It's a little-known fact, but I went to uni to study music production. I loved it at the time and ended up coming away with a first. Then, I started a career in writing... funny how these things work out, huh? Still, I love using Digital Audio Workstations, or DAWs, whenever I can, and I still make music from time to time and use programs like Logic Pro when editing podcasts. So when I saw that developer Hugo Duprez, aka SpriteFusion, I couldn't resist doing a piece on it.
To have a DAW working on the GBA is no mean feat, but to get it made in a weekend is even more impressive. I know we've had sequencing programs like Nanoloop and Little Sound Dj over the years, but this is the first programme that I've seen for the Game Boy that looks like the MIDI sequencer I would use in Logic Pro, essentially something that anyone who makes music in Logic or Pro Tools could pick up and make work straight away with no extra training.
Nano-daw, which I think should have been called NintenDAW like Hugo says in his X post, has six tracks available for your kick drum, clap, hi-hats, bass, lead, and chords, all running at 59fps. You can use up to 16-steps for each pattern and change the BPM from 120 to whatever you like. To place notes, you'll use the D-Pad and A - it's simple and effective, and the interface is pleasing to look at too.
NintenDAW pic.twitter.com/EyiXmPGSvl
— Hugo Duprez (@HugoDuprez) September 15, 2026
I reached out to Hugo to find out a little more about the project, mainly to check out how he had managed to make the project so quickly. Naturally, I wanted to ask if Hugo had relied heavily on AI to get this over the line, something that's happening a lot in the space recently. Hugo was very transparent about his process, telling me that as a seasoned developer, he made the project from scratch, using Astra to 'execute on [my] architectural decisions and optimizations.' He also reviewed every line and refactored many code chunks by hand.
The main message here is that the project was AI-assisted and not vibe-coded in any way. It's good to see Hugo, a developer who loves his craft and writes Rust by hand using tools at his disposal to still create something 100% human-led and controlled. That I can get behind, and I really like what Hugo has done here!
You can download Nano-daw from Hugo's website and start making music right away!
