PICO-Patch is an 2OP instrument and music sequence creator for PICO-8, developed by MegaSparky as a spiritual successor to his independently released tool 4OP-8. It allows users to create instruments by mixing two sine wave operators in different ways and create melodies with them.
Controls:
All actions are controlled with the mouse cursor/touchscreen, except for playing notes. To trigger a note outside of play mode, press (o) - z on the keyboard - and use the d-pad/arrow keys to change the note that you play; left and right changes it to the previous and following one respectively, while up and down switch octaves.
Creating instruments:
PICO-Patch features four types of sound synthesis: phase modulation (PM), amplitude modulation (AM), ring modulation and additive. The "ADSR" parameters allow you to modify each operator's attack, decay, sustain and release respectively. The "V" meter controls the operator's global volume, and the "M" parameter defines the multiplication of its frequency.
Using the sequencer:
This tool's sequencer has a note range that goes from C-0 (bottom) to B-3 (top). At the bottom of the note sequence, there are two rows; the first one lets you insert a silence and the second one allows you to make the note that is playing stop. Aside from the play/stop button, there is also a loop setting, which controls the position where the melody loops. Playback accuracy might vary depending on the version of PICO-8 or device being used.
Save and load system:
Instruments have an array-based format almost identical, although shorter, to 4OP-8's, with each item containing one of each operator's parameters, except for the first one (header) which is used to check that the array is compatible with the editor. The sequencer's format is similar, being an array which contains the loop lenght and every single note.
To save arrays on the Lexaloffle BBS, the key combination ctrl-c has to be pressed after pressing the save button, and you need to press ctrl-v before loading them.
Links:
Demozoo - https://demozoo.org/productions/312801/
Pouet - https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=92164
We hope that you enjoy PICO-Patch!
Thanks to Bikibird and Luchak for helping with and providing code for PCM playback! (credits from 4OP-8)
It's pretty amazing what you did here, @MoonShine.
I was wondering though is there a way to get this pure sound without the clicking ?
@Pico_Maker there is a save function already, just follow the steps from the "save and load system" section in the description and paste the copied array in a text editor. Each section (instrument and sequence) has its own save and load buttons.
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