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ChipMusic.org / Forums / Posts by breakphase
People are people
So why should it be?
Chiptune music, is almost always in c.
We're different OSes and were different speeds,
and different trackers have different needs.
I would say the Atom Heart (Atom™) of Chipmusic - i.e. much more talented / prolific / interesting / well rounded than an Aphex Twin comparison
In terms of music, I'd say 4mat is closer to Aphex, really. I don't know if he " the aphex" twin of chipsongs, but, they do sound a bit similar.
I follow him on twitter. I bet he would be okay with it... it's an homage, clearly.
And I mean, all she really did was violate some silly 200 year old copyright law. =P
The whole thing is 100 % written from scratch with SDL. The UI troubles are not technical but more about finding out which key is available to everyone (e.g. is there a F12 key on the keyboard, should CTRL-C be actually CMD-C on Macs etc.). Oldschool trackers are maybe the most tactile software ever written and basically utilize the keyboard as well as it's possible - it's a bit of a challenge to make that work on touch screens unless you somehow find a very different way to track.
Yes that is a very daunting problem, but potentially a big accomplishment if you did even an ok job at it. Having Such portability as you do is a huge bonus in many ways. But yeah, the draw back is you have to imagine a bunch of compatible UI paradigms.
the thing that I loved about keyboard tracking was that it was so fast, and gave me a really fast listen->modify->repeat cycle. As long as you can do those somehow, I think it would be successful.
Oh wait... are you using SDL to write the UI, komet?
yes except if you really know what you're doing and/or don't like experimenting, the ctrl+s / revert-shortcut, ctrl+z/ctrl+y are like the most common combo you'll use yikes and on phones if you have to long touch, or swipe on the side to reach an option, you're slowing your workflow so much, it's really frustrating,
Right, I use those a lot too. Even on a PC, it's nice to flip back and forth. Basically, on a phone, you have to take the *most* important stuff, and just make it really accessible. Which, on a tracker, ends up meaning you need a big context-sensitive area to tap on. You need to turn those hot keys into buttons, and make them easy to hit.
What I have learned is that making portable software is not about getting it running but trying to somehow satisfy all platforms and their weird UI conventions...
I guess I'll start with an undo feature, it's useful in any case!
Sorry I didn't mean to add anything to your todo list! 
Oh yeah, mobile needs a lot of focus on UI. Theoretically you can avoid the weird conventions by just writing your UI in OpenGL, but that's asking a lot. I just build my audio code in cross-platform C++, and have the GUI layer make calls into it. Which is still a pain for porting between OSes. Oh well.
>Is it even possible to have an usable tracker with no keyboard?
komet, did you try nanoloop on android or ios?
i also like the way dotpict works (it's a pixel art app on android),you have to adapt to the touch interface, i think both of those apps have a good approach:
you select the place you want to interact with by touching it (a note on nanoloop, a pixel on dotpict) and then you touch/slide elsewhere (usually an empty spot of the screen) to finetune it (you slide on nanoloop to choose the correct note, frequency, on dotpict to change the color of the pixel).
it's hard to interact with something when you have your finger on it, so it's better to have a zone to select, and another zone to play with,
how could it work with a tracker? some ideas,
if the regular interface use a 4:3 ratio, you have an empty spot you can fill for the 16:9 ratio of the phone like in the screenshot you posted,
i like the idea of having the undo/redo button because you makes lots of mistakes on phones, and/or you can quickly experiment stuff and revert to the previous state
so you touch the spot you want to edit, example the note, or several notes if you make a selection,
- 2 icons appears (in the option area, check the pic above): note/scale, by default on note
- if your selection is empty a single tap on the finetune_area set a default note ; if you touch and slide you change the note according to your positionyou can manage copy/paste with that finetune_area:
- if you keep touching the note/selection of notes, and double tap on the finetune_area it copies it,
- if you double tap the the finetune_area, it paste the clipboard on the spot you're currently located
I've gotta say, you're on the right track with that overlay. The undo/redo are a good thing to have right in front. You make accidental edits a lot with a touch screen.
I shift the bass around when I'm stuck, which works especially well for differentiating new sections and melodies tend to write themselves over an interesting bassline, or progression in the least (ex: I always try to start on a new note from the previous section).
Yeah I didn't think of it, but I do tend to let the bass do the walking. which is usual the *root note, or wherever, in my songs. The bass note is just dancing around the root of the chords usually.
I can go either way on the "leave it alone for a while" thing. Sometimes I just power through, and write anything, with the knowledge that I can always reload the song.
Yeah your wheelhouse on that thing is going to be old PPC Mac audio software. Of which there are myriad. I'm sure there's still stuff around on torrent sites and shit. I only advocate that for legacy software.
i believe you could get ubuntu running on that machine (maybe do it as a dual-boot in case you want to use old mac software too), which might let you use the linux version of piggy tracker on it
That's a very good idea.
Make up a few verses of goofy lyrics, add a new tune to the second verse and then forget all the lyrics. Maybe that will mix it up a bit.
That's pretty creative!
Make another loop with the same sounds. Or, how about this: don't loop it. Construct each new pattern by ear. Don't copy/paste any patterns. And don't sit there listening to it forever.
A+ Thanks
Spinning 'round and 'round
-Cake..............................
Hows life; aspirations; personal progress?
April FooLs! Now your dreams will never come true! Just kidding, that's not how dreams work.
I'm almost done with a very distinctive iPhone tracker. It's sample based so I'm using it to make a breakcore song, which is pretty fun. I'll show the song to people probably...mostly excited for the tracker.
Oh cool! Welcome! I'm sure we'd be interested in the aforementioned tracker when you're ready to announce it.
Edit: I feel that, I should disclose that I am also a developer, who is working on a tracker for iOS. it's raining iOS trackers all of a sudden.
Ur welcome bitlich.
I found a nice PDF manual too.
Just wanted to say hello!!
heart old man Low-Gain
ChipMusic.org / Forums / Posts by breakphase
