

Houston Tracker 2 for TI calculator
#1
Posted 10 July 2018 - 01:12 PM
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
#2
Posted 10 July 2018 - 03:26 PM
Nice.
#3
Posted 10 July 2018 - 06:48 PM
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.
#4
Posted 10 July 2018 - 07:24 PM
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).
#5
Posted 10 July 2018 - 08:31 PM
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. :)
#6
Posted 11 July 2018 - 12:06 AM
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.
#7
Posted 11 July 2018 - 03:23 AM
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.
#8
Posted 11 July 2018 - 05:54 PM
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.
#9
Posted 11 July 2018 - 07:27 PM
i've seen these before. they look cool, but i'd rather just get a gameboy and learn LSDJ
#10
Posted 11 July 2018 - 11:42 PM
yeah imo nanoloop on GBA is all I need for portable music making, maybe coupled with PO-32 or 33