Turbochip - 7-channel YM+DMA replay

[junosix]

Update - have added key repeat, tremolo effect and properly implemented song stop/loop (notes in the .txt file). Have also re-ordered the effect numbers to group them together a bit better, the rate of the tremolo effect is relative to the channel volume which lets it be abused quite nicely and perhaps makes it a bit more interesting than a standard tremolo.

The .TC file format has changed slightly so older files will not work. Next thing to add is the wave-step function.

A thing I would like to see in a tracker would be some advanced chord / scale / mode stuff making use of the circle of fifths to suggest complementary chords and notes.

Do you have any links that explain the concept?

[junosix]

Oh and have a nice Christmas by the way!

[dma]

Thanks for the update junosix.
I've tried it briefly on this day off, but couldn't have my composition played. A demo song worked tho.
Probably some wrong manipulation or setting, will retry it when i got time.

[junosix]

Thanks for giving it a try. I'll write some better documentation for it when everything's finished (just the wave-stepper to do I think) but you need to put the pattern numbers into the pattern list on the right before anything plays (I might default the first entry to pattern 01 to avoid having to do this for the initial pattern).

Here's a slight bug-fix update and a new tune (FRANKIE.TC).

[junosix]

Adding wavestep was easier than I thought, so here's another version. Selecting wave index 8 on any of the DMA channels will step back-and-forth between waveforms held between indexes 8 and F, I've setup a pulse-width square wave within those waves but they can be edited. Might add a few other options based on selected waveforms >8 later, like different speed or sync options and things, but this should give you well enough to start working with.

Have also setup the first pattern in the list as 01 so it will start playing without having to add that manually.

[mOdmate]

Wow, just wow. Fantastic progress!

Your great efforts really need some publicity, therefore I posted about the new version in two fb groups.

I hope you'll fix the 4MB problem some day soon, as I want to check it out on the real machine.

[matt]

Awesome work junosanta !

[junosix]

Quick test of how the Nemesis theme now sounds compared to the test I did months back. Quite the improvement!

Had to .zip the .TC file as the extension wasn't otherwise allowed.

[junosix]

Have implemented a couple of more wavestep functions, therefore I think other than future updates such as MIDI support, small bug-fixes (still haven't figured out the 4MB problem yet) and supplying separate replay code, this is as feature-complete as it needs to be for the time being.

Have written up a more complete manual which is included with the installation though brain is a bit spangled from all the coding and writing so if anything needs clearing up then please ask. Really hope to hear some cool stuff

[dhedberg]

Quick test of how the Nemesis theme now sounds compared to the test I did months back. Quite the improvement!

Wow! Sound freakin' awesome! Time for a Nemesis release on the Atari STe. Wasn't DML working on something like that? Combining his game engine with your replayer would make one heck of a game!

[FedePede04]

Quick test of how the Nemesis theme now sounds compared to the test I did months back. Quite the improvement!

Had to .zip the .TC file as the extension wasn't otherwise allowed.

Nice progress, it sound already really cool

Quick test of how the Nemesis theme now sounds compared to the test I did months back. Quite the improvement!

Wow! Sound freakin' awesome! Time for a Nemesis release on the Atari STe. Wasn't DML working on something like that? Combining his game engine with your replayer would make one heck of a game!

i think that DML use the Nemesis graphic when he played around with game engine, but if you listen to the music in those demo, you can hear the DML already did something similar

[junosix]

Found the problem causing it to crash on 4MB, have uploaded an update in the first post.

[dma]

Nice introduction in the manual!
Little mistake: I guess "(ST/TT/Mega STE/Falcon)" should rather be "(STE/Mega STE/TT/Falcon)".

[dhedberg]

Yes! I thought the manual was a great and an interesting read as well! Well written introduction!

[junosix]

Little mistake: I guess "(ST/TT/Mega STE/Falcon)" should rather be "(STE/Mega STE/TT/Falcon)".

Good spot!

Glad you like the manual

[dma]

@junosix : Some remarks and suggestions again for you.
- The note preview is really short and low volume, could you make it use the configured volume in the column its played on? And also make it last a bit longer?
- Insert and "shrink delete" functions should be added for ease of editing, and "editing rows step" also.
- Playing the track sometimes begin with a ghost note (from preview and/or last track replay).
- Copying selected pattern to current pattern, doesn't copy note data.
- Being able to mark several columns on block mark start/end for cut/copy/paste would be great (aaah yes, you know that already, you know it would be great, no need for some guy to mention it eh ;D).

Also on my tries, it always play the first pattern no matter what i do.
I move to the next existing pattern with F8, press Enter for here, but it still plays first pattern.
Also i tried setting the pattern loop (on that second existing pattern), but when replaying it crashed after first pattern.

[junosix]

Thanks for the suggestions I know the editing is far from luxurious at the moment but I'll build on it in the future. With "Copying selected pattern to current pattern, doesn't copy note data.", do you mean the F9/F10 channel paste, or the ";" full pattern copy? With channel paste, it only preserves the effect and volume parameters as you may be copying for instance from a YM channel to a DMA channel (for an echo effect or to thicken up the sound), where the "T", "N", and "W" parameters are not common to each other. It would be good to make it smart so that if it detects you're copying YM to YM for example, it will preserve everything. I'll do that... later I've just tried full pattern copy (";") though and that does copy everything.

I'm also going to have "full" and "compact" keyboard mode. At the moment, almost everything is limited to the main keyboard, this is because I'm developing/composing on a laptop so don't have the numeric keypad, but if you're writing on an actual ST it would be nicer to have the full keyboard available. So that's to come too.

Also on my tries, it always play the first pattern no matter what i do.
I move to the next existing pattern with F8, press Enter for here, but it still plays first pattern.
Also i tried setting the pattern loop (on that second existing pattern), but when replaying it crashed after first pattern.

This is with 0.42? I can't replicate the thing of it only ever starting from the first pattern, but I have noticed that if you set a pattern loop on pattern 00, it will hang if it reaches that pattern entry, so I need to set a check to stop you being able to set the loop marker there. The way that pattern loop works is you set the pattern that you want to loop to once the song has got to the end of the pattern list. So for example if the pattern list looks like:

01
02
03
04
05
00
00
00
00
00
etc.

and let's say you have a short intro on 01 and 02 and you want the song to play the intro and then loop between patterns 03 and 05, you need to set the loop position on 03 (i.e. 03 needs to be the green one). It will play the song until it reaches a pattern list entry of 00, and then either loop to the selected pattern if there is a loop position set, or will stop the song if there isn't one (you'll need to press Return to quit the playback still, though - for the moment). Have a look at the demo songs to see where the loop points are set to see if that explains it better.

[MiggyMog]

On my earlier comment about some chord / scale / mode stuff and circle of fifths there are some nice videos from many people e.g. https://youtu.be/d1aJ6HixSe0.

My thinking is that you could have a prev / next note which would go up and down a scale which could be selected between a chosen one http://taooftunings.com/book/major-scal ... nd-chords/.

I am no expert . But my simplistic understanding is that you have a bunch of notes in each octave and scales have a different pattern of gaps / number of notes between them which are made up of whole tones / semi half tones. So if you choose a scale you have notes and chords which fit with the mood and harmony of a section of your song.

[junosix]

Ah! Automating that sort of thing is outside the scope of what I wanted to achieve with the tracker but that's pretty interesting.

[MiggyMog]

No worries you have done some great work, I am going to enjoy playing with it some more and hopefully make a tune which is not as awful as my attempts with other trackers

[dma]

Retrying it, it now plays further patterns.

But concerning pattern cloning, it still doesn't work.
And actually copies nothing but puts '1' in some columns.

Example :
- First pattern is this:

grab0001.png

- I move to the second empty pattern:

grab0002.png

- I press ';' and it does this:

grab0003.png

[junosix]

Are you pressing "[" (or "numpad (" depending on emulator) to set the pattern to copy first, before moving to the new pattern and pressing ";"? It's just copying blank memory into the pattern if it's giving nothing but 1's in the Tone and Noise columns (I'll need to put a check to stop it copying anything if no marker has been set). I did spot that it would sometimes trash the pattern list, so here's a quick fix I did earlier (which fixes the other thing of now not allowing pattern 00 to be selected as a loop point and loads samples up to 32KB properly - have now managed to introduce a new bug where it doesn't always say "OKAY" after loading a sample depending on what the filename is ).

There's a new .TC with this one too, PACMAN.TC which contains the waveforms ripped from the original Pac-Man arcade game.

(by the way, thanks for sticking with it and giving me feedback, it's really useful )

[junosix]

Sorted the OKAY message on loading some samples, and have duplicated copy/paste, pattern up/down and octave up/down functions and a couple of other things onto the number pad (details in the updated TCMANUAL.TXT, though I've just realised I forgot to mention you can use Enter to play the song now as well as using Return), and have changed the quick move up/down keys to move in steps rather than just jumping to the top or bottom of the pattern. You can now also unmute any muted channels all at the same time in playback mode with F10. Ghost notes shouldn't happen at the start of playback either now.

[dma]

Are you pressing "[" (or "numpad (" depending on emulator) to set the pattern to copy first, before moving to the new pattern and pressing ";"? It's just copying blank memory into the pattern if it's giving nothing but 1's in the Tone and Noise columns (I'll need to put a check to stop it copying anything if no marker has been set).

Aaah i didn't figured this out. I saw the blinking pattern as the selected one... While i knew it was indicating the loop point. Obdurate moment eh!
OK it's working fiiine then, thanks for the support, i can play further with this.

[junosix]

Added the ability to quick move around the editor by holding shift + cursors, which freed up a few of the function keys so I took the liberty to overhaul the keyboard mapping a bit. Have duplicated some functions to the numeric pad so you can either use the full keyboard or just the main keyboard. Take a look at the new TCMANUAL.TXT as some of the currently-defined keys have now changed, hopefully this new layout makes better sense than the previous one (and apologies for any muscle memory you may need to retrain already!). You can also now unmute all channels in one go during playback with F10.

Have also made some changes to cut/copy/paste and added Insert/Backspace to move notes up and down. It's still "dumb" in that only copies/moves note data and not tone, noise, wave or detune. I'll be working on that but I think it's made it more usable with these changes already.

I know incremental updates are coming in thick and fast at the moment but I'm figuring it's better to post them as they come so you can keep playing