Introduction

ChiptuneSAK

Chiptune Swiss Army Knife is a Python music processing toolset for note data. It can transform music originating from (or being imported into) a constrained playback environment. The goal of ChiptuneSAK is to take some of the tedium out of processing chiptune music.

A typical ChiptuneSAk workflow would consist of these steps:

  1. Import note data from a music format
  2. Convert data into Chirp (ChiptuneSAK Intermediate RePresentation), which can be processed and transformed in many ways
  3. Manipulate or transform the note data
  4. Export note data to a (potentially different) music format

The initial focus of ChiptuneSAK is on Commodore music, but the tools can be extended to other “chiptune” platforms.

What can I do with ChiptuneSAK?

Our CRX2020 announcement slides and presentation give several examples of the kinds of things you can do with these tools, including:

  • Import music from C64 SIDs and turn it into sheet music
  • Perform transformations on music note data, including transposition, tempo changes, separation of chords, trimming, time shifting, quantizing, and metric modulation.
  • Convert music from MS-DOS games into C64 SIDs
  • Automatically generate C128 BASIC music programs

What do I need to run ChiptuneSAK?

ChiptuneSAK requires a computer with a Python interpreter (v3.8 or higher). It will run on Windows, MacOS, and linux.

What are some limitations of ChiptuneSAK?

ChiptuneSAK is primarily concerned with processing note content as opposed to musical timbre. It is not a tool for:

  • Editing and tweaking instruments or particular sounds
  • Processing waveform music, such as MP3 or WAV files
  • Processing of sound effects

How mature is ChiptuneSAK?

ChiptunesSAK should be considered to be at an alpha level of maturity. For instance, the SID Importer has been tested on tens of SIDs, but has not yet been scripted to run all of HVSC, a process that will improve robustness and account for important edge cases. This process should occur over the next few months.

ChiptuneSAK will eventually released as a PyPI package, but for the moment is it only available as a Github repository.