vcsbeatbox - an Atari 2600 drum machine

[Faux Woodgrain]

Hello Atari friends!  I think I've finally gotten my first Atari project to a point where I'm ready to share it.  I started off thinking I'd try to make a rhythm game, but before long it turned into a drum machine instead.  Music programs for the 2600 are like a niche within a niche, but hopefully some of you will find it interesting.  

Here's the most recent version and an instruction manual (plain text)

 

vcsbeatbox-rc21-ntsc.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc21-pal60.bin

 

vcsbeatbox.txt

 

 

Older versions:

 

vcsbeatbox-rc18-ntsc.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc18-pal60.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc16-ntsc.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc16-pal60.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc15-ntsc.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc15-pal60.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc14.bin

 

vcsbeatbox-rc13.bin

 

Screenshot showing the rather minimal UI.  Essentially the screen is divided into 4 quadrants: 3 pattern editors and one arrangement editor (in the lower right).  Hopefully the instructions do a good job explaining how it all works.  Please reply with any questions or feedback.

 

Edited Tuesday at 03:57 PM by Faux Woodgrain
updated version

[Faux Woodgrain]

I tried to fix the colors for a PAL60 build. Couldn't quite get them to match so I wound up tweaking the NTSC colors a bit too.

Hope they aren't too garish.  Originally I was shooting for a 80s neon look with colors from Berzerk (one of my all time faves). Now the pink has been replaced by some orange, which is a little less neon but I think I like it.

 

vcsbeatbox-rc15-pal60.bin

vcsbeatbox-rc15-ntsc.bin

 

 

 

Also a note about the overall status.  It's still WIP, but at this point I'm mainly just futzing with the auto-mod feature of the synth part (trying to make it more musically useful). 

 

[r_chase]

I might mess with this in near future if I want to unleash my inner Power Pill Fist. :3

[Faux Woodgrain]

@r_chase Whoa thanks for mentioning Power Pill Fist. I'm a big fan of Black Moth Super Rainbow and Tobacco yet somehow wasn't aware of PPF. Right up my alley.

You can definitely get crunchy noisy beats with vcsbeatbox and all kinds of janky sounds out of the synth part.  

I plan to make a demo video soon...

[r_chase]

11 hours ago, Faux Woodgrain said:

@r_chase Whoa thanks for mentioning Power Pill Fist. I'm a big fan of Black Moth Super Rainbow and Tobacco yet somehow wasn't aware of PPF. Right up my alley.

You can definitely get crunchy noisy beats with vcsbeatbox and all kinds of janky sounds out of the synth part.  

I plan to make a demo video soon...

Yeah, but just for clarity reasons, what controllers are going to be compatible with this on hardware?
I'm guessing regular joysticks, which might mean I need to use two of them.

Edited April 25 by r_chase
I should've read the damn manual. :3

[Faux Woodgrain]

Yep, two joysticks. Although you can do all the core stuff (editing patterns and changing the tempo) with just one joystick. 

The second stick is for changing the synth part and muting tracks which are both sorta optional features.

 

[r_chase]

1 hour ago, Faux Woodgrain said:

Yep, two joysticks. Although you can do all the core stuff (editing patterns and changing the tempo) with just one joystick. 

The second stick is for changing the synth part and muting tracks which are both sorta optional features.

 

Alright, but what if I want to use this in a live performance improv setting? Can I at least mute drum and synth sections and whatnot?

Another thing I should note is that I'm probably gonna test this on a RetroN 77. The BW/COL button is in the back in that design and I might need an alt button to play sequences, like the RESET button for instance.

Edited April 25 by r_chase
Further questions needed before testing. ;)

[Faux Woodgrain]

Track muting is on the second/right stick (as a secondary function when the Fire button is held down), so yeah you'd need two sticks for full control.  

Every control and switch already has at least one function. Running out of switches and buttons was one of many limitations I ran up against creating this thing.
Reset is already used for restart from beginning.
I tried to put optional stuff on the difficulty switches (since they're less convenient on 4-switchers) and put play/pause on the TV Type switch since that's on the front of all classic VCS/2600s and seems to be a common modern place to put pause functionality.   

I really appreciate your interest and hope you give it a try anyway.  If reaching around the back of the RetroN77 is awkward, maybe you could find some workaround like muting the whole audio output somehow (like with channel mute on a mixer) as an alternative to pausing.  
Or if you're not using all 3 patterns, you could leave one empty and just loop that empty pattern when you want silence while the "sequencer" is still running.
 

[Faux Woodgrain]

Finally made a demo video
 

 

[+MarcoJ]

this is awesome! Thanks for posting. 

[Faux Woodgrain]

Quote

It's still WIP, but at this point I'm mainly just futzing with the auto-mod feature of the synth part (trying to make it more musically useful). 

 

I think I figured it out.  This new version re-inits the auto-mod whenever a pattern starts. In this way, you get the same sequence of frequencies every time (based on the current settings: the base pitch, random range and auto-mod speed).

 

It's "repetition legitimizes" in action.  Before it was like a free-running LFO. The lack of synchronization with the main tempo could produce some interesting moments, but just as likely sound "off".  Now you'll get the same baseline or melody (such as they are given the weird frequencies) every time.  Of course you can still change the parameters at any time.

 

vcsbeatbox-rc16-ntsc.bin

 

 

vcsbeatbox-rc16-pal60.bin

I'll probably do another demo video eventually.  This may be the final ROM version (unless I go beyond 4k).

Edited April 29 by Faux Woodgrain
forgot to add a detail

[Faux Woodgrain]

I just added rc18 to the the first post. Also made some updates to the docs.

 

The changes are all related to the LFO (formerly called "auto-mod") for the synth part.

I added a descending mode and fixed an off-by-one bug.

[Faux Woodgrain]

Hey folks! I just added rc21 (to top post) which has some small tweaks:

- when randomizing drum kit (with Select switch) now there's a 50% chance that the snare will be gated (shorter, more like a clap)

- when randomizing synth part (with right Fire) now there's a 50% chance that the pitch slide will be slower (I considered making it slower all the time, but couldn't pick which I liked better so made it random)

- default cursor and playhead color is new color (burnt orange or maybe tomato; red-ish anyway); the previous violet color is now the alt color and flips at arrangement start when flashing enabled

- cursor and playheads now turn green to visually indicate time mode (when holding down left Fire); also shortened the hold detection time to a value that feels more comfortable to me

- bottom beat ruler is now left aligned like the two other rulers

 

 

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