Hi Atte, Thanks :) The control you have live is at the moment mainly related to re-sequencing. You have to remember this is running on a game console like this: http://images.gamedev.net/features/reviews/gp2x/image009.jpg So there's definetly no real time 'playing' possible. But unlike traditional trackers, the 8 channels are not sync'ed so you can have fun de/re-structuring at will, depending on your mood. see it a bit like the clip based structure of ableton live. You can trigger/mute/solo any channel at any given time. I personally like some kind of structure so I do have a pretty 'hardwired' song scheme where I can more repeat sections at will rather than re-shuffle the whole thing. Soundwise, you can also affect the result while it's playing but depending whether or not you used a lot of command (that's how tracker do their 'synthesis') you might have a limited amount of option (obviously, if you 'automate' the filter to get some grain, you won't be able to tweak it live). I still haven't coded channel/master FX and that will give a lot more freedom in altering the 'sound' during live performance. Obviously, with the limited amount of button, playing live melodies is always going to be an issue but I even hope to find a workaround for that. Although still in its infancy (It's only 3 years old and I probably have for about two years of coding only with the feature set I have in mind at the moment) , it does allow quite a lot of sonic flexibility and in my (father's) eyes, nothing beats it for being able to compose music at any time, any place :) Thanks for the interest. Marc.

Thanks Ken ! I always think my journey through various style is a reflection of my inability to really control what I do in a consistent way :) Actually the 'tracker' nickname refers more to the way you interact to build songs (vertical kind of quantised step tracks rather than piano roll type of interface).. various trackers implement various sound engine (some of them driving directly sound chip in old computers, others using sampling based engine) All sound comes from the unit itself. Now, like most recent game consoles, the GP2X doesn't have a synth engine. It's basically a linux machine with a RealTek chip in it. So, internally the tracker is sample based and you can import pretty much any type of sound you want (simple waveforms, piano samples, phrases, drum loops etc.). This tracker tho allows you to alter the 'base' sounds in pretty drastic ways. For example the opening track (using the infamous pink floyd meddle 'ping') uses merely 10k of sample (apart from that ping of course): 8 waveforms, one BD, one SD & one Hat. All of the various 'timbres' are generated from those. The focus for me is to provide a flexible ultra portable sound machine that has 'character' - I'm not too much into the clinic / perfect sound that seems to be the rage in today's manufacturers mind - and basically allows you to lay down consistent track anywere. As I said in another thread, we are in the process of building little demonstration videos to explain the way the software works and hopefully in a month from now, I'll be more able to make understand how 'synthesis' works in this little bugger. hopes this answer your question, Regards Marc

Hey Chris, nice to see you here ! It's kind of a strange situation. Some usb audio to work, some don't. I had success with an old dumb sony MD converter while others fail completely to load. External audio is very random with the GP2x. Thank god, the headphone out is great and has troumendous sound (while the ext out is really bad) so I'm not to worried about it. On the other hand, MIDI usb doesn't work AT ALL. I guess gamepark didn't think people would ever try that. Open2X might be a solution towards that but who knows when it will be available. We did find a way to do midi out tho, using the ext serial port and converting the 'standard' baud rate (midi baud rate is not implemented in the kernel) to proper midi one... see an example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyG-rTm-CUs and apparently it wouldn't be too much trouble to modifiy the pic so that we could do midi in too. It's a little tricky but it works Part of the grandplan for future release will be axed around providing a 16 channel multitimbral midi synth using lgpt's instruments to play on top of sequenced/tracked stuff. For some reason, I'm only eating about 10% of the 2x's capabilities so there's a lot of room for new stuff :) I'm planning on adding not only midi control but probably extended USB Joysticks too, opening the software functionalities to other interfaces than the GUI... I'll keep the features rolling, don't worry ! *bow* thanks Marc. PS: I guess you must have heard about the pandora project. Definetly one to watch in the "small music box" area. http://www.openpandora.org

Yeah, there aren't many options indeed. Even external joystick is kind of a hassle since it needs a craddle break out box. Feasible but not optimal. There is barely no networking option but although LittleGPTracker is done with handheld system in hand, it runs on conventional systems too so you can keep using the 'notepad' aspect with the GP2x and transfer the projects to pc/mac/debian for more 'performance' orientation usage. OSC really interests me but, again, I'm not too sure about how standardised it is yet. :) :) :)