ADC Japan 2026
If you came here from my ADC Japan talk or you are watching the recording later, here are the links I mentioned.
Talk links and resources
ADC Japan - June 3, 2026.
Apps
Open source
- elementary-audio-kit - React components for musical ideas (npm)
- obsidian-elementary-audio - playable instruments in markdown
Socials
- @its_txbrown on X
- @txbrown__ on Instagram
- Ricardo Abreu on LinkedIn
- @txbrown on GitHub
- @yonkolevel on GitHub
More
Earlier this year, I found out that the Audio Developer Conference would be held in Japan for the first time. I applied to speak and got a place. I was already planning to go to Japan - for the third time - so this felt like a very justified reason to make the trip. I decided to talk about something I had been delving into and that had been working really well for me: building interactive music apps with elementary-audio across different platforms, using technologies such as React and React Native.
The Hackathon
The first day was dedicated to a hackathon. We started by meeting in one room and socialising. After a while, the organisers ran a brainstorming session so we could draft ideas for things to hack on. I joined Ted Barram - an engineer with 20+ years at Avid, where he worked on Pro Tools, and now at PACE - to build a synthesis-based instrument on top of an old project he had started called GlidePath.
We decided to build on what I had learned about how quickly elementary-audio lets you create audio apps, combining that with LLMs like Claude and Codex.
This is how GlidePath looked before we started hacking on it.
This is how GlidePath looked after.
The first version had something magical about it. I think the project could be improved by simplifying the controls and bringing back more of the original gravitational animations.
It was really cool to see what everyone built by the end of the day.
One thing I noticed during the hackathon was how much AI enabled everyone to get started building faster. It freed up time to learn from long-time industry experts, have deep conversations, and get to know each other.
The People
The key highlight of ADC - and perhaps of any conference - is the people, and ADC delivered.
The first interaction I had on arrival was Amu letting me know he had been following my work for the last six years or so. Back then, he wasn't an audio engineer; now he is one, and living in Japan. I truly live for these moments. I was so happy to meet Amu and hope we can connect more in the future, as he's also doing community and education work with audio.
I was once a noob in the audio engineering space too - attending the Audio Programmer meetups in London, watching ADC talks online, getting through countless hours of YouTube videos, and building, building, building. So it feels great to meet people on the same journey years later. My peers.
Another highlight was meeting Marek Bereza, the creator of Koala Sampler. If you're a beatmaker, there's no way you haven't heard of Koala. It's a famous non-linear sampling app with a workflow similar to the legendary SP-404, and it has deep integration with the latest model, the SP-404MKII. It turns out Marek and I live not far from each other - what a surprise! So we exchanged contacts and will meet sometime this summer to talk all things audio and building successful apps in this day and age. I have tonnes of questions for my new sensei.
What's Next
ADC Japan 2026 was the best conference I've been to. Being surrounded by like-minded people - some familiar faces, some people I'd been wanting to meet for a long time - making new friends, and learning just how vast audio engineering knowledge is, and how strong the community is, made it an amazing and inspiring experience.
I'm now planning to attend ADC Bristol - the main conference - and share more of what we do at Yonko Level to elevate music making and music education.
See you soon! またね | Mata ne!