9 replies to this topic

[worms]

http://irrlichtproject.de/houston/

About HoustonTracker 2

HoustonTracker 2 is a music editor/sequencer for the Texas Instruments TI-82, TI-83/82STATS, and TI-83+/84+/SE. It allows you to compose and play multi-channel 1-bit music directly on your TI graphic calculator.

HoustonTracker 2 is a complete rewrite of the original Houston Tracker. Like HT, it is developed by utz aka irrlicht project.


Features

• 3 tone channels
• 1 non-interrupting drum channel
• up to 128 note patterns
• up to 64 drum/fx patterns
• sequence length up to 255 pattern rows
• 16-bit frequency precision
• 8-bit speed precision, can be configured per step
• various effects, including:
- L/C/R stereo hard-panning for tone and drum channels
- 8bit duty cycle control
- duty cycle sweep
• 2 user definable samples
• up to 8 savestates
• edit during playback

[RSP]

Nice.

[thawkins]

Why the hell does a calculator have a stereo audio output though? I must be getting old.

 

Also, is it just me or the sound is still glitchy especially if the guy edits stuff while playing?

Edited by thawkins, 10 July 2018 - 06:49 PM.

[sweepstakes]

Why the hell does a calculator have a stereo audio output though? I must be getting old.

Data transfer on these calculators is done via a simple 3-terminal interconnect that happens to be a standard audio jack (presumably to keep manufacturing costs down). This is written in assembly so it's working at a very low level and almost certainly just pushing bits directly to the output register(s) - basically setting the voltage of either terminal "up" or "down" every .1 ms (or whatever the sampling rate is).

[thawkins]

 

Why the hell does a calculator have a stereo audio output though? I must be getting old.

Data transfer on these calculators is done via a simple 3-terminal interconnect that happens to be a standard audio jack (presumably to keep manufacturing costs down). This is written in assembly so it's working at a very low level and almost certainly just pushing bits directly to the output register(s) - basically setting the voltage of either terminal "up" or "down" every .1 ms (or whatever the sampling rate is).

 

 

Thanks, learned something new today. :)

[modey]

I tried this; it can sound very menacing, but ultimately I didn't have the patience to learn how to use it properly. Great idea though.

[worms]

check the tracker's manual first if youre going to buy a calc for this

you need a usb to 2.5mm cable, the manual recommends which one to get

then you need a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor to get audio out 

Edited by worms, 11 July 2018 - 03:23 AM.

[RSP]

I managed to get both a TI -something calculator and an unopened USB to TI data cable out of the trash 5 or 6 years ago, so I'll give it a shot at some point, the cable's still in a box somewhere in a closet since I moved last summer.

 

 

EDIT: never mind, doesn't support TI89

Edited by RSP, 11 July 2018 - 06:03 PM.

[roberto]

i've seen these before. they look cool, but i'd rather just get a gameboy and learn LSDJ

[modey]

yeah imo nanoloop on GBA is all I need for portable music making, maybe coupled with PO-32 or 33