Personal project: chromatracker

[vanjac]

This has been my project for the past couple months. chromatracker is a music sequencer/tracker app, kinda like a mini DAW for phones. In the process of writing it I'm also building a custom mobile UI framework, built on OpenGL / SDL. This allows writing the app in entirely native C++ and building it cross-platform for desktop/mobile, any system that SDL supports.

The design is inspired by classic "tracker" programs that have been around since the 80s. Instead of a piano roll, notes are entered on a vertical timeline. All audio is produced by samples which can be manipulated for interesting effects. I thought this design would be well suited for a mobile interface, since it makes efficient use of screen space and is very fast for sketching out a song idea. There's a bit more info on the GitHub page and wiki about the design and inspirations.

The app is still in early stages. I've implemented sampler playback and some editing features (including undo!) Right now you can load sample files and enter notes using a piano keyboard to make some simple tunes. It can also play songs from the Impulse Tracker format which I've been using for testing. The UI is pretty basic and ugly at this point, I'm focusing on getting most of the editor functionality implemented with keyboard controls before I work on a nice touch UI.

This has been an individual project but I'd be open to any contributions, let me know if you're interested!

Very rough prototype UI (desktop):