editing drum steps, changing sounds, and recording your own melody help make a beat your own.
You are making the soundtrack for a nighttime drive. Build your music from small parts, like building with blocks. You do not need to read music to begin.
Start with a sound you like
Choose a Pick a drive style to make a fresh mix with that mood. Choose it again for another idea. Then press Start driving to hear it. A mix is all the musical parts playing together.
Learn three useful music words
A beat is the steady pulse you can tap your foot to. A bar is a small group of beats; this app uses four beats in each bar. A loop plays the same stretch of music again and again. Your Synthwave Maker loop lasts eight bars.
Build your own version
The Drum machine makes the rhythm. The Synth section adds low bass notes, groups of notes called chords, and tunes called melodies. The Mixer lets you decide how loud each part should be.
Random Mix picks a new combination for you. The Keep boxes let you save parts you already like while the other parts change.
Drive to change the music
While the music plays, use the arrow keys to steer and change speed. Glowing pickups can appear on the road. Driving over one changes a part of your music. Use the question mark beside the driving controls to learn each pickup.
Try things, then use Undo
Undo, beside the Drum machine, brings back an earlier version of your music. Press it again to step back through more edits. A faded button means that action is not ready yet, such as Undo before you have changed anything.
Keep your music or explore another instrument
This browser usually remembers your latest mix on this device. Export WAV downloads a music file you can keep or share. The ButtonBass logo takes you home. Use Explore or the categories at the top to find another instrument, or scroll to the All instruments catalog below the studio. Music can keep playing while you browse; driving and piano keys wait while the menu is open.
The road is a way to play with your music. You are looking out from the car. The glowing brackets near the bottom show where to line up a pickup.
← and →: steer
First press Start driving. Hold the left arrow to move toward the left lane, or the right arrow to move toward the right lane. Let go to stay in that position. You can also hold the arrow buttons on the screen with a finger or mouse.
The little marker below the driving hint shows your position across the road. There is no crash penalty for missing a pickup.
↑ and ↓: change speed and tempo
Hold the up arrow to speed up, or the down arrow to slow down. MPH means miles per hour, the car's pretend speed. BPM means beats per minute, the music's speed. Here they share the same number: 100 MPH is also 100 BPM.
The range is 75–400. Faster driving makes the music faster too. Let go to keep that speed. Arrow keys inside a number box or slider still control that box or slider.
Curves and hills
The road gently bends left and right, climbs hills, and dips into valleys. Your car follows the bends for you. Use the left and right arrows to choose your place across the three lanes. The lights, signs, and glowing tiles all follow the road.
A hill can hide a tile on the road, but its glowing letter stays above the hill so you can see which lane to aim for. The tile comes back into view as you get closer. You can slow down to give yourself more time, or turn Motion off to keep listening with the road still.
Reset drive
This puts you back in the center lane and returns to the style's usual cruising speed: 100 for Midnight Cruise, 112 for Arcade Sunset, 128 for Cyber Chase, or 88 for After Hours. It also clears approaching pickups and any pickup change still waiting to happen. It keeps your current musical patterns instead of generating another mix.
Pickups: auto, on and off
Auto waits until you first use the driving arrows or on-screen driving buttons. Then pickups turn on. You can also tap Pickups to turn them on or off yourself. After you choose off, steering will not switch them back on.
Steer so the center of a glowing tile passes between the brackets. A collected tile changes the music on the next beat. A missed tile makes no change. Undo can bring back the music from before a collected change.
What each pickup does
D · Drum Flip: picks a different drum rhythm and drum kit.
B · Bass Swap: changes the pattern of the low bass notes.
A · Arp Run: changes the line of notes that plays one note at a time.
M · New Melody: picks a new tune. If you have recorded a lead, or are recording one, it changes the synth sound instead and keeps your notes.
S · Synth Shift: gives the synth parts a different sound, like changing which instruments play them.
FX · Space Warp: changes how much echo and roomy sound you hear.
Pickups keep your tempo and musical key. Parts you muted stay muted.
Motion
Motion off stops the moving road and pickups while the music can keep playing. Turn Motion on to drive again. Some devices ask for less animation, so the app may start with Motion off.
Pausing the track or leaving this browser tab pauses the drive. Pausing, restarting, or turning Motion off also cancels a pickup change that has not happened yet.
These controls decide when your loop plays and how fast it goes. You can change your music while it is playing.
Start driving / Pause drive
Start driving plays the music and starts the road when Motion is on. The same button then says Pause drive. Press it to stop playback without deleting your mix. Press Start driving again to continue.
↺: restart
The curved arrow returns the music to bar one, the beginning of the loop. If the music is playing, it starts over right away. If it is paused, it waits at the beginning until you press Start driving. This is different from Reset drive, which recenters the car and resets its speed.
Tempo / BPM
Tempo means how fast the steady beat goes. BPM stands for beats per minute. A bigger number makes the same rhythm happen faster. Type a number, then press Enter or click outside the box to use it. You can also use the small arrows in the number box.
Choose from 75 to 400 BPM. The car's MPH changes to match. Changing speed does not choose new notes; it changes how quickly the music plays them.
Position and the little lights
01 / 08 means you are in the first of eight bars. The four little lights count the beats in the current bar. After bar eight, the music loops back to bar one. These are displays to watch, not buttons to press.
Volume
On wider screens, the Volume slider changes the loudness of the whole mix. Move it left for quieter music and right for louder music. The Mixer sliders let you change just one part. If you hear nothing, check the volume, the mute buttons, and your device's sound.
The Space key
Press the computer's Space key to play or pause when you are not editing a box or using another button. When a button has keyboard focus, Space presses that button instead. While help is open, Space and the arrows work with help instead of playing or steering.
Export means turning your mix into a file that you can keep outside this app. You can download one finished mix or its separate musical parts.
Export WAV: one complete music file
This downloads the whole eight-bar loop as one WAV audio file. WAV is a common kind of music file. Your drum pattern, synths, effects, and generated or recorded melody are included.
The file uses the tempo you chose. It is the eight-bar loop, not a recording of your whole driving session. Notes you only previewed on the piano or chord pads are not added to the file.
Export stems: separate musical parts
A stem is one musical part saved on its own. Imagine a sandwich with each ingredient in a separate container, ready to put together again.
This button downloads a ZIP, a package holding nine WAV files: kick, snare, clap, hats, percussion, bass, chords, arpeggio, and lead. Open the ZIP to get the files. They all start at the same musical moment and have the same length, so you can line them up in another music editor.
Muted parts and sound levels
Downloads use your sound levels. A muted or unused part makes a silent stem. If you want to hear that part in the file, turn it back on before exporting. The finished mix has a little extra sound balancing, so combining the stems yourself may sound slightly different.
Wait, or cancel
The app needs a little time to make the audio. The export button changes into a Cancel button and shows progress. Press it again if you want to stop making the download. Cancelling does not erase your mix.
You can keep experimenting
The download uses a copy of your music from the moment you pressed Export. Changes you make afterward belong to your next download. A pickup still waiting for the next beat is not part of the mix until its change has happened.
Share mix and Community Mixes
Share mix makes a playable link for the eight-bar loop you have right now. It includes your drum steps, synth choices, speed, sound levels, effects, and recorded melody. Driving moves are not a recorded video; the link opens the music settings you shared.
Give your mix a name, then choose Submit to Community Mixes to put it on ButtonBass for everyone to play. Copy Link copies the link so you can send it yourself. Share… opens your device's sharing choices when available. Close returns to the studio. Opening the window alone does not post anything.
Someone opening your link sees a Play mix button in the middle of the screen. Pressing it starts the shared beat from the beginning. Their saved work stays unchanged until they edit the shared mix or choose New mix. Escape closes the prompt so they can look around before playing.
New mix
New mix stops playback and creates a fresh beat in the current drive style. It clears recorded lead notes and the Keep boxes, ready for a new idea. Press Start driving to listen. This is different from Random Mix, which follows your Keep boxes and starts playing immediately. If you change your mind, Undo brings the previous beat back.
A style is a musical mood, like relaxed or energetic. Each Pick a drive button makes a fresh mix of drums, chords, synth patterns, and effects that fit its mood. Press the same button again for another version. These are starting ideas you can change, rather than four fixed songs.
Midnight Cruise · warm and relaxed
Soft synth sounds, warm chords, and an easy rhythm. It starts between 92 and 108 BPM. Try this when you want room to hear how the instruments fit together.
Arcade Sunset · bright and bouncy
Brighter sounds, playful melodies, and bass notes that bounce around the beat. It starts between 110 and 124 BPM. Imagine a soundtrack for an arcade game at sunset.
Cyber Chase · energetic and intense
Busy drums, driving bass, and strong synth sounds. It starts between 128 and 152 BPM, with a high intensity setting. Try this for an exciting chase soundtrack.
After Hours · slow and spacious
Fewer notes, long gentle chords, softer drums, and more echo. It starts between 75 and 90 BPM. There is plenty of room to add a simple melody of your own.
What changes when you choose one?
Choosing a style makes a new mix, replacing the current musical settings and clearing a lead you recorded. Undo can bring your previous mix and recorded notes back. Your overall Volume setting is kept. The numbers beside the buttons show each style's starting tempo range. After choosing, you can change any control, including tempo all the way up to 400.
What happens when I come back?
Your first visit starts with a fresh Midnight Cruise mix. Other visitors get their own randomly chosen starting mixes. This gives people many different ideas, though two mixes can still happen to be similar.
This browser saves your latest work on this device, including changes you make and notes you record. Refreshing or coming back restores that work instead of making another mix. Using a different browser or device, clearing browser storage, or blocking saving means that saved mix may not be available. Export a WAV or stems when you want a music file to keep.
How is this different from Random Mix?
Style buttons make complete fresh mixes within their musical mood. Random Mix explores the wider collection of sounds and follows the Keep boxes. It also preserves your recorded lead and its chords. The Keep boxes apply to Random Mix, so they do not stop a style button from making a complete new starting mix.
Random Mix is a musical idea button. It combines drum grooves, chords, bass patterns, arpeggios, melodies, synth sounds, and effects into a fresh mix.
Random Mix
Press it once to try a new combination. If the music is paused, your new mix starts playing right away. If music is already playing, it switches to the new mix. Press it again for another idea. It uses the Keep boxes to decide which parts to leave alone. It keeps the current drive name while exploring the full collection of sounds, so the result can move beyond that style's usual mood.
Keep Drums
Check this box when you like your drum rhythm. Random Mix keeps the drum pattern, kit, swing, and settings that control its drum fills, while it changes the other musical parts. Uncheck it when you want new drums too.
Keep Chords
A chord is a group of notes played together. Check this box to keep the musical key, the order of the chords, and their rhythm. Bass patterns, arpeggios, melodies, and synth sounds can still change around those chords.
Keep Tempo
Check this box to keep the same BPM and MPH while you try new sounds. It starts unchecked, so Random Mix chooses a tempo from 75 to 185 BPM. The MPH number follows the same speed. Check it to keep a tempo you like, including one you set yourself up to 400 BPM.
What about a lead I recorded?
Random Mix keeps your recorded notes and the key and chord progression that go with them, even if Keep Chords is unchecked. It stops lead recording before making the new mix. You can listen to your tune with new backing sounds.
The Mix label and Undo
The short Mix label helps identify the generated version. It is a label, not a button. If you liked the earlier result better, press Undo beside the Drum machine. You can press Undo more than once to go back through earlier edits.
The drum grid is a little musical timetable. A bright square tells a drum when to make a sound. A dark square tells it to wait.
The five drum rows
Kick is the low thump. Snare is the sharper smack. Clap sounds like clapping hands. Hats are short, ticking sounds. Perc, short for percussion, adds extra taps and accents.
Press a row's name to mute it, which makes it quiet without erasing its squares. Press the name again to hear it.
The 16 step buttons
Tap a square to switch that hit on or off. The moving highlight shows where the music is now. There are four small steps inside each beat, and sixteen steps make one bar.
Several rows can play at the same time. While paused, switching a square on previews its drum, unless that row is muted. On a small screen, swipe the grid sideways to reach the other steps.
Groove
A groove is a ready-made drum rhythm. Pick one from the menu to replace the grid with that rhythm. You can edit its squares afterward. Changing Groove changes where the hits happen.
Drum kit
A kit is a set of drum sounds. Try Classic machine, Gated eighties, Tight electro, or Dusty tape. Your squares stay in place; the drum sounds change, like giving the same rhythm to a different drummer's kit.
↻ Remix
This makes another drum idea, including a groove variation, kit, and swing choice. Your synth patterns and tempo stay the same. This button is specifically for changing drums; the Keep Drums box beside Random Mix does not stop this drum-only Remix button.
Swing
Swing makes the timing less evenly spaced. At 0%, the small steps are even. Move the slider right and every second step waits a little longer, making a loping or bouncy feel. The main BPM stays the same.
Undo and the eight-bar arrangement
Undo can undo musical edits from across the app, not just drum edits. The grid shows the base drum pattern. Some Arrangement choices add little drum changes called fills as the eight-bar loop plays, so you may hear extra movement.
A synthesizer, or synth, makes musical sounds electronically. This section builds the pitched parts of your mix: low bass, chords, and tunes.
Key
The musical key is like a home for the notes. Choosing a key moves the music's notes together while keeping their relationships. Synthwave Maker offers twelve minor keys. A lead you recorded also moves with a key change.
Chord progression
A chord is several notes played together. A progression is the order those groups play in. Choose a progression to change the musical journey. The Roman numbers in the names describe chords in that key; you can just use the names and your ears.
The four chord pads
Tap a pad to hear its chord. Each pad covers two bars of the eight-bar loop, and the highlight shows the current chord. Tapping previews the sound; it does not record that tap or replace the progression.
Bass pattern
Bass is the low part you can often feel as well as hear. This menu changes when its notes play and how they move. Try Slow heartbeat for more space or Driving sixteenths for lots of quick notes.
Arpeggiator
An arpeggio takes notes from a chord and plays them one at a time, like stepping on a staircase. The arpeggiator makes that pattern for you. Choose a style to change its movement, or choose Off to leave it out.
Chord rhythm
This changes when the chords sound and how long they last. Long pads hold notes out. Short stabs play quick bursts. You keep the chord progression but give it a different rhythm.
Synth palette
A palette is a collection of sounds. Classic analog, Crystal glass, Dark pulse, and Soft focus give the bass, chords, arp, and lead different voices. Think of the same tune played by different instruments.
Melody
A melody is a tune you could hum. Choose one to let the app make a lead tune, or choose Off for no generated tune. If you have recorded your own lead, this menu is faded because your notes take its place. Use Clear in Play the lead when you want generated melodies again.
Arrangement
An arrangement decides how the parts behave across the eight bars. Steady loop stays more consistent. Evolving A / B adds changes and answering phrases later in the loop. Intro, break & lift makes lighter and fuller moments. An empty or muted drum row stays silent.
↻ Remix synths
This picks new synth ideas while keeping the drums and tempo. It can change bass, arps, melodies, voices, and effects. Check Keep Chords near Random Mix to preserve the key and chords. Recorded lead notes and their key and chord progression are kept too.
The lead is a tune that sits on top of the backing music. These piano keys let you make that tune yourself.
Play the piano keys
Tap or hold a key on the screen to play a note. Higher notes are farther to the right. You can also use the computer letters shown on the keys: A W S E D F T G Y H U J K. The letters are playing shortcuts, not the names of the musical notes.
Hold a key for a longer sound and let go to release it. You can play more than one note together. With keyboard navigation, focus a piano key and use Enter or Space to play it.
Playing versus recording
Playing the keys lets you try ideas right away. Those preview notes do not automatically join the repeating loop or the download. Turn on Record lead when you want the app to remember them.
● Record lead / ● Recording
Press Record lead and play some notes. The track starts if it was paused, and the button changes to Recording. Your notes are placed on the loop's small steps so they can repeat with the beat.
Press Recording again to finish. Your tune now repeats with the track and is included in WAV and stem exports. This records the piano keys inside the app; it does not record your voice through a microphone.
Add more notes
Recording again adds notes to the lead you already made. It does not automatically erase the first take. This is called overdubbing, which means adding another layer. Use just a few notes at first so you can hear each layer clearly.
Clear and Undo
Clear removes your recorded lead. It does not remove the drums, bass, chords, or arp. The button is faded when there is no recorded lead to clear. After clearing, the Melody menu can make a tune for you again.
If you cleared something you wanted, press Undo beside the Drum machine. Choosing a Pick a drive style also clears a recorded lead; Random Mix keeps it.
If you cannot hear the lead
Check that Lead in the Mixer is not muted and its slider is above zero. Check the overall volume too. While a help window is open, the piano shortcuts wait so typing and reading do not play notes by accident.
These sliders shape the feel and color of your music. An effect changes the way a sound reaches your ears.
Cruise → Chase / Drive intensity
Move toward Cruise for a gentler feel. Move toward Chase for a bolder sound, more active arpeggios and fills, and a stronger pulsing feel around the chords. The number shows the amount from 0% to 100%.
Intensity is different from tempo. Intensity changes how energetic the music feels; tempo changes how fast its beat goes. This slider does not change your BPM or MPH.
Space
Space adds echoes and a roomy trail to sounds. At 0%, these effects are off: you hear the instruments without added echoes. Move right to hear more room around the snare, clap, and synths. High settings make the synth echoes louder and repeat for longer, like calling into a big hall. Very high settings can make notes blend together.
The kick and bass stay clear and punchy, so Space will not change them when they are the only parts playing. Try it with the chords, arpeggio, or piano keys. Changes work while music is playing, and your Space setting is included in WAV and stem exports.
Tone
Tone changes how bright the synth sounds are. Move left for a softer, darker sound. Move right for a brighter, sharper sound. It changes the sound's color, rather than choosing a new tune.
The words and percentages
Words like Cruising and In pursuit describe the intensity setting. They are labels, not extra buttons. The large road caption hides while pickups are on to keep the view clear, but this panel still lets you change intensity.
Imagine each musical part as a person in a band. The Mixer helps each person be heard without everyone being equally loud.
The five mixer groups
Drums controls the kick, snare, clap, hats, and percussion together. Bass controls the low notes. Chords controls groups of notes. Arp controls the one-note-at-a-time pattern. Lead controls your recorded tune or the app's generated melody.
Press an instrument name to mute it
Mute means making a part quiet without deleting it. Press its name again to bring it back. The Drums name controls all five drum rows together. To mute only the kick or hats, use that row's name in the Drum machine.
Move a slider to set its level
Left means quieter; right means louder. Zero means no sound from that group. The number beside the slider shows its setting. Turning up a muted part's slider does not unmute it, so press its name too if you want to hear it again.
The Drums slider adjusts all the drum sounds together. It does not move or erase squares in your drum grid.
Output, Live and Stereo
The moving Output bar shows sound activity. Live means the track is playing; Idle means it is stopped. These are displays, not buttons. Stereo means the sound has left and right sides, which can make the mix feel wider.
Your balance goes into the download
WAV and stem exports use these levels and mute choices. A muted or unused part will be silent in its stem. To hear a part on its own, temporarily mute the other groups. Use Undo if you want to step back through your mixer changes.