Basic Usage

Notes Screen

Sample Modification

Sounds

Song Editor

Files

*.pack files

Making Good Kits

Releasing Kits

Overview

*.skin files

*.vrm files

*.avr files

picpack

Super Flavor

Font Files

master.txt

.kick files

At any time, Select can be pressed to get help.

Dpad moves the cursor up/down/left/right (wraps around edges)

X places a hit. Press again to make an accented hit

O erases a hit, or turns an accented hit into a regular hit

Left/Right trigger = change pattern

Triangle + left/right trigger = change tempo (BPM)

Start = start/stop pattern playback

Square + left trigger = copy a pattern

Square + right trigger = paste a pattern

Triangle + dpad right = toggle track mute

Triangle + dpad left = toggle track solo

Analog stick up + right trigger = copy pattern to next empty pattern

Dpad left/right + left/right trigger = accelerated cursor movement

The analog stick moves from screen to screen:

Analog down = move to lower screens (Song, Sounds, Notes, Files)

Analog up = move to pattern editor

Analog left/right = move between screens (wraps around)

Files <=> Sounds <=> Song <=> Notes <=> Files

These functions work in almost every screen.

If the cursor is on a note, the changes affect only that step:

Square + analog up/down = change current step's volume

Square + dpad up/down = change current step's pitch

If the cursor is not on a note, the changes are pattern-wide:

Square + analog up/down = change current sample's volume

Square + analog left/right = change current sample's pan

Square + dpad up/down = change current sample's pitch

Square + circle = reset current sample's volume, pan and pitch

Dpad left/right = move cursor left/right

Dpad up/down = raise/lower note by half-step, if cursor is on a note

Dpad up/down = move from track to track, if cursor is not on a note

Square + dpad up/down = raise/lower current note by octave

Triangle + left trigger = delete step, slide rest of track to the left

Triangle + right trigger = insert note, slide rest of track to the right

Triangle + dpad up/down = change tracks, even if cursor is on a note

Square + analog up/down = change step volume

Square + left trigger = copy note with volume

Square + right trigger = paste note with volume

Circle on empty step = preview sample

Left/Right trigger = change pattern, following the song playback cursor if song is playing

Left/Right trigger = change pattern, following the song edit cursor if song is not playing

Dpad left/right + left/right trigger = accelerated pattern switching (+/- 5 patterns)

O = preview sample

X = change sample

While changing samples:

Dpad left/right = select samples

Dpad up/down = change sample directories

X = keep the new sample

Triangle = back out the change

You can also use Square controls to modify pitch, pan and volume

The bottom row of numbers show the position in the song

The top row of numbers shows the pattern number to be played at each step

Dpad left/right = forward/backward through the song

Dpad up/down = change pattern number at that position

X = set song start position

O = set song end position

Analog stick down + start = start song playing where edit cursor is

Left/right trigger = scroll through song, update pattern at top

Square + left trigger = copy pattern number

Square + right trigger = paste pattern number

Triangle + left trigger = del pattern from song

Triangle + right trigger = insert pattern into song

Dpad left/right + left/right trigger = accelerated cursor movement

Dpad = navigate menus

X = execute menu item

Load song - scans songs directory for *.kick files.

Up/down to scroll through them

X = load song

Triangle = cancel

Save as .kick - saves pattern, song, soundpack, and skin in a .kick file

X = save

Left/right = move cursor

Up/down = change letter

Square = delete letter

Triangle = back out

Save pattern as .wav - saves current pattern to patterns/songname_patternxx.wav

Save song as .wav - saves entire song as CD quality .wav file to songs/songname.wav

Save song as .mid - saves entire song as .mid file to songs/songname.mid

Load sound pack - scans soundpacks dir for *.pack files.

Up/down = scroll through names

X = load it

Triangle = cancel load

Load skin - scans through "skins" dir for *.skin files.

up/down = scroll through names

X = load it

O/triangle = cancel load

Soundpacks are stored in the soundpacks/ directory.

Each soundpack has a filename called *.pack, e.g.

rel100.pack, avtomat.pack, shifty.pack, nullsleep.pack

Each *.pack file has a list of drum numbers and sample names:

drum01 kick/kickburnt.wav

drum02 noise/goodsmash.wav

drum03 hat/zighat.wav

Notice each samplename is comprised of a directory name (e.g. kick/ ) and a samplename (e.g.

kickburnt.wav). It's very important to keep them organized this way, because you can Audition

snare, hit X, then left/right to hear all of the different snares. Pressing up/down changes from snare

to another type of drum. When you find what you like, hit X again to load it and keep writing your

song. Or O to cancel loading. This feature would not work if the directories were not organized.

All of the samples are stored in soundpacks/drums/

Inside soundpacks/drums/ are a number of directories for organizing the samples.

e.g.

/Volumes/Untitled/PSP/GAME/KDEV

1/soundpacks/drums>ls -l

total 1088

drwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 768 24 Jul 22:58 bass/

drwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 32768 26 Jul 14:51 beep/

drwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 32768 26 Jul 14:51 bell/

drwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 32768 26 Jul 14:51 clap/

and inside each of those dirs are a number of samples for your soundpack-making pleasure.

e.g.

KDEV/soundpacks/drums//clap:

total 448

-rwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 79596 8 Jul 12:21 808Clap.wav*

-rwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 127736 26 Jul 14:51 emptyclap.wav*

KDEV/soundpacks/drums//cymbal:

total 576

-rwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 38900 24 Jul 22:58 cymdist.wav*

-rwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 127692 26 Jul 14:51 nervouscymbal.wav*

-rwxrwxrwx 1 carbondi admin 83920 18 Jul 18:15 revcymbal.wav*

BTW samples must be <= 128KB in size or they'll get truncated!

They must also be 44.1KHz 16-bit, stereo Windows PCM .wav samples or they will sound too fast or

too slow.

Making good kits is an art. Here are some critical points:

1) Play with the kit and see how well it works.

2) Make sure all the samples sound approximately the same volume. Samples with high-pitched

content have to be smaller in amplitude (quieter) than others. E.g. Kick samples can reach the top

and bottom of your sample editor window, but snares should only be about half that height. Hi-hat

samples also should be a little quieter than kicks.

3) Make sure the order of the samples makes sense. So far, there has been a convention to put

kicks at the top, followed by snares below, followed by hi-hats, then toms, then whatever. Weird stuff

usually goes in the bottom row. If you follow this convention it'll make it easier for people to use your

kit and especially to use your kit with different songs.

4) Consider including multiple types of some instruments. One of the most important sounds in a kit

is the snare. To a large extent, it determines the style of music. If you include 2 or 3 snares in your

kit, then it becomes a flexible kit.

5) Play with the kit and see how well it works. Don't release it until it sounds good in a song. (Yes,

this is the same as #1).

For maximum smoothness, there is a way to package your kit that makes it

simple for everyone to install.

What you want to do is make it so that users can simply unzip your kit into

the soundpacks/ directory to make everything work.

In order to do this, you must organize your files like this:

1) Make a directory and put your whatever.pack file in it.

2) Make a directory in that one called drums/

3) Inside drums/ make a directory for each type of sound your kit has.

e.g.

drums/kick/

drums/snare/

drums/hat/

drums/noise/

4) Follow this example, to edit your whatever.pack file to look like this:

# drum samples by shifty http://gweep.net/shifty/snackmaster

drum01 kick/sludgekick.wav

drum02 kick/abruptkick.wav

drum03 snare/whacksnare.wav

drum04 snare/happysnare.wav

drum05 snare/heavisnare.wav

drum06 hat/carlclosed.wav

drum07 hat/openhatshing.wav

drum08 tom/buzztom.wav

drum09 clap/emptyclap.wav

drum10 rim/ringingrim.wav

drum11 cymbal/nervouscymbal.wav

drum12 beep/gridbeep.wav

Note that comments are encouraged. Go ahead and put the URL you designed in there.. Just start

the line with a #:

5) After you've edited your pack.whatever file, create the zip.

From unixy systems, do:

zip -r whatever.pack.zip *

From win32, create a recursive zip of all files in the same directory where whatever.pack

and drums/ are located.

6) If your zip file has a directory structure like this, then you did it right:

/psp/kick/src/pack.shifty>unzip -v shifty.pack.zip

Archive: shifty.pack.zip

Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name

-------- ------ ------- ----- ---- ---- ------ ----

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/beep/

77424 Defl:N 66943 14% 07-25-05 22:33 fa8f4d1b drums/beep/gridbeep.wav

127108 Defl:N 93824 26% 07-25-05 22:50 52649ffd drums/beep/highbeep.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/bell/

127164 Defl:N 103132 19% 07-25-05 22:52 8e15392e drums/bell/spookowbell.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/clap/

127736 Defl:N 96768 24% 07-25-05 22:50 e530edc5 drums/clap/emptyclap.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/cymbal/

127692 Defl:N 105371 18% 07-25-05 22:51 a65f3fec drums/cymbal/nervouscymbal.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/hat/

51176 Defl:N 38719 24% 07-25-05 22:20 5a8893c6 drums/hat/carlclosed.wav

60964 Defl:N 46324 24% 07-25-05 22:39 ae4b2781 drums/hat/openhatshing.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:58 00000000 drums/kick/

96956 Defl:N 80090 17% 07-25-05 22:11 bcb98cb6 drums/kick/abruptkick.wav

127312 Defl:N 107550 16% 07-25-05 22:52 e2a55a94 drums/kick/brzzkick.wav

62392 Defl:N 58373 6% 07-25-05 22:36 9872dcd7 drums/kick/carlkick.wav

92040 Defl:N 74381 19% 07-25-05 21:50 357acb2d drums/kick/hardkick.wav

102600 Defl:N 76931 25% 07-25-05 22:40 13c128ca drums/kick/houseykick.wav

118152 Defl:N 95899 19% 07-25-05 22:40 611de84c drums/kick/lowkick.wav

125840 Defl:N 113008 10% 07-25-05 22:49 967ead74 drums/kick/marykick.wav

127492 Defl:N 104473 18% 07-25-05 22:53 eb4e10b0 drums/kick/sludgekick.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 23:00 00000000 drums/noise/

98668 Defl:N 66764 32% 07-25-05 22:40 ef3286f2 drums/noise/panping.wav

120420 Defl:N 95888 20% 07-25-05 22:47 fb01019f drums/noise/tinsel.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/rim/

113320 Defl:N 84706 25% 07-25-05 22:13 f1998469 drums/rim/ringingrim.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:58 00000000 drums/snare/

83572 Defl:N 69017 17% 07-25-05 22:07 f5229958 drums/snare/80ssnare.wav

127016 Defl:N 92372 27% 07-25-05 22:51 b02f731f drums/snare/bratsnare.wav

84316 Defl:N 70879 16% 07-25-05 22:35 4f8fe097 drums/snare/brightsnare.wav

127876 Defl:N 106834 17% 07-25-05 22:49 28b0117e drums/snare/desolatesnare.wav

127080 Defl:N 103898 18% 07-25-05 22:51 c9ba67d6 drums/snare/fryingpansnare.wav

87156 Defl:N 67083 23% 07-25-05 22:39 51842d90 drums/snare/happysnare.wav

127152 Defl:N 91739 28% 07-25-05 22:50 b25450ed drums/snare/heavisnare.wav

70740 Defl:N 57262 19% 07-25-05 22:41 99a4f28d drums/snare/opensnare.wav

97588 Defl:N 74501 24% 07-25-05 22:12 6d40f197 drums/snare/whacksnare.wav

0 Stored 0 0% 07-25-05 22:59 00000000 drums/tom/

87524 Defl:N 68707 22% 07-25-05 21:53 4d1417da drums/tom/bendtom.wav

127284 Defl:N 118784 7% 07-25-05 22:48 a3d7d3da drums/tom/buzztom.wav

389 Defl:N 204 48% 07-26-05 14:48 d16985a8 shifty.pack

-------- ------- ---

3034299 2430906 20% 42 files

Notice how there's a shifty.pack file in there, and everything else is inside the drums/ directory.

Also notice that if you create your own, new, wild directory name in the zip file, that's perfectly okay!

Unzip will create those new directories on your PSP and put all the files in.

Most graphics in PSPKick are stored in files and loaded at runtime. We think this is better than

storing graphics inside the program because it allows the program to be more easily customized.

Most digital graphic formats (like png and jpeg) are complicated to read. Therefore, to get the

software out more quickly, PSPKick uses its own simplified file formats called .vrm and .avr instead.

To make skins, you'll use tools to convert them. For most graphics, you'll use CtrlView (by A.

Matveev at www.ctrlview.com) to translate from .jpeg into .c, then picpack (by the PSPKick team) to

go from .c into .vrm.

For other graphics, you'll use Super Flavor, or "max.php" (originally

gfxConverter by Alonetrio of WAV, modified by the PSPKick team for alpha channel and binary

output) to go from .png to .avr.

.vrm means "Video RaM." You convert from jpeg to .c, then from .c to .vrm with picpack. .vrm

means simply a list of pixels in two-byte format (big endian). The bits in each 16-bit word go:

0BBBBBGGGGGRRRRR. .vrm files do not have dimensions in them. In other words, the size of the

image is not included.

.avr means "Alpha Video Ram." They're simply 32-bit files that go ARGB, 4 8-bit values. Like .vrm,

they contain no dimension information. You can't tell what size they're going to be.

picpack03 is a dead simple command line utility that turns .c files into .vrm files. Typically .c files are

generated from a tool that turns jpegs into .c files.

The .c files have lots of lines that look like: RGB(255,127,128),

To use picpack in win32, you must place cygwin1.dll

(if you don't have it, google for it) in the same dir as picpack02.exe.

Then type:

picpack03 screenOverlay.c screenOverlay.vrm

That will read in screenOverlay.c and write out screenOverlay.vrm.

It will also print out some useless debug info.

Using picpack in unixy environments is easy, too. just type:

./picpack03 screenOverlay.c screenOverlay.vrm

Super Flavor is easy to use. Just install php with the gdImage library on your

computer (wr/t the OS X distribution, the install may not set your path correctly.

try /usr/local/php5/bin/php). Then type:

/usr/local/php5/bin/php max.php terminal_font_9

That will turn terminal_font_9.png into terminal_font_9.avr.

A skin is a 480x272 graphic. It has a region for entering notes, called the Upper Panel, and a region

for changing samples, using menus, and editing the song. it's called the Lower Panel. The upper

panel has a subsection where the drumhits and cursor work. Its size is 448x168. There are 12 rows

of 32 squares in that region. Each square in that region is 14x14. The cursor and drumhit graphics

are all 14x14.

There are actually 4 different lower panel menus. They all have the same size. It's still changing, but

at the moment, it's 330x54 .

It's not stored with the skin. It's in the gui/ dir. Its name is hardcoded: splash02.vrm

It's size is the full size of the screen: 480x272.

They are not included in the skins directories.

They are not listed in the skin.*files.

Their filenames are hardcoded.

There are stored in the gui/ directory.

gui/helpWindowPatt.vrm

gui/helpWindowSong.vrm

gui/helpWindowSampName.vrm

gui/helpWindowCustomScr.vrm

Their size is fixed at 448*168.

Skin files are stored in the skins/ directory. They must have the filename format: rel100.skin,

supershifty.skin, tatooed.skin, etc. In addition to the *.skin filename, there must be a directory inside

skins/ with the name of the skin. For example, if the skin filename is skins/rel100.skin, theall of the

files for the skin go into skins/rel100/. Each skin stores all of its files inside its own directory. There

is no (simple) way to use pieces of one skin in another one.

Here is an example file, rel100.skin. Note, the green parts are just comments in this manual to help

you understand it, they should NOT be included in your .skin files.

They are comments here to explain what each param does.

# upper panel

background screenOverlay06.vrm This is the name of the 480x272 image

topX 24 this is where on the screen it begins drawing the 32x12 note grid

topY 32

# cursor All cursor files are 14x14.

cursorEmptyLit celEmptyLit.vrm filename of the .vrm where the cursor is stored.

cursorFilledLit celFilledLit.vrm the cursor and a regular hit together

cursorAccentLit pacwithcherries.vrm the cursor and an accented hit together

cursorFilled celFilled.vrm A regular hit with no cursor

cursorAccent cherries.vrm An accented hit with no cursor

# pattern/tempo font

numbsfont numbers03.vrm this is the font name for the numbers used in temp and BPM.

numbsFontW 7 width of letters

numbsFontH 9 height of letters

numbsFontVwid 105 width of jpeg/png/vrm file in pixels

numbsFontVhei 121 height of jpeg/png/vrm file in pixels

numbsFontHsp 14 hor. space between letters in jpeg/png/vrm. includes letter and emptiness

numbsFontVsp 16 vert. space b/t letters in jpeg/png/vrm. includes letter and emptiness

numbsFontGridW 8 number of letters in each row of the jpeg/png/vrm

numbsFontSpace 7 how much space to put between letters when drawing with it in menus, etc.

# tempo/pattern locations

pattNumX 142 Location of the top, left corner of the pattern # display

pattNumY 16 (be sure to leave space to the right for three digits)

tempoX 396 Top, left corner of the BPM display

tempoY 16

# chaser

chaserX 16

Top, left location of the chaser gfx

chaserY 31

chaserGFX ghost.vrm

the graphics file to use for the chaser gfx

chaserW 14

the size of the chaser gfx

chaserH 14

# traffic light

greenLight greenLightOn.vrm filename of greenlight on graphic. dimensions below

greenLightX 4 position on screen of greenlight gfx

greenLightY 251

greenLightW 15 size of greenlight gfx in pixels

greenLightH 15

yellowLight yellowLightOn.vrm same for yellow light

yellowLightX 4

yellowLightY 239

yellowLightW 15

yellowLightH 15

redLight redLightOn.vrm same for red light....

redLightX 4

redLightY 225

redLightW 15

redLightH 15

# lower panel

lowerPanelX 24 Position of the lower panel on the screen

lowerPanelY 208

lowerPanelW 330 Size of the lower panel

lowerPanelH 54

sampleNameBG bluebar.vrm Filename for the sampleName screen image

songEditorBG greenbar.vrm same for song editor. these screens must all have

customScreenBG purplebar.vrm the same dimensions as the lowerPanelW and lowerPanelH

mixerBG bluebar.vrm (mixerBG isn't used...yet!)

# terminal font

termFont termfont.vrm name of the font file used for sample names and menus. lots of params

termFontW 7 width of letters

termFontH 9 height of letters

termFontVwid 105 width of jpeg/png/vrm file in pixels

termFontVhei 121 height of jpeg/png/vrm file in pixels

termFontHsp 14 hor. space between letters in jpeg/png/vrm. includes letter and emptiness

termFontVsp 16 vert. space b/t letters in jpeg/png/vrm. includes letter and emptiness

termFontGridW 8 number of letters in each row of the jpeg/png/vrm

termFontSpace 7 how much space to put between letters when drawing with it in menus, etc.

# layout of sample names page

sampX 20 x,y = where *on the lower panel* the names start (top left corner)

sampY 7

sampTileX 100 the horizontal spacing for the three columns

sampTileY 10 the vertical spacing for the four rows

# layout of song editor

songX 50 x,y = where *on the lower panel* the song editing stuff starts

songY 8

songTileW 24 How far apart the columns are

songTileH 10 How far apart the rows are

# layout of custom screen

custLoadX 25 x,y of load and save are where those menus begin *on the lower panel* (top,

left corner)

custLoadY 2

custSaveX 156

custSaveY 2

custTileH 10 vertical spacing between names in the menus

custTileW 10 (custtilew is not actually used- no use for it)

custFileRqX 25 the x,y coords of where the filename requestor pops up

custFileRqY 40

To make your own font:

Lay out the following grid in an anti-aliased font of your style and any size (start with

about 8-12 pixels). Notice it's 8 rows of letters high and 8 columns of letters wide.

! " # $ % & ' ( note first char is space, ' is an apostrophe)

( ) * + , - . / (, is comma)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 : ; < = > ?

@ A B C D E F G

H I J K L M N O

P Q R S T U V W

X Y Z [ / ] ^ _ (last char is underscore)

The space between each char should be wide enough that anti-aliasing trails from e.g. the the K don't

interfere with the neighboring letters J, L, C and S. So, put as much space as you want - just as long

as they don't overlap. That might be 8 pixels or so.

The color should be whatever color you want the font to be. The background should be black.

output: must be .png file with an 8-bit alpha channel. the .png should be the kind of .png that has

variable alpha channel, not just on/off. The .png file gets converted with max.php, which is a modified

and ehhanced version of gfxConverter by AloneTrio of WAB.

There are two sets of spacing:

First, the size of the letters themselves. e.g. the last ones were 9x11.

Second, the the spacing between where each letter starts in the grid. e.g. if the letters were 9x11,

and you used six pixels of buffering, the spacing would end up 15x17. I realize this is pretty anal, but

it makes our program look great.

These file formats were created just for PSPKick. They're all in ASCII,

so that they are easy to read. Note they are also in DOS text format,

which means lines are ended with carriage return, linefeed, a.k.a.

CR/LF, a.k.a. 0x0d 0x0a, a.k.a. "\r\n", a.k.a. 13 10.

master.txt

This file is read at startup to determine the initial skin,

the initial song, and a few other things. It is currently

saved from the Files Menu, when you save song as a .kick file:

currentSong sweater The last song you were editing

skin rel300.skin The current skin

curEditPatt 10

The pattern you were editing when you last saved

end master

songs/sweater.kick - Drum section

The songs directory is filled with .kick files. Each one contains a PSPKick song,

minus the samples. It contains the sample names in a song, the song

information and the pattern information.

version 3.00

song song

start 01

end 10

drum01 synth/koto.wav

drum02 synth/koto.wav

drum03 hat/OPHAT.WAV

drum04 snare/snare2.wav

drum05 hat/909Openhat.wav

drum06 clap/808Clap.wav

drum07 tom/Lowtom.wav

drum08 tom/HighTom.wav

drum09 clap/808Clap.wav

drum10 rim/707Rimshot.wav

drum11 synth/synthHit.wav

drum12 kick/abruptkick.wav

songs/sweater.kick - Song section

song song

start 01

end 16

songstep 01 01 10 01 10

songstep 02 02 10 01 10

songstep 03 10 10 01 10

songstep 04 03 10 01 10

songstep 05 02 10 01 10

...

songstep 68 01 10 01 10

songstep 69 01 10 01 10

endsong

Where "start 01" indicates that the first step in the song is 1,

and "end 16" means the last step in the song is 16.

songs/sweater.kick - Patterns Section

patt 01

tempo 14300

numSteps 32

numTracks 12

drmStat01 070 128 128

drmStat02 070 128 128

drmStat03 065 128 128

drmStat04 074 128 128

drmStat05 100 128 128

drmStat06 070 128 128

drmStat07 070 128 128

drmStat08 070 128 128

drmStat09 070 128 128

drmStat10 070 128 128

drmStat11 070 128 128

drmStat12 091 128 128

trk 01 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1f3c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 02 0 0 0 0 273c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1d3c 0 0 1d32 0 0 1d26 0 1f3c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 223c 0 0 0

trk 03 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 04 0 0 0 0 0 0 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 05 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 06 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 07 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 08 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 09 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

trk 12 243c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243c 0 0 0

mute 2 3 4 12

solo 5 6

endpatt

In the drum parameters section "drmStat":

The three columns following each drmStat are the volume, pan and pitch for each sample. For each

one, 128 is the middle. For volume, the range is from 0 to 255. 0 is about -48dB, 255 is about +12

dB. For pan, the range is 0 to 255. 0 is all the way left, 255 all the way right. For pitch, the range is

29 to 227. 29 means -100 cents from normal. 227 means +100 cents from normal. Cents are

1/100ths of an octave. So, the range is +/- 1 octave, with an absurd amount of precision. (Hint, pitch

two channels one cent apart for chorus!)

The first number after "trk " is the track number. The next 32 numbers after it are step values. The

step value has both a note number and a volume encoded into it. It uses hexadecimal encoding.

The lowest 8 bits are the volume (only values 0-100 are allowed). 0 is the quietest, 100 is the

loudest. A typical hit is 60. An accented hit is 72. The next 8 bits are the note number. Only values

0-73 are allowed. 36 represents middle C. For example, "2a3c" means the volume is 0x3c, or 60.

The note is 0x2a or 42, meaning F#4.

The tempo is stored in 1/100ths of a BPM. So, 13300 = 133.00 BPM.

If you needed 125.67 BPM, it would be "tempo 12567"

If you are very clever, like one user, you can change the numSteps to e.g. 24.

Some functions may not work well, and it's not officially supported, so don't do it! :)

Don't increase the number of tracks beyond 12. It's never gonna work! :)

With all of these great features, how to test them in a reliable way? Here are all the things to test:

from zone to zone

in pattern editor zone

in song editor zone

in "custom" (load/save) zone

in sample name zone

pattern editor zone

tempo, shift pattern, change pattern, copy patt, paste patt

song editor zone

tempo, change pattern, copy patt num, paste patt num, change patt, ins patt, del patt

sample name zone

load several soundpacks w/ music playing

do all gfx elements change?

font

background

lower menu panels

load several skins w/ music playing

does each and every sample change?

in pattern zone

in song zone

volume

pan

pitch

modify patt data, save, exit, reload, verify

modify song data, save, exit, reload, verify

modify sample stats (pitch/vol/pan), save, exit, reload, verify

sound quality means length, volumes, tempo, pitch, etc.

export pattern .wav, verify filename and sound quality

export song .wav, verify sound quality

export song .mid, verify playback in several programs

"If we have been able to see far, it is because we have stood on the shoulders of

giants."-paraphrased Albert Einstein.

PSPKick was initially based on the Hello World and PSPSnd programs by nem, and on the OldskOOl

intro by Alonetrio of WAB, Rex^syndicate and Jester^sanity.

It was built using one of the earlier versions (20050613) of the ps2toolchain by the ps2dev gang

(marcus, ooPo, etc.)

Screenshot.bmp code was supplied by weak from Austria (I'm still looking for that sidescrolling

shooter! There's been a dirge of them by SomeONe You know! call up pimpot, ok?) Update: I think

this program became Callisto! Very beautiful, the boss was real hard! Looking forward to the next

update.

Thanks to maxconsole.net for hosting the PSPKick forums, and ThePSPimp.com for doing it when we

first started out.

Thanks to joostp and Guest for helping with dev tools back at the beginning.

Thanks to the random irc users who answered technical questions. Thumbs down to those who

wouldn't help with USB unless I was using the sdk.

Thanks to Richard Stallman and the GNU Project for enabling us to use gcc and many other things

for absolutely free.

Word up SoCal gang, it's Squarez fault this prg is so late!

Sen Lee>Any questions?

shifty>Yeah, how do you speak Chinese?

Big shout out to Diallo, who created soundpacks, buzz and the intro song for us. Thanks for keeping

up with us and spreading the word. We hope you stay for the whole ride!

Thanks to Gadgetboy, Joe Devlin, Nu11s1eep, Shifty, Zod and the Dobox crew for your soundpacks

as well!

Huge props to www.pspupdates.com for your continued support in bringing the hype.

And of course, to all the forum users for adding your two cents and showing us love!

The following code is used to convert .png files to .avr files. This is used for making custom fonts.

<?PHP

/*

PNG to .AVR format converter

AVR = 8888 Alpha Red Green Blue

Coded By AloneTrio www.Wab.Com

alpha channel, bin format by shifty 7/28/05, Oakland, CA

thanks to rob g!

usage: /usr/local/php5/bin/php max.php terminal_font_9

will read terminal_font_9.png and turn it into terminal_font9.avr

*/

$img = $argv[1];

$im = ImageCreateFromPng($img.".png");

$img_high = imagesy($im);

$img_width = imagesx($im);

$file = fopen($img.".avr", "w+");

for($y=0;$y<$img_high;$y++){

for($x=0;$x<$img_width;$x++){

$cpt++;

$rgb = ImageColorAt($im, $x, $y);

$r = intval(($rgb >> 16) & 0xFF);

$g = intval(($rgb >> 8) & 0xFF);

$b = intval(($rgb) & 0xFF);

$colorrgb = imagecolorsforindex($im,$rgb);

$a = $colorrgb['alpha'];

print "$r $g $b $a\n";

$str = pack("CCCC",$a,$r,$g,$b);

fwrite($file,$str,4);

}

}

fclose($file);

?>

The following program is used to convert .c graphics files into .vrm's, for making skins

.

#include <stdio.h>

// picpack03 by shifty 2005

//

// a little ditty to parse .c files generated by imageconverter.

// packs the c-style format into binary, which is compact and easily

// readable dynamically inside PSP programs

//

// version 01 used to work with "imageConverter"

// version 02 is for CtrlView. This kind of format:

// RGB( 0, 0, 1), RGB( 2, 0, 1), RGB( 0, 0, 0), RGB( 0, 2, 0),

//

// version 03 can also do .pnm, which are binary files of rgb values.

// they start with a simple header, which jpeg tools can convert to,

//

using "jpegtopnm."

// P6

// 014 014

// 255

// should compile trivially with gcc picpack.c -o picpack

// usage: pickpack03 helpWindowSampName.c helpWindowSampName.vrm

// PNM mode:

// picpack03 -pnm pnm/$names[$i].pnm vrm/$names[$i].vrm 0

//

enum {

ST_IDLE=0,

ST_OPEN,

ST_DONE,

};

int parsePic(char *,char *,int);

int pnmParsePic(char*,char*,int);

unsigned int array[1000][1000];

int width=0,height=0;

int x=0,y=0;

int main(int argc,char *argv[])

{

int dith=0;

if( (argc!=3) && (argc!=4) && (argc!=5) ){

printf("picpack -- packs .c files generated by image converter into binary.\n");

printf(" usage: pickpack <inname> <outname> <optional noise mix>\n");

printf(" e.g. pickpack screenOverlay.c screenOverlay.vrm\n");

exit(0);

}

switch(argc)

{

case 3:

parsePic(argv[1],argv[2],0);

break;

case 4:

dith=atoi(argv[3]);

parsePic(argv[1],argv[2],dith);

break;

case 5: // pickpack02 -pnm wang.pnm wang.vrm <dith>

dith=atoi(argv[4]);

pnmParsePic(argv[2],argv[3],dith);

break;

}

printf("picpack - shifty\n");

return(0);

}

int parsePic(char *filenamein,char *filenameout,int dith)

{

char bufin[2],bufout[3];

FILE *fdin,*fdout;

int idx=0,done=0;

char ch;

int val[3],pack;

int i,n1,n2,n3;

int state=ST_IDLE;

fdin=fopen(filenamein,"r");

fdout=fopen(filenameout,"wb");

val[0]=0;

while(state!=ST_DONE)

{

fread(bufin,1,1,fdin);

ch=bufin[0];

switch(state)

{

case ST_IDLE:

switch(ch){

case '[':

state=ST_OPEN;

break;

default:

break;

}

break;

case ST_OPEN:

switch(ch){

case '0':

case '1':

case '2':

case '3':

case '4':

case '5':

case '6':

case '7':

case '8':

case '9':

val[0]*=10;

val[0]+= ch-'0';

//

printf("val[0]=%d\n",val[0]);

break;

case ',': // shift it along

val[2]=val[1];

val[1]=val[0];

val[0]=0;

break;

case ']':

height=width;

width=val[0];

val[0]=0;

printf("w,h = %d,%d\n",width,height);

break;

case '}':

x=0;

y++;

break;

case ')': // emit symbol. val[0] = 8-bit R, val[1]=8-bit G, val[2]=8-bit B

//

printf("%d %d %d\n",val[0],val[1],val[2]);

/*

// noise mix

for(i=0;i<3;i++){

n1 = (random()%(dith/2))-(dith/4);

n2 = (random()%(dith/2))-(dith/4);

n3 = n1+n2;

val[i] += n3;

}

*/

// quantize

val[2] = val[2]>>3;

val[1] = val[1]>>3;

val[0] = val[0]>>3;

//pack=(val[0]<<10) | (val[1]<<5) | (val[2]);

pack=(val[2]<<10) | (val[1]<<5) | (val[0]);

array[x][y] = pack;

x++;

idx++;

// prepare for next number

val[0]=0;

break;

case ';':

state=ST_DONE;

break;

default:

break;

}

break;

default:

break;

}

}

// they're in the file upside down, so do this funny way:

for(y=height-1;y>=0;y--){

for(x=0;x<width;x++){

pack = array[x][y];

bufout[0] = (pack>>0)&0xff; // least significant

bufout[1] = (pack>>8)&0xff; // most significant

fwrite(&bufout[0],1,1,fdout);

fwrite(&bufout[1],1,1,fdout);

}

}

fclose(fdin);

fclose(fdout);

printf("w,h = %d,%d\n",width,height);

printf("Converted %d pixels.\n",idx);

printf("blah\n");

}

int pnmParsePic(char *filenamein,char *filenameout,int dith)

{

unsigned char bufin[80],bufout[3];

FILE *fdin,*fdout;

int idx=0,done=0;

char ch;

unsigned int val[3],pack;

int i,n1,n2,n3;

char tmp[80],buf[80],buf2[80];

char *ptr;

int state=ST_IDLE;

fdin=fopen(filenamein,"r");

fdout=fopen(filenameout,"wb");

fgets(buf,80,fdin); // P6 means pnm, binary rgb

fgets(buf,80,fdin); // this one has the width and height in it oh joy

ptr = strtok(buf," ");

width=atoi(ptr);

ptr = strtok(NULL," ");

height=atoi(ptr);

fgets(buf,80,fdin); // 255

for(y=0;y<height;y++){

for(x=0;x<width;x++){

fread(bufin,1,3,fdin);

val[2] = bufin[2]>>3;

val[1] = bufin[1]>>3;

val[0] = bufin[0]>>3;

pack=(val[2]<<10) | (val[1]<<5) | (val[0]);

// printf("%d %d 0x%06x %d %d %d\n",x,y,pack,val[0],val[1],val[2]);

array[x][y] = pack;

}

// printf("\n");

}

for(y=0;y<height;y++){

for(x=0;x<width;x++){

pack = array[x][y];

bufout[0] = (pack>>0)&0xff; // least significant

bufout[1] = (pack>>8)&0xff; // most significant

fwrite(&bufout[0],1,1,fdout);

fwrite(&bufout[1],1,1,fdout);

}

}

fclose(fdin);

fclose(fdout);

printf("w,h = %d,%d\n",width,height);

printf("Converted %d pixels.\n",width*height);

printf("blah\n");

}

This is a batch conversion utility that will turn a directory full of .jpg files

into a directory full of .vrm files. It's useful for making skins.

It requires having jpegtools installed on your system.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# batch convert jpegs into .vrm files for PSPKick skins

@names =("mainscreen_v2", # main background

"cursor", # cursor, empty 14x14

"cursor_dot","dot", # cursor on beat. beat.

"cursor_accent_dot","accented_dot", # cursor on accented beat. accented beat.

"chaser_light", # chaser light

"redLightOn","yellowLightOn","greenLightOn", # redlight, yellow light, green

light

"sounds_screen", # "samples" menu

"song_screen", # "song" menu

"files_screen", # "custom" menu

"notesScreenCrude", # notes menu

"song_current_pos", "song_cursor", # song indicator, cursor

);

for($i=0;$i<=$#names;$i++)

{

$cmd="jpegtopnm jpg/$names[$i].jpg > pnm/$names[$i].pnm";

print "$cmd\n";

system($cmd);

$cmd="../../picpack03 -pnm pnm/$names[$i].pnm vrm/$names[$i].vrm 0";

print "$cmd\n";

system($cmd);

print "\n";

}