Merry yuletide festivities everyone!

One of the worst kept secrets about Permut8 is that it supports "firmware replacements". In case you have not heard about it before, a "Permut8 firmware" is a piece of code that can be loaded into Permut8 to extend or replace its signal processing algorithms. This is not in native code but a portable assembler format for a virtual machine that I have designed for fast and safe (sandboxed) execution. We have now decided to take advantage of this feature to offer you a (slightly late) Christmas gift. We hereby present the first official alternative firmware for Permut8: "beatrick".

Here is a short introduction in video form:

The "beatrick" firmware is attached here for registered Permut8 users. Just unzip and open the .p8bank file as you would normally open a Permut8 bank.

beatrick.p8bank.zip(4.4kB, 1342 downloads)

Notice that when you save a song that uses alternative Permut8 firmware, the actual firmware code will be stored in the song file as well. This will guarantee that your song can be opened and sound identical for all future (as long as you have Permut8 installed of course).

Also, if you have not found them yet there are other firmwares already included in the original Permut8 installation, most notably a full port of SAM (the original speech synthesizer from the early 80's). You need to logon to the terminal in the "about box" to use these. This topic contains more info.

In other news, we have just launched the beta for Microtonic 3.1 which is the first 64-bit compatible version.

Warm greeting from snowy Sweden,
Magnus

Great work i will test this firmware Magnus , Permut8 n'arrête pas de m'étonner :rolleyes: and for 64-bit Microtonic beta can be test it ?

I see beatrick info. I don't see any info about an x64 MicroTonic beta. Where can we get that?

hi there,

where i can find infos about the micro tonic 64-bit beta?

- javahut wrote:
I see beatrick info. I don't see any info about an x64 MicroTonic beta. Where can we get that?

Sorry, I posted to fast to see how the attachment and video worked. :) Updated the post now.

Thanks for new firmware ! Usefulness

Cool. How many firmwares are there? Where can I get the remolder.p8bank pictured in the video?

- Made In Machines wrote:
Cool. How many firmwares are there? Where can I get the remolder.p8bank pictured in the video?

For the Permut8 release we only included a couple of demo / test firmwares (linsub and ringmod) plus SAM. So, two "serious" now and four in total. Anyone can do new ones of course but I have to pull myself together and publish some proper documentation first.

remolder isn't ready yet.

Here is the source code for beatrick. It's written with "Impala" which is like a higher level assembler (with C-like infix notation) for GAZL. GAZL is the lowest level and the code format that the Permut8 virtual machine loads and runs. You can write GAZL directly, but it is more difficult of course.

You put this in the Permut8 Firmware folder (installation folder on PC, /Library/Application Support/Sonic Charge on Mac) and run the compile loop batch that you find there.

beatrick.impala.zip(4.36kB, 1225 downloads)

(Btw, Impala is in turn written with PPEG which is Parsing Expression Grammar with PikaScript blocks. PikaScript is a minimal scripting language that I developed many years ago that runs our GUI's, Patternarium and many other things. So yeah, this is a big messy orgy of Not Invented Here Syndrome.)

Cool, are linsub, ringmod & remolder being worked on then? I didn't realise I was getting multi-fx for my money :D

- Made In Machines wrote:
Cool, are linsub, ringmod & remolder being worked on then? I didn't realise I was getting multi-fx for my money :D

linsub and ringmod will be simpler demo firmwares only. I might do a bigger ringmod, but I'll probably call it something cooler then.

What do you mean btw? Permut8 is a multi-effect already! :)

- Magnus Lidström wrote:
linsub and ringmod will be simpler demo firmwares only. I might do a bigger ringmod, but I'll probably call it something cooler then.
What do you mean btw? Permut8 is a multi-effect already! :)

Haha, well a multi-multi effect then! Oh, how can i get those demo firmwares?

Multi- indeed! This is one of the most magnificent effects units I've had the pleasure of working with. This buffered audio manipulation stuff is capable of magic. Excellent work SC. Thanks for Beatrick

Simply amazing - thanks so much for this!

- Magnus Lidström wrote:
remolder isn't ready yet.

Very interesting, that it can be )

beatrick is great, cheers and happy new year to all at sonic charge

This is dope...thanks a bunch Beatrick Sonic Charge

can not log in to beta forum..i keep getting error message.

2 Myung J Cho
The same situation (as usual on the beta forum). well, I'm not upset, can wait.

- Magnus Lidström wrote:
Anyone can do new ones of course but I have to pull myself together and publish some proper documentation first.

Hey Magnus, I'm a profressional programmer who does music production as a hobby. I mostly do web development but I dabble in audio programming too. If you want any feedback on a rough draft of the documentation, I'm happy to "beta test" the docs for you. I'm interested in writing custom firmware, but I'd rather wait for docs than spend time reverse engineering it.

- Ant9 wrote:
2 Myung J Cho
The same situation (as usual on the beta forum). well, I'm not upset, can wait.

Unfortunately we cannot let everyone that applies into the beta forum or we would spend more time managing the forum than actually coding. :) We have 370 members at the moment, but many of these are old and inactive so we'll bring in new users in a pace that is manageable. Also, don't feel bad if you are not approved this time around. We keep beta applications between projects.

There are mainly two criteria that we go on: 1) the presentation and previous beta experience and 2) the hosts that you are using.

Our system automatically keeps track of which hosts that our testers have run and not. We use this information when we decide who to let on next.

- Adam Murray wrote:
Hey Magnus, I'm a profressional programmer who does music production as a hobby. I mostly do web development but I dabble in audio programming too. If you want any feedback on a rough draft of the documentation, I'm happy to "beta test" the docs for you. I'm interested in writing custom firmware, but I'd rather wait for docs than spend time reverse engineering it.

Great!! There are some comments in the .impala sources already, but they concern the API for Permut8 only. Nothing about the Impala or GAZL languages. I'll try to finish that and upload to google code. I'll keep you posted.

I bought Permut8 after seeing this new firmware seemed to me easier to understand than the previous one. <<super _ :)

- Magnus Lidström wrote:
Unfortunately we cannot let everyone that applies into the beta forum or we would spend more time managing the forum than actually coding. :) We have 370 members at the moment, but many of these are old and inactive so we'll bring in new users in a pace that is manageable. Also, don't feel bad if you are not approved this time around. We keep beta applications between projects.
There are mainly two criteria that we go on: 1) the presentation and previous beta experience and 2) the hosts that you are using.
Our system automatically keeps track of which hosts that our testers have run and not. We use this information when we decide who to let on next.

Magnus yes, I like this thought, in general everything is OK. (That is, I did not feel that I am discriminated against not having access to the beta testers, or something like) lol
The main thing is that you make new features.

Thanks for beatrick. Very generous.

so when is the big day for 64bit?

Brilliant! This superb plugin just gets better & better. Thank you.

Is their an upgrade fee for the 64-bit Microtonic beta,if so any clues aprox, Just wanting to know really, so i know how much to put to one side while i have some money.

Thanks

- Jace wrote:
Is their an upgrade fee

The upgrade will be free for all Microtonic owners.

What is the release date for Microtonic 64 bit (approximate), I am very excited :-)

Thanx for beatrick. Love it.

Any news on MicroTonic 64-beats?

It's been an extraordinarily long beta but we have been testing the 2nd release candidate for about a week and it looks solid. There are a couple of issues that we need to resolve but I'd be surprised if we can't release it during next week.

Thank goodness! This is the ONLY thing holding me back from going with Live 9 x64.

I love the Beatrick firmware!! Anymore coming? :)

Cheers

Hi Magnus,

I am experiencing a problem with the command line in Perumt8 64-bit, the delete button doesn't seem to work. I've tested in Live841 64bit both AU and VST. Any chance of a fix?

Cheers :)

--edit

I should add that using the popup command line is fine, the problem is only with the integrated command line.

- Matthew Large wrote:
Hi Magnus,

I am experiencing a problem with the command line in Perumt8 64-bit, the delete button doesn't seem to work. I've tested in Live841 64bit both AU and VST. Any chance of a fix?

Cheers :)

--edit
I should add that using the popup command line is fine, the problem is only with the integrated command line.

Yeah, I've seen this too. Only in Live 64-bit on Mac. In other hosts that I've tried it works fine. It must be that Ableton doesn't pass on the backspace key to plug-ins. But I've noticed that some other plug-ins do get the backspace key, so I'll check into it for the next release.

Good stuff.

Any chance of implementing in-line editing? Arrows, insert, 'up' arrow to previous commands? I know probably a big ask so no probs if it's no on the list.

- Matthew Large wrote:
Good stuff.
Any chance of implementing in-line editing? Arrows, insert, 'up' arrow to previous commands? I know probably a big ask so no probs if it's no on the list.

Hehe. I would probably have done it already if there was a way to receive cursor keys reliable in VST / AU world. But since I might need to find a more robust solution for keyboard input anyhow (e.g. for the backspace), there might be an opportunity to implement your suggestion as well.