BeepComp - Text-based chiptune creator

For MSX there are quite a few music editors, of which most come in a tracker/stepnote based format. A few of them make use of Music Macro Language, also known as MML, just like MSX-BASIC does. BeepComp is a chiptune creator for PC and Mac, based on MML. It recreates retro "beep" sound tunes from the 8-bit area.

BeepComp allows you to compose chiptune tracks with text files. It features a nice retro-sounding synthesizer engine with 9 music channels and 1 percussion channel. You can shape your sounds with waveforms - square, sawtooth etc. - and add LFO, delay and volume envelopes. You can also export the results to MP3 and other formats.

BeepComp is an open-source project. This means that you're welcome to modify the source code however you want. BeepComp is a also shareware that anyone can use freely. It is distributed under the MIT license. BeepComp is made by MRC user Hiro Morozumi.

The features are:

Text editor
Easy MML-inspired syntax
9 music and 1 drum channels
Effects (delay, LFO, envelope etc.)
Export to mp3, wav, ogg files
Copy/paste to/from outside text
Waveform selection (sine, square, sawtooth, triangle etc.)

Here you can find a handful of demo songs, to get you engaged. There are also two MSX beepcomp tunes in our download database:
gradius-ii-air-battle-theme and knightmare-stage-1-theme.

Relevant link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/beepcomp/

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Comments (21)

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

25-03-2017, 00:26

Thank you for covering this! I would like to add that I'm currently final-testing the Mac version but it'll be available very shortly. The Windows version is of course fully functional

By N.I

Master (177)

25-03-2017, 06:52

Very interesting! It is convenient for making chiptune sounds. I want to use it when making electronic music.

By frederic.markus

Expert (83)

25-03-2017, 09:42

Amazing.

By ro

Scribe (4964)

25-03-2017, 15:44

hai Hiro Morozumi, I saw your download submission for GradiusII and thought "why the heck didn't we do a newspost on this fantastic tool before?". Thank YOU, my friend

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

25-03-2017, 16:43

You're welcome! I used to have so much fun creating songs on my MSX using an FM-PAC and PLAY statements I hope you guys will enjoy this tool. Feel free to send me feature suggestions!

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

28-03-2017, 10:55

@N.I
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. You're welcome to share any songs you make with it in our forum

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

28-03-2017, 10:54

@frederic.markus
Thank you!

By bakoulis

Master (166)

30-03-2017, 12:04

Looks great! Any luck for a Linux version?
MacOSX and Linux is very close (both are Unix). The transition from Mac to Linux will be easy.
Think about it please.

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

30-03-2017, 17:16

@bakoulis
Thank you for your interest! You're right, Linux is very close to MacOS. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I ported the sound engine portion to Linux with good success, so I just need a little more time to port the GUI portion Which distro do you use?

By bakoulis

Master (166)

30-03-2017, 20:30

I use Linux Mint 17 LTS.
Is almost identical with Ubuntu and Debian.
I am sure you will have success with it!

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

31-03-2017, 09:59

I thought I should make packages for popular distros including Arch (which I use), Ubuntu and Debian. I'll look into Mint as well

By bakoulis

Master (166)

31-03-2017, 14:14

Linux Mint have 2 versions, Linux Mint and Linux Mint Debian Edition. The first version is Ubuntu based.
So, the packages of Debian and Ubuntu will be OK for Mint. Anyway, the last 2 years, Linux Mint is the most popular distro!

By cklayman

Champion (294)

31-03-2017, 14:54

Hmm, I can only see the Windows version, nothing for the Mac?

By bakoulis

Master (166)

31-03-2017, 15:03

Also must be prepare packages for 32 & 64 bit distros.
And will be nice except deb and rpm packages, if we have the source code to compile our own.

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

31-03-2017, 18:10

@bakoulis
It's nice to know making packages for Ubuntu and Debian can cover many other distros! And I'll have the source available for building manually like you suggest. Have you tried Arch Linux? I'm really enjoying this one

@cklayman
The Mac version works perfectly on my machines but I wanted to test on a few other machines before making it official. For now, you can download it from here. If you have problems, just let me know at beepcomp-at-hiromorozumi-dot-com :)

By bakoulis

Master (166)

31-03-2017, 19:27

The Arch Linux is very nice but the compiling and the resolving of dependencies is a nightmare.
Too much troubles for my taste. Even more, I am a Debian boy and the Linux Mint is Ubuntu based and Ubuntu is Debian based! So, Linux Mint is very familiar for me. Also Debian/Ubuntu/Mint have a very large base of users and the problems resolved very quick.

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

31-03-2017, 23:32

Even better is to find a Debian developer who wants to package your program into the distro. If you get it into Debian, it will end up in many popular distros that are derived from it.

By bakoulis

Master (166)

31-03-2017, 23:34

Manuel wrote:

Even better is to find a Debian developer who wants to package your program into the distro. If you get it into Debian, it will end up in many popular distros that are derived from it.

This is true!!!

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

01-04-2017, 09:17

@bakoulis
I just saw a video about Linux Mint. The package manager looks awesome! They say it runs pretty fast, too. I'll try it out at some point

@Manuel
That's a good suggestion. I thought I would have to learn build steps for each distro, but maybe I could find someone who's experienced and willing to help with this especially when the user base is large

By N.I

Master (177)

02-08-2018, 14:28

I found that if you click on the logo while playing music you'll see a game like Twinbee.

By Mozumiyasuro

Supporter (15)

27-12-2018, 23:30

@N.I
A fun little easter egg Thank you for trying out BeepComp!

BeepComp - Text-based chiptune creator

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