|~~ |~~
 | |
 :$: bloopsaphone :$:
 `''''''''''''''''`
 for writing chiptune-style songs
 in c or ruby. you know: the sounds
 of ataris, gameboys and the like.
 ~
 -$- ABOUT
 this is a small c library for sending
 chiptunes through portaudio, which is
 a rather light cross-platform audio lib.
 <http://www.portaudio.com/>
 right now i'm only including ruby
 bindings. you are welcome to contribute
 code to hook up to other languages,
 though.
 i wrote this for h-ety h.
 <http://hacketyhack.net/>
 i don't have binaries ready for this yet,
 so if you're on windows or os x, you may
 have to wait until HH comes out at ART
 AND CODE. the tribulations you face.
 ~
 -$- THE BLOOPSAPHONE THEME SONG
 (in ruby)
 require 'bloops'
 # the bloops o' phone
 b = Bloops.new
 b.tempo = 320
 # melodious
 s1 = b.sound Bloops::SQUARE
 s1.punch = 0.5
 s1.sustain = 0.4
 s1.decay = 0.2
 s1.arp = 0.4
 s1.aspeed = 0.6
 s1.repeat = 0.6
 s1.phase = 0.2
 s1.psweep = 0.2
 # beats
 s2 = b.sound Bloops::NOISE
 s2.punch = 0.5
 s2.sustain = 0.2
 s2.decay = 0.4
 s2.slide = -0.4
 s2.phase = 0.2
 s2.psweep = 0.2
 # the tracks
 b.tune s1, "f#5 c6 e4 b6 g5 d6 4 f#5 e5 c5 b6 c6 d6 4 "
 b.tune s2, "4 c6 4 b5 4 4 e4 4 c6 4 b5 4 4 e4"
 # and away we go
 b.play
 sleep 1 while !b.stopped?
 ~
 -$- BUILDING FOR RUBY
 If Ruby is in your path and PortAudio 1.9
 or greater is installed:
 make ruby
 To install PortAudio 1.9 under Ubuntu:
 aptitude install portaudio19-dev
 To build from source isn't too bad.
 Download PortAudio 1.9 and build it.
 <http://www.portaudio.com/archives/pa_stable_v19_20071207.tar.gz>
 Like this:
 $ tar xzvf pa_stable_v19_20071207.tar.gz
 $ cd portaudio
 $ ./configure
 $ make
 $ sudo make install
 Then go back to Bloopsaphone and do
 a `make ruby`.
 ~
 -$- THE IDEALS,
 -1- ASYNCHRONOUS.
 You send it a song and it plays in
 the background. You'll get an event
 when it finishes.
 -2- SMALL.
 This is just a toy, I don't want it
 to be very big and comprehensive.
 Just to play little tunes with a
 nostalgic arcade sound rather than
 the CASIO-stylings of most MIDI.
 -3- CUSTOM NOTATION.
 Someone told me about Nokring, iMelody,
 numbered musical notation and I did
 some reading. They're little languages
 for texting yourself a ringtone.
 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Tone_Transfer_Language>
 <http://homepage.mac.com/alvinmok/ericsson/emelody.html>
 Bloopsaphone uses a variation on RTTTL.
 Instead of commas, I use whitespace.
 A rest is simply a number. A plus sign
 moves everything up an octave. A minus
 down an octave.
 The Simpsons' Theme, for instance, would be:
 32 + C E F# 8:A G E C - 8:A 8:F# 8:F# 8:F# 2:G
 Which translates into:
 * a 1/32nd note rest.
 * change one octave up.
 * C quarter note.
 * E quarter note.
 * F# quarter note.
 * A eighth note.
 * G quarter.
 * E quarter.
 * C one-quarter note.
 * change one octave down.
 * A eighth.
 * Three F# eighths.
 * G half note.
 The colons are optional. They are there because you
 can place an octave number after each note. Somehow
 "8B6" (an eighth note of B at the sixth octave) looks
 more confusing than "8:B6". I guess I figured that
 the timing "8" is conceptually separate from the
 actual tone "B6", even though they both comprise
 the note itself.
 -4- SERIALIZE SOUNDS.
 To accomodate passing instruments between
 ruby and c, bloopsaphone comes with a tiny
 file format for describing sounds.
 You can find examples of these in the sounds/
 folder in this distro. Possible sound types
 are 'square', 'sawtooth', 'sine' and 'noise'.
 All other settings go from 0.0 to 1.0.
 The 'freq' setting is only used if the sound
 is played without a tune.