Meanwhile, I'm keeping an eye out for one of the original CD-R copies so I can figure out what the hell the track listing was 
Shame they were all stolen on one of the Chiptune Alliance tours... I'll figure it out, though
17 Aug 2, 2011 10:03 am
Re: Syphus - pro.tect (23 replies, posted in Releases)
19 Jul 30, 2011 5:19 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Wehey! Well it's 6:20GMT, I'm about to go to bed for about 7 hours. If you need any last-minute fixes done before you perform, be sure to let me know before midnightGMT/Saturday night. Otherwise...best of luck for Sunday!
20 Jul 30, 2011 3:15 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Goddamn Java.
If I do invest the time in getting competent at a C-like language (which I can't really afford these days, but might do anyway), I reckon it'll probably be Objective C for iOS 
iOS and Apple in general make me extremely angry, but I'd love to have ChipdiscoDJ on a mobile platform and Android STILL isn't up to the task of lag-free, stutter-free complex audio mixing without arcane native code that needs to be painstakingly tested on a massively fragmented hardware base. That makes me angry too. My Samsung Galaxy S is great at being a phone but shit at being a mobile app platform; iPhones are shit at being phones, but great at being mobile app platforms. Such is life.
21 Jul 29, 2011 3:24 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
By the way, I hate Java but it's the only compiled language I'm capable of doing anything in - if I knew C++, this would be some slick-motherfucker native ASIO/CoreAudio beast of a program 
22 Jul 29, 2011 3:22 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
No probs! Hmm, mystery about why the script won't run... I've run it on Ubuntu in the past, but I don't have Ubuntu installed on anything at the moment. Lazerbeat might be able to shed some light - maybe he did some tweaks to get it running...? Since you're a Linux user, I guess you've already thought about things like file permissions and so on. Is it throwing any kind of error? I'm using a Sun JRE on OSX; Java on my Windows 7 machine (usually my main desktop box) has decided to completely fuck itself up beyond all belief, along with a bunch of other stuff, so I'm probably going to have to reformat/reinstall one of these days (a laborious and unappealing prospect...).
I'm afraid there's no way to set the latency - the way it is now is about as good as I can get it. Javasound introduces an extra layer of software into the audio chain and - unless you run it on a beefy machine - latency is just a feature the language and the process. Personally, I get very little latency these days... Switching from Java 5 to Java 6 helped a bit, as did doing lots of tests with buffer sizes, and I'm a little surprised to hear it's a big problem for you; it makes me think that maybe there's an issue with the JRE config. You mentioned that you've had to tweak it (even though that isn't ideal) - can you let me know more about your setup, JRE version, CPU speed, etc? To what extent does reconfiguring improve things? And it is only Linux you've tried it on, or do you have dual/triple boot with other operating systems on the same machine? I'm no Java expert but it's worth a try 
Reduce visual output - I guess you mean stuff like lower the framerate, disable some of the volume bars, etc. It's already down to 24fps (as far as I can remember), which I did back when I was running this on an old Eee 1.6Ghz Atom - a little bit of a struggle, but it mostly worked. When I get time, I might test some builds with some graphics disabled and see if the Eee handles that any better.
23 Jul 28, 2011 5:11 pm
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Thanks dude! I noticed last night, while downloading the nanoKontrol software, that it supports the nK and the nK2, so maybe the scene sets are partly compatible? Worth a try loading it up... If not, and if you do create an nK2 scene that works for you, would you mind sending it my way so I can make it available for download? Actually, it would be cool to have a selection of templates for various controllers...maybe more people will contribute them as time goes on!
I've been doing a few tweaks today; hopefully it still works, for the most part. Honestly, much as I love the fact that it works in the browser, it's not really an ideal means of using it...slow to load, some platforms are weird about resource allocation to the JVM when it's running in-browser for some inexplicable reason. It's the same code and the same engine; I don't understand. One of the mysteries of why Java is fundamentally a little bit shit I don't want to abandon the browser applet, but I'll need to do some work to make sure the URL arguments work. At the moment, it won't load remote or even local files, despite being certificate-signed - NO idea why. We'll see.
Making modules for live use - great, it'd be awesome to get some tutorials on this! I'm interested to hear what you come up with, and I'll contribute anything I can think of from my own experience. I love loading up a selection of chopped breakbeats in an 8-pattern module and skipping back and forth arbitrarily on 'continue' patternskip mode...mega fun, without any instajungle-style VSTs
24 Jul 28, 2011 3:21 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Okay man, check http://crayolon.net/chipdisco, where you can grab a linux build and a nanoKontrol scenedata set file that should be set up properly (it's very like the factory default, but some buttons have been changed from momentary to toggle). The page also has keyboard controls listed, which are hopefully up to date. I need to tidy up that page; it's a right mess.
Anyway, I'm pretty much burned for the night but I'll be able to fix things tomorrow afternoon, so if you get a chance to try it and you find problems, just let me know. I'm sure we'll get things sorted in time for Sunday
25 Jul 28, 2011 1:35 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Awww snizzap; I got a load of work done on Chipdisco while running sound for that gig \o/ The bands were happy with a hands-off approach...
Anyway, I'm testing what I hope is a near-final list of MIDI CCs. It's almost identical to the Scene #1 factory settings on the nanoKontrol, although you need to edit the scene to make six buttons toggles instead of momentary controls. I'll probably but a scene file up for download, just in case anyone really has difficulty with that. Of course, anyone who doesn't have a nanoKontrol can just read my CC spec and configure their own hardware for ChipdiscoDJ; it just suits me (and Lazerbeat!) to base it on the nanoKontrol.
Lazerbeat - you'll have to study the CC listings carefully. There are one or two changes which I hope make some sense, and some controls that were previously commented out have been reinstated. You can glance at the Google Docs link right now to see what's what, but I'll hopefully have another build uploaded within the half-hour.
26 Jul 27, 2011 4:15 pm
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Hehe, save m3u does work Click it...then paste into a textfile and save as *.m3u! It was the most cross-platform way of doing it that also worked in all web browsers. Processing and Java have some stupid limitations on some platforms when it comes to specifying filetypes in a save dialogue, although the load dialogues work perfectly well. I need to document it better, but then I need to document the whole thing better.
Unmute all - the code for this is half done, in a Milkytracker/Renoise style solo/unmute-all/etc thing. It's a little bit of a brainteaser, plus I have to consider single button mice/touchpads (I was going to use right-click for soloing the selected channel, then double-right-click for unmuting all, or something). I'll work on that...
Right, I'm off to run sound for a noise gig - I'll try to surreptitiously keep working on CDDJ while pretending to ride the mixing desk, otherwise expect another (near-final?) update in the early hours GMT.
27 Jul 27, 2011 3:07 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Yeah, I'm having trouble making my mind up about the GUI... Really, the whole thing could do with being half the height - the infodisplay and the coloured channel bars aren't really necessary, but I like them and it gives the playlist space to strech out (I do have hacky scrollbuttons when the playlist length exceeds the height of the box, but that whole system *occasionally* flakes out...). I played with having the buttons vertically, like you said, but it didn't feel right. Having said that, nothing feels 'right' on software DJing, especially if - like me - you spent some miserable years in your youth DJing off CDs in nightclubs on Numark rackmounts with horizontal transport sections. But I guess *that* layout wasn't brill either...
Oh, and you're spot on about the tempo master/slave arrows - I simply couldn't be arsed to make the buttons and I had an exclamation mark one spare I've got a range of nice < and > arrow symbols I could use, but they all look too confusingly like play buttons, and since I don't have anything so luxurious as a tooltip system in this app, I can't just type the controls' explanations in there. And I want to avoid having text labels for stuff. So that's under consideration too!
Actually, I thought you might have said the crossfader was now too thin - but you didn't, so that's cool. It was unnecessarily big before; either a user is using a MIDI control for that or - if they're using a laptop touchpad - if they're drunk enough to miss the new crossfader they're probably drunk enough to have made a mess of the old one.
Tempo reset - I just had a look at v0.2 and I can't see one there, but I think I had a key/CC for it. There'll still be a key/CC for it, but it might change... Was there really a GUI button for that? Did I add it for a build I sent you and then take it out, or something? It's possible...
Playlist size - I'd quite like to shorten the height of the entire thing, to make it even more laptop friendly - perhaps even for beefy netbooks that are capable of running it, if such things exist. So do you reckon you'd quickly fill the playlist at the size it is now? I think it can take around 25 items before scrolling now... Even if the scrolling doesn't always work, you can remove old stuff from the top of the list by double right-clicking (I might have to change that for people whose Macs are still configured to Middle Ages). How many songs do you think you'll want loaded for your forthcoming set, anyway? Knowing that will help me decide whether to prioritise fixing the scrolling stuff ahead of other things.
Many thanks for the kind words, btw - yeah, I'm much happier with the general look of it now. The old buttons were a mammoth hassle to work with, even though the library I used for them is *supposed* to make things easier. Lots of unexplained null pointer exceptions which trigger epic bughunts when it could be one of thirty instances, each with about 20 lines of fiddly config calls. So I did my own button system from scratch and arsed myself to open Photoshop - took a fraction of the time and now everything's looking better I might eventually do something about those shabby buttons beneath the playlist, but other stuff's more important.
So is it usable for you yet? I'll still fix the keys/MIDI tonight and tomorrow, but I want to be sure you'll be able to use it for your set even if something goes wrong on my end
28 Jul 26, 2011 7:41 pm
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Right - check the same link again to get an updated version. I've mostly fixed up the GUI now (though there's a bit of free space I've yet to fill gracefully - considering a few things...) and you can try the tempo master/slave buttons, marked '!', and the 'v' and 'b' keys for independent pattern reset. See how you get on and remind me if I've forgotten anything.
When I get home tonight, possibly after a few pints, I'll try to sort out the MIDI CCs and then sign an applet version for widespread use...but I'll await your reply and input before going all-out public with it!
All the best
29 Jul 26, 2011 3:58 pm
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Pitch was mapped...but maybe I commented it out when I was implementing joystick control a while back. Don't get too excited though - it was a bit of a disaster because it requires a DLL (or similar OS-specific, non-Java wrapper library) so wouldn't work in the browser, and I didn't want to fork into two different versions. It was properly awesome though, using my USB Competition Pro with the fire buttons as modifiers! I guess anyone who cared enough could replicate the effect using a joystick-to-MIDI program. There are some awful ones for Windows that don't really work and some really good ones for Mac that cost money. Such is life.
^ Independent pattern-restarts - sure thing, I'll probably tie them to the buttons previously used for the now-deprecated 'prev/next' playlist function. That continue vs row 0 toggle, yup, very easy to give that a key and MIDI toggle.
MIDI CCs - I haven't touched those this past week, as I'm going to get everything else in place and do them at the very end. Needless to say, I'll be testing using the nanoKontrol so I'll try to figure out the most efficient mapping of the most important things...
30 Jul 26, 2011 2:51 pm
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Cheers, fixed that. Also, while LEFT/RIGHT arrows load and autoplay, SHIFT+LEFT/RIGHT now load paused. Might be handy.
The retriggering you saw in the PortaMod vid - I had to remind myself by going through the old code, but that was a test of a tracker-command 'injection' system I wrote, whereby you just hoof in the relevant hex code (E9X for retrigger) and it interprets it and factors it into the replay engine before mixing. Aaaand...it doesn't work terribly well... Definitely not well enough to be considered a global retrigger/glitch command. I know why it doesn't, but it can't easily be improved. Actually, it does work quite well with portamento commands, and I've been able to do a pretty funky (but useless) whammybar pitchbend thing - a bit like the Atari Synthcart spacebar plunge thing. But yeah, it could cause you problems when playing live if I put this frankly rather rubbish code in ChipdiscoDJ so I'm not going to until I have time to really sort it out.
You were also talking about instant pattern-restart - can you clarify that a bit for me please? The crude spacebar sync thing effectively does that right now, but I guess it's not doing what you need... Is it just that you want to be able to restart the pattern in Deck A without restarting the pattern in Deck B? Let me know and I'll work something out.
By the way, the bpm-match/master-slave thing is coming, don't worry
31 Jul 26, 2011 2:20 am
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Okay, I just flung you a link on Twitter - Linux application version, should work... And as you can see, I'm in the midst of rehashing the GUI - ignore the mess for now
I was thinking that if there was a setting to lower the resolution, somebody could have a 64-pattern module mapped to just 4 buttons, where the increment between keys '1, 2, 3, 4' was 16. Or whatever. Make sense? I don't know how useful it'd be; maybe I should just keep things simple.
32 Jul 25, 2011 9:35 pm
Re: ChipdiscoDJ v0.21 public release (109 replies, posted in Releases)
Aight, Lazerbeat, it's done! Shift + 1-8, q-i, a-k, z-, for Deck A; Alt + the same for Deck B.
There's a new dropdown menu at the top to choose behaviour - either 'Row 0' (play the triggered pattern from the beginning instantly) or 'Continue' (jump to the next row on the new pattern).
Personally, I'd find Continue really useful with these slice triggers (as I'm calling them) - it'd be great for seamlessly chopping through patterns containing different chopped breakbeats while keeping perfect time, even better if two mods were nicely synced and the crossfader was in the middle on max pow (both decks on full volume).
Do you think it's worth my while adding another dropdown so you can choose resolution? For example, with a resolution of 4, a 32-pattern module would be mapped across keys '1, 2, 3, 4' so that each trigger had an increment of 8 patterns. Make sense? More to the point, would it be useful?
I've never signed applets on the Mac but it shouldn't be too hard...once I've figured it out I'll upload this to a private URL for you to mess about with.