QasarBeach

[iWasAdam]

QasarBeach has been released 
https://adamstrange.itch.io/qasarbeach

This is a complete recreation of the Fairlight CMI IIx.

This has all the features of the original Fairlight CMI including 16 stereo voices, full voice editing and realtime control, harmonic additive synthesis, full Page R sequencer and much more.

The Fairlight CMI was a professional and complex machine, QasarBeach in no way tries to obscure this operation. So the UI is the same, the operation is the same, but there have been additions to make it a bit more user friendly.

[Derron]

Is this an graphical glitch (eg wrong coordinate for start of a line segment) ?


bye
Ron

[iWasAdam]

Nope, that’s the start of the sample

[iWasAdam]

QasarBeach had been updated to V1.18. This is a big release as it deals with lots of small details plus enhanced loading of both IIx and III voice files. Here's the change list

'fixed command "nc" that wasn't being reccognised
'fixed minor Series III voice load that prevented voices with functions being loaded - only one found!
'Series IIx .VC voice loading now respects filter, and loops
'internal std/audiodata framework extended with loop control
'IIx loop points are now played in PAGE 2
'IIx MODE1 is played in PAGE 2 (durations not yet loaded)
'IIx Filter settings now loaded in PAGE 2
'IIx Filter, Loop, and Mode now imported with correct IIx .vc
'added fullscreen option to settings
'initial IIx .co file reading in place
'.co files will load to the current voice or to a number of voices picked by the load page voice boxes
'original fairlight II/IIx .co files can now be loaded
'PAGE 8 Nphony added clamp to stop saturated volume from showing in the horizontal volume fader
'added null voice playback crash protection
'ECHO LOOP control added to PAGE 7
'ECHO LOOP control looping back when ECHO DELAY has been set
'ECHO LOOP added to control file loading and saving
'fixed fatal Series III voice load (where voices with functions crashed)
'ECHO LOOP inital operation activated
'-
'Initial PAGE 7 expansion (making room for another line of data) started
'PAGE 7 MOVE ACTIVE added. this activates LOOP MOVE
'PAGE 7 LOOP MOVE added. This will make the loop start and loop end move together
'When activating MOVE ACTIVE, LOOP MOVE will become the value of LOOP START
'Inital internal changes for multisamples from segment to position
'internal loading/saving of controls changed the V4 to support new multisamples
'internal subvoice start end segments converted from ubyte to floats and checked
'III multisample loading now corrected - doesn't have glitch at start of voices
'internal III subvoice loading data simplified
'new .in loading routines
'V0 .in loading complete
'V1 .in loading complete
'V2/V3 .in loading complete
'.in loads and saves correctly - keeping track of different versions of .co structures
'PAGE 7 ECHO LOOP now operates with MODE 5 multisample voices
'fixed very tiny but major fault in the .vc loading routine,  that caused a segment slippage giving wrong segemnt lengths - and thus clicks
'correction to triangle wave draw PAGE 6
'improvments to MODE 2 playback to prevent click - now has smooth wavetable scanning
'PAGE P fatal crash when playing MODE 2 voice fixed
'PAGE D MODE 2 voice now shows correct playing segment
'PAGE 2 additional loading protection,  to prevent crash if voice is null

Plus there is now an additional download called 'Cookbook' which gives lots of ideas, sounds, instruments and PAGE R files to play with.

You can get all versions from the itch.io page:
https://adamstrange.itch.io/qasarbeach

[Qube]

Very impressive indeed - Must of taken you quite a while to code it all up?

[Steve Elliott]

Congrats on this release.   

[iWasAdam]

it's an ongoing project, but I do have assistance from the original engineers and also owners of Fairlights (I've not actually touched one, yet...).

The main time spent is using it and finding bugs (dog-fooding). And writing documents.

It's getting VERY stable now. the only thing I'm catching are tiny errors with loading some files.

[3DzForMe]

Really good looking UI work, good stuff!

[Naughty Alien]

..very nice..i really like way your UI looks, both in your games as well as application as this one presented here..

[iWasAdam]

Thanks for the UI, but I really can't take credit for this one, as it's a carbon copy of the original 1978 UI (so much so the people who created it were very impressed).

But the one thing that is constant is the FontSprite application which was used to copy the original font and graphics. As a concept it was envisioned for just based sprite work. I now use it in all my stuff for different but related graphics work.

[iWasAdam]

Just an update as QasarBeach has been 'live' for just over a month and I'm working on the forth release.

Current download base is approx 700 with Windows just beating Macos installs and linux trailing.

I'm working with and listening to all comments, so the next version will address some of the requests, PAGE R improvements including moving from a fixed 4/4 to user defined time signatures plus new fx bus.

I've tried compiling for Pi, but so far there is a lot going on that wont compile, but at least I've made a start

'learning all the time' as they say.

[iWasAdam]

Some very nice person has done a video:

[Steve Elliott]

Cool.  I'm seeing the Art of Noise in May.

[iWasAdam]

Brilliant - Never seen them in person

[iWasAdam]

QasarBeach updated to V1.19 

https://adamstrange.itch.io/qasarbeach

And it's got a new CRT shader:


Here's a list of changes - this is a big one...

minor optimization to audio out
initial work on FX
PAGE 1 index being reformatted to allow for more menu options
initial PAGE T: FX BUS
base FX1 Reverb/delay and FX2 Echo complete
fx1/2 sends added to PAGE 7 Controls. tested and fuly operational
increased buffer fill speed for faster systems
Disks option added to PAGE 2 to allow for openeing of external drives
removal of oberon ui core
CTRL+Q now quits app
reclaiming unused character from the font
drag and drop of files now supported
drag a voice file and it will overwrite the current voice
small modification to voice loading to prevent cut outs
initial coding for time signatures in PAGE R
PAGE R note graphics being extended to cover all notes
PAGE R note duration of 96 can now be entered
PAGE R internal graphics being reformatted
PAGE R note off being added
PAGE R note quantize being extended
PAGE R note off now functional
PAGE R quantize lengths now shown correctly with new note lengths
PAGE R NOTE_ONOFF now plays correctly
PAGE R internal track expansion complete
PAGE R basic time signature code started
PAGE R pattern display rewritten to handle new time signatures
PAGE R removed ^ from bottom of bar as playhead makes it not needed
PAGE R bar removed
PAGE R bpm moved right slightly
PAGE R bar LENGTH added
PAGE R 8 voice view completed
PAGE R 16 voice view completed
fx Page now has label selection of effects
.co now at v4 with new fx support
.in now at v1 with new fx support
.rs now at v1.10 with new fx support and variable time signatures
playhead modifications to keep quantize positions in record
PAGE D now shows current active segment in all displays
PAGE D segments are better highlighted
PAGE T Master Root note implemented. this allows for different toots +- an octave
fx page master tuning now has control over which voice to tune!
crt tv output shader added
PAGE S tv output option now added and operational
tv output settings saved correctly
nasty function draw error fixed that caused glitches
voice loading fixed when using functions that caused glitches - these have been removed on loading
instrument loading fixed when using functions that caused glitches - these have been removed on loading
voice control loading fixed when using functions that caused glitches - these have been removed on loading
PAGE P now displays voice names
PAGE 7 lfo1, lfo2, etc are now valid entries in the command line
32bit uncompressed .wav files now supported
PAGE R pattern markers update correctly and work correctly with quantize
PAGE R FILL now respects time signatures and quantize
PAGE R load and save of pattern time/signatures checked
PAGE A (re)sampling page started
index items moved to make room for new entries
Original Fairlight logo now animates!
initial PAGE A finished