STEPPER: A new 16-step sequencer for the GBA

Equipment
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Hello folks!

I’ve just released the first version of STEPPER, my new 16-step sequencer for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). It has access to the original 4 channels of the DMG (2 square waves, 1 programmable wave and 1 noise channel). You have 4 banks of 8 patterns available and the patterns can be chained (Only one at a time for now but this could change in the future).

Here is a little demo:

The project is open sourcehttps://git.badd10de.dev/stepper and you can get the GBA rom on its itch.io page starting at 0 bucks.

I hope you like it and let me know if you try it out and what you come up with! :smiley:

Cheers!

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What a wonderful demo. Lovely clear interface, looks super fun and quick to use!
Congrats on the release!

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Thank you for your lovely words happy you liked it! Let me know if you end up playing with it :slight_smile:

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Seems to be working on hardware (On the 3DS at least, using a GBA injector):

stepper-3ds
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For sneaky office comrades, it works here too:

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Excited to try this! Great to see any new GBA music roms

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cheers! hope you like it :slight_smile:

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STEPPER v1.3 is out! I’ve wrote about the main changes here:

Biggest changes are

  • Quick saving with SELECT + START
  • Per channel parameter adjustment and note transposition
  • SELECT + L/R to adjust notes by octave or BPM by increments of 10

Volume should be way louder than on v1.0 and I included a .cia for loading directly on 3DS consoles.

I’ve also tested it on a GBA SP with a cheap flash cart and works great. I’m waiting for an Everdrive to be delivered to be able to do more hardware experiments. Particularly I’m interested to see if I can get a sort of CV gate out working using a modified GBA Link cable.

stepper-gba-ips
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If you try this update and find any issues, please let me know!

Cheers!

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IMG_5811.HEIC
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Have not had a chance to try it out proper, but can report it looking good on an Analogue Pocket with an openFPGA GBA core as well.

Edit: seems to kill audio for that voice when I change some parameters on the top. Have not dug in though.

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Thanks for testing it! Let me know if you manage to find how to cause the audio issue and I’ll see if I can reproduce it on my end.

In any case check that the volume envelope is set properly and see if the issue persists with sweep disabled (num 0 time 0).

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Studio is a bit of a mess right now, but finally have a moment to give it a spin :metal:

image
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glorious! there is a kind of order in the chaos there haha

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I’m preparing a new version of STEPPER that should come out this week (hopefully). It will include link cable and audio sync, theming support and some bugfixes and misc improvements.

I already have a proof of concept for the link cable sync working. Here you can see a GBA clocking a PO-20:

Note that the gate output is of 3.3V, which is enough to trigger the Gate In on my Microbrute and control some other CV parameters but I can’t guarantee it will work with all Eurorack modules or CV capable synths without some amplification:

As for the theming support I currently have 4 default themes in place but I’m open for feedback and contributions from the community:

Initial-Themes
Initial-Themes2048×1450 44 KB

If you want to contribute you can propose your RGB555 colors (0-31 instead of 0-255)

Currently each theme is made of 6 colors:

  • Background
  • Foreground
  • Accent 1 (Cursor)
  • Accent 2
  • Accent 3
  • Disabled (Background elements)

Cheers!

8 Likes