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Introducing NKIDO

· by mlaass

NKIDO is a new open-source audio synthesis platform: a pattern-language front-end named Akkado, a graph-based DSP engine named Cedar, and a web IDE that lets you live-code both. It runs in the browser, on desktop, inside Godot games, and on the ESP32-A1S Audio Kit.

Why another audio system?

There are great live-coding environments (Strudel, TidalCycles, SuperCollider) and great DSP graphs (Pure Data, Csound). NKIDO’s bet is that these two worlds belong together in one runtime, and that the runtime should be small enough to embed anywhere, not just on a laptop.

What’s in v1

  • 95+ DSP opcodes: oscillators, filters, delays, reverbs, granular, Karplus-Strong, vocoder, bitcrusher. The usual arsenal.
  • Hot-swap with preserved state: edit while it plays, no clicks. See how it works.
  • Web IDE at live.nkido.cc: full browser-native development with WASM + AudioWorklet.
  • Godot 4.x addon: embed NKIDO in games. Install instructions.
  • ESP32 port: ~146 KB stripped binary, real-time audio on a $30 board. Build and flash guide.

Try it now

The fastest way to get a feel for NKIDO is the 5-minute Hello Sine tutorial. No install, just a browser.

What’s next

v1 is a starting point. The roadmap includes a proper docs site, a published plugin format for Cedar, MIDI + OSC bridges, and a real-time collaboration mode for the web IDE. Issues and PRs welcome on GitHub.

MIT licensed. If it’s useful to you, consider sponsoring.