Azevedo, WertherBidarra, José2017-10-032017-10-032017-09-06Azevedo, Werther; Bidarra, José - Blendwave: a sound design tool for audiovisual authors. In Artech 2017. International Conference on Digital Arts, 8, Macau, 2017 - "Interfaces of Tomorrow [Em linha]: proceedings". Editado por Carlos Caires [et al.]. [S.l.]: ACM, 2017. ISBN 978-1-4503-5273-4. p. 153-156978-1-4503-5273-4http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/6653Comunicação publicada nas atas da 8th International Conference on Digital Arts – ARTECH 2017, realizada em Macau de 6-8 de setembro de 2017This paper presents Blendwave, an online sound design application inspired by the ease of use of samplers and the “sfxr family” of sound creation software. Starting from the hypothesis where current software tools have made the creation of sound inaccessible for non-specialist users, we analyze the problems with the musical bias ingrained in DAWs and Patchers, the standard sound design tools. After identifying the Web Audio API as an appropriate technological backbone for an accessible tool, recent online applications are surveyed, followed by popular software used in a rapid prototyping scenario. By acknowledging the merits and shortcomings of these sound creators, we present Blendwave, the byproduct of a practice-based research and development effort towards democratizing sound design as a rapid prototyping activity for audiovisual authors. The idea of a sampler architecture is proposed as a way to augment the sound possibilities of sfxr-based tools while keeping their simplicity. Finally, we report on the current state of development and outline the next steps.engSound designSound effectsCreativity support toolsWeb audioSamplersPractice-based researchconference object10.1145/3106548.3106596