Etheric Synthesizer Code
Theremin synthesizer for Android devices
Status: Alpha
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1"> <meta name="author" content="Nutchanon Wetchasit"> <title>Etheric Synthesizer</title> </head> <body> <h1>Etheric Synthesizer</h1> <em>Theremin synthesizer for Android devices</em> <p> <strong>Etheric Synthesizer</strong> (<strong>EtherSynth</strong>) is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin">theremin</a>-like synthesizer application for Android-based mobile devices. It allows user to play otherworldly theremin-like melody on mobile phone or tablet by swiping their finger on the screen. However, it is not aimed at realistically immitating a real theremin as it only uses a single finger to play. </p> <p> Features could be summarized as follows: </p> <ul> <li>Play tones with single finger. <li>Colored gradient background guide (can be turned off). <li>Visible touch indicator (can be turned off). <li>Configurable frequency range. <li>Configurable control axes orientation, locking, and inversion. <li>Configurable control dead zone and saturation zone. <li>Configurable output waveform: sine, triangle, sawtooth, and square. <li>Configurable output audio resolution. <li>Performance could be recorded in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waveform_Audio_File_Format">WAVE format</a>. </ul> <p> Project website: <a href="http://ethersynth.sourceforge.net/">http://ethersynth.sourceforge.net/</a> </p> <h3>Contents</h3> <ul> <li><a href="#requirement">1. System Requirement</a> <li><a href="#compile">2. Compiling</a> <li><a href="#install">3. Installing</a> <li><a href="#quickstart">4. Quick Start</a> <li><a href="#author">5. Author</a> </ul> <h2><a name="requirement"></a>1. System Requirement</h2> <p> Etheric Synthesizer is written to run on Android version 2.0 onward (though recommended version is 2.3 or later), with no limitation on hardware platform as no native software library is used. On running, it requires only SD Card access permission which is used in recording function. </p> <p> For building Etheric Synthesizer from source code, <a href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/">Android SDK</a> or <a href="http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/SDK">Replicant SDK</a> is required. Version of the SDK is irrelevant, but support files for building Android 2.3 application must be installed. Please note that <a href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/older_releases.html">legacy SDKs</a> cannot be used as they only support up to Android version 1.6. Also, Etheric Synthesizer uses a standard <a href="http://ant.apache.org/">Apache Ant</a> build system, so you would need to have it installed too (tested with Ant version 1.8.3). </p> <h2><a name="compile"></a>2. Compiling</h2> <p> Assuming your Android build tools and Ant are accessible from command line, before starting, you would need to reconfigure project's build file by running following command in source directory: </p> <p> <code>android update project -p .</code> </p> <p> Then you can build Etheric Synthesizer by using following command: </p> <p> <code>ant debug</code> </p> <p> Once the process is completed, you will see an APK file <q><code>EtherSynth-debug.apk</code></q> inside project's <q><code>bin</code></q> directory, which you can copy it to your device and install. </p> <p> If you plan to distribute Etheric Synthesizer APK, you might be better off using <q><code>ant release</code></q> command instead of <q><code>ant debug</code></q>, but you will need an APK signing key ready at hand to do this; or your Android device would refuse to install the result APK due to the lack of digital signature. </p> <h2><a name="install"></a>3. Installing</h2> <p> Etheric Synthesizer's installation process is the same as a regular Android application. </p> <ul> <li> You can copy the APK file to your device and click it in file manager to install. </li> <li> Or if you connected your Android device to your machine via USB and appropriate Android Debug Bridge driver is installed, you can just run <q><code>ant installd</code></q> in source directory too. </li> </ul> <p> <strong>Important:</strong> Since Etheric Synthesizer is not from Google Play store, you will need to enable <q>Install from Unknown Sources</q> option in your device's Applications settings before you install it (<em>Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources</em>). </p> <h2><a name="quickstart"></a>4. Quick Start</h2> <p> Using Etheric Synthesizer is quite straightforward. In default configuration, once you started it, you will be presented with a rainbow stripe gradient screen, which you can: </p> <ul> <li>Touch the screen to play tone. <li>Move finger toward purple color to play higher note. <li>Move finger toward red color to play lower note. <li>Move finger toward bright area to increase volume. <li>Move finger toward dark area to decrease volume. <li>Press menu button to start recording, configure controls, or read this help again. <li>Press back button to exit. </ul> <p> Once you pressed menu button, you will be presented with an options menu which you could: </p> <ul> <li>Start/stop performance recording. <li>Configure control axes, note range and display options. <li>Configure audio output waveform and resolution. <li>Configure recording output location and filename prompt. <li>Show brief help. <li>Check Etheric Synthesizer's release and legal information. <li>Press back button to return to main screen. </ul> <p> Please note that if you used record function, recorded files will be placed in <q><code>Music</code></q> subdirectory of your phone's storage directory by default. But if you're using Android version earlier than 2.2, the default will be your phone's storage directory. This location could be configured in the corresponding recording options screen. </p> <h2><a name="author"></a>5. Author</h2> <p> Etheric Synthesizer is written by Nutchanon Wetchasit<br> Released as <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">Free Software</a> under GNU Gneral Public License (version 3 or later). </p> <p> For legal information, see <a href="LICENSE.html">LICENSE.html</a> and <a href="COPYING.html">COPYING.html</a>. Icon files are also available in other licenses, see <a href="LICENSE.ICO.html">LICENSE.ICO.html</a>. </p> </body> </html>