Step sequencer / drum machine

Part of the sequencer

Here is a basic step sequencer for creating rhythms. The sounds it plays are small MP3 files. Short sound clips of drum noises, blips and plings. So it’s more a sample player than a drum synth. But the main thing is that it loads and plays rhythm patterns and that the patterns can easily be edited. That’s what I wanted to do here.

It plays patterns in the same way FL Studio (FruityLoops) does. There’s twelve tracks that each play their own sound and each track has sixteen steps that can be switched on or off by clicking the step buttons.

Besides that the volume of each step can be changed by holding the “1” (one) key on the computer keyboard while dragging the mouse up or down on the step button. The blue rectangle on the step will change in height to indicate the volume level.

The image of the waveform on the left of each track can be clicked to play the sound. And there are four patterns. Switch between them with the ‘1’ to ‘4’ buttons at the bottom.

Try it out below. This time I added play and stop buttons because in the previous two players I didn’t and that started to annoy me. Things on web pages should only make noise when they’re specifically told so.

If you’re interested in any of the ActionScript code then download the full source of this project here. The ZIP includes all ActionScript classes, the samples and everything needed to compile and run the project.

A few notes on the source:

The project was made in FDT 3. There is no FLA file as a base to compile the SWF from. Instead you’ll need to set the class AppController (flash/classes/com/hisschemoller/AppController.as) as the main class in the project’s Run/Debug settings.

All visual elements of the projects were made in the Flash file flash/assets/assets.fla. That’s where all the button graphics are. This file is compiled to the SWC file assets.swc and that must be added to the class path in FDT. (Right click on the SWC file in FDT’s Flash explorer and choose ‘Add to Classpath’.) Then the scripts in FDT can find the MovieClips in the Flash library that were given a class name.

There might be all kinds of weird hidden Mac files in the ZIP. As well as the FDT launch and project setting files. I’m quite new to working on a Mac and I’m not shure what it adds that I don’t see. Sorry for that.