About the Soprano Recorder
The soprano recorder in C is the most widely taught woodwind in schools worldwide. Its C5-D6 range and gentle tone make it ideal for early music education (children can produce a clean pitch on first try without embouchure training). The instrument has a long written legacy — composers Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Telemann all wrote major works featuring recorders.
Our Synthesis Approach
Recorder tone is essentially a pure sine wave with very low harmonic content. We use a sine oscillator with a fast 30ms attack and exponential decay, matching the soprano recorder's characteristic clean, woody tone. The synthesized version is perfect for playing melodies, folk tunes, and Baroque exercises like Hot Cross Buns or Au Clair de la Lune.
Real Fingering Versus Keyboard
A real soprano recorder uses 8 finger holes (left thumb + 3 left-front fingers + 4 right-front fingers). Our QWERTY keyboard mapping (A through K) doesn't reproduce true recorder fingerings — it's designed for accessible browser play. To learn real recorder fingering, pair this tool with our music theory pages and printed fingering charts.