LÖVE Songs

I wanted to make love2d-based mod-tracker for a pi-zero inisde a gameboy case. It has a focus on using a joystick (dpad and 8 buttons) to make songs easily on my hardware. Eventually, it will have modern features like realtime effects and midi support. Think "renoise for a tiny screen & joystick." or "lsdj but with modern sampler and effects".

DELAYED!

I dug into using libopenmpt, but it seems like it only has player stuff, and no editing functions. I made lua-openmpt for using it in love/lua. The project seems like it's a bit more to chew than I have time for, but I made great progress on the player-part, if anyone is interested in continuing the work.

I have tested on LÖVE 11.3 (Mysterious Mysteries.) It may work elsewhere, but I haven't tested it.

I installed retropie, basic hardware drivers & optional retropie love-support, and then save the love file in the right location (~/RetroPie/roms/love) and it shows up in the menu.

Usage

My device has these buttons:

A
B
X
Y
start
select
L
R
dpad up/down/left/right

So everything is based on this, even if you have a keyboard. The mappings for desktop-use are similar to what you might find in a SNES emulator:

Z
X
A
S
enter
escape
PageUp
PageDown
arrow up/down/left/right

They will be referred to by their controller-names.

You can also use a XBOX 360/ONE or PS3/4 controller, and it should work the same (directional is DPAD.)

It will probly seem a bit complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it, it will make editing music go pretty fast. It will help you print yourself a [cheat-sheet](NOT AVAILABLE).

global

• select + start is "exit" There is no confirmation, so be careful of this one
• in menus, A is "yes" and B is "cancel"
• in menus, dpad up/down is for selecting options
• Press L/R to swap through different modes (pattern/instrument/song/jam)
• start is global "play" or "edit".
• select is global "song" or "pattern" mode.

While playing, you won't hear changes until that part of the sequence is played (so you live-squence stuff a bit ahead of what's currently playing) but in edit mode, you will here it.

pattern

If you are playing, you can't edit notes, and the current-line will follow the song. Columns are NOTE, INSTRUMENT, EFFECT in each track.

• If you are editing, dpad move selector around the pattern.

• B and dpad up/down to switch current pattern

• B and dpad left/right to switch current instrument

• A - add/remove note/silence

• A and dpad up/down to change note

• X and dpad up/down to change note, by octave

• Y and dpad up/down to cycle through effects

• Y and dpad left/right to chnage effect value

• A+select is "copy pattern"

• A+start is "paste pattern"

• Y+select is "copy row"

• Y+start is "paste row"

• X+select is "copy track"

• X+start is "paste track"

instrument

This is where you setup your instruments for sequencing pattern mode.

song

This is where you set the order of patterns to be played.

jam

This mode is for live-triggering samples. You can preset buttion+dpad (in a grid) combos to play different samples, and use it kind of like a drum-pad. It will work if your song/pattern is playing, or not (for standalone sampler-pads.) Since it is all tied to a single instrument, you'll have to setup your sameples to work well. Changes made here effect the rest of the instrument so it can also be used as a faster way to try out your instrument-mappings.

TODO lots more to come, here

file-format

.lovesong files are just a zip. I zipped up demosong. song.json contains the instruments used, and the patterns, arranged in a song. instruments/*.json is the samples and their mappings.

Development

Run make then one of these targets:

help                           show this help
run                            run the current project
clean                          delete all output files
build                          build distributables for everyone in dist/
demo                           create a demo-song from demosong/

You will need love in your path.

On OSX, put this in your ~/.bashrc:

alias love="open -a love"

TODO

This is a lot of work, and there is only me working on it, so I'm doing things in stages.

stage 0

This is basic demo phase. It doesn't really work, but sort of shows how the UI will operate, eventually.

• 4 tracks
• 16-note patterns
• dialog for instruments (demo)
• dialog for samples (demo)
• dialog for song (demo)
• pattern play/edit
• jam mode
• dialog for file load/save song and set BPM
• basic file loading/saving (zip with meta-data & samples)
• pattern/instrument/song/jam modes
• mute/unmute track

stage 1

This is basic tracker usability. It should handle all the basic features that FT2 or OpenMPT have, but with the contraints above (4/16 patterns.)

• basic classic mod effects
• make all the dialogs actually work

stage 2

This is where I start to expand on what original xm/s3m/it format can do, and expand beyond what my lil gameboy thing needs. I might not do all of these, just some ideas.

• plugins! Use love, luajit, or patch the built-ins to make it all work the way you want
• multiple themes (implemented as plugin)
• convert to/from mod/xm/s3mm/it/etc
• as many tracks as you like (with scrolling in editor)
• as many notes in pattern as you like (with scrolling in editor)
• mouse/extended-keyboard support, in a special mode (make it more like a classic tracker, if you have peripherals & turn on that mode)
• higher-resolution support
• multi-player: several people with joysticks can control different parts (for exmaple set one as "editor" and others as jammers on different instruments)
• split-screen multiplayer: many players can use a portion of the screen with their own controllers
• use internet to make lists of plugin & instrument presets (from a central repo) that you can install

plugin ideas

• scales for inputting patterns
• generative/arpeggiator sequencing screen (fill currenbt track with notes form persion scale, spaced by 2 notes)
• pre-made beat patterns to quickly add a beat
• midi learn & in/out support
• midi recording & live-play
• renoise-like extended effects (ladspa/lv2)