v0.26 Fan Beta

[oompa loompa]

i've recieved a whole bunch of inquiries regarding the new version of the "noise machine" real recently =P. is there a coding contest going on or something that i don't know about XD? anyways, because i'm devoted to my fans =D, i'll start working on the new noise machine tracker right after school gets out, which will be in another 2 weeks. i hope to release the tracker before christmas btw

i also took a look at the mvs tracker and saw the screenshots. it differs a lot from the way the new "noise machine tracker" looks:

1) in mvs, channel lists are displayed vertically (up -> down), while in the noise machine, channel lists are displayed horizontally (left -> right). which way do you guys prefer? niether =D? (the old, i mean current, noise machine does it veritcally too, but is just plain ugly because all 6 channels are combined in one sequential list =P)

2) i dunno how someone is able to enter notes in mvs. in the noise machine, there's this life size keyboard on the bottem of the window that you just push a key on, and it inserts that note into the channel list. i'd like to know a better way to enter notes, since the life size keyboard thing isn't the best approach for everyone (btw, there will be a way to enter notes in using the keys on your keyboard, i mean the one with the a,b,c,d,etc on it =P)

3) another big difference is the way the channels will be "keyed off". in mvs, a delay is used, that is entered by the user, specifying how long the key will be pressed. in the new noise machine, the user doesn't specify a delay, the user simply inserts a "key off" note after the note they want to play in the channel, and it will depress the key. you don't enter in a delay, but the spacing between the actual note, and the key off function will determine its delay. the driver also won't mess up your music, by keying off the channel when it wants to play another note, like in the old noise machine lol. which way would you guys want it, let the user enter a number to specify the delay, or specify the delay visually, comparing to adjacent notes, or both? (really, i can do both because i'm awesome =P)

i'd really like peoples input on the way a tracker is suppose to act, because the noise machine is a product of one person (that's me, yay) and of the one person's vision on how a tracker is suppose to act, rather than how everyone else wants it to act, which will be different (hey, take a class in sociology =P). besides, everyone saw the old noise machine XD

also, the new ~187 byte z80 music driver, and 12 bit music data (translates to more than 5,200 different notes you can squeeze into your music, only using 8kb of memory) will knock everyones socks off because i've seen anything like it before 0.o (187 bytes is impossible lol, i spent hours taking it down to that size) =P

here's mvs tracker:


here's the new devster noise machine (from an old post):

you can see the X denote as a key-off function. without placing a key-off, you can make uber-cool sound transitions =P!

here's what the new devster noise machine currently looks like (there's really no difference XD because there's been very little progress):

[boogle]

For an example of a good working tracker you could try having a look at lsdj if you haven't already. Its a tracker rom that runs on the gameboy.

www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/

Its a pretty standard layout rather similar to mvs and nerdtracker (nes tracker). What you seem to be creating with the new noise machine is more of moden style sequencer with its horizontal scrolling which is excelent. Surely one of the benefits of the vertical tracking though is how you could use a different instrument patch for each different note on one channel. If you could perhaps find some way of doing that as well as keeping it horizontal that would be stunning. The keyboard at the bottom allowing you to test melodies again looks excelent.

The way of entering notes using the qwerty keyboard is possibly still the best method, assigning the different notes to different keyboard keys. Perhaps even with a couple of keys assigned to octave shift. ;D

[haroldoop]

Well, personally, I like Modplug Tracker: www.modplug.com/index.php

[oompa loompa]

also, i'm gonna try to add a way to play the sound via ym2612 emulation, but dunno how i'm gonna do that =P. i can try to convert the playlist to .gym, but the tempo might be way off because the music doesn't go in sync with the vericle blank, or 1/30 seconds

[jlf65]

I noticed you had data files for brass, organ, and piano. Any chance on a full general midi set of instruments?

When I was working on the Amiga, I made my own GM instruments file - all instruments as 8bit 11025Hz samples (limited to less than 64k max). I never got the hang of doing instruments with those silly FM synth operators.

[oompa loompa]

midi instruments? probably not =P, i was hoping that someone else would take care of that =D

[jlf65]

Okay, maybe I'll work on that. What's the format on the instrument data?

[Tulio Adriano]

Hey Devster, I'm late but I'm here!

Well, very nice, I've been waiting for a new tracker for a long time.

Let's ansewer your questions:

1)Surely horizontal. All music software in the world works like that, and there must to be a good reason they are that way. So I vote for horizontal display.

2)The piano is very nice. Since there is no way to enter chords in a single channel, there is no need of a channel specific interface for entering notes. If you didn't got what I mean, I say, simply, it is cool the new tracker will work.

3)There is something important. The precision of the editor. It must be as most acurate as possible (maybe a zoom tool??) or else we composers will be limited to a maximum number of notes per measure, and that is not good. I mean: a KeyOff can happen instantly after the KeyIn, this way we could enter the smaller notes like the 16th, 32th and so on. (more info on cnx.rice.edu/content/m10945/latest/) Concluding the precision of the editor must allow to put the KeyOff anywere so I can create any duration for a note.


For the instruments, just make the tracker read an instrument definition file (don't forget to let it the change channel's instrument during the song). An instrument definition tool for creating custom instruments would be good. Another good idea about instrument deffinitions is to make the tracker compatible with the channel dump of Gens Kmod's YM2612 debug screen (that may save time: You can open a game like Sonic and dump its instruments to use in your cool bex game).

Well, that's it. If I wasn't clear in my suggestions, just ask me to write that in English!!!

Cya, write back!

[oompa loompa]

(1) Yea, music sheets span horizontally, so that's what i thought would be the best way to compose the music =P

(2) I think i'm just gonna keep the keyboard there for simplicity. Like, no ordinary newbie is going to want to look for help on how to enter notes, or what keys to use on the keyboard (a,b,c's....), where having a piano graphically out there will make it easy for them to just put in random notes, and call it a day =P.

This made me think that i should put in the keyboard keys on the piano, so it'd make it a little easier for some. like for C#, i could map it to the W key, and then display W on the piano

I ran into another problem with the ym2612 not being able to play chords: imprting midi files might not import so great =P, so i need to find a way around that =D

(3) might have a problem here. users might have to stretch out the spacing between notes if they want a 64th =P (i mean really far =o). the tracker is very sensitive to the spacing between notes and commands (like key off). a key in, and a key off cannot happen instantly, if this happens, there will be no sound because the z80 is processing these notes very fast =P. there is always a delay between notes, and the delay is very consistant (maybe 20 or 30 z80 clocks off, but this is not noticable when one clock is 4 mhz). this delay can be specified by the user, so if they want it instantaneou (delay of 0), they can use 0 =P

those "bars" you see that divides the notes up really doesn't do much, its just for organizing your music =P. you can stretch these bars as far as you want =D

i might have to make it so the driver automatically keys the channel off before instantly playing another note, but i dunno if this sounds good =P. right now, if a note is played, and another note wants to be played after it, no key off occurs

i'll release an early beta =P, so changes can be made

i might not be able to get an instrument "changer" out in the beta, since getting the timing right is the most important =P. there will definitely be a way to edit instruments =P, i'll try to make it like kmod's (i think i saw a screenshot of the ym2612 debug that i can work with)

for the music format, all it is is:

byte 0.w: number of entries in the file, minus 1
byte 1-X: ym2612 entries

an entry format (each entry is 2 bytes long):
byte 0.b: data to put in ym2612 control register
byte 1.b: data to put in ym2612 data register

here's a dump from the organ:


00000000 0019 3077 3434 3831 3C72 4034 4413 4816
00000010 4C14 501F 541F 581F 5C1F 600F 640A 6800
00000020 6C00 7000 7400 7800 7C00 8010 8419 8809
00000030 8C09 B076


you can see that the first two bytes contain 0x0019, so there are 26 ym2612 entries in the file. the next word contains 0x3077, which will first write 0x30 into the ym2612 control register (0x30 = detune & multiple for operator 1), and secondly, will write 0x77 into the data register. the next word, 0x3434 will write 0x34 into control (0x34 = mul+dt1 for operator 2), and 0x34 into the data register. the process continues until 26 entries are written

edit: wait, i messed up, don't subtract 1 from the first word (the size) =P, i thought i used dbra instead of subq and bne =D

very simple and flexible, just like if you were coding for the synthesizer directly. for info on what control registers do what, here's a good reference: www.smspower.org/maxim/docs/ym2612/index.html

[Tulio Adriano]

I got the instrument format. It's very simple.

I believe I'll be able to make a tool to make those instruments or convert between formats... hehehe... after creating several tools for Tavern RPG, this is going to be a piece of cake.

For the other features, like the note duration (key off "distance") I'll wait the beta to be out so I can give my oppinion.

Now Waiting...

[jlf65]

oompa, thanks. Yeah, that's pretty simple. I'll see if I can't make a nice General MIDI instrument bank. Even with Tulio making a tool to work on instruments, it helps to have some default instruments to start with.

As to the questions, my responses would be:
1) Horizontal. I guess everyone agrees on that.
2) How about a MIDI keyboard? I have one I got years back. The easiest way to enter notes is to play them.
3) In MIDI and MUS files (which I'm familiar with), key offs are events in the score, so that's what I'm used to. I would say if the person inserts a quarter note (for example), have the tracker insert a key on at the present position, and a key off at the current postion plus one fourth the beat rate. That seems simple enough.

[Tulio Adriano]

I am proud to anounce that my YM2612 Instrument Editor is developed and ready for download, along with 51 tested cool instruments for your cool songs!

It allows a better approach of the data to be inputed in the YM2612 registers, here's a screen:



The editor can be downloaded from my website in this URL: www.neoseganet.com/util/InstrumentEditor.zip

The instructions are in the readme.txt but I am sure nobody will need them. And since everyone here has BasiEgaXorz installed I'll not bother to include Visual Basic runtimes. Simply run the EXE.

Have fun!!! ^_^

[oompa loompa]

hi, it's me again

when i said i would release it before 2006, i guess i didn't =P lol. i gotta get off my butt and start coding some visual basic again XD. i've been recently coding in C, trying to make an rpg, using GCC and SDL

[Tulio Adriano]

Yes, please, I am so anxious to see the new version of BEX! If you want to work more on C, port BasiEgaXorz to .NET using C# ^_^

Hehe, just kidding. Anyway, I hope to see a next version of BEX soon!!

Cya!

[Tom Maneiro]

I've noticed that you updated BEX page with screenshots and sample code. Nice! But... while the screenshots are from 0.26 beta, the latest version available there is 0.19. Are these "implicit ads" of the upcoming BEX? Or 0.26 is already done, but the Noise Machine has higher priority' And... will BEX FAQ be updated ever? I could help on there...