Arkos Tracker 2 - Released!

[Targhan]

@reidrac
Ah, the profile thing is interesting. Something I have overlooked is that the binary generation can fail if you use mnemonics that are not understood by the embedded Rasm. One may think I should force a "base" z80 profile internally! But it is not so simple: potentially the user can use any profile he wants (for 68000 or 6802 processor). But the failing assembling has been managed, it should show a message, and shouldn't crash. Please give me the fields of your profile, I'll check that.

@mahlemiut
Now I understand your previous-previous message, please don't be so cryptic . So no File Picker is shown, unless you install kdialog, is that right? Can you give me your OS configuration? Thanks.   

[Targhan]

@reidrac

How can I stop the music? I tried to stop calling PLY_LW_Play from my int handler, but that leaves the PSG in a state that may left noise behind. I haven't found this functionality in the code.

This has been added in my players, and will be available in the next release. If you're in a hurry I can give you the snippet.

[reidrac]

@reidrac
Ah, the profile thing is interesting. Something I have overlooked is that the binary generation can fail if you use mnemonics that are not understood by the embedded Rasm. One may think I should force a "base" z80 profile internally! But it is not so simple: potentially the user can use any profile he wants (for 68000 or 6802 processor). But the failing assembling has been managed, it should show a message, and shouldn't crash. Please give me the fields of your profile, I'll check that. 

There you are!

[reidrac]

@reidrac
This has been added in my players, and will be available in the next release. If you're in a hurry I can give you the snippet.

I can wait. I found a way to manage it (I think). Looking forward to the next release!

[Targhan]

@reidrac Ok, so this is normal, Rasm doesn't understand these. But my remark before is actually wrong: I should force a standard Profile when exporting to binary and add a note indicating the binary is for z80. This is an oversight I will correct.
In the meantime, simply use a more conventional profile when exporting to binary and all will be fine. Sorry for the inconvenience!

[mahlemiut]

@mahlemiut
Now I understand your previous-previous message, please don't be so cryptic . So no File Picker is shown, unless you install kdialog, is that right? Can you give me your OS configuration? Thanks.   

It either did nothing, or would sometimes lock up for a period.

Arch Linux x86_64, kernel 4.15.1, KDE Plasma 5.12, Qt 5.10
CPU is 3.7GHz i3-6100, 8GB RAM

[Targhan]

@mahlemiut But now, with kdialog installed, does it work fine (showing the native file picker?)?

[mahlemiut]

@mahlemiut But now, with kdialog installed, does it work fine (showing the native file picker?)?

Yes, now it's fine. (Just a bit loud )

[cpcitor]

@mahlemiut But now, with kdialog installed, does it work fine (showing the native file picker?)?

I confirm using strace that the application checks for kdialog and zenity, and none of those was installed.

I installed zenity and now get a native file picker which respects my local theme (since it's zenity indeed).

Let's try to summarize:

* an app (JUCE or anything else) with some custom colors can easily gets unreadable areas and it's impossible for the developer to test the many appdialogs*platforms*theme_engine*theme_colors combinations.
* a plain JUCE app, no custom color, is displayed with JUCE theme (not native theme) and the JUCE file picker is readable
* if kdialog or zenity is installed, the app uses it, showing a file picker with native (thus readable) theme instead of JUCE theme. Thus a little inconsistency but no big deal IMHO.

Is this a faithful summary?


Cheers!





(Only for those who like extra head scratching: what happens if both zenity and kdialog are installed? Does JUCE check what desktop environment is running?)

[Targhan]

Good summary, yes.

[cpcitor]

Good summary, yes.

Thanks for taking care of providing a test app. 

[Targhan]

The guys from JUCE told me that I could embed KDialog to AT2. However, I'm a bit afraid to do that. I think it is better if I:
- Correct the color scheme of the JUCE file picker.
- Tell in the "troubleshooting" section of the AT2 website about Zenity or KDialog if the users want the native dialog (or if like @mahlemiut , the file picker freezes).


What do you think? I'm really not fond of including dependencies like that, I'm pretty sure this will bring more problems that it will solve.

[reidrac]

The guys from JUCE told me that I could embed KDialog to AT2. However, I'm a bit afraid to do that. I think it is better if I:
- Correct the color scheme of the JUCE file picker.
- Tell in the "troubleshooting" section of the AT2 website about Zenity or KDialog if the users want the native dialog (or if like @mahlemiut , the file picker freezes).


What do you think? I'm really not fond of including dependencies like that, I'm pretty sure this will bring more problems that it will solve.

Relaying on an external app to do dialogs sounds...

Not sure, but documenting dependencies is probably best. Linux users should know how to install them, so I'd say: keep it simple.

[cpcitor]

The guys from JUCE told me that I could embed KDialog to AT2. However, I'm a bit afraid to do that. I think it is better if I:
- Correct the color scheme of the JUCE file picker.
- Tell in the "troubleshooting" section of the AT2 website about Zenity or KDialog if the users want the native dialog (or if like @mahlemiut , the file picker freezes).


What do you think? I'm really not fond of including dependencies like that, I'm pretty sure this will bring more problems that it will solve.

You're probably pretty right. Embedding kdialog reliably may imply a lot of more-or-less-heavy lifting. What you suggests means : (1) making sure things are readable anyway (2) offering a user-selectable alternative. And I'm fine with that!

[Targhan]

Breaking news! Arkos Tracker 2 V2.0.0 a2 has been released! Go the website to download (and hopefully enjoy) it!


A few features:

   
• Added the Generic player, with sound effects.
• Added a stand-alone sound effects player.
• Added a NOP-accurate AKY player (for Amstrad CPC).
• And many bug and crash fixes.

Thanks to everyone who tested it and helped improved Arkos Tracker.

[Sice]

Hey Targhan,


Thanks for the new version, it's great :-). I've been having some fun writing some new patterns.


I posted a few comments in the specific forum. I wanted to ask, because of the way I write songs (short bursts of inspiration) I often create 1 or two tracks at a time when building my song. Would it be possible to have the ability to save a track to disk, so that I could give it a long descriptive name e.g. 'Main melody - hard bass and drums'? I can imagine this might be a little tricky to implement, especially if you try and load this track into another song that doesn't have the same instruments. Maybe on import it could have a popup box where you choose what instruments in your song to map to the imported pattern?


After working on a song for some time I tried importing a previously saved drum sample from a .MOD file, but when I try and import it into an existing FM instrument nothing happens. It seems you can do this the other way around though..try importing a MOD file, then load a previously saved FM instrument to replace one of the samples - this seems to work.


Thanks again for an awesome tool!

[Targhan]

Importing a track... Tricky indeed. I'll think about it!


As for your import problem, I'll check this this evening. Thanks for the report!

[Targhan]

A new version (a3) has just been released!


A lot was done in this released, including:

- Adapted all the players to MSX, Spectrum.
- Added a MOD player (CPC-only, limited effects).
- Created a specific Lightweight player for the SHARP MZ 700, as well as the sound effect player.
- Added a AKY player that uses the 6-channel of the TurboSound extension for Spectrum.
- Added a AKY player that uses the 9-channel of the Spectrum Next.
- RAW and AKG export (via UI and command line) now integrate sample export.
- Added new parameters in all the command line tools to set the source profiles (change mnemonics, etc.).
- In the PSGs, the mixing type can be set (ABC, ACB, BCA etc.).
- In the Output Panel of the Setup, and the WAV Exporter, the volume of each channel (left/center/right) can be defined.
- In the Source Profiles, added the possibility to encode "one mnemonic type per line" (especially useful for 68000 assemblers). Also available for all the command line tools.
- Added a basic DC offset removal on WAV export.


Plus a lot of smaller additions and bug fixes. Download it here!

[reidrac]

A new version (a3) has just been released!


A lot was done in this released, including:

- Adapted all the players to MSX, Spectrum.
- Added a MOD player (CPC-only, limited effects).
- Created a specific Lightweight player for the SHARP MZ 700, as well as the sound effect player.
- Added a AKY player that uses the 6-channel of the TurboSound extension for Spectrum.
- Added a AKY player that uses the 9-channel of the Spectrum Next.
- RAW and AKG export (via UI and command line) now integrate sample export.
- Added new parameters in all the command line tools to set the source profiles (change mnemonics, etc.).
- In the PSGs, the mixing type can be set (ABC, ACB, BCA etc.).
- In the Output Panel of the Setup, and the WAV Exporter, the volume of each channel (left/center/right) can be defined.
- In the Source Profiles, added the possibility to encode "one mnemonic type per line" (especially useful for 68000 assemblers). Also available for all the command line tools.
- Added a basic DC offset removal on WAV export.


Plus a lot of smaller additions and bug fixes. Download it here!

I need to look at this but, any relevant changes on the lightweight player?

[Targhan]

Unless I'm wrong, a few lines were changed to correct an access to the PSG. A trick is used (courtesy of Madram) to accelerate the access to the PSG, and the ordering of the OUT was slightly wrong. It works but on a real CPC, the cassette relay was turned on whenever the music started. Check your production on a real CPC, if you don't hear a "click" from the cassette relay, then you already have the right version! But it's very easy to correct, don't worry.

[Arnaud]

Unless I'm wrong, a few lines were changed to correct an access to the PSG. A trick is used (courtesy of Madram) to accelerate the access to the PSG, and the ordering of the OUT was slightly wrong. It works but on a real CPC, the cassette relay was turned on whenever the music started. Check your production on a real CPC, if you don't hear a "click" from the cassette relay, then you already have the right version! But it's very easy to correct, don't worry.

Have you changed something to the binary export of sound FX ? Because now all works on my converted version for SDCC 

[Targhan]

No change at all, if I remember right.

[reidrac]

Unless I'm wrong, a few lines were changed to correct an access to the PSG. A trick is used (courtesy of Madram) to accelerate the access to the PSG, and the ordering of the OUT was slightly wrong. It works but on a real CPC, the cassette relay was turned on whenever the music started. Check your production on a real CPC, if you don't hear a "click" from the cassette relay, then you already have the right version! But it's very easy to correct, don't worry.

I'm aware of that issue; will update my version. Thanks!

EDIT: done, it was a minor change. Thanks for this!

[TCMSLP]

Does anyone have a workaround for copy/paste?  I'm loving the power of this but having difficulty composing without the ability to copy a pattern and modify.




TCM/SLP

[Targhan]

Yes : just wait a little bit more, copy/paste in the pattern is due to the next release .