The problem
A webcam can turn movement into sound with little setup. The trouble is that small hand corrections can trigger several rapid changes, and no two camera setups behave exactly alike. Better tracking helps, but it cannot keep every hand still.
The product decision
Gesture Synth uses a small vocabulary and a fixed musical boundary. One to five fingers choose chord degrees I to V. A confirmed gesture waits for the next beat. The four-bar challenge has a clear end, and the result breaks the run into Match, Timing, and Stability.
What stays simple
Local play, optional camera input, a short challenge, and files you can keep all serve the same task. Gesture Synth leaves out large instrument libraries, multiplayer rooms, account feeds, AI conductors, and a full browser DAW.
How the site earns trust
Camera access begins after a click. Mouse, touch, and keyboard fallbacks complete the same flow. The interface separates Target, Playing, and Next so delayed musical behavior is visible rather than disguised. Browser limitations are handled at the point of failure, with MIDI as a fallback when local video capture is not available.
Current scope
This release focuses on a one-hand chord instrument, three sound characters, major, minor, and pentatonic mappings, an I–V–IV–V challenge, local WebM capture where supported, and standard MIDI export. Two-hand harmony, custom mappings, long recordings, and DAW control are not part of this release.