rockout manual v1.0 ROCKOUT 1. what is rockout 2. how can i install rockout USING ROCKOUT 3. playing samples 4. tapping the tempo 5. glitching the sample 6. recording a loop 7. changing effect mode 8. changing samples 9. quitting rockout TROUBLESHOOTING 10. troubleshooting 1. what is rockout? rockout is a sampler that can play 6 samples at a time (unlimited playback length). sample playback is 16 bit 44.1khz. you can play samples back, you can glitch samples out using the glitch sequencer, there is echo, there is distortion, backwards, and a record loop function. you can load your own samples into rockout (stereo .WAV 16bit 44.1khz files) rockout currently works on the sansa e200 series and c200 series. don't hold your breath for other players to work, due to their greatly lower amounts of RAM. 2. how can i install rockout? you must patch your rockbox with the rockout source. after it has compiled, it is essential to have the following on your player: .rockbox\rocks\apps\rockout.rock .rockbox\rocks\apps\rockout\ directory created, a folder of samples in that rockout directory (.rockbox\rocks\apps\rockout\samplebank\ for example). the essential files folder .rockbox\rocks\apps\rockout\donotdelete directory created with the two hihat files. USING ROCKOUT 3. PLAYING SAMPLES you should use rockout as any other sampler. you hit the buttons, they make sounds, you make music. the samples are: UP / DOWN / LEFT / RIGHT / SELECT / VOLDOWN. (technically, up = play/pause, right = fastforward etc..) to get the most out of rockout, it is interesting to use the glitch feature (RECORD button on player). the glitch function takes your sample, and plays it back in slices, according to rockout's internal tempo. to use the glitch function and not have it sound weird, it is important to tap the tempo of your samples (or of the people you are jamming with if you have non-rhythmical samples). so, first we tap the tempo. 4. TAPPING THE TEMPO to do this, you must hold down a sample (if you have a loopbeat, use this one). while the sample is playing (while you're holding down the button of the sample), tap the on/off button to the beat. the more the better (i mean it, you can do 10 or 20 if you want the best accuracy). 4 taps is probably minimum. 5. GLITCHING THE SAMPLE to do this, you must hold down a sample (loopbeats sound best, or pads that have filter sweeps). while the sample is playing (while you're holding down the button of the sample), press and hold the record button on the player. your sample will now follow the beat of the glitch sequence. if you are glitching a loopbeat, and the rhythm sounds weird or you don't hear your snares, it's because you didn't tap the tempo (properly). you should hear a new rhythm. to change glitch sequences, hit the glitch button (record on the player) once alone. now, the next time you glitch a sample, it will be a different glitch sequence (there are 12 in total). some use later section of the sample and work better with long samples. some (well one) are dependent on WHEN you press the glitch while the sample is playing, so you can play a loopbeat normally, then when it gets to a certain part (or you want to create on-the-fly glitches), you hit the glitch button, and it will glitch that specific part of the sample (instead of just starting a glitch sequence that has predetermined points that it cuts up like most of them). you may edit the source code and make your own glitch sequences. it's not too hard. just look at the top of the code, there's what looks like a sequence (rows of numbers), it's explained there. you can put distortion or drum and bass rewinds in the beat very easily. glitching in general works well with longer samples. if you put a little kick drum, and want to glitch it, there's not a whole lot the sequence can do with that. 6. RECORDING A LOOP to enter recording mode, hit ON/OFF. you should hear a hihat (if you don't, see troubleshooting section). it's now recording, so just play whatever you want to play, and then hit ON/OFF again to exit recording mode. your loop will continue to play. if you want to save that loop (and shut it up from looping), press ON/OFF and RECORD together. you will hear it saving, and it will bounce the loop to one of your samples that are loaded (ie: now your UP button will play the sample loop). it also saves about 6 of these to disk, so if you made some genius stuff, you can plug your mp3 player into your computer, and load your loops (please note that they are saved as .WAV without a header, so you have to load it in cooledit or a professional .wav editor). if your loop sucks, and you want to try again, just hold record for a couple of seconds. the loop will be erased. 7. CHANGING EFFECT MODE to change effect mode, press record and volume up. you should now hear echo. the effectmodes are as follows: 1: echo off, and the glitch button glitches. 2. echo on, and the glitch button glitches. 3. echo off, and the glitch button reverses whatever sample is playing. 4. echo on, and the glitch button reverses whatever sample is playing. the echo follows whatever rhythm you tapped in the tap tempo. 8. CHANGING SAMPLES to change the whole bank (you must have more than one sample bank loaded on the player to begin with, ie: in .rockbox\rocks\apps\rockout\ there is more than one folder with samples inside them), just hit VOLUME UP. to change an individual sample, while keeping the others the same, press and hold the sample you want to change, then hit volume up. a second or two later your new sample will be ready. 9. QUITTING ROCKOUT press ON/OFF and SELECT and RECORD all together at the same time. sorry, but why would you want to quit anyways?? 10. TROUBLESHOOTING 1) when rockout opens, i don't hear anything at all when i press buttons? - you must be sure you put folders inside the rockout folder. in the folders must appear wav files (with extension .wav), more than 5 or 6 in each folder. (also see "how do i install rockout?" above at top). 2) when rockout opens, the samples sound SUPER short? - either a) your mp3 player is not sansa e200 or c200 series (not enough ram), or b) you should investigate bug 12345 (search the code for bug or 12345 for explanation in the code comments). you can change a value that migth help there. 3) how do i change the volume? - you must change it in rockbox before you enter the plugin 4) where do my saved samples appear? - they are called 1.wav 2.wav etc.. and they are in the rockout folder. 5) your glitch sequences suck! i want to make my own drum and bass sequence that is all fast and weird and stuff. - open the code, it's easy peasy, change the sequences you see near the top (long lists of numbers separated by commas in the declarations section). long explanation is located there as well. 6) my question isn't answered here! - you can email me at selectohh atsymbol gooogle's web based mail dot com. 7) i want to do this or that to the code. - please check the developers guide text file.