|~~              |~~
    |                |
   :$: bloopsaphone :$:
    `''''''''''''''''`

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/>

it also records to a wav file using
libsndfile.

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

Under MacPorts, you may need to add
/opt/local to your make settings:

  make CFLAGS="-I/opt/local/include" \
       LDFLAGS="-L/opt/local/lib" \
       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.