What would you like on buttered toast V4.x?

[erv]

NOTE
this thread has evolved since the first version of crystal focus, so the information displayed in this first post can be somehow inacurate or out dated

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As suggested by xwing, I'm opening the discussion about what would you like as new features for the buttered toast v2 aka the new version of the Crystal Focus Saber Core I've built.
So far, I've made about 50 of them, got away in something like 2 months (gosh). Time now for some more, as usual.
New design, the prototype is starting working, slowly, I'm porting the code of v1 to a new processor, so it's not totally stable yet, but it's there.
The first step was to improve sound : I've tried various amps but I'm staying using the original one cause with 16 bit sounds, it's already behaving MUCH BETTER (less quantification noise, better representation of the sounds).
I propose to edit the post during the firmware development. User's might post features proposals, and I'll try to implement them if it's doable (and if I or we like it). Like I did in the past for the crystal focus name contest, I'll reward in a way or another some of the best inovative ideas !
here we are, let's post !
Erv'
RoadMap :

- 6 sound banks (8 swings, 8 clash etc, like v1). Aux buttons pressed at startup => browsing the sound fonts, with an off-voice from the saber saying "bank one", "bank two" or... just put a descriptive sound you like ! could be a "preview" sound, the ignition sound, or something more descriptive like "sith config", "jedi config" "mixed config" etc. [done]
- one config file per sound bank, allows to have a damaged saber in one bank, a sith saber in the second one etc. [done]
- Boot sound. Just like your digital camera does. Can be a little sound "logo", or a "yes my master" if you like. [done]
- force push. If possible, no choice to make between the different effects, I'll try to put force push AND blaster deflection AND blade lockup. Already have the solution I think, needs to be tested [to be done]
- pitch alteration of the swing sounds depending on the swing hardness. Maybe applied to clash, but it's meaningless IMO. [done]
- design four different sound banks to be provided with the core [to be done]
- exchange/trading zone for sound bank, on the forum [to be done]
- reverse the pitch shifting effect controlled by the orientation of the saber: lower with saber down, higher with saber up. Impossible to change the polarity of the effect, increasing too much the sample playback speed reduces too much the CPU power. Effect is hence "just" lowering the speed, saber up brings it back to normal speed (as setup on the sd card) [done]
- orientation of the saber controls pitch shifting but only for the hum and blade lockup effect[done]
- 4 LED sequence to illuminate the hilt when the saber is on. Sequence to be defined in an additionnal configuration file (LED.txt) on the SD card, with patterns and delays between transition of patterns [done]

Additionnal Stuff for V3
- real low battery blinking indicator, voltage based [done]
- background music for the vocal menu [done]
- option to allow or not the play of the selected sound bank in the vocal menu Saves time when demontrating the banks or when heavily changing them. [done]
- optimized current measurement [done]
- blaster/force priority over swings : allows long blaster or force sounds not to be stopped by a swing to fake additionnal movements. Clashes however can break the sequence => variable duration for clashes [done]
- auxiliary circuit to drive an additionnal white flash (luxeon, simple LED) during blaster and clash. Specific duration of the flash can be setup on the card [done]
- instant on and off for the blade (already in 2.63) [done]
- blade lights up during iSaber, allows practice of a choreography with background music [done]
- additionnal flicker mode for iSaber : light is modulated with beat of the music [done]
- pulsing mode available in addition of the blade energy flickering mode (the so-called "movie flicker"). Not really screen accurate, but now that there are some alternate soundfonts like the phoenix blade of fire, this pulsing mode makes sense too. [done]
- shorten parameters name in the SD config file. Due to the growing number of parameters, I had to keep the param name short to stay under 512 bytes for the file size [done]

[Luke-SkyMarcher]

- pitch alteration of the swing sounds depending on the swing hardness.

Does this refer to the shifiting parameter, or to separate swing parameters ? (i.e., swing 1 and 2 slow swings, swings 3-6 average swings, swings 7 and 8 hard swings) or both maybe ?

-Luke

[erv]

it will be another parameter. I will probably actually remove the current shifting parameter cause it makes the saber like a plane of WW2.
My plan was to apply it only to the hum, so that pitch alteration of the other sounds (swings in particular) is done by another system, but it stays an open question.
There will still be 8 swings slots. You'll be able to do the followings :
- no dynamic pitch shifting. Sounds are pre shifted and randomized for playing.
- swing sounds are consistent, different contents, kind of same pitch. Dynamic pitch is applied. The harder you swing, the higher the pitch.
- both (might sound a bit strange sometimes, depends on the sounds)

dynamic pitch shifting will be done like the current shifting feature : it will be a ratio of the sample playback speed, nothing absolute. For instance, dynamic range of shifting = 20% of sample playback speed,
shifting will go from normal to +20% of playback speed.

do you want to keep the pitch shifting classic system, if applied only on the hum ? do you like it ? have you tried it ?

Erv'

[Marsupial]

you mean the hum changing depending how you hold the saber?
I say it stays there. This is one feature I am really looking forward to have on a saber.... would be a bummer to be removed.

[Barmic Rin]

Peanut butter on my toast plz!!! Crunchy!!!

Any chance of grievous guard noises please Erv?
I'm looking at making one of their staff once i put your V1 into my hilt.


Am loving V1 BTW!

[erv]

well it's not that simple. Current effect is not so satisfying cause the pitch is always applied, even during movement. I was planning to apply it only when the saber is idle, ie to the hum sound, but then I suspect it will lead to sudden pitch changes when playing a swing or a clash. Well, I have to test first

grievious guards sounds ? well, it's a sound board you can make you personnal sounds in : go go go !

you mean the hum changing depending how you hold the saber?
I say it stays there. This is one feature I am really looking forward to have on a saber.... would be a bummer to be removed.

[Barmic Rin]

I'm too scared of breaking it!!!! LOL!!!
How about you do it so we could maybe download them from you to use our boards? Or have somewhere on your site where we can trade sounds?
I really love your work Erv!
Will you be present at Celebration Europe?

[erv]

I'll soon upgrade my download section, I have 2 contributions that are really worth being there, just need time to finish the zip archive and test everything is there. They are actually there, except that the zip icon points on nothing.
Don't be scared of breaking it, simply backup your SD before making a sound upgrade (the original package is available from the DL section of the website).
It's on the way for the exchange/trading souds, but I plan to put this in the forums, burried a little bit deeper than in the frontdesk. Some of the sound there could be copyrighted and so on, if you see what I mean (despite I know and sware that we ALL make our own sounds using farm animals, microwave oven, better half - in undescribed situations - and computers)

For me making sounds, I wished I had the time for that. Count about 2hours to make a nice sound bank/ sound font, I can't afford that right now, but I hope to have the sound lib growing up really soon.

I'll be at celebration europe with my costume (obiwan between 2 ages) !!!
Erv'

[add on]
I'm currently working on the new core, code was stabilized yesterday after the port to the new processor. Works really great. Even suppressed on more part, length will be reduced of a few mm.
The hard job right now is to deal with the FAT file structure cause I'm now using sub directories (folders). The white paper of microsoft gave me some headaches. Hopefully, I found the missing clues using winhex.
[/add on]

I'm too scared of breaking it!!!! LOL!!!
How about you do it so we could maybe download them from you to use our boards? Or have somewhere on your site where we can trade sounds?
I really love your work Erv!
Will you be present at Celebration Europe?

[Barmic Rin]

Fantastic! It's like you read my mind! (there's not much too read, but that's not the point! lol!)

I'll have to scope around on your site for them.

I'll be in my custom tunic if I can get it sorted, but i'll keep an eye out for you! BTW, I love your Kenobi hilt!

[neophyl]

Handy little tool winhex isnt it

I'll have to send you the sounds Im currently using at some point Erv. Got some good clash noises and the lockup has been altered too. Still experimenting with the swings.

As for the pitch change, Im currently using a setting of around 50 which seems to work well with my new hum. Thinking about it keeping the pitch change on the idle hun but not on the others would be a good move. Especially if you do tie the swing noise played to the speed of the swing by using multiple detection bands instead of just one.

Oh one thing Ive noticed about the current pitch change is that it increases in pitch when the sabre is pointed down. Any chance of it being reversed ? So that pointing the blade up increases the pitch and lowering it decreases it. Feels more natural that way.