femurdesign.com

Omni and Theremin are two browser-based instruments by Luke Phillips, the design engineer behind femurdesign.com. Omni is a tactile web instrument for playing and learning musical scales from different cultures, built around a pitch constellation, harp, effects, harmonies, and loop recording. Theremin is a multi-touch Web Audio synthesiser, created in 2014, for shaping waveforms, delay, feedback, and scuzz directly in the browser. Both run in the browser and reflect Phillips's stated goal of making complicated musical ideas feel immediate and playable.

Omni: Playing and Learning Scales From Around the World

Omni is described on Femur as "a tactile way to play and learn musical scales from cultures around the world." Its listed components are:

• Pitch constellation — a spatial layout of pitches, rather than a linear keyboard or a list of note names.
• Harp — the primary playing surface.
• Effects — processing applied to the sound.
• Harmonies — additional pitched material layered with what you play.
• Loop recording — capturing a phrase and playing it back.

The design intent is consistent with the rest of Phillips's work: replacing knobs, sliders, menus, numbers, and text with space, colour, movement, and shape. For a learner, the pitch constellation is the part worth paying attention to — it presents scale relationships as positions in space, which is a different mental model from reading note names off a staff or a piano roll.

How to approach it

1. Open Omni in a browser from the Femur site.
2. Start with the harp and a single scale, so the pitch constellation has a clear reference.
3. Add harmonies once the scale layout is familiar.
4. Use loop recording to capture a short phrase and hear it against the effects.

The expected result is that you can play a scale you don't already know by position rather than by name. The common sticking point is treating the constellation as decoration — it is the navigation layer, so it pays to read it before playing.

Theremin: A Multi-Touch Web Audio Synthesiser

Theremin dates to 2014 and is described as "a multi-touch Web Audio synthesiser for shaping waveforms, delay, feedback and scuzz directly in the browser." Its parameters are:

Unlike a physical theremin, which is played by moving hands near antennas without touching anything, this is a multi-touch instrument — you shape the sound through touch on a screen. The name is a reference to the hands-in-air playing style and the continuous, expressive control it implies, not a claim to replicate the hardware.

What to expect when playing

Multi-touch means more than one finger can affect the sound at once, so the instrument rewards gestures rather than single taps. Feedback and scuzz are the parameters most likely to produce extreme or unpleasant results at high settings, so it is worth moving them gradually and keeping output volume moderate while you learn the range. The synthesiser runs on Web Audio, so it needs a browser with Web Audio support and, in most browsers, a tap or click before audio starts — a standard autoplay restriction rather than a fault in the instrument.

How the Two Differ

Both are free-to-open browser instruments by the same author, but they serve different purposes:

• Omni is pitched at learning and playing scales, with structure provided by the pitch constellation and harmonies.
• Theremin is pitched at sound design and expressive touch control, with structure provided by waveform, delay, feedback, and scuzz.

If you want to understand how a scale from another culture is laid out and then play it, Omni is the relevant tool. If you want to shape a raw synth sound with your fingers and push it toward noise, Theremin is the relevant tool. Neither requires installation; both are reached from the Femur site.

Who Made Them and Why It Matters

Luke Phillips describes himself as a software engineer and musician working across music technology, creative tools, and AI, with more than a decade building interactive instruments and learning products — from browser-based synths to cross-platform apps and spatial hand tracking. His stated aim is to build things that make complicated musical ideas feel immediate and playable, with the technology getting out of the way as quickly as possible.

That context explains the design choices in both instruments. Omni's constellation and Theremin's touch-and-gesture control are both attempts to remove the interface layer between a musical intention and the sound, which is the same thread running through his other projects, including Funputs, BlokDust, and his work at ROLI on piano learning and gesture-based sound control.

BlokDust is a free, open-source, browser-based music-making environment created by Luke Phillips in 2015. You build sound by joining blocks together on a canvas — connecting them into synths, voice processors, sample remixes, or self-playing systems. Because it runs in the browser, there is nothing to install: you open it and start patching. It suits anyone curious about modular-style sound design who wants to experiment quickly, rather than producers who need a full DAW for finished tracks.

What BlokDust actually is

BlokDust is best understood as a patchable instrument rather than a recording studio. Its core idea is the block: each block does one job, and you wire blocks together to define how sound flows. That makes it closer to a modular synth or a visual programming tool than to a timeline-based editor.

Key characteristics from the project itself:

• Open source — the code is publicly available, so the tool can be inspected, forked, or extended.
• Browser-based — it runs on the web, with no separate application to download.
• Built around patching — you create systems by joining blocks, not by loading presets alone.
• Created in 2015 by Luke Phillips, a design engineer and musician who builds expressive, accessible music tools.

How to make music with it

The workflow is connection-driven. You place blocks, then route signal between them, and the resulting graph is your instrument.

1. Open it in a browser

Go to the BlokDust site and launch the instrument. There is no install step, which is the main practical advantage — you can start in seconds.

2. Build a sound source

Add blocks that generate or input audio. Depending on what you connect, this can be a synth voice, your own voice through a microphone, or a sample.

3. Process the signal

Chain processing blocks after the source to shape the sound. The project describes processing your voice and remixing samples as core uses, so expect to route audio through effects and transformations rather than just triggering notes.

4. Create a self-playing system

One of the more distinctive things you can do is build systems that play themselves — sequencing and modulation blocks that keep the patch running without you continuously performing it. This is where the block-graph approach pays off: the structure you build becomes the performer.

5. Iterate by rewiring

Because everything is visible as connected blocks, changing the sound usually means changing the connections. Add a block, move a wire, and the behaviour of the whole patch shifts.

What to expect, and where it fits

When BlokDust is the right choice

Choose BlokDust if you want to experiment with sound design and modular patching immediately, without setup, and you enjoy thinking in terms of signal flow. It is a good fit for learning how synthesis and audio routing work, and for quick creative exploration.

Look elsewhere if you need multitrack recording, precise editing, or a conventional production workflow — those are not what a block-patching environment is built for. If you want to see how the same designer approaches playable, expressive instruments, his other browser tools (Omni for scales, Theremin for multi-touch synthesis) are worth exploring alongside it.

Femur (femurdesign.com) is the personal portfolio site of Luke Phillips, a design engineer and musician who builds expressive, accessible music tools across software, hardware, and the web. The site's stated purpose is "making musical things that anyone can play," and it serves as a project index rather than a product or store — you visit it to explore what Phillips has built and to find links out to each instrument or project.

Who is behind the site

Phillips describes himself as a software engineer and musician working across music technology, creative tools, and AI. He notes more than a decade of building interactive instruments and learning products, from browser-based synths to cross-platform apps and spatial hand tracking. His stated design interest is making complicated musical ideas feel immediate and playable, with the technology getting out of the way quickly. His background spans frontend and UX engineering, creative coding, audio, MIDI, and real-time interaction.

What the site showcases

The homepage lists five projects, each with a short description and an outbound link.

Funputs in more detail

Funputs is the most recent project listed (2026). It's a suite of MIDI instruments built around the idea that most music software relies on knobs, sliders, menus, numbers, and text — and that much of that could be replaced with space, colour, movement, and shape. Three named components are described:

• Comet — an expressive XY pad
• Orbit — tunes you to any scale
• Cluster — generates chords

You can control them with a mouse, or pair a phone or tablet for wireless multi-touch control.

ROLI work

At ROLI, Phillips worked across piano learning, interactive notation, audio, hardware integration, and conversational AI, including AI Music Coach and Airwave. One concrete detail: he integrated computer vision into ROLI's platforms to give real-time guidance on finger positions for piano learners, and to let musicians shape sound expressively through gesture.

Browser instruments

BlokDust, Omni, and Theremin are all playable in the browser. BlokDust lets you join blocks to build synths, process your voice, remix samples, and create self-playing systems. Omni offers a pitch constellation, harp, effects, harmonies, and loop recording for exploring scales from different cultures. Theremin is a multi-touch Web Audio synthesiser for shaping waveforms, delay, feedback, and scuzz.

What the site does not offer

The page evidence contains no pricing information, no payment platforms, and no login or account requirements. Nothing on the site indicates whether the tools are free, paid, or gated — so treat availability as something to check on each linked project rather than assuming. The site itself functions as a portfolio and directory; the actual instruments live at their own destinations.

When this site is useful to you

• You want to try browser-based music tools without installing anything — BlokDust, Omni, and Theremin are the direct starting points.
• You're interested in alternative interfaces for music software and want to see how Funputs approaches control through shape and colour instead of knobs and numbers.
• You're researching music technology, accessible instrument design, or AI-assisted music learning and want to see a practitioner's body of work.
• You want to get in touch with Phillips — the site provides GitHub and contact links.

If you're looking for a product to buy, a download page, or documentation, this isn't that kind of site. It's a map of one designer's work, with each project linked out for you to explore on its own terms.

Luke Phillips is a software engineer and musician who runs Femur (femurdesign.com), where he builds expressive, accessible music tools across software, hardware, and the web. He describes himself as working across music technology, creative tools, and AI, with more than a decade spent building interactive instruments and learning products — from browser-based synths to cross-platform apps and spatial hand tracking. If you want to know what kind of work stands behind the Femur name, his background is the answer: a mix of frontend and UX engineering, creative coding, audio, MIDI, and real-time interaction.

What Femur is

Femur is Phillips's personal design and engineering practice rather than a company with a product catalog. Its stated goal is "making musical things that anyone can play," and the site presents a portfolio of instruments and collaborations that illustrate that idea.

The projects listed on the site span three areas:

• Audio plugins and instruments — Funputs, a suite of MIDI instruments
• Client and R&D work — ROLI
• Browser-based instruments — BlokDust, Omni, and Theremin

The projects behind the name

Funputs

A suite of MIDI instruments built around a specific design question: most music software relies on knobs, sliders, menus, numbers, and text, and Phillips has been exploring how much of that can be replaced with space, colour, movement, and shape.

Three components are named:

You can play with a mouse, or pair a phone or tablet for wireless multi-touch control. The site dates Funputs to 2026.

ROLI (2019–2026)

Phillips worked across piano learning, interactive notation, audio, hardware integration, and conversational AI, including AI Music Coach and Airwave. One concrete detail worth noting: he integrated computer vision into ROLI's platforms to give real-time guidance on finger positions for piano learners, and to let musicians shape sound expressively through gesture.

BlokDust (2015)

An open-source, browser-based music-making environment. You join blocks to build synths, process your voice, remix samples, and create self-playing systems. It runs in the browser and is free to play.

Omni

A web instrument for playing and learning musical scales from cultures around the world. It combines a pitch constellation, harp, effects, harmonies, and loop recording — a tactile approach to scale learning rather than a notation-first one.

Theremin (2014)

A multi-touch Web Audio synthesiser for shaping waveforms, delay, feedback, and "scuzz" directly in the browser. It's the earliest project listed and shows the same browser-based, hands-on approach that runs through the later work.

What this tells you about his approach

A few consistent threads run through the portfolio:

• Accessibility as a design constraint, not an add-on. The recurring phrase is "anyone can play" — instruments are built so that complicated musical ideas feel immediate and playable.
• Technology that gets out of the way. Phillips says he likes building things where the technology recedes as quickly as possible, which is why the interfaces lean on gesture, colour, and shape instead of parameter lists.
• Browser-first experimentation. BlokDust, Omni, and Theremin all run in the browser with no install, which makes them easy to try before committing to anything.
• Real-time interaction as a specialty. Audio, MIDI, hand tracking, and multi-touch control all point to the same technical core.

How to explore the work

The site links directly to each project, plus GitHub and a contact link. If you're evaluating Phillips for collaboration or hiring, the most useful starting points are:

1. Play Omni or Theremin — both are browser instruments, so you can judge the interaction design in a few minutes without setup.
2. Try BlokDust — the open-source environment shows how he structures a larger creative tool.
3. Look at Funputs — the most recent work and the clearest statement of his current design direction.
4. Check GitHub — for a direct read on the code behind the instruments.

For anyone asking what Femur is, the short answer is that it's the working identity of a design engineer whose output is playable musical tools — and the projects above are the evidence.

Funputs is a suite of MIDI instruments from design engineer Luke Phillips (femurdesign.com) that replaces the usual knobs, sliders, menus, numbers, and text with space, colour, movement, and shape. It is aimed at anyone who wants to play and shape sound more directly, using a mouse or a phone/tablet paired for wireless multi-touch control. The page lists Funputs as an audio plugins project with design and engineering dated 2026.

The core idea: interaction over parameters

Most music software asks you to think in numbers — a cutoff at 2.4 kHz, a reverb tail at 38%, a velocity of 96. Funputs explores how much of that can be swapped for visual and spatial controls instead. The stated goal is expressive, accessible music-making: the interface carries the musical intent, so you spend less attention translating an idea into a parameter value.

That is the "expressive" claim in practice. It is not about adding more controls; it is about changing what a control feels like to use.

What's inside the suite

The page names three instruments:

Comet is the clearest example of the design philosophy: an XY pad gives you continuous, two-axis control in a single gesture, rather than separate sliders for each dimension. Orbit handles pitch organisation by scale, and Cluster handles harmony by generating chords — both tasks that are normally menu- and text-heavy in conventional software.

How you control it

You have two input routes:

• Mouse — works immediately on desktop.
• Phone or tablet paired for wireless multi-touch control — this is where the design pays off, because multi-touch lets you shape several dimensions of a sound simultaneously, the way you would with a physical instrument.

If you want to evaluate whether this approach suits you, the practical test is to try a two-handed gesture on a touchscreen: if shaping sound that way feels more natural than dragging sliders, Funputs is built for you.

Who made it and where it fits

Funputs is designed and engineered by Luke Phillips, a software engineer and musician who has worked across music technology, creative tools, and AI for more than a decade. His background includes software engineering and R&D at ROLI from 2019 to 2026, covering piano learning, interactive notation, audio, hardware integration, and conversational AI — including AI Music Coach and Airwave, where he integrated computer vision to give real-time finger-position guidance and let musicians shape sound through gesture.

That lineage matters for understanding Funputs: the same interest in gesture, accessibility, and getting technology out of the way shows up in earlier browser instruments like BlokDust (2015), Omni, and Theremin (2014), all playable in the browser.

What to check before relying on it

The page does not state pricing, platform support, plugin formats, or a release date beyond the 2026 project label. If you need those details — whether it runs in your DAW, what it costs, or when it ships — treat them as unconfirmed and check the Funputs site directly rather than assuming availability.