STEPPER: An Elektron inspired 16-step sequencer for the GBA

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

STEPPER-v1.6-gba
STEPPER-v1.6-gba1080×1080 260 KB

STEPPER is a 16-step sequencer for the GameBoy Advance (GBA) and compatible systems (NDS/3DS). Seems to also works on the Analog Pocket, clone consoles and emulators (Though some emulators may introduce sound artifacts). It can generate sounds using the classic DMG engine (2 square wave channels, one wave channel, one noise channel) and has access to 4 banks of 8 patterns each. The patterns can be chained, and the pattern chain can also be edited and sequenced in real time, which is a feature I’ve never seen done before.

It also supports CV sync using a custom link cable but be careful with voltages (3.3V i/o) I don’t want anyone to burn their GBAs in the process.

I think it’s pretty fun to use already, and one of the main goals is to be intuitive and performable.

The project is open source and in active development, in fact version 1.6 just came out, adding a host of UI changes and the addition of probability/conditional trigs! You can download it for free (pay what you want) on the project page as a .gba rom file or a 3DS compatible .cia.

Feel free to try it on the browser if you prefer, though downloading it and using an emulator or real hardware is a much better experience.

Some demos:

I’ve been working on this for a while but haven’t shared it it with Elektronauts community until now, I hope y’all like it!

Cheers!

Bad Diode

42 Likes
#2

This is brilliant, thank you for sharing! Makes me want to partner with someone making a retro game so I could do the soundtrack. ;D

The video demos made me think of classic Master System games of all things, particularly Miracle Warriors.

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#3

Absolutely incredible work! Bought and now excitedly trying to work out how to get roms onto my RG351 again :cool:

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#4

This is so sick! Will definitely be giving this a go, it’ll be a good excuse to finally mod that old GBA I’ve had sitting around.

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#5

:fire:

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#6

daaaang now what drawer did I tuck that old gba sp into??

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#7

Looks super cool!

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#8
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#9

Fucking super cool! Great work :raised_hands:

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#10

I’m guessing this would work on the GBA emulator on my PSP 3000. Excited. :smiley:

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#11

Stupid question maybe, but what do I need to do to get this on my GBA? It is original, no jailbreak or anything.

Looks very cool!

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#12

thank you all for the nice words :slight_smile:

to answer some of the questions so far:

Stupid question maybe, but what do I need to do to get this on my GBA? It is original, no jailbreak or anything.

To run it on the original GBA you need some form of flashcart, there are many of them available in the market, with different features and prices. I test the roms on my GBA with an Everdrive Mini, which is a bit on the pricy side. There are other carts available, like the EZ Flash Omega (or others in the EZ flash family). In general you just put the rom on an SD card, plop it into the cart and you should be able to run it right away. There are some other, much cheaper flash-carts like the Supercard SD Mini, that require you to patch the rom with their software before putting it on the SD, but they also work once you do that.

I’m guessing this would work on the GBA emulator on my PSP 3000. Excited. :smiley:

Yes this should in principle work on any GBA emulator, though unfortunately I’ve seen some audio bugs in some of them. Particularly on mGBA the Square channels randomly stop working and then randomly work again. I have no issues with other emulators such as Ares or in real hardware. Best is to test it and see!

Please if you decide to try it, feel free to put some jams here, I always love to see what people do with it :smiley:

4 Likes
#13

I’m all about thisss!!!

Also for all nanoloop and related GAmeboy advance sequencing join my discord

Can’t wait to use stepper myself been waiting my whole life.

1 Like
#15

STEPPER v1.7 just came out of the oven, and this is a fun one!

Apart from some new UI changes, global mutes/bpm and two more pattern banks available, the main feature in this update is the scale mode. Using the scale mode you can add new notes in key, but can also transpose an entire sequence, which is super fun. I uploaded a demo of this on my Instagram page if you are curious to see a real GBA-SP through a Blackhole reverb badly recorded with an iPhone camera and mic.

More details about this update in the official devlog:

Catbeats (ex-Elektron) and myself are teaming up more and we will be releasing our projects under the Withered City creative collective. We got more cool stuff on the oven, hope to share more details soon!

Cheers!

3 Likes
#16

After cleaning up my studio I decided to treat myself to a little jam session with my GBA and Elektron gear. Hope y’all like it!

#17

Sweet! Will this be available as .pocket?

#18

You mean in the Analog Pocket? yeah it seems to work fine with the openfpga gba core:

#19

Moreso meant the Analogue Pocket file type .pocket - just got one and have figured out the cores, but not the bios thing yet. Is that needed for this program?

#20

i followed this video to setup the emulators in the pocket:

#21

Sorry I don’t really know as I don’t own a Pocket myself, but once you have the core installed it should be as simple as copying the .gba rom file if I’m not mistaken. Hope you manage to make it work!