Bees-in-the-Trees v4.0
This is Bees-in-the-Trees v4.0. It does not contain code for storing settings as presets - that is still being worked on and will appear in v4.1 or v4.2. In the meantime, this release adds three new "bytebeats" oscillator models! For background information on ByteBeats, see http://canonical.org/~kragen/bytebeat/
The three new oscillator models use the following byte beat equations:
- BYT0 is
((t_*3) & (t_>>10)) | ((t_*p0) & (t_>>10)) | ((t_*10) & ((t_>>8)*p1) & 128)where t_ is a 32-bit time accumulator, driven by the oscillator phase accumulator divided down via a modulus set by the pitch setting, and p0 and p1 are the parameters set by the Timbre and Color controls, respectively. This algorithm is by Jamie DeLorio and can be found at http://royal-paw.com/2012/01/bytebeats-in-c-and-python-generative-symphonies-from-extremely-small-programs/ - BYT1 is
((t_*p0) & (t_>>4)) | ((t_*5) & (t_>>7)) | ((t_*p1) & (t_>>10)), by stephth via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRPUv8V22o (watch at about 3:38). - BYT2 is
((t_ >> p0) & t_) * (t_ >> p1), from the list of byte beat equations compiled by a2aaron at http://www.reddit.com/r/bytebeat/comments/20km9l/cool_equations/
Note that both of these play "tunes", thus pitch is more an offset or transposition of the tune: the pitch controls (the pitch knobs and the V/oct and FM inputs) affect the speed at which the time accumulator advances, and thus affect both loop speed and the pitch of the notes played. Timbre and Color modulate other parameters in the equations. Note that all the internal modulation sources in Bees-in-the-Trees, the meta-sequencer, Turing Machine etc, all still work with these models. You probably want to filter their outputs through a low-pass filter to remove some of the high-frequency digital noise they can produce - they can be harsh, but appropriately filtered, they can sound rather nice too.
The only other changes in v4.0 are a bug fix to the RNDM mode for SDIR (meta-sequencer direction) - it now works as intended and as described in the documentation, the inclusion of BYT0 , BYT1 and BYT2 in the list of oscillator models when using META mode (i.e. when FMCV=META).
Like the Mutable Instruments Braids firmware on which it is based, Bees-in-the-Trees is completely open-source, and is available at no cost. Like most open-source software, including the official Braids firmware itself, Bees-in-the-Trees comes with with no warranty or guarantee whatsoever, and you use it at your own risk.
Before installing Bees-in-the-Trees on your Braids module, please take time to read the warnings in the Installation and De-installation section of the documentation careful, and if you still wish to proceed, follow the instructions given there very carefully. If you do that, you should not encounter any problems installing Bees-in-the-Trees, nor any problems re-installing the official Braids v1.7 (or later) firmware should you wish to. At the time of this release, about 25 beta testers have all installed development versions of Bees-in-the_trees successfully and without incident or mishap - no-one has "bricked" their Braids yet by installing it, as far as I am aware.