@spacedevin/deck-synths

The instrument catalog for the .deck language — 33 voices covering chip emulations, FM, drums, hard sync, bowed and plucked models, and vocals.

These are the voices Deckard plays through. They live here so a second host — a docs-site player, a renderer, a demo — can make the same sounds without a second copy of the code.

npm install @spacedevin/deck-synths

import { dispatchPlayNote, ensureDeckGeneratorIds, ensureSyncWorklet } from '@spacedevin/deck-synths'

// Teach the language this catalog's generator ids, param aliases and gen_block dialects.
// Do this before parsing, or `gen sweep_amt` never reaches the voice as `sweepAmt`.
ensureDeckGeneratorIds()

await ensureSyncWorklet(ctx)      // only needed if a sync voice is used
dispatchPlayNote(ctx, bus, t, midi, vel, durSec, channel, bendSemis)

The contract

A voice is a pure function that builds a short-lived Web Audio subgraph and connects its last node to bus.input:

play<Name>(ctx, bus, t, midi, vel, durSec, ch, bendSemis)

dispatchPlayNote picks one by ch.generatorId; an unknown id falls back to basicOsc. Patch and envelope come from ch.generatorParams — the ADSR lives there, not on the channel root.

The voices

Every id below has a complete, playable song in Examples.

| Family | Generator ids | |---|---| | Chip emulations | gameBoyDmg gbaDirectSound nes2a03 c64sid ym2612 sn76489 spc700 chiptune | | FM and patches | fmTone matrixFm patch tine bell | | Basic and bass | basicOsc acid303 sub808 reeseBass pad | | Drums and hits | drumSynth noiseBurst clap cymbal | | Hard sync | syncLead syncChoir obSync laserSync | | Bowed, plucked, struck | arco guitar halo aether | | Vocal | formantVocal ttsVocal meSpeakVocal |

generatorCatalog() returns the same list with a label and description per voice, and the default generatorParams each one expects.

Assets

ensureSyncWorklet registers the hard-sync oscillator from an inlined Blob URL, so syncLead, syncChoir, obSync and laserSync need nothing copied into your public directory.

meSpeakVocal is the exception: it needs a worker and voice data the host serves. The defaults are /mespeak-worker.js and /mespeak; call configureMeSpeak({ workerUrl, assetsBaseUrl }) if yours differ. ttsVocal needs the Web Speech API.

Adding a voice

One .tish file in src/ exporting a play<Name> function with the signature above, an entry in src/Registry.tish (id, label, description, default params) and src/Dispatch.tish, any param aliases or gen_block dialect in src/DeckIds.tish, and a song in docs/EXAMPLES.md so the example test plays it. The full recipe is in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Known limits

• Two hosts that each bundle their own copy of @spacedevin/deck end up with two dialect registries, and a dialect registered against one is invisible to the other. Deduplicate the language package so there is a single instance.