2xband


S

SamB59

Still Fresh
Joined
Jul 4, 2008
Messages
17
Hi,

I'm actually working on a pseudo game called 2xBand. Not a rockband clone. the idea behind is to turn the gp2x into a real instrument.
So jamming with your friends will be fun !

I've already finished the drums part. Pressing keys play nice drum sounds.
I'm working on congas and bongos and i'm going to release it for testing after that.
Next instrument will probably be a saxo because the "gameplay" is the same as drums : one key -> one note.

The big part is about guitar and bass guitar.

For the bass, the easy way is to play it like the saxo but it's a bit boring for a guitar.
The best for me is do the strumming with fake strings on the touch screen. Press a key activate a finger placement on the neck and "touch" the strings play the sound.
But it's only playable on the f200.

For the guitar, it's exactly the same but the easy solution is harder. pressing a key don't activate a note but a chord. without a touchscreen, I've to program all the chords with different strumming and put a bpm function to play with the speed you want.

With a touchscreen, I "just" need to program the chords and you strum the way you want.

What is the best for you ??

Some early screenshots :
edit // the pictures are stretched on the forum, don"t know why
main screen :
mainrw6.jpg


drums screen :
drumst3.jpg


Sorry for my english :)
 
Very nice! I love the idea. I like this better than the play-by-numbers style of Rock Band. Even if you don't have friends to jam with, it would be fun to have a few instruments in your pocket.

Looking forward to the first test release. Nice artwork too. :)
 
Thanks, had a lot of fun trying this out. The backgrounds and visual hit indicators are nicely done. I also like the fact that the sounds can easily be replaced - even with this test release, the GP2X has become a universal sound effect machine. :D

Would it be possible to include custom button mapping? I've got some ideas on how using each percussion kit could be more fluid with different button layouts. They seem like good ideas in my head anyway. If button mapping is too big a job, I'll just post my ideas in here. (I just don't want to bog you down in unneccesary ideas which may turn out to be shit ;)).

Lots of potential fun here.
 
Gruso said:
Thanks, had a lot of fun trying this out. The backgrounds and visual hit indicators are nicely done. I also like the fact that the sounds can easily be replaced - even with this test release, the GP2X has become a universal sound effect machine. :D

Would it be possible to include custom button mapping? I've got some ideas on how using each percussion kit could be more fluid with different button layouts. They seem like good ideas in my head anyway. If button mapping is too big a job, I'll just post my ideas in here. (I just don't want to bog you down in unneccesary ideas which may turn out to be shit ;)).

Lots of potential fun here.
Click to expand...
About custom button mapping : it will be difficult because the mapping is hardcoded for each instrument. Post your ideas, i can make changes needed.
i got some reports about the long loading time. I'm sure it's because my program loads all the sound at the beginning. Maybe it could change by divide the program in more files called just when needed.

By the way, i think rewrite the program in other language. probably in python with pygame. i will be easy to put a config file per instrument for changing the mapping and it will give me more contol
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Very cool project. As you have a huge set of instruments, I would not feel sorry if you make the guitar part touchscreen only, since when you're in a "band", the F100 players can play sax and drums.
I personally dislike saxophone sounds and "dog eat dog" was noise to me, so when you find some time, please make other instruments, too. How about a piano/hammond organ? Each button press is a chords, but you can vary the way the chord gets played with the directional keys. Like:
top = all 3 notes at once
left = one after the other
right= all 3 at once, then one after the other ...
You could use the shoulder buttons for variations of the note-order.
 
Some news :

I finally decided to change the interface to something more usable when you have multiple instruments. The fact is It's hard to keep a good visual coherence when using pictures found across the web.

Keeping in mind the program was just a kind of sampler I switched to something looking more at a sampler. I get inspired by AKAI MPC.

So here's the result with a more gp2x friendly GUI :

mpcud9.jpg


You start by choosing an instrument by clicking on the arrows near the LCD
You click play and you start to play
Stop to come back to the instrument selection
Exit to quit

// about instruments :
As Gruso said, it's easy to change sound and create your instrument. In the next release, I'll add 4 or more custom presets. The only thing you'll have to do is put your sounds in the right directory and respect the names : x.wav is assigned to the X key, left_arrow.wav to the left arrow..


On the right I drawn controls for future releases.
Record will write all the notes played into a file
Load will load this file
Song will play it.

jbrodack : I think it could be hard and dangerous to record to a .wav file and it need extra code beyond my abilities.
KungFoo : A piano could be great but impossible in this kind of software. The only reason is the number of notes needed to have a piano. It could be better to dedicate a software just for it.
I'll probably do that for the guitar.
 
SamB said:
KungFoo : A piano could be great but impossible in this kind of software. The only reason is the number of notes needed to have a piano. It could be better to dedicate a software just for it.
I'll probably do that for the guitar.
Click to expand...
This looks like a cool idea.

Maybe the touchscreen could be used for things like a piano keyboard. You could have an image of a keyboard and you could tap the key(s) that you want. I know it would only be useful for the F200 but it is just an idea.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Finally I started rewrite my software in fenix.

here is the new release.
2xBand

for the moment, there is only one instrument.
in next release i will add 808 style drums, percus, djembe, some electronic and acoustic basses.
after that i will put my effort on controlling the menu with the stylus for f200 users.

And in a far future, i'll try to add a mixer, a way to do live recording or ( but it's going to be really hard) a sequencer and of course other instruments and custom presets.

About the piano, I think i can code something this week. maybe just one octave to see if it's payable or not. It will be hard to play chords without a touchscreen like the iphone one.
 
some news

the gui is finished. now I've to code :)
I'm working on the select instrument part.

798607_654x732.jpg
 
Looks really nice! I was actually looking around for something like this a while ago. Me and a friend plans to play bitpop-style music pseudo-live sometime in the future and we are looking for different ways to make music from game-consoles and peripherals live, and this seems to fit perfectly.
 
Wow, I never did get back to you about button mapping ideas. Sorry. :unsure: Looks like you've moved on from that and made some great progress though! Grabbing the latest now. Love your work. :)
 
hi,

here's a new release with the final gui.

2xbandv01b.zip

I'm sorry for f100 users.. for the moment, all the gameplay use the stylus. I'll add an emulated mouse later.
This release is just to test the new interface, the navigation and the instrument selector. No mixer or sequencer but a new TR 808 preset :)
 
SamB said:
hi,

here's a new release with the final gui.

2xbandv01b.zip

I'm sorry for f100 users.. for the moment, all the gameplay use the stylus. I'll add an emulated mouse later.
This release is just to test the new interface, the navigation and the instrument selector. No mixer or sequencer but a new TR 808 preset :)


Could you upload it to the file archive or somewhere else?
RapidShare says that my IP is already downloading a file, which it is not.
:(
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

aaron11193
Guitar Song Chords/tabs App.
Replies
13
Views
7K
WrongEyedJesus
WrongEyedJesus
M
  • Locked
Pandora Frets On Fire?
2
Replies
21
Views
4K
Squidge
S
L
Guitar Hero (we Could Use Frets On Fire Or Stepmania's Code)
Replies
3
Views
3K
Leonar
L
Matthias_H
Pandora Developing a Guitar Simulator Application for the Pandora
Replies
5
Views
5K
Matthias_H
Matthias_H
K
Tux Guitar
Replies
3
Views
1K
elw3
elw3
Back
Top