Probably the most annoying thing in the version of Ronde I published on google play in april was the lack of a save feature. Anytime you would quit the application, the whole of your work would be sent to to the great hollowness of the unknown history.
So I've been working on a save feature lately, and published it as an alpha version. 2 options have been added in the menu : save the current setup (and everything from the pulse, to the used sound and effects and the recorded notes will be saved) and load a previously saved setup. The setup files are xml files, saved in the music/RondeSyntesizer/setups folder, on the external storage of your android device (I might have to add an option to change this folder though...) Also, the current setup will be saved when leaving the application, and restored once restarted.
So I've been working on a save feature lately, and published it as an alpha version. 2 options have been added in the menu : save the current setup (and everything from the pulse, to the used sound and effects and the recorded notes will be saved) and load a previously saved setup. The setup files are xml files, saved in the music/RondeSyntesizer/setups folder, on the external storage of your android device (I might have to add an option to change this folder though...) Also, the current setup will be saved when leaving the application, and restored once restarted.
The second feature added is an other menu option that allows you to save the loop you recorded to a .wav file. Currently, the loop's generation omits any sound that would still be playing from the previous loop play (no crossover). For example, if you press a key at beat 4, and leave it pressed until beat 2 of the next loop, you won't hear this sound at the first beat of the exported loop. However, the sound will start at beat 4 as expect and play through its whole duration, meaning that the playing time of the exported file can be longer than the playing time of the loop (this is almost always true, as the release effect of the sound also lengthens the exported loop length). This might be a problem if you want to use the exported loop in another music software, as you will have to trim/crossfade it so that it syncs with the pulse properly. I might improve this feature in the future depending on the feedback I get and the ideas I come up with.
The third feature I introduced in the alpha version 1.0.3 is the ability to add custom sounds to Ronde Synthesizer. Here's a quick tutorial on how to do this.
First, you need a .wav file for the sound you want to add. It is important that the file begins and end with a value of 0, so that no clipping will occur. Here's an example with a one-cycle square wave at A4.
The third feature I introduced in the alpha version 1.0.3 is the ability to add custom sounds to Ronde Synthesizer. Here's a quick tutorial on how to do this.
First, you need a .wav file for the sound you want to add. It is important that the file begins and end with a value of 0, so that no clipping will occur. Here's an example with a one-cycle square wave at A4.
For my square wave sound I wanted to import, I decided to use a second file with a square wave generated at A2 tone. Using multiple wave files as sources is an advantage, as the further the played note is from the source note, the more it is distorted by the up- or down-sampling.
Secondly, the sound to be imported must be described via a xml file.
Secondly, the sound to be imported must be described via a xml file.
The different wave source files are referred to in the corresponding wav-component tags. The range in which they might be used is also defined there. The notes are given as integers values, as defined for the midi standard. Of course, the base pitch field should be set accordingly to the actual pitch of your source wave file, so that you don't get out of tune notes.
Finally the xml file must be placed in the directory music/RondeSynthesizer/sounds on your android device. The folder will be automatically created when running the application. The source wave file have to be placed in a subfolder (with name given by the corresponding field in the xml file) of this sounds/ folder.
You can download the example here and try it for yourself !