1 (edited by Shiru 2023-10-21 03:49:08)

Topic: EBT - ESPboy tracker

A new project of mine. A LSDJ-inspired tracker for a portable DIY device called ESPboy. The device is based on a cheap IoT microcontroller ESP8266, which is quite powerful (up to 160 MIPS), yet limited in the resources compared to many other similar devices. It uses a 128x128 color TFT screen, so the interface s even more crammed than the LSDJ's.

http://shiru.untergrund.net/temp1/ebt_ui.png

The software sound engine is vaguely connected to our 1-bit stuff: it is based on the wtbeep engine. It takes the best of it, and improves the sound quality using the device's power. It features four channels with a clean sound. It also features an actual volume and stereo left/center/right controls, so it is not really 1-bit anymore, but there are 4 volume levels only, and no volume envelopes, so it still sounds similar to the 1-bit stuff.

The tracker engine features single-channel patterns of variable lengths (you can mix up different lengths in an order position), and MOD-like effects with up to two effects per note.

The package includes the ESPboy binary, a Windows SDL build (should be easily portable to Linux and such, but not ready-to-use yet), the source code of course, and a detailed PDF instructions. Released under WTFPL.

No demo songs yet.

Download

Also, there is github, but it will be lagging behind I bit, I think.

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Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Damn, it looks fantastic, very polished UI design in such a small space. Some demo songs would be great, unfortunately I don't have time to dive into this at the moment.

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Sure, I'm working on getting some demos made, as well as improving it even further. Don't have much time myself, but hopefully will do some music using it eventually.

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Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

it looks great!
I've tested the emulator, it works fine with wine. The interface somehow reminds me of 1tracker smile

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

While a new version in the works, a small demo of what it is capable of (at least). I tuned up the sound synthesis code to match up the wtbeep's waveforms closely, so it was easy to port Freezing Point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1X9BQW1AZw

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Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

I'm listening to it now, that's so impressive, I love the sound and the tune, well done!
The stereo add a so powerful effect...

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Wow really impressive. Sounds great

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

EBT has been updated to v1.1. It is easier to use on a PC now, as it uses a different control layout, and supports PC keyboard. A custom made keyboard technically can be also attached to the device, and it is possible to support it, which opens up interesting possibilities too.

Changes are:

- Play option removed from SONG screen
- Name and author fields are added to the song file, can be set from the SONG screen
- Squeeze function added to optimize song data
- Some waveforms tuned up to match the original wtbeep, to allow easy conversion between two
- Stereo panning reworked a bit, allowing 9 positions left-to-right instead of 3
- Default panning settings are added
- An option to swap the LFT/RGT buttons
- A crash course section added into the manual
- Two cursor colors swapped to make it more visible with blinking off
- Play/Stop info line is only shown while the RGT button is held down
- 32 extra waveforms added, including various noise and modulation effects
- Sound synthesizer and music player separated into two independent entities
- A standalone player code that stores data in the program memory

Hardware-specific:

- LovyanGFX display library supported
- 2.0 inch TFT display support (ST7789V) for a custom built EBTboy

SDL build specific:

- Irrelevant config options such as sound output device are not displayed
- 128x128 and 240x340 modes support, with 8x8 and 15x16 fonts
- Main control keys are remapped
- Direct keyboard support added, for entering numbers, letters, and better navigation

website - 1bit music - other music - youtube - bandcamp - patreon - twitter (latest news there)

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Very pleasant sound, indeed. Btw, when you have things ready for linux, I can help with testing the build, at least.

10 (edited by Shiru 2023-11-10 13:13:16)

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

I haven't tried it with Linux just yet, but it should be trivial, as it does not use any third-party components besides SDL2. So this untested makefile may work. Please try it if it is not too much hassle. I'll get to it eventually, but I don't have an easy to access Linux environment at the moment.

I also have a report it works just fine with WINE.

Edit: Actually, attempted to make it work. It compiles and starts, although it crashes on me right away, but so does 1tracker in the same install (lubuntu in VirtualBox). I uploaded the WIP in place of the release, you may try it out.

Edit: fixed it up some more, now it fully works under Linux.

website - 1bit music - other music - youtube - bandcamp - patreon - twitter (latest news there)

11

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Can confirm that the build works. However I can't run it, it's complaining about a missing data/ebt.cfg.

12 (edited by Shiru 2023-11-10 21:07:52)

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

You need to have /fonts/ and /data/ in the same directory with the executable, if they're not found, it won't be able to load fonts and will close. Missing ebt.cfg is just a warning, it will report it and continue to work. When you'll change something in the CONF for first time, it'll create the config file and stop giving this warning.

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13

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Alright, got it working. Quick'n'dirty test doodle attached.
The SDL number keys seem a bit wonky, sometimes returning the "last entry" instead of the actual number of the key pressed. Other than that I couldn't spot any issues on my quick try-out.

Post's attachments

TEST1.ebt 1.5 kb, 4 downloads since 2023-11-10 

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Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Wow, sounds sick!

Not too sure about the number keys, maybe a specific scenario to reproduce the issue? Does it happens all around, or at a particular screen such as order or pattern editor?

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15

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

I can't remember the details, sorry. It was only some specific places where it was happening, not all around. I'll look into it again after next week.

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

Promoted the current version to v1.11 with minor changes and fixes, as I have a number of bigger ones in the works.

website - 1bit music - other music - youtube - bandcamp - patreon - twitter (latest news there)

Re: EBT - ESPboy tracker

v1.2 is up. It got a single step Undo, a file manager, and instrument pairing. That is, you can pair any instrument with any other, getting modulation effects. It increases polyphony to 8 voices, because why not - we don't often have a chance to do it in our 8-bit implementations.

website - 1bit music - other music - youtube - bandcamp - patreon - twitter (latest news there)