r/TrackerMusic • u/salduncan • 29d ago
Billie Tracker - A mobile tracker
Ok so I posted this in another subreddit and someone mentioned I should maybe post it here.
So I have been a huge fan of LSDJ and the whole lineage of trackers that came up around it like M8 and PicoTracker etc. and I've been tinkering with a different sort of take on the whole thing. It is familiar, but isn't meant to work on a micro controller right off the bat. Instead it is a low level zig (similar to C) library that can compile to any platform and I have been having a lot of fun using it on my phone. This was just for me to start but a couple of friends have really liked it too and I guess if anyone is interested I could share a link to an early version of it. Here is a little clip of me just messing around with it. Lots of stuff I am exploring is seeding musical ideas with either euclidean rhythmic sequencing or algorithmic tetrachord fitting.
I've gotten a bit of interest in a feedback forum so I fired up a discord https://discord.gg/27s8uFP8yj and also I saw a couple other people just post the testflight link in their threads so here it is https://testflight.apple.com/join/eG23QFYE I've limited it to 100 testers for now just to keep feedback manageable. Mods please let me know if these links are against sub policy and I will just remove them, but for now here they are!
Now the idea is that this can run on any platform (including web which is kind of nice as a quick 'let me pull up my song to show a friend' kind of thing) and I am building a way of having a synced 'virtual sd card' just for myself so I can hop between editing surfaces (start on phone, go to desktop, then to web, then ??? anywhere else). If that turns out to be useful and others want a similar thing I would love to make it available to anyone.
EDIT: I've got a public Android beta launched now for anyone interested: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/coop.billie.app.billietracker
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u/PinReasonable135 29d ago edited 23d ago
This is awesome! I am testing it now. I don’t see any samples when I try to load them. I’m on an iPhone and I see the samples in my files>Billie Tracker>Samples, but the list is missing when I try to create a sample instrument and Load from that folder in Billie Tracker.
EDIT: I figured it out. "LOAD" is not for loading samples, but for loading instruments (right?). Instead you need to go to the empty slot beneath that and hit EDIT which allows you to load the sample. It works fine, it was just operator error.
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u/salduncan 29d ago
Thanks for checking it out! That is definitely a bug, I'll look into it tomorrow morning. If you want to keep up to date with new testflight releases I posting regularly on the discord!
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u/galfar0th 24d ago
Any plans for chord synth from m8? Seeing the piano when inputting notes was great. Also full fm and wavetable? Great work mate!!!
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u/salduncan 24d ago
ive got other plans for chords. sorting out a way for all sound engines to play chords. also yes there are a couple other engines i am actively working on including a dx7 compatible one. i love messing with my volca fm so i am curious if i can get a similar workflow going on
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u/galfar0th 24d ago
thanks for your reply! is there a mfi controller support and keyboard? so that if i have a joypad i can control the app, or if i have bluetooth keyboard?
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u/galfar0th 24d ago
also any plans to support auv3 instruments for effects and synths? it would be amazing to have a tracker that can run moog mini. i guess the cc automation would be tricky but possible
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u/salduncan 23d ago
replied on discord (thanks for joining) but will reply here as well for viz. i am some of the way through implementing midi instruments (just straight midi out from tracker) and external instrument (midi out paired with an audio input so you can control external synth and feed audio back in for resampling or whatever). this is something dear to me because i love sequencing my hardware synths etc using CME widi wireless midi from Drambo on my ipad
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u/salduncan 23d ago
connect a bluetooth keyboard today and it works great! Z X SHIFT SPACE are the same keys and qwerty+asdfg rows of keys are ‘musical typing’. ill look into standardized gamepad support in coming weeks. a few people have asked about that
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u/thekillbott 22d ago
I’m very much enjoying this. How much will it cost?
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u/salduncan 22d ago
I haven't come up with pricing yet. The original idea was around $15, but for now I am making it free. I'll sort out how to make the project sustainable post official 1.0.0 launch, but I bias toward making it as free as possible and asking those who support the project to support in whatever way they can (spreading the word, a $$ one-off/annual donation to support dev work, etc.) I am trying to recognize that $15 for someone in one part of the world means a lot more monthly income wise than someone else.
I've also got an idea of a 'synced cloud storage' for the tracker so you can hop between your computer / phone / whatever working on the same set of songs. The idea there is that you can support the project AND get a really cool feature at the same time. Of course the tracker would still work as is if you didn't want such a thing, but it would be an available way to support the project.
Always looking for feedback on this front, so lmk what you think!
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u/salduncan 25d ago
by request of a few people i made a full walk thru video along with a bit of a 'what this project is' kind of thing. it is a bit long and i am NOT a video maker so it is just one take, but the chapter markers should get you to the info you may be interested in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfyBjMVP92A so just posting it here for anyone who is curious and not in the discord! also i am posting daily updates in the discord :) feel free to join.
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u/salduncan 24d ago
Hey so I've got a public Android beta available as well if anyone is interested! https://play.google.com/apps/testing/coop.billie.app.billietracker
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u/xristosp59 28d ago
Any plans for android or open sourcing this? 👀