BeepBox
STATION-01 · saved to url
Open
Station-01 Free chiptune sketcher

Tiny songs.
Tiny URLs.

BeepBox is a free, open-source, browser-based chiptune sketcher. Compose with square, triangle, sawtooth, FM, and noise channels. Your whole song lives in the URL — copy the link, paste it anywhere, the song is there. No accounts, no uploads, no install.

Open the box See it work
Browser-based Open-source · MIT Saves to URL Works offline
Stages I–III From silence to song URL

Three stages.
One shareable link.

BeepBox is built around the smallest possible loop: place notes, hear them, share the URL. Nothing in between.

STAGE · 01PLACE
01

Click the grid.

Add notes by clicking the pattern grid. Square, triangle, sawtooth, FM, noise — each waveform is its own channel. The player auto-loops what you've placed, so you hear changes as you make them.

STAGE · 02SHAPE
02

Tune the box.

Set tempo, key, scale, rhythm, volume per channel. Sequence patterns into a song with the pattern matrix. Bend, vibrato, harmony, FM operators — all of it lives in plain controls, no menus deep.

STAGE · 03SHARE
03

Copy the URL.

The song data is encoded in the URL hash. Copy the address bar, paste it anywhere — Discord, email, a forum post — and whoever opens it hears the song instantly. Or download as WAV.

Stage IV Signature capability

The whole song
is in the URL.

BeepBox encodes the entire composition — notes, instruments, patterns, tempo, scale — into the URL fragment. There is no server-side save, no database, no account. The URL is the song. That choice is the heart of how BeepBox shares ideas.

  • No accounts — nothing to sign up for, nothing tied to an email, nothing waiting to expire if a server goes dark.
  • Instant share — paste the URL into Discord, Slack, email, a forum, a tweet. Whoever clicks it lands inside your song.
  • Forks for free — anyone who opens the URL can edit the song in their browser. Saving creates a new URL — the original is untouched.
  • Lose the URL, lose the song — the honest catch. Bookmark every iteration you care about. Once the link is gone, nothing on a server recovers it.
Open the box
SONG ENCODEDREADY TO SHARE
URL beepbox.co/#9n31s0k0l00e03t2a7g0fj7i0r1o3210T1v1L4... COPY
Song bytes
312 B
Patterns
08 / 32
NO ACCOUNT · NO UPLOAD PASTE ANYWHERE ↗
Operators Who runs the box

Four kinds
of chiptuners.

BeepBox is small on purpose. It collects four kinds of people who didn't need a DAW for what they wanted to make.

001
GD

Indie game devs

Sketch level themes, battle cues, menu loops without leaving the browser. Drop the WAV into Unity, or just keep the URL in the design doc as a placeholder.

002
CT

Chiptune artists

The full-time NES/Game-Boy crowd uses BeepBox for fast melodic sketching before porting to FamiTracker, Deflemask, or LSDJ. The URL trick makes peer feedback cheap.

003
ED

Educators & students

Sound-design classes use BeepBox to demo waveforms (square, triangle, sawtooth, noise) and additive ideas in a visual, tappable tool. Homework lives in a link.

004
HB

Hobbyists curious

No DAW, no theory background, no setup. People who hear an 8-bit melody in their head and want to bash it out before lunch. The on-ramp is one tab.

Patch bay What's wired in

The full kit.

Everything in BeepBox lives one click from the song. No hidden menus, no upgrade pop-ups.

§ 1 · Waveforms

Four families of bleep.

Each channel speaks its own waveform language — square chip, triangle smooth, sawtooth bright, noise/FM for percussion and texture. Mix and match per pattern.

SQR
TRI
SAW
NOI
§ 2 · WAV export

Bounce to WAV.

Need audio not a URL? Hit export, get a clean WAV for your DAW, game engine, or video editor. No watermarks.

§ 3 · JSON song data

Plain data.
Plain text.

Songs export as JSON, so you can version-control them, diff edits, or programmatically generate variations from your own scripts.

§ 4 · Offline mode

Works in
a tunnel.

Download the offline build and BeepBox runs without an internet connection. Same URL-encoded songs, no server round-trip.

§ 5 · Pattern matrix

Arrange
by number.

Sequence small repeating patterns into a full song using numbered cells. Reorder, duplicate, or branch by swapping pattern numbers in the matrix.

§ 6 · Active mod family

Whole forks
built on it.

Want more channels, more operators, sample import, custom waveforms? The open-source community has built dozens of mods on top of BeepBox — JummBox, GoldBox, ModBox, UltraBox — each pushing the limits without forking the project's spirit.

BeepBoxJummBoxGoldBoxModBoxUltraBoxSynthBoxSandBox+ more
Specimens Honest comparison

Where BeepBox
fits — honestly.

BeepBox is for sketches. A full DAW will always do more. A purpose-built tracker will always do chiptune deeper. Here's where BeepBox is the right tool, and where it isn't.

BeepBox FamiTracker Suno Ableton Lite Splice loops
Song lives in a URL Yes — signature No · .ftm file Account only Project file Subscription
No install · in browser Yes Windows install Yes Install Web + app
Open-source (MIT) Yes Yes No No No
Realistic acoustic instruments Chiptune only NES chip only Yes — its job Plugin-based Sample-based
Deep NES / Famicom emulation Inspired, not strict Hardware-accurate No No No
Cost Free Free Subscription Bundled Subscription
Honest: BeepBox is a chiptune sketching tool, not a full DAW or a hardware-accurate tracker. If you're shipping a Famicom homebrew cartridge, use FamiTracker for the strict NES register limits. If you want vocals and arranged production, use Suno or a real DAW. BeepBox wins when you want a melody idea down in five minutes and shared in five seconds — which is most of the time.
Field log What operators report

Three takes,
one mixed review.

From game-dev Discords and chiptune forums. The 4-star one is in on purpose.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 001

"Pasted a BeepBox URL into our game-jam Discord. Twenty people opened it, six remixed it, two of those landed in the final build's menu music."

P
Paige R.Game dev · Seattle
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 002

"Great for sketching, but it's not FamiTracker. If you want strict 2A03 register accuracy for a Famicom cart, BeepBox isn't your tool."

O
Otto K.Chiptune · Tokyo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 003

"I teach intro sound-design. Students send me URLs as homework. I open every one in one tab. I have never had a smoother grading day."

J
Janelle M.Educator · Austin
Provenance Origin log

A passion project
that grew a mod scene.

BeepBox was built by John Nesky, a game-audio engineer and longtime chiptune enthusiast, as a small browser tool for sketching 8-bit melodies. The product's design philosophy is straight from its first commit: keep the surface area tiny, encode everything into the URL, and never lock anyone out of editing.

The full source has been open-source under the MIT license from early on, which is why a community of forks formed around it. JummBox added more channels and operators. ModBox expanded the instrument set. GoldBox layered in custom waveforms. UltraBox consolidates features from 30+ mods — 6-operator FM synthesis, 32 channels, custom samples. The mods don't replace BeepBox; they prove what a small, well-architected sketch tool can become.

What we'd flag honestly: BeepBox is for sketches. The chiptune palette (square, triangle, sawtooth, noise, FM) is the whole instrumentarium — you won't make realistic strings or vocals here. There's no cloud account, so the URL is the only persistence layer. Lose the URL, lose the song. And while the project is alive, development cadence is dictated by Nesky's own time — this isn't a startup with VC pressure to ship daily.

For the official editor, the offline build, and the full mod directory, see beepbox.co.

STATION LOGOp. 8-BIT
AuthorJohn Nesky
LicenseMIT · open-source
PlatformBrowser + offline
WaveformsSQR · TRI · SAW · NOI · FM
PersistenceURL hash
ExportWAV · JSON
CostFree
Mods active30+ forks
Notable modsJummBox · UltraBox · ModBox
Commercial useYes (MIT permits)
Caller queries Frequently asked

Things people
actually ask.

What exactly is BeepBox?
BeepBox is a free, open-source, browser-based tool for sketching chiptune melodies. Click cells in a pattern grid to place notes across square, triangle, sawtooth, FM, and noise channels. The player auto-loops what you've placed, so you hear changes as you make them. Sequence patterns into a full song with the pattern matrix, then share the result by copying the URL.
How does saving really work?
BeepBox encodes the entire song — notes, instruments, patterns, tempo, scale, key, volume — into the URL hash (the part after the #). When you make changes, the URL updates in your address bar. To save, you bookmark or copy the URL. To share, paste the URL anywhere. To recover, open the URL. There is no server-side storage, no account, no cloud. The URL is the song.
What happens if I lose the URL?
You lose the song. This is the honest catch of URL-based persistence — there is no server to recover from. The mitigation is habitual: bookmark every iteration you care about, copy the URL into a notes file, or export to WAV/JSON for offline backup. For most users sketching ideas, this is a feature (no cloud lock-in) not a bug.
Can I export to WAV or MIDI?
WAV: yes — the export menu renders your song to standard WAV for use in any DAW, video editor, or game engine. JSON: yes — the song data exports as plain JSON, so you can version-control compositions, diff edits, or generate variations programmatically. MIDI: BeepBox's main editor doesn't export MIDI directly; some community mods (notably UltraBox and JummBox) add MIDI export.
Can I make realistic instruments?
No, by design. BeepBox is a chiptune tool — the instrumentarium is square, triangle, sawtooth, noise, and FM synthesis. Those waveforms produce 8-bit-style sounds, not realistic strings, vocals, or acoustic instruments. If you need realistic instrumentation, BeepBox isn't the tool; use a sample-based DAW or a service like Suno. BeepBox is for melodies and sketches in retro tone.
Is there an offline version?
Yes — there's a downloadable offline build that runs locally without an internet connection. Same URL-encoded songs (the hash trick works whether the file is online or local). Useful for plane rides, classroom labs without WiFi, or just keeping the tool around long-term independent of the hosted version.
Can I use BeepBox songs commercially?
Yes. BeepBox itself is MIT-licensed (so the tool is free for any use, including commercial), and songs you create with it are yours — there's no per-stream royalty or commercial-use fee. Use BeepBox output in games, videos, sync, content, or release on streaming platforms.
What's the difference between BeepBox and JummBox, UltraBox, GoldBox?
JummBox, ModBox, GoldBox, UltraBox, SynthBox, SandBox — all are open-source mods built on top of BeepBox's codebase, each adding features the original doesn't include. JummBox is a popular extended fork. UltraBox consolidates features from 30+ mods (6-op FM, 32 channels, custom samples). BeepBox itself stays small and focused. Try BeepBox first; graduate to a mod when you hit a wall.
Who built it? Why?
BeepBox was created by John Nesky, a game-audio engineer, as a passion project. The design choices — tiny surface area, URL-encoded persistence, open-source — follow from his stated goal of building the simplest possible chiptune sketcher. Development is donation-supported; the tool will always be free to use.
Coda Press play

Open the box.
Write a bleep.

Free, open-source, browser-based. No account, no install, no upsell. Place notes, hear them, copy the URL.

Open the box Get offline build
Browser · open-source · MIT · 5 waveforms · saves to URL · works offline