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A quick update on this: Just got the parser to output it's first blob of correct asm data. Unfortunately today is the last day I can work on it for the forseeable future, but I'm glad I got this far. There's still tons of functionality missing, and the code would probably give any self-respecting programmer a heart attack at this point. So long story short, there probably won't be any public release till beginning of 2017.

In the meantime, here's a little preview, to give you an idea how the thing works (it has a name now, too, btw - MDAL aka Music Data Abstraction Language).

The input music file looks like this:

CONFIG=PhaseSqueek

:SEQUENCE
    intro
    pattern0
    [loop]
    pattern0
    pattern2
    
:intro
    A=a1, B=c3, C=e3, GMIX=or, MIXAB=or, MIXCD=or, SPD=$8
    .
    A=a2
    .
    A=a3
    .
    A=a2, C=0
    .

:pattern0
    .

:pattern2
    .

which gives us this:

    dw intro
    dw pattern0
loop
    dw pattern0
    dw pattern2
    dw 0

intro

    dw #b000, fx0, #b000, a1, c3, #4040, #c6, #c6, #0, #b000, e3, #0, #4040, #0, #800
    dw #b085, #800
    dw #b001, #b0c4, a2, #0, #800
    dw #b085, #800
    dw #b001, #b0c4, a3, #0, #800
    dw #b085, #800
    dw #b001, #b0c4, a2, #0, #b0c0, #0, #0, #800
    dw #b085, #800
    db #40

pattern0

    dw #b085, #800
    db #40

pattern2

    dw #b085, #800
    db #40

based on this config:

MDAL_VERSION(0)
USE_SEQUENCE;
USE_PATTERNS;

WORD_DIRECTIVE("dw");
BYTE_DIRECTIVE("db");
HEX_PREFIX("#");


CFG_SEQUENCE {
    USE_END("dw 0");
    USE_LOOP(LABEL, "loop");
    USE_TRACKS(1);
}

CFG_PATTERNS {
    USE_END("db #40");
}
    
CFG_COMMANDS {
                
    WORD("FX","fx0");    
    WORD("A", 0, USE_LAST_SET|USE_RESTS(0));
    WORD("B", 0, USE_LAST_SET|USE_RESTS(0));
    BYTE("DA", $40, USE_LAST_SET);    
    BYTE("DB", $40, USE_LAST_SET);    
    BYTE("SIDA", $c6, USE_LAST_SET|FORCE_SUBSTITUTION("off"=$c6, "on"=$ce));
    BYTE("SIDB", $c6, USE_LAST_SET|FORCE_SUBSTITUTION("off "=$c6, "on"=$ce));
    BYTE("ESA", 0, USE_LAST_SET);
    BYTE("ESB", 0, USE_LAST_SET);
    WORD("PAB", 0, USE_LAST_SET);
    WORD("C", 0, USE_LAST_SET|USE_RESTS(0));
    WORD("D", 0, USE_LAST_SET|USE_RESTS(0));
    BYTE("DC", $40, USE_LAST_SET);
    BYTE("DD", $40, USE_LAST_SET);
    BOOL("NC", false, USE_LAST_SET|FORCE_SUBSTITUTION("off"=false, "on"=true));
    WORD("PCD", 0, USE_LAST_SET);
    
    BYTE("DRUM", 0, FORCE_SUBSTITUTION("kick"=$40, "hat"=$80));
    BYTE("GMIX", $b0, FORCE_REPEAT|FORCE_SUBSTITUTION("or"=$b0, "xor"=$a8, "and"=$a0));
    BYTE("MIXAB", $b0, USE_LAST_SET|FORCE_SUBSTITUTION("or"=$b0, "xor"=$a8, "and"=$a0));
    BYTE("MIXCD", $b0, USE_LAST_SET|FORCE_SUBSTITUTION("or"=$b0, "xor"=$a8, "and"=$a0));
    BYTE("GSPD", $10, GLOBAL_CONST);
    BYTE("SPD", $10, FORCE_REPEAT);
}
    
    
CFG_FIELDS {
    WORD(0, REQUIRED(), SET_IF(!(FX&A&B&DA&DB&SIDA&SIDB&ESA&ESB&PAB&C&D&DC&DD&NC&PCD&MIXAB&MIXCD), 4), SET_IF(!FX, 1), SET_IF(!(A&B&DA&DB&SIDA&SIDB&ESA&ESB&PAB&MIXAB), $80), SET_HI(GMIX));
    WORD("fx0", SET(FX));
    WORD(0, REQUIRED(A|B|DA|DB|SIDA|SIDB|ESA|ESB|PAB|MIXAB), SET_IF(!(A&B), 1), SET_IF(!(SIDA&SIDB&ESA&ESB), 4), SET_IF(!DA&DB, $40), SET_IF(!PAB, $80), SET_HI(MIXAB));
    WORD(1, REQUIRED(B), SET(A));
    WORD(2, REQUIRED(A), SET(B));
    WORD($4040, SET_HI(DA), SET_LO(DB));
    WORD($00c6, SET_HI(ESA), SET_LO(SIDA));
    WORD($00c6, SET_HI(ESB), SET_LO(SIDB));
    WORD(3, SET(PAB));
    WORD(4, REQUIRED(C|D|DC|DD|NC|PCD|MIXCD), SET_IF(!(C&D), 1), SET_IF(!(DC&DD), $40), SET_IF(!PCD, $80), SET_HI(MIXCD));
    WORD(5, REQUIRED(D), SET(C));
    WORD(6, REQUIRED(C), SET(D));
    WORD($4040, SET_HI(DC), SET_LO(DD));
    WORD(7, SET(PCD));    
    WORD($1000, REQUIRED(), SET_HI(SPD), SET_LO(DRUM));

    REQUIRE_SEQ_BEGIN();    
}

Cheers guys, I also think all the tracks were pretty damn good. Also, great to see a new face in the compo.

To my shame I have to admit I didn't recognize the engine used for Road Song Modded Tritone, you say? Interesting, I presume you had a hand in this, introspec?

Horray, it's officially out! And my copy of the CD is sitting proudly on top of the stereo

Seems I've introduced another bug with the latest changes. Under some circumstances ch4 appears to not generate the correct note frequencies. It only happens sometimes, haven't quite figured out why. Let me know if you encounter this bug as well.

Thanks mate. I've made a new commit, hopefully this should fix the issue. There might be more horrors lurking in the abyss of xmkit though.

You're right, envelopes take precedence over channel volume, not the other way around. Sorry 'bout that...

For the rest, it sounds like some good ol' bugs... I'll look into it, perhaps tomorrow if I can find some time.

Thanks mate

Any more thoughts on the language thing? I've already worked out a rough draft for the implementation. Think I'll do the parser in C++ after all (since I can't really be bothered to learn yet another language atm, and I don't feel like using Perl either). The parser will be customizable via config files, which will allow for creating extra commands and so on. Well, we'll see how that goes, I really have zero experience in writing such a thing.

After studying the ABC standard a bit, I'm actually leaning more towards defining a new standard. ABC is very strongly focused on score notation while offering very little in terms of timbre control. It does actually provide most of what we need (there are tools for creating user-defined commands, macros, etc), but ultimately using those would cause quite a mess. Besides, it seems inconvenient for parsing. Furthermore, I kind of prefer having a traditional pattern structure, rather than long strings of commands.

In any case, using calls/macros is a good idea.
At the moment, I'm thinking something along these lines

:order               // "order" would be a reserved keyword.
^intro               // names could be freely chosen
(loop)
^1                    // or short-handed by supplying only a number which will be expanded depending on context, ie. this will look for "pattern1"
...
// end directive is optional, as each block end can be determined by following :

:intro
A=a1  B=r  C=c3  D=e3  CFG=^1,^2,^3  FX=none        //note length fixed, ABCD=operator/channel, number after note name denotes octave
.                                                                                      //no changes in this row
A=a2  DUTY_A=#20
.
A=a1  B=a1-#1                                              // # denotes usage of immediate (hex) value instead of string literal
A=#800 FX=^1

:cfg1
GMIX=OR        // so alternative notation for phaser would be: GMIX=#b0

:cfg2
PHASE_AB=#1000
PHASE_CD=#0
DUTY_A=#40
DUTY_B=#40
DUTY_C=#20
MIX_AB=OR
MIX_CD=XOR

:cfg3
DUTY_D=#20
SID_A=OFF
SID_B=OFF
ES_A=OFF
ES_B=#1

:cfg4
GMIX=XOR

:fx1
A=C2
.
(loop)
A=c3 CFG=^4
.
A=c4 CFG=^1
.

Admittedly, it's still quite a mess, and nothing more than a rough draft.

Regarding independant patterns per channel vs multi-channel patterns: There are certain benefits to having independant patterns per channel, but I think that with Phase Squeek, it would make things super messy, both for editing and for parsing.

Working on speccy stuff? Blasphemy!

The problem is, drums > 5 can't be entered in Beepola iirc. I'd think that's a hard limit encoded with the engine somewhere, since with other engines Beepola quite happily accepts higher numbers. So, basically it just might be a question of finding that number and changing it. But yeah, chances to find it in the binary are probably not exactly great.

So I was curious whether it's possible to combine Shiru's Phaser technique with zilogat0r's Squeeker method. Turns out it works surprisingly well!
The downside is of course that the sound is somewhat less clean than with proper pulse interleaving. But there are various benefits to having only one OUT in the loop. It's not only faster, but also there's no need to keep the cycle count down because there's no need to render multiple volume levels.

I'm not motivated to turn this into a proper engine at the moment, since it would be impossible make an XM converter for it anyway. But if anyone wants to play around with this, please do!

EDIT: Added the good ol' adc a,n SID and Earth Shaker effects on channel 1. Because, why not. This brings the total of configurable parameters for the first channel up to 10:

- frequency OP1
- frequency OP2
- duty OP1
- duty OP2
- SID on/off OP1
- SID on/off OP2
- ES duty modulation OP1
- ES duty modulation OP2
- Phase
- Mixing method (xor | or | and)

All nicely aligned to 224 t-states

The next step could be to add some modulators which would update the parameters once per 256 loops or so. Or maybe digi rendering with lo-pass... ehhh... I've got a strange feeling this is getting outta hand...

Cheers guys Yes, Abrimaal's work actually renewed my interest in doing this.

introspec, so basically like a reverse Tim Follin player?

Thanks mate, glad you like it!