Picoloop is a synth Stepsequencer ( a nanoloop clone ). A pattern of 16 notes is played repeatedly while these notes can be edited in various respects like volume, pitch, filter, lfo etc. All parameters are set step-wise, so you can make huge variation of sound on the same pattern. There are four channels, playing simultaneously. Each channel's patterns can be saved to file slots and are then available for new combinations. Finally, saved patterns can be arranged in a song structure.

Besides the song editor and manual loading of patterns, there are 3 different ways to modify each channel's patterns so that they form longer structures:

• 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 speed
• Different pattern lengths

Picoloop is target for linux/SDL compatible system. It use SDL to render graphics. It use RtAudio or SDL to render audio out.

There is two pane, the 16 box and the menu which is above the 16 box. On the 16 box, there is a moving cursor which display the current played step. and another cursor which display the current selected step. There is a text menu, which allow you to select channel and edit parameter. All notes in the sequencer can be edited simultaneously.

</> select menu1 entry ^/v select channel B return to sequencer
A + </>/^/v, edit all notes at once SELECT call menu2 or menu1 ( it cycle between the two menu )

menu1 :

• A/R :

  • Amp Enveloppe
    • Attack/Release Amp / FM operator1
    • Decay/Sustain Amp / FM operator1
  • Filter Enveloppe
    • Attack/Release Filter / FM Operator2
    • Decay/Sustain Filter / FM Operator2
  • Trig/Amplification
    • trig time/Volume

• Note :

  • Choose note with "C3" "C4" "D2"
  • Choose note with "dot"

• OSC :

  • Choose the two OSC of the synth, the drumsynth, the FM synth

• VCO :

  • VCO mix in synth mode, OP1mult/OP2mult in FM mode
  • OP1amp/OP2amp in FM mode

• LFO :

  • depth/speed in psynth and drumsynth mode
  • pitchbenddepth/pitchbendspeed in psynth mode

• FLTR :

  • Cutoff/Resonance
  • algo/mode ( lp/bp/hp )

menu 2 :

• L/S :

  • Load/Save pattern live

• BANK :

  • give the ability to choose another bank for save/load pattern and song

• PSH :

  • shift the pattern to the left/right, reduce the size of the pattern ( from 16 step to 1 step )

• MAC :

  • change the synth engine : synth, drumsynth, dbopl ( adlib fm )

• FX :

  • change the depth and the speed of the echo delay

• BPM :

  • change the bpm of the track and change the swing

 - libsdl*      => version 1.2 the 2.0 was not tested "ttf" and "gfx" needed
 - libasound2*  => alsa
 - libpthread*  => pthread
 - g++          => I use the g++ 4.7.2  
 - make         => U use the make 3.81

# git clone https://github.com/yoyz/audio.git

 # cd      picoloop
 # make -f Makefile.RtAudio_debian               clean
 # make -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_debian_RtAudio clean
 # make -f Makefile.RtAudio_debian
 # make -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_debian_RtAudio

On debian you need the /opt/opendingux-toolchain/ directory. you can fetch fetch it there : http://www.treewalker.org/opendingux/

 # cd      picoloop
 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.RtAudio_opendingux               clean
 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_opendingux_RtAudio clean

 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.RtAudio_opendingux
 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_opendingux_RtAudio

On debian you need the /opt/open2x/ directory. you can fetch it there : http://wiki.gp2x.org/articles/i/n/s/Installing_the_Open2x_toolchain.html

 # cd      picoloop
 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.RtAudio_opendingux               clean
 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_opendingux_RtAudio clean

 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.RtAudio_opendingux
 # make -j 64 -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_opendingux_RtAudio

On debian, you need the mingw32 package. Picoloop provide the header and binary for SDL 1.2 on windows.

 # cd         picoloop
 # make       -f Makefile.RtAudio_mingw32                              clean
 # make       -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_windows_mingw_RtAudio clean

 # make       -f Makefile.RtAudio_mingw32
 # make       -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_windows_mingw_RtAudio -j 64

you need to have the sdk, the toolchain and the external lib. All can be fetched here : https://github.com/pspdev

 # cd      picoloop
 # source ~/local/pspdev/env_build
 # make -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_psp_SDL        clean
 # make -f Makefile.PatternPlayer_psp_SDL 

# ./PatternPlayer

- ESC               : Select key : go back to the global menu/switch menu
- ENTER             : Start  key : change sub menu
- L-CTRL            : A      key : insert note/delete node/copy note
- L-ALT             : B      key : change the value on the screen of the selected step
- ESC+ENTER         : quit

Depending on the current menu selected : A/R, OSC, VCO, BPM, LS, etc.

- L-ALT + up        : change value up
- L-ALT + down      : change value down
- L-ALT + left      : change value left
- L-ALT + right     : change value right

- SELECT            : enter menu and move between menu
- ENTER             : Start key/enter a menu
- A key             : insert note/delete node/copy note
- ESC+ENTER         : quit

Depending on the current menu selected : A/R, OSC, VCO, BPM, LS, etc.

- B key + up        : change value up
- B key + down      : change value down
- B key + left      : change value left 
- B key + right     : change value right

file named dataP<%d>T<%d>.pic store information about saved pattern. This file will be created when you store file in the "L/S" menu.

You need two file font.bmp and font.ttf which are located next to the source.

You need your psp gcc compiler, the library and psplinkusb.

1. Launch psplink on the psp this is an EBOOT.PBP.

2. as root, launch usbhostfs_pc ( you need to be root to access the psp by usb and you need to be in the somewhere/psplinkusb/usbhostfs_pc/ folder ). You should see it is connected.

3. In another terminal launch pspsh. Try to 'ls -l', to see if all is ok. Copy the prx file in the usbhostfs_pc directory, you should see it with 'ls -l'

If you want to launch PatternPlayer.prx, launch it with pspsh : ./PatternPlayer.prx In this case, you need the prx file ( not an elf or EBOOT.PBP ).

If you want to debug it with psp-gdb, you can do it by this command in two different window.

     host0:/> debug PatternPlayer.prx

In another window :

     $ psp-gdb ./PatternPlayer.elf
 (gdb) target remote localhost:10001
     Remote debugging using localhost:10001

In this case you need a prx and an elf file.