About Bonboa the humans behind the machines

Look, we'll be honest. We're a small operation. There's no corporate headquarters, no mission statement mounted on a wall, and no one here has ever used the phrase "synergize our core competencies" without laughing.

Bonboa makes music tools. Specifically, we make Bacara — a generative MIDI plugin that we're genuinely proud of. It started as a personal project ("what if I could make my synths write their own melodies?") and turned into something that other people actually wanted to use. We were as surprised as anyone.

Dave Smith, Renger Koning & Joris

Dave Smith (the father of MIDI), Renger Koning & Joris.

The Company (Such As It Is)

Bonboa is an indie software company based in the Netherlands. We build tools for musicians because we are musicians — the kind who spend more time tweaking synth patches than eating lunch. Our team is small enough to fit in a phone booth (if those still existed) and nimble enough to ship features while the big companies are still scheduling meetings about scheduling meetings.

We believe in transparency, no vendor lock-in, and the radical idea that software should be fun to use. If a feature doesn't make you smile at least a little, we haven't finished building it yet.

Oh, and Bacara's been on stage with Richie Hawtin — in its former life as a Node.js CLI tool, it powered generative MIDI performances in Portugal and at IRCAM Paris for a Steve Reich tribute. We didn't plan that as a credential. It just happened, and we're still quietly thrilled about it.

Our Approach (It Involves Coffee)

We build things by using them. Every feature in Bacara exists because we needed it ourselves — in our own productions, in our own live sets, in our own "why isn't this doing what I want at 2 AM" moments. This means we catch the annoying bits before you do. Usually.

Our development philosophy:

  • Make it work — solve the actual problem
  • Make it right — so it doesn't fall over when you look at it funny
  • Make it feel good — because life's too short for ugly UIs and clunky workflows

We also believe in the power of happy accidents. Bacara's deviation engine was designed to produce them on demand. Some of our best features started as bugs we decided to keep.

What We Actually Promise

We're not going to pretend we have all the answers. But here's what we can promise:

We Do

  • Ship real updates, not just changelogs
  • Actually read your emails (and reply!)
  • Fix bugs like they insulted our mothers
  • Keep the demo fully functional
  • Respect your CPU and your patience

We Don't

  • Sell your data (we barely know what to do with our own)
  • Phone home unnecessarily
  • Use dark patterns or nagging pop-ups
  • Pretend AI will replace musicians (it won't)
  • Take ourselves too seriously (evidence: this page)