new engine: BetaPhase

Good news everyone, BetaPhase is the first engine to get Music Data Abstraction Language (MDAL) support! (If you missed the discussion about MDAL, read up on it here.

I haven't written much documentation yet, but usage should be pretty straightforward. Check out docs/betaphase.txt and examples/betaphase-demo.mdal. Some general notes:

- Unlike standard music markup languages like MML or ABC, the notation in MDAL is row-based, just like you would do it in a tracker.
- If you don't want to change anything in a given row, you can use the dot command (.) to specify just that.
- Pattern names must be lowercase.
- Specifying a loop point in the sequence is optional (will be set to sequence start if not specified).

MDAL is still in very early beta stage, I'm expecting it'll have tons of bugs at this stage. Let me know if you find any.
Most notably, there are two problems at the moment:
1) Mixing of strings and bit flags is not yet supported. In case of BetaPhase, that means that upward slides cannot be used in conjunction with note names, so you'd have to supply a note divider instead (see pattern1b in betaphase-demo.mdal)
2) There's no support for global constants yet, so MDAL will fall back to internal defaults in some cases (for example, speed is reset at the beginning of every pattern)

source:

git clone https://github.com/utz82/MDAL.git

win32 build

In the meantime, I've found a way to generate noise in BetaPhase, but I haven't updated the engine yet. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, a new, crappy demo tune, produced by the MDAL converter:

ah, and I forgot to tell, I love the borders! Best border effects so far!!

I guess the "is" included after a note (for example fis2) is for sharp (here: f sharp)?

ah yes, German notation... I was wondering.
Is it possible to use flat as well?

Just saying, in abc flat is _ before the note, ^ is for sharp and = for natural (but not applicable in mdal). So ^f2 would be f2 sharp and _g2 would be g2 flat.

I think you made something great with MDAL. It's perfectly suitable for this kind of music. The only criticism I could say is I find it less readable to get all the info on the same level for example:

A=a1, MIXA=xor, PHA=$800, PSCA1=down, C=c4, PSCC=down, SLIDESPD=$30, SPD=6

It might be more readable like this, with options between parenthesis:

A=a1 (MIXA=xor, PHA=$800, PSCA1=down), C=c4 (PSCC=down, SLIDESPD=$30, SPD=6)

(but maybe it's just me)

(edit)

I have a newer question. I have a simple example like this:

CONFIG=BetaPhase

:SEQUENCE
    
    ptn0
    [loop]
    ptn1
    
    

:ptn0
    A=e1, MIXA=xor, PHA=$400, PSCA1=none, PSCC=down, SLIDESPD=$30, SPD=12
    A=e2
    A=e1
    A=e2
    
:ptn1
    A=e1, MIXA=xor, PHA=$800, PSCA1=down, C=a3, PSCC=down, SLIDESPD=$30, SPD=12
    A=e2, C=rest, SLIDESPD=0
    A=e1, C=e2
    A=e1, B=f2
    A=e1, C=fis2
        A=e1, C=g2
        A=e1, C=gis2
    A=e2, C=b2

is the speed persistent across the patterns? For ptn1 if I remove SPD=12 then I get a little glitch (high pitch tone). If I set SPD=10 (default?), it's even different.
ok I understand, SPD=16 is default (and I get the sound glitch as well)
SPD=16 is 0x10

It works quite good.
I've begun to convert a little jig I made for gameboy (see attachment). Nothing fancy, it doesn't sound really "advanced" like the demo tunes. It made me work with the MDAL language though.

I see you're looking for making some global constants, it will be a great thing.

I'll post more about this soon.

A little feedback.

First,
I think the parser could be less strict, for example you can't write:

A=a3, C=d2,

the last comma prevents to compile the song.
As long as there is no data except space, tab or line break, it could consider the comma doesn't exist.

I'd like to see a comment mark (for example to comment a part so it won't play during the rendering)

I like the idea of columns for entering notes. I has an interesting effect, you don't have to enter the value of some notes, like that:

A=g3, B=d2
    A=d3
    A=a3
    A=f3
    A=e3
    A=g3
    
    A=f3, B=c1
    A=d3
    A=e3

here we have for B the d2 note which will last 6 steps, then c1 will last 3 steps. Yeah, basically it's the same as in trackers
I guess also it's easier to parse the notes.

It has some drawbacks however: It's less easy to copy and paste a track (for example channel 2). Some text editors support vertical selection though. When a channel is on a line, you can duplicate it more easily.
I think in addition to the current behaviour, it might worth adding, if possible, independent patterns, it means a pattern could contain only one voice, then you would mix the patterns together for different variations. The current behaviour is like on milkytracker, beepola or vortex tracker, I was thinking to something like on sidwizard or goattracker.

It means something like that would be legit:

     ptn1a, ptn1b, ptn1c

:ptn1a
A=f3, MIXA=and, MIXB=and, PHA=0, PSCA1=none, PSCC=none, SLIDESPD=0, DMOD=off, SPD=8
    A=d3,
    A=a3,
    A=d3
    A=f3, 
    A=e3, 
    
    A=f3,

:ptn1b
     B=d2,
    .
        .
        .
        .
    
     B=f2,


:ptn1c
     C=d2
     C=a2
    C=d2
    C=a2 
     C=d2
     C=a2
    
    C=c2

instead of:

    ptn1


:ptn1
    A=f3, B=d2, C=d2, MIXA=and, MIXB=and, PHA=0, PSCA1=none, PSCC=none, SLIDESPD=0, DMOD=off, SPD=8
    A=d3, C=a2
    A=a3, C=d2
    A=d3, C=a2 
    A=f3, C=d2
    A=e3, C=a2
    
    A=f3, B=f2, C=c2

It might look more verbose, but it could help to design very repetive parts. But maybe it'd be too complicated to parse.

(edit) thanks for the brackets addition, I'll have a look at it. Also for the value, what is correct, PHA=$800 or PHA=800, or is it the same?

I don't understand all the pattern commands effects, but I'll have a try.
In the betaphase.txt it's written
MIXB            Set mixing mode channel 1

I guess it's:
MIXB            Set mixing mode channel 2

don't bother with the , suggestion. It's sometimes quicker to keep them in place when you just remove an item, but it probably doesn't worth too much work on this.

For the comments, I can't use // in front of a pattern list (in the "sequence" part), I got this:

ERROR: Pattern "//    ptn1" is not defined.

I'm glad you've already considered using multiple patterns, it's not in a hurry but it'd help for song design. I think the mdal format would be more complete this way

Little sneak preview of the next version on BetaPhase attached below.

Changes:
+ Ch1/2 post-scalers are now pre-scalers
- Old (slow) Ch1 duty mod removed
+ New Ch1 duty mod, can be heard in the intro (using osc sync method - runs a bit too fast for my taste, so it's not terribly useful in any case)
+ Ch1 noise support
+ Ch2 duty mod w/ custom sweep speed, can be heard in the interlude (using Shiru's implementation, but with a variable counter increase every 256 loops instead of constant increase every loop)

Updated BetaPhase on github, and also updated the MDAL config accordingly.
If you want to keep using the old version, just rename the old BetaPhase.cfg to something like BetaPhaseOld.cfg, and use that name for the CONFIG= command. Generally speaking though, MDAL modules made for BetaPhase 0.1 should be mostly compatible with the new 0.2, except for the following:
- DMOD is now called DMOD1 (because there's also a DMOD2 command now)
- PSCA2/PSCB2 are now pre-scalers

A special note about the new NOISE command - the current implementation is a bit awkward. Basically, when you enable NOISE, you must also set PSCA1=0 and PSCA2=0. Likewise, when disabling noise, you should set PSCA1/2 to a value of your choice. You might as well ignore the noise command and just set PSCA1=$cb and PSCA2=2. The problem exists because I didn't forsee this particular use case where an internal masking command (SET_IF) should overwrite an existing value rather than ORing to it. I'll need to implement another config flag to avoid this mess but this might take a while.

That's cool. It's easier to design songs now there is this comment system. Thanks.
I find it still a bit difficult to compose something without listening to it while I'm entering notes but I think it could be a good exercice to train my ear. I can also design some melodies in a tracker if needed.