picosynth

Move around with arrow keys. A touch controller will load for mobile devices.

Grab nodes with Z. Change them with X while grabbing. Attempting to change to the same type will enter 'connecting' mode to merge with another node. Pressing the Enter key will open a pause menu which has Beach House and Jungle Hut, two preset patches to try out.

In this game, you can interact directly with the pico-8 sound engine and program it in a way similar to modular synthesizers.

Each pulsing rectangle represents a channel and each symbol within it is an input that controls its sound. The floating numbers connected to inputs generate values for those inputs. Every value is an integer from 0-7.

• Waveform
  • 0 triangle
  • 1 tilted saw
  • 2 saw
  • 3 square
  • 4 pulse
  • 5 organ
  • 6 noise
  • 7 phaser
• Effect
  • 0 none
  • 1 slide
  • 2 vibrato
  • 3 drop
  • 4 fade in
  • 5 fade out
  • 6 arp fast
  • 7 arp slow
• Volume
• 1 Pitch course
• 2 Pitch fine
• Speed (staccato/legato)
• Rate (tempo)

While grabbing a node (holding Z), tapping X will change the value/mode of it and holding X down will bring up a menu that can change the type of node by pressing the appropriate direction. The type determines its behavior and what values it will output. 

• ? Random - tapping gets a new random value
• ! Constant - tapping increments the unchanging value
• # Sequential - tapping changes to incrementing or decrementing on each pulse
• < Branch - tapping changes between flipping every time or randomly

If the node is already the type that is selected, then it will enter 'connecting' mode. After letting go of the node and moving off it, a red line should be following you, coming from the connecting node. The next node that gets grabbed will merge with the connecting node. Pressing X will cancel. A node with multiple connections can be broken up by trying to change it to a branch node.