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DS Misc > Drum Spider - DS drum machine in the works

#89463 - Prodigy - Sun Jun 25, 2006 12:34 am

Hi.

I'm currently working on a nice drum machine for the DS called Drum Spider. So far its doing pretty well, and would love to get some feed back on how it looks so far, and suggestions. Also note, there will be more than 2 channels.

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#89522 - HyperHacker - Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:48 am

Looks really nice. :-)
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#89546 - HtheB - Sun Jun 25, 2006 12:36 pm

looks cool :)

#89552 - Dark Knight ez - Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:07 pm

Concept art? It looks really nice. Can't wait to see that graph on the top screen in action.

#89604 - ghazi - Sun Jun 25, 2006 7:19 pm

It looks like it'll be a fun app when it's finished!

I do have a couple questions/suggestions, though:

* How are you doing tempo adjustments? It looks like there might be room at the top of the touch screen for a slider.

* Do you intend for it to support saving? That'd be pretty neat.

* One neat feature that I don't believe I've ever seen that you might consider (that would probably be sort of tough and I know it's way outside of the scope of what a drum machine is) is sort of a live-play recording? You could set it up sort of like playing the drums in Daigasso and have the program record what you play. ;-P

(I don't really expect that last one to happen - I just think it'd be sweet.)



Also, from an ergonomic perspective, there are only a couple things that jump out at me.

The obvious one is that spinning that little volume knob might be tough, and the DS already has volume controls, so you might be able to use that space for something else. It looks cool, though!

The second thing that comes to mind is that, while I love that brushed metal background, there's a lot of grey going on. It doesn't pose a big problem, but there are a couple spots where it might be a little difficult to tell what you're looking at (for example, the first column of dark grey blocks on the touch screen kind of blends in with everything else - you could probably fix that particular case by starting with a light grey column instead of dark).

Anyway, your drum machine looks really awesome! I can't wait to try it out. Keep up the good work! =D

#89689 - Prodigy - Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:30 am

Thanks for the feedback so far :D The projects going pretty good, and hopefully by this week i'll have a little demo out.

ghazi-

Tempo adjustments, i'll probably have on the top screen, cause there will be enough space.

Saving, definatly! Its a must.

Hmm that actually I could consider doing. I've already made a Donkey Konga clone for the DS which I might post later, and I could just setup a drum set to play live like that, and it'll record it.

Well the thing is, with the volume knob, you'll be able to control the volume of each instrument (channel) individually. For example, if the kick over-powers the snare and other instruments in the mix, just turn its volume down a bit.

Yeah, I was considering adding a bit more color and black and white to make controls stand out and such.

thanks for the feedback :D
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#89738 - Neil - Mon Jun 26, 2006 3:02 pm

Sounds great, looking forward to trying this :-)

#90075 - ghazi - Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:46 am

Oh yeah. I guess I didn't think that far into the volume control, but you're definitely right!

In that case, do you see it as being pretty easy to adjust? In my experience, spinning a knob on a touch screen (or on a computer with a mouse, for that matter) can be kind of annoying. It'd probably be even harder when it's in a corner like that. Maybe that should be a slider instead?

Also, I don't know how useful it'd be, but when you're adjusting the volume of one channel, you're usually comparing it to all the others. What about a master volume control where you can change the volume for every channel without going in to each individual one?

Anyway! I'll stop raining on your parade! I can totally see myself getting a lot of use out of something like this. =)

#90144 - shamburglar - Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:54 pm

not sure what you are thinking about for samples on the drum machine but it would be an awesome feature if you could load your own samples into it.....

also a way to play audio loops and possibly chop them into pieces and rearange on the fly in the step seq. would be groovy too.

looks nice btw.

#90308 - Raventyr - Thu Jun 29, 2006 3:25 pm

This looks great.

Quote:

not sure what you are thinking about for samples on the drum machine but it would be an awesome feature if you could load your own samples into it.....


I second that notion.

Also it would be pretty nice if you could adjust the velocity of each step in the sample sequence, like in FL studio. Might not work with the touchscreen bongo idea, for those harder beats i would predict a few broken screens, har.

Perhaps some basic effects aswell, like reverb or compression.

#90362 - shamburglar - Thu Jun 29, 2006 10:30 pm

Not sure if you have a palm os device but this is the best portable music software i have ever seen, you might want to check out some of its features....

http://www.chocopoolp.com/

i've been using it a lot lately, but my palm doesn't have the fastest processor, thats why i've been real interested in ds homebrew music soft....

#90502 - HyperHacker - Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:35 pm

Hehe, you know, the touch screen is actually pressure sensitive. ;-)
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#90595 - Mrshlee - Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:31 am

HyperHacker wrote:
Hehe, you know, the touch screen is actually pressure sensitive. ;-)


no its not.. passive pressure at best
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#90654 - clone dad - Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:50 pm

you should make it so the user has different sets of drum sounds to choose from.
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