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Breaks-DS - NDS Drum Loop Glitch Sampler - Downloadable ROM (1.1B & Updates)

$12.00
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breaks-ds

Drum loop glitch sampler for the Nintendo DS.

breaks-ds is homebrew software for the Nintendo DS for chopping up and glitching drum breaks live. You load 2 bar loops, spread them across pads, and recut them in real time with the touchscreen and buttons. The tools include stutters, gates, tape stop, reverse, live section rearrangement, and a set of post mix effects. Audio runs through a variable rate streaming engine, so pitch and tempo move together like a turntable, and switching between loops happens seamlessly on the beat.

Included

200 drum break loops (WAV) are bundled and ready to play. You can add your own at any time.

Samples

  • Plays WAV loops placed in breaks-ds/loops/ on the SD card (8, 16, 24, or 32 bit, mono or stereo, any sample rate). Loops are decoded on the DS, so no PC converter is needed.
  • Loops sit on a 2 bar (8 beat) grid. A BPM control vari speeds playback from 80 to 200 BPM.
  • Per pad quality: load each break at LO (11.9 kHz, 8 bit), HI (23.8 kHz, 16 bit), or MAX (32.8 kHz, 16 bit). The buffer is sized to the source rate, so a low rate sample does not waste memory.
  • A live kit memory meter shows how much is used and refuses any load that would run past the limit.

Performance

  • 8 break pads (switchable between 4 and 8). Each pad is set to latch (tap to make it the main break) or momentary (active only while held). Pad changes flip seamlessly, quantized to beat, bar, or phrase.
  • Hold to apply controls that stack on top of each other: beat locked gate (quarter, eighth, or sixteenth note), beat repeat (stutter), tape stop, reverse, ring modulation, overdrive, tremolo, and live section rearrangement on the directional pad (hold a direction to repeat and reorder loop sections). START stops all playback.
  • Resonant filter (low pass, high pass, band pass, notch) on an XY pad, bitcrush, and a master volume. The gate subdivision and stutter size are adjustable.
  • The top screen shows a live output oscilloscope, which effects are active, a beat indicator, and the current break name, tempo, sample rate, and bit depth.

Save and recall

Save and reload kits (your pad selections) to the SD card with on screen naming. The output level is also kept between sessions.

MIDI (needs a mDS slot-2 cart) - MIDI Features Still Under Development.

  • Clock sync as slave (follow an external clock at 1:1, half, or double time) or master (send clock plus start and stop).
  • Note and CC input: incoming notes trigger pads and glitch effects, CCs control the effects, with a channel filter (omni or 1 to 16).

Installing

1. Copy the included breaks-ds folder to the root of your DS flashcard's SD card, so the path is breaks-ds/loops/ with the WAV loops inside.

2. Copy breaks-ds.nds to wherever you launch homebrew from on the card.

3. Launch breaks-ds.nds.

What you need

A Nintendo DS or DS Lite (also runs on DSi and 3DS) with a flashcard that supports SD access. This is needed to read the loops and to save kits.

Optional: a slot 2 mDS MIDI cart for clock sync and MIDI input.

An SD card (R4 etc) is required, since the loops and ROM live on the card.

Notes

  • This is homebrew software, not an official Nintendo product.
  • Loops play on a fixed 2 bar grid. Other lengths still load but get time stretched to fit.
  • The audio engine is mono.
  • The top of the master volume range (about 25 percent over unity) will clip peaks on already loud material.

MIDI map

breaks-ds takes MIDI in through a slot 2 MIDI cart. Open the SETTINGS tab and turn on NOTES + CC IN. The channel filter next to it is either OMNI (every channel) or a single channel from 1 to 16. Clock sync as slave or master can run at the same time.

Note numbers are listed below. Middle C is note 60. Some software labels middle C as C3 and some as C4, but the note numbers are the same on every device.

Pads

  • Notes 36 to 43 trigger pads 1 to 8 as momentary. The pad plays while the note is held and returns to the main break when you let go.
  • Notes 48 to 55 trigger pads 1 to 8 as latch. The pad becomes the main break and stays there until you change it.
  • A pad only responds once a loop is loaded onto it on the SAMPLE tab.

Glitches

  • These apply while the note is held and stack with each other and with the pads.
  • Note 60 reverse
  • Note 61 tape stop
  • Note 62 gate
  • Note 63 beat repeat
  • Note 64 rearrange right
  • Note 65 rearrange left
  • Note 66 rearrange up
  • Note 67 rearrange down
  • The four rearrange notes combine just like the directional pad, so hold more than one for diagonal patterns. The gate subdivision and the stutter size follow the A and B sliders on the play screen.
  • Control change
  • CC 16 filter cutoff (also switches the filter on)
  • CC 17 filter resonance
  • CC 18 bitcrush amount
  • CC 19 reset effects, on a value of 64 or higher

Good to know

  • All MIDI input is ignored until NOTES + CC IN is on in SETTINGS.
  • The ring modulation, overdrive and tremolo effects live on the face and shoulder buttons and are not on MIDI in this version.