glitchDS: Cellular Automaton Music Sequencer @ glitchDS

glitchDS: Cellular Automaton Music Sequencer

Posted on May 24th, 2008 admin 38 comments

Announcing the release of glitchDS, a FREE homebrew Cellular Automaton music sequencer for the Nintendo DS. It’s perfect for creating IDM and Glitch style loops. R4DS is required for using this application. (See the documentation for reports on other working cards besides R4DS.)

Download glitchDS here. Read the documentation.
Just released: soundpack1.zip

Features include:
- Customizable Cellular Automaton sequencer
- Create your own “trigger points”
- Load in your own sounds
- Save and load your work
- BPM settings, or “strum mode” for controlling tempo
- Up to 6 sounds can be loaded at once
- Each sound has its own 32 step frequency modulation sequencer
- Global Distortion setting
Here’s a video demo:

Coming soon:
- Additional sound packs.
- Tutorial on how to prepare and include your own sounds. (For all you hackers out there: sox -V example.wav -c 1 -2 -r 22050 example.raw )
Be aware that the BPM settings aren’t perfect. I’ll be fine-tuning them for a future release. If anyone knows how to get a *perfect* BPM on the DS, please leave me a comment.

Uncategorized ds, glitch, idm, sequencer
38 responses to “glitchDS: Cellular Automaton Music Sequencer”
- Lee May 26th, 2008 at 00:01
  
  Thanks alot for this! Very interesting idea for a sequencer. I really like the evolution concept behind it. Very stable and feature filled for a first release. I’m looking forward to the new soundpacks. 10/10!
  
  BTW I’m running a CycloDS Evolution and everything works great.
- admin May 26th, 2008 at 02:03
  
  BirdFLU contacted me and told me that, “I’m excited about this app. However, ClamXav on my Mac says this zip file has a virus. Only virus alert I’ve ever had on OS X in 5 years.” He followed up with, “Okay I researched this and I guess there’s a false positive when zip files reach a certain compression ratio. I unzipped it and re-scanned it and it was fine. Anyone else using the ClamAV engine will also get this alert.” That’s probably because I used 7-Zip to compress it, although I’m not an expert on the subject.
- nitro2k01 May 26th, 2008 at 07:28
  
  Hello! I’m on a M3Real pack and the program is working pretty much fine, but you need to load it using Slot 2/the GBA slot. (Which in turn requires you to have such a GBA expansion pack)
  Now I’m gonna load some amen samples+a sine wave on there. (Epic win guaranteed)
- killbot May 26th, 2008 at 11:40
  
  cant get it to work with m3 simply. when loaded, it says cannot find the sounds directory. think dldi patching will work?
- n/a May 26th, 2008 at 12:56
  
  Great App, keep up the excellent work!
  
  Just wanted to let you know that it works well on the NAND memory of the “AceKard R.P.G” card. (I don’t have a microSD card, so I can’t test that part out.)
  
  I don’t know if you know, a sound file is missing. When I try to load “Save Slot 0″ it says “unable to read file /glitchDS/sounds/SND4.RAW” and glitchDS is frozen and I have to restart my DSL.
  
  About the distortion feature, it would be great to see it evolve into a “BitCrusher” distortion, similar to Gorgull’s Protein[DS].
  
  Anyway, I added a link your website and PAlib thread on a forum, I thought more people should know about this App. I’m sure (well, I think) you wouldn’t mind.
- cosmiccow May 26th, 2008 at 12:58
  
  damn, this is lots of fun! thanks for the great effort!
- LimmingKenny May 26th, 2008 at 13:13
  
  Nice program! It works great on my R4DS. I love all the audio related homebrew. Thanks for the awesome app!
- scorchio May 26th, 2008 at 14:41
  
  this app makes me smile. checked on an M3 DS Real, working without any problems up to this moment. really, really nice work!
- Jesse May 26th, 2008 at 14:42
  
  this is absoluetly great.
  So much thinking went into the prodction of this app, thank you.
  
  great work!
- Spike May 26th, 2008 at 15:31
  
  Superb. The piano samples that you have included really show off the simple yet powerful interface. The possibilities are endless. Works great on the DSTT. Many thanks for creating and sharing this app.
- Mads May 26th, 2008 at 15:59
  
  Great, can’t wait to fiddle around with this - looking very much forward to getting some info on uploading and using my own sounds. I’d love to use it at a live gig, running it through filters and stuff..
- admin May 26th, 2008 at 16:13
  
  Thanks for all the replies! I’m happy you like it! Here are some funny comments floating around the web:
  
  “HOLY FUCKING CARPS this proghram is the best thing since living.”
  
  “i don’t yet understand it, but i love it.”
  
  “This is unspeakably cool”
  
  I have two upgrades that I’ll be working on for the next version. First, I need to get better BPM accuracy. There’s something tricky about the Nintendo DS interrupts that I have yet to master. I spent a greater portion of last night making incremental progress toward better BPM tracking. (So far, I found that my 90BPM should really be 90.11 BPM. Next I have to go one digit further and get something like 90.115 BPM. Ouch!)
  
  Secondly, I’m going to work on .raw file navigation. In the sound selection page, I’m thinking of making Right Directional Pad mean, “Move forward half way to the end of the list.” and Left Directional Pad mean “Move backwards half way to the beginning of the list.” I know it’s strange, but on the bright side it’s easy to implement. *grin*
  
  After that, I need to clean up the code a bit and think about version 2!
- Simon May 26th, 2008 at 20:54
  
  Wow, this is one of the coolest apps for the DS so far. It’s pretty “messy” but a lot of fun to mess with. Using the DS as a sound machine has always been fun, but your inovative user interface takes it to new level. Thanks
  Title and/or timestamp for the save files would be great and a confirmation on saves and loads would be nice.
- Alex May 26th, 2008 at 22:45
  
  This is rad.
  Converting wavs with sox was not too bad, thanks for the command.
- eS May 27th, 2008 at 03:27
  
  Wow, man, this thing rocks!!!
  BTW, I think you’d want to add on the documentation that it works ok on my DSlinker!
- The Reverend Menagerie May 27th, 2008 at 06:47
  
  Tested on the Games & Music card for shits and giggles. Worked fine after DLDI patching.
- herrmutt May 27th, 2008 at 07:28
  
  Mad props for your hard work !
  
  I tried it on my M3 Ds Real but it don’t seems to work i’m just stuck on a black screen with a loading message.
  It seems that another dude succesfully made it on a M3 Ds Real … so have you any solutions or thoughts ?
  
  Thank you !
- Choplifta May 27th, 2008 at 08:36
  
  could you post a link to some kind of freeware wav to raw converter thats not based on writing codes and stuff? the program looks great i just need a new cardreader
- RevAaron May 27th, 2008 at 13:34
  
  Just leaving a comment to let you know three things:
  
  1. This works great on my EZ Flash 5 after doing patching the DLDI
  driver.
  2. When I go into the load screen and hit load on Slot 0, it complains about a .RAW soundfile missing and completely locks up, requiring a reboot of the DS.
  
  Not sure from where the sequence in Slot 0 came, but if it came with GlitchDS it’d be a good idea to ship the dependent .RAW files with the download. That, and some error handling so that it doesn’t just kill the session!
  3. Holy balls, this rules!
  Thanks!
  RevAaron
- math0ne May 27th, 2008 at 14:29
  
  Wkd app m8. I love it.
  
  Works great on my Acekard 2
- litebritedeath May 27th, 2008 at 15:18
  
  works on the EDGE card as well. great stuff and I can not wait for more sound packs etc.
- leniad May 27th, 2008 at 19:17
  
  This is awesome!
  
  Things absolutely needed:
  
  * Set the number of generations before it restarts: This way you can change the loop size.
  
  * Make the screen bigger: It might be hard because of memory and display constraints, but I want to use some bigger period oscillators and more space is needed
  Overall, an incredible idea. I hope you keep working on it
- Lee May 27th, 2008 at 19:21
  
  I haven’t seen this mentioned yet, but there seems to be a bug in the “Frequency Modulation” pane, where if you set any of the sliders below about 10%, you get some crunchy feedback coming out of the speakers while the song is playing (it persists a while after you pause as well). Its not a high pitch squeal like a microphone too close to a speaker would make, but it just kind of churns around for a few seconds (sometimes about 30 seconds). I’d like to be able to set any of the sliders to 0, so that I can effectively mute the sample at whichever of the 32 steps I choose (in case i don’t want the sample to play at a certain point in the loop. everything is a bit random so it can be difficult to organize things sometimes). One note though: it doesn’t seem to cause the feedback if you mute only the first bar. But it will give feedback on any of the other ones if they are below about 10%. Other than that everything seems to be working great.
- the2bears May 27th, 2008 at 23:00
  
  Thanks very much for this, what a great idea. I’ve spent a lot of time myself with Conway’s Life and in particular using it in games. I’d like to experiment with your ideas in my game, Relentless Automata. Any input is welcome, I’ll probably bug you for insight
  Bill
- litebritedeath May 28th, 2008 at 00:50
  
  http://8bitcollective.com/members/litebritedeath/
  
  all my submissions were made with your program!
- kokiri May 28th, 2008 at 04:39
  
  hi! I’ve a m3 real. Glitchds doesn’t work. It appears a screen saying loading… and nothing loads. I made a folder called glitchDS and I’ve installed too Dsorganize. Both folders are in the root. Can u tell me how make it work? thanx very much
- herrmutt May 28th, 2008 at 04:43
  
  Ok the dsorganize trick works fine for the M3 DS Real. Thanks.
  I’m having now difficulties to switch off the distorsion effect even when the blue line is at the bottom.Any clues ?
- 0xtob May 28th, 2008 at 05:16
  
  Wow, just wow! This program is wicked cool! I totally love the idea of generative music, and using cellular automata is sheer brilliance! Great work on the interface and documentation too, it’s very easy to understand and start glitching off!
  
  One idea: On the trigger configuration screen would it be possible to play back the cellular automaton in the background so I can see which triggers get triggered at which point?
  
  Thanks a lot for all the fun!
- milko May 28th, 2008 at 05:23
  
  thanks for this, it’s really really cool.
- thekillbot May 28th, 2008 at 11:27
  
  got it to work with M3 Simply. i didnt realize that the folder needs to be in root. yay!!
  
  i agree with leniad on the loop length thang. that would be nice. also a quick loop/repeat function would be awesome!
  
  keep up the good work, this is amazing! i havent been able to stop using it since it came out!
- 954noise May 28th, 2008 at 15:21
  
  the (954)noise collective has a sample pack in the works. WE WHOLE-HEARTEDLY SUPPORT THE DS MUSIC HOMEBREW COMMUNITY.
  
  THANK YOU ALL!
- piroko May 28th, 2008 at 20:26
  
  This is by FAR the best/most fun program I’ve used on the DS to this day. I’m running on an m3 lite by the way, with the dldi patch. All works great. You should put up a donation link. I’ll happily donate. Thank you so much for this amazing app. I look forward to the next version(s).
- kBud May 28th, 2008 at 21:18
  
  I love it, I have an idea for a feature request and tempo sync concept. When put into strum mode you can use the screen to advance or you can use the D-Pad. Is it possible to make the microphone also advance it? For example, in games like “Zelda : Phantom hourglass” some plosive sound like blowing into the microphone would act as an input, it also worked with blowing into the external microphone. So theoretically, one could rip the microphone section out of the external microphone and hook it up to the trigger output of a drum machine or sync device. The software could interpret every pulse or plosive sound an a control that would advance the sequencer. While this might not be as clean as DS midi Wifi, it may be easier to program? And I would love to see some interesting things that can be done with the microphone interface.
- .dot May 29th, 2008 at 07:55
  
  You said in the documentation page that “- Possibly on the NAND memory of the “AceKard R.P.G” card”, it works perfectly fine on the NAND memory of AK RPG. The AK RPG also includes a microSD card slot in it, unfortunately, I do not own a microSD card to test that out and confirm if that part of the card works with “glitchDS”, I’m pretty sure it would though.
  
  In the glitchDS zip file, you include “glitchDS.SAV”, what is that used for? Shouldn’t it be deleted or put into the “snapshots” folder? Also, in the “snapshots” folder, you included the file “glitchDS.save.0″, but when that save slot file is loaded, glitchDS freezes when trying to load a “.raw” file in the “sounds” that does not exist. The file name is “SND4.RAW”, it looks like you forgot to include it in the glitchDS.zip file.
  
  Thanks for the wonderful program.
- Falls A Star May 29th, 2008 at 07:57
  
  I got it to work on an M3 DS Real by upgrading to the system software linked to from http://www.memorybits.co.uk/m3ds_real.php (I’m not sure what version it is, but it was newer than what I’d been running), installing DSOrganize, making sure glitchDS was in the root, and launching it from DSOrganize.
- robman84 May 29th, 2008 at 14:52
  
  I’m near speechless! Ironic that this is based on the game of life as it just sucked up about 3 hours of *my* life! It is so pure and cool it feels almost superfluous to suggest extra features. That said (ho ho) midi output, or just save as midi, would be cool, as would some basic effects (delay/filter etc). But crikey, what an amazing tool. I can imagine Radiohead or Kraftwerk whipping this out on stage!
- paul May 29th, 2008 at 21:43
  
  i am using the gameboy movie player (compact flash version) and a max media player from ds cart from datel
  and it worked just fine without having to do anything
  this is a really awesome program
  
  i think it would be neat to have maybe a couple squares you could set up as effects so if one of those and another square were activated at the same time the sound would have the effect on it
  
  and of course the ability to sample from the mic would be awesome
  
  great job!
- wolf May 30th, 2008 at 21:59
  
  This is Great!!!
  
  You’ve probably seen Critter and Guitari’s cellular automata video synth. I think it might be a good idea to implement that kind of linear system as well, I guess you would call it scrolling cellular automata?
  
  I also think in a future release you should add the option of changing how many steps it does before reseting!
  
  Thanks alot for this!!!!
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