Muff's Modules & More

bananeurysm · Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 2:38 pm Post subject:

Stoked!!!

ZoeB · Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject:

I've abandoned tape sync output. While I did get it working, I had to get into the world of microseconds instead of milliseconds, and I don't want to push this poor little device too far. Still, it works in software, so if you'd like to see it in action, just pull the latest version of the master branch and checkout the old, reverted commit, which I've kept for posterity.

(Of course, with a hardware square wave oscillator it would again be quite simple in the software realm, but then it'd be unnecessarily complex on the hardware side.)

I'll instead continue my curious trend of making Stepper really complicated to begin with, then incrementally simplifying it. :)

ZoeB · Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 1:48 pm Post subject:

Whew... I've completely rewritten a substantial part of everything, made it much more simple, made it DIN sync in compatible, and added a drum machine. It's now much more in line with how late seventies to early eighties digital sequencers work, with the clock and the actual sequencer being discrete things. Comments and suggestions are, of course, always welcome. :)

ZoeB · Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 5:06 am Post subject:

If you pull the latest version of Stepper ("git pull origin master" should do it), I've started to implement the Arduino C version of Stepper (/c/stepper_acid/stepper_acid.ino). There's not much there yet, but it's a start.

So far the Arduino just acts as a metronome, but behind the scenes, it's a 96 PPQN clock driving a 48 PPQN step sequencer, which makes the LED light up on rows 0, 4, 8 and 12. The reason for the different pulse rates is that this way, you could use this clock to drive another machine's step sequencer, or another machine's clock to drive this step sequencer, ignoring 1 in 2 pulses, or ignoring 3 in 4 pulses, or paying attention to both the start and end of each pulse, in order to make both the clock and the sequencer compatible with 24, 48 and 96 PPQN hardware. So I'm trying to ensure this will play well with others. :)

ZoeB · Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 1:05 pm Post subject:

It's a bit glitchy, but Stepper is now sending out signals! \o/

How it looks
How it sounds
How it works

The metronome-like clicking is probably an issue with sliding, which isn't surprising as I've completely revamped it, guessing at what might be good values, so hopefully I can fix that pretty soon.

Enjoy!

Paradigm X · Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 2:51 pm Post subject:

sounds amazing.

no idea wshatsover about the guthub thing but look forward to it being availble for lesser mortals.

thumbs up

ZoeB · Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 4:39 pm Post subject:

Bugs fixed! Raw and BBDed.

roglok · Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 3:52 pm Post subject:

sounds great, zoe!

matia · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 6:18 am Post subject:

this is absolutely excellent! will there be provisions for song mode and autofill on a user defined count (like the 808/cr8000)?

very very interested in how this develops.

good luck!

ZoeB · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 7:38 am Post subject:

ZoeB · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 8:00 am Post subject:

OK, I've had a look at the intro / fill in section of the TR-808 manual... while there's no technical constraint stopping me from implementing that, I'd like to keep things simple for now, which means manually triggering intros and fill ins by selecting a different pattern to play next while the current one's still playing.

In stark contrast, in the behemoth I'd like to make later on, I would ideally make a screen where you can take each individual channel and program in the sequence of patterns you'd like. This would basically be like how it works in Amiga mod trackers, only instead of the pattern containing all the channels combined (which is how it worked in an earlier incarnation of Stepper's prototype tracker interface), I like the idea of being able to change the pattern of each channel independently, so you could introduce a new solo while the backing stays the same, or change the rhythm and bass parts while the arpeggio / broken chord parts stay the same. That kind of thing. (Especially so you can change chords while keeping the drums consistent.) But that's a while off yet!

ZoeB · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 4:39 pm Post subject:

Nina insisted I play a famous acidline that we have reference material for, so we can tell how close we're getting with Stepper Acid. It needed to be something we knew the exact notation for, including slides, the pitches of all the rests, everything. Alas, the example I found isn't from a real TB-303, but at least it's an easily recognisable one!

As it doesn't use accent, I rewrote a few lines of code to repurpose that output for a kick drum. All I used was our Stepper Acid prototype, plus an A-111, A-132-3, A-140, A-103, A-183-3, BD88 and A-138. After I updated the firmware, no computer was involved, unless you count the Arduino's CPU.

The actual timbre sounds a bit odd to me, but that says a lot more about my patching (in)ability than my programming skills. :) That and I don't think you're really supposed to use an A-138 as a mixing desk...

The latest example of Stepper Acid in action

Enjoy!

dar303 · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 6:39 am Post subject:

Try this!

ZoeB · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:53 am Post subject:

Here you go! I'm not sure how accurate the transcription is, or how accurate my own translation of that into numbers is (as Stepper doesn't have an interface yet, I'm having to write the preset pattern by hand), and I'm not entirely sure what I should hook the accent up to (I hear it affects the filter resonance, which alas the A-103 has no CV input for)... so I'm not sure quite how authentic this sounds... but it definitely sounds good in its own right! :D

Acid Trax on Stepper Acid

matia · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 1:32 pm Post subject:

ZoeB · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 1:57 pm Post subject:

matia · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 3:09 pm Post subject:

dar303 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 3:12 am Post subject:

Sounds great, good work! smile

( <--- thats an acid house smiley!)

ZoeB · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 3:18 am Post subject:

Thanks! ^.^

ZoeB · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 4:33 pm Post subject:

Hi again everyone!

So I've been working on a few other projects lately. This week I decided to resume work on Stepper, and so far I've finished implementing the serial interface over USB. This won't be in the final version as it slows the machine down whenever you do anything, but it's helping me test things before the hardware's fully built.

Basically, the finished versions should have buttons and an LCD. In lieu of those, the current version talks to a computer. It sends out a status report on its global settings and the current pattern, and gets back from the application on the computer any key presses. So there's virtual keys and a virtual screen instead of the real one, but when you use the application on your computer, it's controlling the real hardware device. The hardware sequencer is storing and playing the patterns, keeping track of which note you're on, updating it, copying and pasting patterns, and so far it all works except for switching patterns, because it doesn't have any storage space to read from or write to. But everything else works just fine.

So I'm making good progress!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my excitement at being able to program in acidlines on a hardware machine hooked up to my modular synth, even if it's currently by proxy. I'll keep you posted as things progress further.