BeepComp User's Guide

Contents

About BeepComp

Getting Started

Tutorials

Basics

Main Editor

Writing Your First Track

Saving and Loading Your Work

Copying and Pasting Source

Exporting Your Work

Key Commands

Global Section in Detail

Music Section in Detail

Musical Notes

Note Length

Rests

Octave changes

Ties

Tuplets

Volume Changes

Repeats

Fall Effect

Rise Effect

Waveform Selection

"Beef-Up" Effect

Preset Selection

Volume Envelope Commands

LFO Commands

Astro Command

Ring Modulation

Drum Section in Detail

Drum Hits

Quieter Drum Hits

Note Length

Rests

Ties

Tuplets

Noise Type

Adjusting the Noise Mix

Drum Sound Shaping

Delay Effect

Volume Envelope

LFO Effect

Astro Effect

Waveforms

Beef Up!

Tone Presets

Ring Modultion

Bookmarking Your Start Position

Auto Saving

Syntax Reference

General

Global Section

Music Channel

Drum Channel

Uninstalling BeepComp

Staying Updated

If you found issues/bugs...

BeepComp on the Web

Contact Me!

About BeepCompBeepComp lets you compose chiptune tracks with text files. It features a nice retro-sounding synthesizer

engine with 9 music channels and 1 drum channel.

BeepComp is an open-source project. This means that you're welcome to modify the source code

however you want. BeepComp is a also shareware that anyone can use freely. It is distributed under the

MIT license.

Getting StartedUse the latest installer package available on the Sourceforge top page. Run this set up file, and you'll be

all set for your journey!

Windows

Launch the MSI installer file, beepcomp_vx-x-x.msi, (x-x-x fills the version number) which you just

downloaded. Your program will be installed in the folder:

C:\Program Files\BeepComp\ on 32-bit Windows

C:\Program Files (x86)\BeepComp\ on 64-bit Windows

After installation, BeepComp will be on the list of installed programs. On Windows XP & 7, go to Start-

>All Programs->BeepComp. You can also click the shortcut that has been created on your Desktop.

(Note: If you downloaded the portable version, the installation steps below are not required. To launch,

open the folder you extracted from the downloaded .zip file and double-click on

beepcomp_portable.exe.)

Mac / Linux

I'll be working on these versions soon :)

TutorialsThe BeepComp homepage has section named Your First Tutorial, which will be your great starting point.

The later section Writing Your First Track in this document has a similar content.

After exploring those tutorials, exploring the tutorial files included in the userdata folder (the program's

default save location) will be helpful. Simply load one of these files named _tutorial_---.txt, read and

play to see writing what produces what result. I recommend starting from _tutorial_basic_1.txt.

These files are located in:

C:\Documents and Settings\{USERNAME}\My Documents\BeepComp\userdata on XP

C:\Users\{USERNAME}\Documents\BeepComp\userdata on Vista and later

(Note: for the portable version, find the userdata folder inside the application top folder)

Basics

Main Editor

Editor Area ... You edit your music source text here.

Control Panel ... Play/pause/save/load/export the music you write and control other things.

Cursor ... Your point of control over the text.

Your Text ... This single text file is your whole track - simple, eh?

Gain Meter ... For visualizing each channel's activity in real time.

Progress Bar ... Keeps track your song's progress in time.

Master Volume ... Controls how loud the master output is. (Each channel has a separate volume

control, too)

Writing Your First Track

Let's write a very basic "Hello BeepComp" source. Start up BeepComp, press the NEW button, choose

"Yes", and type the folloing into the text editor:

// My first BeepComp track! :)

@G

TEMPO=100

MASTERVOLUME=80

@1

CDEFG

And press the play button (with a triangle). You heard an endless series of "do-re-mi-fa-sol...," right? Let

me explain the source.

Two forward slashes // adds a comment. Following two slashes, you can write anything to make a note

to yourself or others. The comment ends at the end of the line.

@ is used to declare the beginning of each "section." @G starts the "global section" where you can set

parameters that affect your entire track. Your section declaration stays effective until you declare

another section (@1 in this case).

TEMPO= sets the tempo of the track. MASTERVOLUME= sets the master output gain. The volume knob will

change accordingly to the master volume when you play your track from the beginning.

@1 declares the start of the first music channel section. Everything you write thereafter will be written to

the first channel until you declare another section.

Then we have the musical notes CDEFG . Note that you have to write musical pitches in UPPERCASE.

You actually heard CDEFG over and over because BeepComp defaults the player to looping mode. (More

about looping later...)

Easy? Let's expand this a little:

// My first BeepComp track! :)

@G

TEMPO=100

MASTERVOLUME=80

@1

O5L4 CDEFG~

@2

O4L4 EFGAB~

@D

L4 KKKSSS

Now play this. You now hear a mix of three channels.

O followed by a single digit number sets the octave. O4 is the default octave where the middle C is, so

O5 is just one above the default octave. L followed by a number ranging from 1 to 64 changes the note

length. L4 sets up the note length to 1/4 of the measure length (quarter notes).

~ is quite useful. It elongates a note by the currently set note length. You can actually chain multiple ~s,

for instance, B~~~ .

Now we have @2 so commands after that goes to the second music channel. You can play up to 9 music

channels simultaneously, so you can declare sections up to @9 .

And you can use the drum channel by declaring @D . Write K for kick, S for snare, H for high-hat. In fact,

you can use lower case k, s, h which will play a little quieter.

Note that you see some white spaces in above examples. You can insert any amount of white space

between commands because they're ignored by the interpreter.

Saving and Loading Your Work

Now let's save your work. Click the SAVE button (or F11), type in hellobeep.txt, and click the Save

button. Now open NotePad or any text editor of your choice, choose to open a file, navigate to the

userdata folder, the default user folder, and open up the hellobeep.txt file we just created.

(Note that default userdata folder will be at following locations:)

C:\Documents and Settings\{USERNAME}\My Documents\BeepComp\userdata on XP

C:\Users\{USERNAME}\Documents\BeepComp\userdata on Vista and later

(Note: for the portable version, find the userdata folder inside the application top folder)

See? Your BeepComp source is simply a text file. And you could even continue to work on your track in

your text editor if you want.

By the way, you can use the ALT + O shortcut from the main editor to open up your userdata folder

anytime.

Copying and Pasting Source

A nice thing about working with text is that you can easily copy and paste between BeepComp and other

sources!

Try this - Start a new file (NEW button or F9), Go to this page, copy all the code inside the grey box, and

press CTRL + V in BeepComp, and play.

I hope you see how easy it can be to share your work with others on the web :)

Of course, going the other way is easy, too. You can easily copy your work from BeepComp by pressing

CTRL + A (select all) then CTRL + C (copy), and paste what you just copied into your external

applications like your Outlook to email your music to a friend, for instance.

Exporting Your Work

You can create audio files of your work by pressing the EXPORT button(or F12). Currently supported

formats are: WAV, MP3 and OGG files. After you export your work, you can add fades and other

finishing touches on audio editors like Audacity.

Note that by default your music won't be looped when exported.

If you want your export to be looped, specify the total number the song should execute with the

command REPEAT=n in the global section. If you want your track to play through once and then fade out,

first write REPEAT=2 in the global section and export your song. This will output your song twice in

succession. Then load the exported file in an audio editor and apply fade-out around the middle of the

file briefly after where the song repeats.

Key Commands

Mouse Input

Mouse position ... Navigates cursor position

Mouse Wheel ... Helps scrolling text up/down

Left Button ... Presses button on screen / selects text

Right Button ... Clears text selection

Key Commands: Main Editor

F1 ... Play from beginning

F2 ... Pause / Unpause

F3 ... Rewind

F4 ... Fast Forward

F5 ... Show key commands

F6 ... Show Documentation

F7 ... Turn delay on/off

F9 ... Start a new file

F10 ... Load from a file

F11 ... Save to a file

F12 ... Export to an audio file

ARROW ... Move cursor

ESCAPE ... Quit

BACKSPACE ... Backspacing, delete selection

SHIFT ... Select text

SHIFT + ARROW ... Expand text selection

ALT ... Clear text selection

CTRL + Z ... Undo

CTRL + C ... Copy

CTRL + V ... Paste

CTRL + A ... Select all

CTRL + S ... Save

ALT + S ... Quick-save to last saved file

ALT + V ... Open the system volume control

ALT + D ... Open the audio device control

ALT + I ... Initialize the audio device

ALT + O ... Open "userdata" folder

HOME ... Go to the very top

END ... Go to the very bottom

Page Up ... Go up by one screen height

Page Down ... Go down by one screen height

Key Commands: File Dialog

ESCAPE ... Exits dialog

HOME ... Go back to the default starting folder

END ... Go back to previous folder

CTRL + Z ... Go back to previous folder

F1 ... Toggle file types to display

F2 ... Display keyboard shortcuts

F12 ... Load/Save/Export (as indicated)

UP/DOWN ... Navigate through the list of files in the current directory

RIGHT ... Selects a file name, Go to child folder (when over <<<)

LEFT ... Go to parent folder (when over <<<)

BACKSPACE ... Backspacing in the file name input

CTRL + G ... Go to a particular drive or special folders (Desktop and Documents)

ALT + O ... Open the currently selected directory in Explorer

ALT + D ... Go to the 'Desktop'

CTRL + R ... Refresh the currently viewing directory

Global Section in DetailThe global section, defined by @G , is where you write commands that influence the entire track. The

elements you can control in the global section are:

Master volume ... MASTERVOLUME=n

Initial channel volume ... V1=n, V2=n, VD=n etc...

Tempo ... TEMPO=n

Delay ... DELAY=ON / OFF, DELAYTIME=n, DELAYLEVEL=n

Looping ... LOOP=ON / OFF

The master volume is also manually controllable with the volume knob in the control panel. Note that at

the start of track, the master volume gets initialized to the declared value by MASTERVOLUME= (or default

value 80 if none specified) so the volume knob position gets reset.

The tempo, measured by beats per measure (BPM), determines how fast your track is played. The

TEMPO= command takes a value between 30 and 300.

The delay effect is applied to the whole track (not to inidividual track). See the Delay Effect section for

more.

By default, your track is set to play in an infinite loop. You can turn off track looping by LOOP=OFF. If you

want to loop your track a certain number of times, you could first set LOOP=OFF in your global section

and then enclose the entire real time data with {} in each channel.

Here is an example of using the global section to set up the volume, tempo and looping for your track:

@G

MASTERVOLUME=50 // not too loud

TEMPO=80 // kind of slow

LOOP=OFF

REPEAT=3 // song plays 3 times in succession

DELAYTIME=750 // adjust delay timing

@1

GFEDC

Music Section in DetailEach section for a music is defined with @n. Your first channel section will start with @1, your second with

@2 and so forth.

Musical Notes

Musical notes are written with note names C, D , E, F, G , A and B in UPPERCASE. The following

example plays an ascending C major scale:

@1

CDEFGAB

A note with a sharp is written with # following its pitch name - C#, for example. A note with a flat is written

with b, for example, Ab. A chromatic scale can be played this way:

@1

CC#DD#EFF#GG#AA#BBbAAbGGbFEEbDDbC

Note Length

To specify the current note length, use the L command. The letter L should be followed by a number

ranging from 1 to 64, the factor which should divide the measure length. L4 sets the 1/4 of the measure

length, so you get the quarter note length. L8 gives you the eighth note length. Your length definition

stays effective until the next L command.

The below example plays a few long half notes followed by a series of fast 32nd notes:

@1

L2 CDE L32 GABAGFED

Rests

Rests can be easily inserted with a symbol :. The length of the rest is determined by the current note

length.

@1

L4 C:CDE:EFG:G:E:::

The above example should show you how rests can be inserted intuitively.

Octave Changes

To specify the current octave range, use the O command followed by a number. The middle octave

where the middle C sits is O4 , and it's the default starting octave of each channel. The example below

plays some notes in a high octave range O6 then plays low notes in the octave O2.

@1

O5 GG:G:DE:C::: O2 C:::

Another way to navigate through octave ranges is to use the < and > symbols. < means go down by

one octave, and > means go up by one octave. The example below sweeps up and down the entire

possible octave ranges:

@1

O1 C>C>C>C>C>C>C>C<C<C<C<C<C<C<C

Ties

You can elongate a note quite easily by the multiple of the current note length. To do that, use the ~

symbol after the note you want to elongate. For example, try this example:

@1

L8 C~~DE~~CE~C~E~~~

You can be pretty liberal with chaining ~ symbols if you want, for example try L8C~~~~~~~ :)

Tuplets

Tuplets are useful when you have to insert triplets or any other notes in non-standard subdivisions.

Tuplets can be entered using the [] symbols. You simply enclose the notes you want to group in the

space of the current note length:

@1

L4 C [EDC] D [FED] E [GFE]

You should have heard the notes enclosed in brackets as triplets in the space of a quarter note.

You can specify this grouping space, also. For example, if you want to write a quintuplets in a quarter

note space in the midst of 8th notes:

@1

L8 C~~~ [4CDbC<B>C] >C<BbAbGFE

Volume changes

You can specify the volume of a channel at any point by using the V command. Write V followed by a

value from 0 to 10, like V10 or V4 .

@1

V10 CDEFG V5 CDEFG

The above source will play the first phrase in full volume and the second half as loud.

If you want to make many gradual changes in your channel, symbols ^ and _ will come in handy. ^

increases the volume by 10%, and _ decreases by 10%. Try this:

@1

V0 L32

AEFD ^ AEFD ^ AEFD ^ AEFD ^ AEFD ^ AEFD ^ AEFD ^ AEFD ^ AEFD ^

AEFD _ AEFD _ AEFD _ AEFD _ AEFD _ AEFD _ AEFD _ AEFD _ AEFD

Repeats

If you want to repeat a phrase or a section of your music, you can use the {} symbols. Anything

enclosed in these symbols are repeated.

@1

{EbDD:} EbDD: Bb~~~

You can actually nest a repeat inside another repeat. For example:

@1

{CDEF{GFEF}ED} {{{C~}}}

Note that nesting makes the total number of repeats grow exponentially. The latter part of the above

example is repeated 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 times.

You can also specify a certain number of times which a phrase should repeat by adding a single digit

number just after the left curly brace like this:

@1

{5CDE}{3FGA}

Fall Effect

If a musical note is followed by comma ,, the Fall effect is added, causing it to decrease its pitch in time.

Here is an example where you can observe how this effect works:

@1

FALLSPEED=1200

FALLWAIT=500

L1

C,D,E,

FALLSPEED is how many 100ths of a semitone the pitch decreases in a second. 1200 means a range of

one octave per second. FALLWAIT= specifies the time in milliseconds before the effect starts.

The Fall point can be set in the middle of a tie series. This makes rhythmical timing of the effect easy.

Try this example:

@1

FALLSPEED=1200

FALLWAIT=0

L16 O5

FECD~~~~ ~,~~~ <A>CDC

FECD~~ ~,~ <A~G~F~E~ ::::

Rise Effect

Placing an asterisk * is before a note causes that note to scoop up to its pitch, producing a similar effect

of a synthesizer pitch-bend wheel. RISESPEED= sets the speed for the rise in 100ths of a semitone per

second. RISERANGE= determines how wide the pitch change should span. This effect can nicely add

liveliness to your musical lines:

@G TEMPO=160

@1

RISESPEED=2400

RISERANGE=200

L8 O4 *EGA> *CCC *CCC *CC *C <AGD#EC<AG>

*CCC *CCC *CC ::::::::

Waveform Selection

You can choose a waveform other than the default square wave for each channel by declaring

WAVEFORM=n. See Waveforms.

"Beef-Up" Effect

Each channel comes with a mild overdrive effect you can use to give it a boost by declaring BEEFUP=n.

See Beef Up!

Preset Selection

You may choose a preset to for a quick tone shaping by declaring PRESET=(presetname). See Tone

Presets.

Volume Envelope Commands

Each channel has a volume envelope filter to help shape a unique sound. See Volume Envelope.

LFO Commands

The pitch LFO filter adds a vibrato effect. See LFO Effect.

Astro Command

The "Astro" effect is a unique 80's-ish wobble effect. See Astro Effect.

Ring Modulation

You can use two music channels to create a ring modulation effect similar to the effect Commodore 64's

SID chip produced. see Ring Modulation.

Drum Section in DetailWriting @D starts the drum section.

Drum Hits

You can write a snare hit with S , and a kick with K. These normal hits come in UPPERCASE alphabets.

With : giving a rest, a basic kick-and-snare groove can be written:

@D

K:S: KKS:

The hi-hat is written with H. A disco groove pattern can be played like this:

@D

K:H: S:H: K:H: S:HH

Quieter Drum Hits

If you write the drum hits in lower case, you get quieter drum hits. These can be added to give rich

dynamics to your groove:

@D

K::k S::k :kK: S:HH K:hh S:kk :shh hsSS

Note Length

Just as we did for a music channel, we can specify the note length as you go in the drum channel as

well. Use the L command with a number ranging from 1 to 64, with the number being the subdivision

factor of the measure. For example:

@D

L2 S L4 S L8 S L16 SS L32 SSSS L64 SSSSSSSS

But you might want to set to the smallest subdivision once at the beginning and rely more on using rests

and ties. You'll find this way much easier especially when working with groove-based music :)

Rests

A rest is indicated with a : as illustrated above. The length of a rest is determined by the currently set

note length by the L command.

Ties

Instead of using a rest to fill a gap, you can use a tie symbol ~ to elongate a hit. The difference is that

the tie ensures that the note gets played through the elongated space. When you hit and rest, if the note

length is set very short, the abrupt cut-off of the hit might become obvious. Try this example to hear the

difference:

@D

L64

S::: S::: S::: S:::

S~~~ S~~~ S~~~ S~~~

Tuplets

Tuplets make it possible to express quite complicated timings. Just as you saw in tuplets used in a music

channel, you have two ways of expressing tuplets. The first way is to enclose hits simply with [] where

the total length of grouped hits is the currently set note length. The second way is specifying the total

length of grouped hits in the format [n(hits)].

Using the both methods, let's illustrate some interesting things you can do to your groove with tuplets:

@D

L16

K::[KK] S~~~ K::: [4SSS]

K[KK]K[KK] KK[8HHHH] ss[8sss][8SSSS][8SSSSSSSS]

Noise Type

There are two types of noise available to use for your drum sounds: white noise and pink noise. The

default noise type is bright-sounding white noise. Pink noise gives you a darker color. To change the

noise type on all drums at once, use the commands WHITENOISE or PINKNOISE. To change the noise

type individually on a drum, use the commands KICKNOISE=, SNARENOISE= or HIHATNOISE= and specify

PINK or WHITE following the equal sign. Try the following example to explore the different noise types:

@D

PINKNOISE // darker

{ K:HKS~~s hsKKS~Hs }

WHITENOISE // brighter (default)

{ K:HKS~~s hsKKS~Hs }

KICKNOISE=PINK // pink noise only for kick

{ KKS~ KKS~ KHS[HH] HSSS }

Adjusting the Noise Mix

The drum channel combines two audio sources: a noise oscillator and a square wave oscillator. You can

adjust how loud each source's output is by commands NOISELEVEL= and SQUAREWAVE= with values

ranging from 0 to 100. The following example decreases the noise oscillator's output volume gradually:

@D

SQUARELEVEL=100 // 100 is default

NOISELEVEL=100 { K:HHS~HH }

NOISELEVEL=70 { K:HHS~HH }

NOISELEVEL=40 { K:HHS~HH }

NOISELEVEL=0 { K:HHS~HH } // you won't hear hi-hat

The Hi-hat only uses the noise output. That's why you didn't hear the hihat in the last line where the

noise output was set to zero.

Drum sound shaping

One way you can change how your drums sound is to change the tuning pitch of the snare or the kick.

Use SNAREPITCH= and KICKPITCH= with values from 0 to 100 to adjust the pitches. The default value is

50 for the both drums. Hear how pitch adjustment affects how your drum kit sounds:

@D

RESETDRUMS // set all parameters back to default

{3 KhKS~h} [ss]SS[ss]SS

SNAREPITCH=20 KICKPITCH=30 // lower than default value 50

{3 KhKS~h} [ss]SS[ss]SS

Another way to shape your drum sounds is to change the time length value of each drum by writing

commands KICKLENGTH=, SNARELENGTH=, HIHATLENGTH= with values in milliseconds. The default time

length values of kick, snare, hi-hat are 40, 140, 20, respectively.

@D

L8 RESETDRUMS // all back to default

K:::S~H~ K:::S~H~

KICKLENGTH=70

SNARELENGTH=200

HIHATLENGTH=100

K:::S~H~ K:::S~H~ // all drums are longer

Delay EffectThere is a nice stereo delay effect that is added to your track by default. You can turn off the delay by

pushing the DELAY button or pressing F7.

You can set the delay parameters in your source. Your commands will go in the Global section. For

instance:

@G

DELAY=ON

DELAYTIME=200

DELAYLEVEL=50

@1

CDEFG

This gives you a pretty prominent delay effect with a short timing. Play around with DELAYTIME= (in

milliseconds) and DELAYLEVEL= (scale of 100). You can turn off delay for the whole track by saying

DELAY=OFF. You can use DELAYTIME=AUTO to automatically set the delay timing according to the tempo.

Please note that you cannot change the settings for the delay effect not separately on each channel.

Volume EnvelopeFor each channel, you can shape your sound using the volume envelope. The chart below shows the

parameters you can set and how they will shape the volume changes in time.

Attack Time ... Defined with ATTACKTIME=n (n=0 to 9999). The time, in milliseconds, that takes to

get to the initial peak stage. A small or no attack time results in a sharp sound. A large attack time

gets a soft sound.

Peak Time ... Defined with PEAKTIME=n (n=0 to 9999). The time, in milliseconds, that the sound

stays in its peak.

Peak Level ... Defined with PEAKLEVEL=n (n=0 to 100). How loud the sound is in its peak.

Decay Time ... Definied with DECAYTIME=n (n=0 to 9999). Determines how fast it goes downs to the

plateau of the sustain stage.

Sustain Level ... Defined with SUSTAINLEVEL=n (n=0 to 100). How loud the sound stays in its last

plateau stage until the note turns off.

Release Time .... Defined with RELEASETIME=n (n=0 to 9999). If the channel rests after a note is

turned off, you get into the release stage where the note gradually fades away.

Let's experiment with these parameters.

@1

ATTACKTIME=1000

L1 CDE

Each note starts very slowly.

@1

ATTACKTIME=0

DECAYTIME=1000

SUSTAINLEVEL=0

L1 CDE

Now you get a hard, bell-like tone. The volume will decay all the way to 0 because the level of the

sustain stage is set to 0.

Note that if you don't set one of these parameters, it'll come in its default value. The default set values

are:

ATTACKTIME=22

PEAKTIME=18

PEAKLEVEL=90

DECAYTIME=250

SUSTAINLEVEL=50

RELEASETIME=40

I invite you to play around with different settings for each parameter. By the way, you could get a "pure

PC beep" tone with an unprocessed square waveform like this:

ATTACKTIME=0

PEAKTIME=0

PEAKLEVEL=70

DECAYTIME=0

SUSTAINLEVEL=70

RELEASETIME=0

LFO EffectYou can use this pitch LFO effect for each channel to give it a nice vibrato. Here is an example to try:

@1

LFO=ON

LFOSPEED=6

LFORANGE=30

LFOWAIT=300

L2 CDEFG

LFO= turns on the pitch LFO effect. It's turned off by default. LFOSPEED= sets the number of cycles per

second for the pitch change. LFORANGE= determines how big the pitch change should occur, specified by

the cent of semitones (so 100 will set it to one semitone). LFOWAIT= sets the time to wait to start the LFO

effect, specified in milliseconds.

You could even use this LFO effect to get really wacky results. Try setting LFOSPEED=1 and

LFORANGE=2400 :)

Astro EffectThis is a very fun effect you can add to your music. The name comes from a game titled Astro Wars,

which I used to play on a little TV game console. (search with "Astro Wars SCV" on YouTube :)) What

this effect does is to add a square wave LFO to the pitches. The resulting sound is an out-of-world,

funky and wobbly sound. Try:

@1

ASTRO=14

L4 CDEFG

The number you specify after ASTRO= is the number of times that the wobble happens. Between 10 and

20 is good to start with, but try different values to see which value works for you.

WaveformsEach music channel is by default set to play a square wave tone. But you can change to different a wave

form to work with, by declaring WAVEFORM=n in each channel. The currently available waveforms and

their assigned numbers (n) are:

sine (n=0)

square (n=1, default)

sawtooth (n=2)

triangle (n=3)

hybrid sine A(n=4)

hybrid sine B(n=5)

pulse with 12.5% cycle (n=6)

pulse with 25% cycle (n=7)

pulse with 33% cycle (n=8)

The most frequent waveforms used in old PCs and early game consoles were perhaps square waves.

The hybrid sine waves combine a basic sign wave with a few additional upper harmonics. Pulse waves

(n=6 through 8) are kinds of sounds used a lot in the old Nintendo NES games.

Here is an example where a different waveform than the default form is selected:

@1

DEFAULTTONE // resets the tone to plain beep with no envelope

WAVEFORM=2 // sets up a saw tooth wave

F~:G~:Ab~:>C~:<Ab:G:F~:Eb~:F~~~~~::::

If you overlay multiple pulse wave tracks, the mixed waveform will start to get heavier on one side. This

can take away the audio headroom if you want to raise the track volume after exporting. You can help

balance your mixed output by using WAVEFLIP in some of your tracks using pulse waves to filp the

waveform vertically.

Beef Up!For each channel, you can use a mild overdrive effect if you want to boost up a soft waveform. The

overdrive is turned off by default. To use it, simply declare BEEFUP=n where n is a number from 0 to 100

that specifies the strength. Setting to zero turns off the effect. Try the following example to see what

BEEFUP does:

@1

PRESET=POPPY // attacky shape

WAVEFORM=3 // triangle wave (soft)

L8

BEEFUP=0 CDEFG~ // BEEFUP is off

BEEFUP=10 CDEFG~

BEEFUP=50 CDEFG~

BEEFUP=100 CDEFG~

The beef-up effect is available also available for the drum channel, but be careful because too much of

this effect can lessen the crispness of the drum hits.

Tone PresetsWith one line of the command PRESET=, you can set your channel to a set of predetermined tone

parameters. You are welcome to try out the currently registered presets by declaring one of the

following at the top of a channel:

DEFAULTTONE ... (Square wave) Resets to flat envelope shaping.

PRESET=BEEP ... (Square wave) Straight PC Beep tone.

PRESET=POPPY ... (Square wave) Sustained tone with a strong attack.

PRESET=POPPYVIB ... (Square wave) Preset POPPY with vibrato.

PRESET=BELL ... (Square wave) Hard tone that decays in time.

Ring ModulationRing modulation is an effect where the inputs of two audio source are multiplied. The resulting sounds

can be very unique and futuristic, and they're sure to amuse your ears. You can use this effect to

produce metallic percussive sounds or Sci-Fi sound effects. To use this effect, within a music channel,

designate another channel as the modulator source by using the command RINGMOD=n where n is the

modulator channel number. The direct output of the modulator channel will not be audible.

In the following example, Channel 1 is set to take Channel 2 as its modulator input. Channel 2 feeds a

signal with the ASTRO and Fall effect into Channel 1:

@1

RINGMOD=2 // channel 2 modulates channel 1

DEFAULTTONE

L1 O3 C~

@2

ASTRO=10

L1 O6 D#~,

Experiment further changing Channel 2's output using various effects, envelope settings and

waveforms. Additionally, you can route any of the nine music channels to modulate any other channel.

Ring modulation offers a huge range of tonal possibilities. You can read more about the ring modulation

effect here.

Bookmarking Your Start PositionWhen you compose a long song, you can take advantage of the bookmarking feature. Placing two

percent signs %%in your source forces the player to start from where those percent signs are. Here is an

example:

@1 L8

// verse

{E~G~G~A~G~G~E~~~}

%%

// chorus

F~G~A~F~>C~C~<G~~~

Let's say you have just finished working on the verse in the above example - since the bookmark is

placed at the top of the chorus, you can now focus on writing the chorus without having to go back to the

top every time you press the play button.

Note that the bookmark will not be effective when you export to an audio file.

Auto SavingYour work gets automatically saved to a hidden file named "__AUTOSAVED__.txt" in your userdata

folder every 5 minutes and also when you quit the application. If something unexpected ever happens,

you can load this file to retrieve your work.

Syntax Reference

General

// ... Commenting

@G ... Declares the global section

@n ... Declares a music channel section (n=1,2,3...9)

@D ... Declares the drum channel section

%% ... Bookmarks the player's starting point (Note: not effective when exporting)

Global Section

MASTERVOLUME=n ... Sets the master output gain (n=1 to 100)

TEMPO=n ... Sets the track tempo (n=40 to 400)

Vn=v ... Sets the volume (v=0 to 10) for channel n (n=1 to 9, m=0 to 100)

VD=v ... Sets the volume (v=0 to 10) for the drum channel

LOOP=? ... Turns track looping on or off (?=ON or OFF)

REPEAT=n ... Play or export the song n times in succession (automatically sets LOOP=OFF)

DELAY=? ... Turns the delay effect on or off (?=ON or OFF)

DELAYLEVEL=n ... Sets the delay output level (n=0 to 100)

DELAYTIME=n ... Sets the delay timing in milliseconds (n=0 to 999)

DELAYTIME=AUTO ... Sets the delay timing according to the tempo.

DELAYTIME=AUTO3 ... Sets the delay time to 8th triplets according to the tempo.

Music channel

ATTACKTIME=n ... Sets the envelope attack time in milliseconds (n=1 to 9999)

PEAKTIME=n ... Sets the envelope peak time in milliseconds (n=1 to 9999)

PEAKLEVEL=n ... Sets the envelope peak level (n=0 to 100)

DECAYTIME=n ... Sets the envelope decay time in milliseconds (n=1 to 9999)

SUSTAINLEVEL=n ... Sets the envelope sustain level (n=0 to 100)

RELEASETIME=n ... Sets the envelope release time in milliseconds (n=1 to 9999)

LFO=? ... Turns the pitch LFO effect on or off (?=ON or OFF)

LFORANGE=n ... Sets the LFO range to cents of a semitone (n=1 to 2400)

LFOSPEED=n ... Sets the LFO speed by cycles per second (n=0 to 100)

LFOWAIT=n ... Sets the time in milliseconds before the LFO effect starts (n=0 to 9999)

ASTRO=n ... Turns on the Astro effect and sets the number of wobbles per second (n=0 to 100, 0 for

OFF)

ASTRO=OFF ... Turns off the Astro effect

PRESET=? ... Sets up at once for a predetermined set of tone parameters

DEFAULTTONE ... Sets up a straight square wave tone

WAVEFORM=n ... Chooses the waveform that the channel uses (n=0 to 5)

WAVEFLIP ... Flips the channel's audio output waveform vertically

FALLSPEED=n ... Speed of the Fall effect in 100ths of a semitone per second (n=0 to 9600)

FALLWAIT=n ... Wait time in milliseconds before the Fall effect starts (n=0 to 9999)

RISESPEED=n ... Speed of the Rise effect in 100ths of a semitone per second (n=0 to 9600)

RISERANGE=n ... Pitch width for the Rise effect in 100ths of a semitone (n=0 to 9600)

BEEFUP=n .... Add a mild overdrive effect to the channel (n=0 to 100, 0=off)

Vn ... Sets channel volume (n=0,1,2...10)

Ln ... Sets the current note length (n=1 to 64)

C ... Musical note

D ... Musical note

E ... Musical note

F ... Musical note

G ... Musical note

A ... Musical note

B ... Musical note

# ... Sharp

b ... Flat

~ ... Elongates note by current note length

: ... Rest for the current note length

[---] ... Tuplet - groups notes --- in the space of current note length

[n---] ... Tuplet - groups notes --- in the space of note length specified by n

{---} ... Repeats the enclosed snippet ---

{n---} ... Repeats the enclosed snippet --- n times

^ ... Increase channel volume by 10%

_ ... Decrease channel volume by 10%

, ... Fall effect, works on the pitch commanded just before

* ... Rise effect, works on the pitch that comes right after

Drum Channel

RESETDRUMS ... Resets all drum tone settings to default

WHITENOISE ... Set all drums to use white noise

PINKNOISE ... Set all drums to use pink noise

NOISELEVEL= ... Set the noise element's volume (n=0 to 100, default=100)

SQUARELEVEL= ... Set the square wave element's volume (n=0 to 100, default=100)

KICKNOISE=? ... Set the kick's noise type (?=WHITE or PINK)

SNARENOISE=? ... Set the snare's noise type (?=WHITE or PINK)

HIHATNOISE=? ... Set the Hi-hat's noise type (?=WHITE or PINK)

KICKPITCH=n ... Sets the kick's pitch tuning (n=0 to 100, default=50)

SNAREPITCH=n ... Sets the snare's pitch tuning (n=0 to 100, default=50)

KICKLENGTH=n ... Sets the kick's duration in milliseconds (n=0 to 400)

SNARELENGTH=n ... Sets the kick's duration in milliseconds (n=0 to 1000)

HIHATLENGTH=n ... Sets the kick's duration in milliseconds (n=0 to 1000)

BEEFUP=n ... Add a mild overdrive effect to the channel (n=0 to 100, 0=off)

Vn ... Sets channel volume (n=0,1,2...10)

Ln ... Sets the current note length (n=1 to 64)

K ... Kick

k ... Kick, quieter

S ... Snare

s ... Snare, quieter

H ... Hi-hat

h ... Hi-hat, quieter

~ ... Elongates note by current note length

: ... Rest for the current note length

[---] ... Tuplet - groups notes --- in the space of current note length

[n---] ... Tuplet - groups notes --- in the space of note length specified by n

{---} ... Repeats the enclosed snippet ---

{n---} ... Repeats the enclosed snippet --- n times

^ ... Increase channel volume by 10%

_ ... Decrease channel volume by 10%

Uninstalling BeepCompYou can uninstall the application by using the "Programs and Features" under the Control Panel /

Programs menu to uninstall BeepComp. Typing in "appwiz.cpl" in the command prompt or in the search

box will direct you to this dialog, also. You can also find a shortcut to uninstall in the Start menu.

Please note that your "userdata" folder inside your "Documents" (or "My Documents" on XP) folder will

not be removed, just in case you still have some of your work left in this folder. If you no longer need

your "userdata" folder, please manually delete it along with its parent folder named BeepComp.

Staying UpdatedNew updates of BeepComp come out often. I ask every user to stay updated since updated versions fix

the bugs and improve on the issues found on the previous versions. I announce new versions through

the SourceForge Blog page. I also upload patches whenever there is a critical issue.

Alternatively, you can scroll down the SourceForge project top page to below the feature list and press

the button that says "Follow" to receive automatic updates. But be alerted that you might receive third-

party mail from SourceForge. I will also be sending out update notifications via Twitter and Google+.

You can find out the version of BeepComp you're using by clicking the logo in the main editor screen.

When you update to a new release, you will have to first uninstall your current version.

If you found issues/bugs...BeepComp is still in its development stage... so I really appreciate you letting me know about any issues

you experience. You're welcome to write in our forum page or email me at beepcomp-at-hiromorozumi-

dot-com. I really want to make a program that is reliable and enjoyable to anyone :)

I am also documenting the issues as they get identified on the Known Issues page on sourceForge.

BeepComp on the WebThe home page for BeepComp is at: http://hiromorozumi.com/beepcomp.

Also, there is a forum page where you can join our discussion. I have also set up a Facebook page.

The source code is publicly available at the SourceForge repository. I will also welcome patches if you

spot issues. The address of the repository is: https://sourceforge.net/p/beepcomp/code/ci/master/tree/.

Also, I have been developing a game audio engine library API for game developers to incorporate music

made with BeepComp into their projects. This library is available at Github.

Contact Me!I welcome anyone using BeepComp and also anyone interested in getting involved in this project to

getting in touch. Feature suggestions are great. Bug reports are welcome. If you are a coder interested

in working together to make this a better application, that's great, too! Just letting me hear the tracks you

create with BeepComp will make my day :) You can contact me by emailing me at beepcomp-at-

hiromorozumi-dot-com.