Apple π: Alt. Firmware for Ciat-Lonbarde Cafeteria / Cafe Quantum

An alternative firmware for the ESP32-based Ciat-Lonbarde Cafeteria / Cafe Quantum. This firmware expands the Cafe into a multi-fx all-you-can-eat buffet. It has loopers/delays, reverbs, resonators, samplers, synth voices, generative music, live processing and drum machines. Tying it all together is a preset selection system. Preset changes carry over the buffer into a new preset, so you can, for example, build a loop in coco, scramble it up in the scrambler and sync it to a clock in the sampler. Loops can also be saved and recalled across power cycles and then moved between presets.

1. Make sure to refer to the official Ciat Lonbarde documentation for details on how to upload firmware.
2. Download Apple Pi firmware as .zip and remove "-main" from the uncompressed, downloaded folder name.
3. Open the esp_cafe_apple_pi.ino file in the Arduino IDE
4. Go to Arduino IDE's Tools -> Partition Scheme menu and change it to Huge APP (3MB No OTA/1MB SPIFFS).
5. Optional: Go to Arduino IDE's Tools -> Erase All Flash Before Sketch Upload and set it to Enabled. This may be needed to troubleshoot, but if used, make sure to turn back to "disabled" so that tape decks will not be erased.
6. Check Boot Configuration in the .ino file and set as desired.
7. Setup the preset playlist in the .ino file to be loaded as desired.
8. Optional: Try different crossfade lengths (including an option for no crossfades) in the stuff file.
9. Upload to Cafe powered on.

This firmware contains 31 presets and a new preset selection system to navigate through selected presets in a preset playlist.

How to change presets:

1. Enter Menu Mode: Press and hold the hardware Button for ~1 second. The Lamp will begin to strobe rapidly to indicate it is ready.
2. Release the Button: The Lamp will strobe a unique rhythmic flashing pattern. The control of the currently playing preset is paused while the audio plays in the background.
3. Punch-in the Preset: Short-press the button the number of times corresponding to your desired preset index. Important Note: count from zero!
   • Example: 0 presses = Preset 0 (the first in your playlist). This is your home base preset, just long press twice in a row and you’re back to it. 1 press is the second preset in the list. The Lamp will flash the index with each button press to confirm the count.
4. Load & Exit: Press and hold the Button again. The Lamp will strobe rapidly. Release the button, and then the selected preset will load, with a frozen buffer if applicable, and resume the audio engine.

How to save a loop:

1. Go to tape_deck preset: Include tape_deck preset in active playlist and navigate to it.
2. Audition Tape: tape_deck always starts in slot 1. Patch to earth to hear the current tape slot.
3. Save Tape: Patch the orange banana at the top of cafe to flip and turn antenna knob down. Touch the bottom gold screw to save buffer into current slot. Lamp will flash rapidly during save.
4. Switch tapes: Press the button the number of times corresponding to your desired tape deck slot index.
   • *Example: 0 presses = Slot 1 (the first tape). The Lamp will flash the index with each button press to confirm the count.
5. Load Tape: Patch orange banana to skip. Touch the bottom gold screw, the Lamp will flash rapidly. Now earth will scrub the load tape.
6. Exit: Long-press the button to enter preset selection, select preset to process the tape. Note: if earth is left unpatched, this is a way to cue a loop

Here is an overview of all 30 included presets and how the hardware maps to their parameters.
(Note: you will need a format jumbler to take full advantage of these. For example, many presets require Ash to hear the effect.)

• coco_og: The original Cocoquantus-style coco. All bananas work as in Cocoquantus, except earth is the record button switch.
• coco_mod: A version of the coco preset with a few additions. The first difference is that in this version Record mode (Lamp Off) is the boot state, so the buffer automatically overwrites the noise. Earth acts as a record on/off toggle. Yellow outputs a clock pulse (16ppqn). Ash outputs clean audio at half volume.
• window: From Daniel Fishkin, this preset modulates the length of the buffer without affecting the pitch. It morphs from reverb to delay. Earth modulates the buffer length. Skip and Flip act as in coco.
• splicer: Inspired by Window, imagine the buffer as a tape that splicer can chop into a smaller pieces. Both the loop start and loop end points can be moved around in the buffer. With nothing patched to Earth, the loop points are at the buffer's first and last bits (Unplugged = Full Buffer). Earth without Flip controls the loop end point. Earth with Flip ON controls the loop start point. Flip is a latching switch. When ON, Earth controls loop start point. If Start > End, loop plays in reverse. Skip randomizes playhead placement within the splice. Button freezes buffer. Ash is wet audio at line level. Yellow is end-of-cycle of the loop. Sends a pulse to sync.
• scrambler: A live stutter/glitch effect utilizing a dual-buffer architecture. The playback buffer is divided into segments. Earth selects the active playback segment. Skip toggles between 16 or 3 segment divisions. Flip enables random skipping between segments. Button freezes the buffer.
• formant: A vowel filter bank applied to the audio buffer. Earth modulates the vowel tuning.
• external_sync: A delay synchronized to an external clock. Good for syncing two cafes. Patch a clock (like a coco clock out, but it could also be irregular) into Skip to quantize the buffer length. Flip reverses the playhead. Earth is a record on/off toggle. Button freezes the buffer (which continues to quantize while frozen).
• phasing: Records a loop and plays it back with 4 drifting playheads heads. Button toggles between Record/Play modes as in Sampler. Skip triggers a one-shot recording (in Rec mode) or randomizes the playheads (in Play mode). Flip reverses all playhead directions. Earth modulates phase alignment. Yellow is bit-crushed audio. Ash outputs clean audio at half volume.
• dissolve: Slowly disintegrate a loop. While lamp is on, it cuts the live audio every cycle of the loop will drop out more of the audio. While recording with lamp off, it will not write to the buffer in a drop out. Earth controls the probability of the drop outs. Flip reverses the playhead. Skip is shuffle mode that randomly rearranges the buffer. Yellow is a pulse for every drop out. Ash is audio out

• sampler (one-shot): A record/playback engine. Button toggles modes (Lamp OFF = Armed, Strobe = Recording, Solid = Playback). Skip triggers recording or playback. After recording a one-shot sample, it switches to playback mode and subsequent Skip trigger playback the sample. Flip reverses playback. Earth sets the start position of the playhead. Yellow is a trigger at the end of the buffer, useful for looping.
• sampler_4x: A multi-slice sampler dividing the buffer into 4 segments. Earth selects the segment. Button toggles Record/Play modes. Skip triggers a re-triggerable one-shot. Flip triggers a non-re-triggerable one-shot. Yellow is a trigger at the end of the buffer segment, useful for looping each segment individually.
• granular: A 16-voice granular engine. Button toggles Record/Play modes as in Sampler. Skip triggers grains. Earth modulates grain start position. Flip toggles grain size. Yellow is bit-crushed audio.

• echo_og: The original reverb from the original firmware, but with some additions. Turn up feedback to hear the resonance. There are 4 playheads defined above the preset in the code. These values may be modded to try different resonances. Earth is a record on/off switch. Flip reverses playback. Skip is diffusion. Yellow is the organ tone.
• echo_mod: A prime-number based delay/reverb with pitch shifting via Speed knob. Earth controls a low-pass filter. Skip switches room sizes (short vs. long primes). Flip reverses playback. Button freezes the buffer. Yellow is bit-crushed audio. Ash is audio at line level.
• reverb_spring: An experimental spring reverb tank. Earth controls dampening. Flip is a latching switch for modulation speed (Surf vs. Lush). Skip freezes the buffer momentarily. Button is a latching freeze, during which skip is ignored. Yellow is bit-crushed audio.
• reverb_granular: A live granular processing mode. Earth controls grain size. Flip pitches the reverb an octave up (Shimmer). Skip momentarily freezes the buffer. Button is a latching freeze, during which skip is ignored. Yellow is bit-crushed audio.
• reverb_feedbacker: A feedback delay network reverb. Earth controls room size. A feedback delay network reverb. EARTH controls the room size. Button is a feedback mode switch. Skip is LFO modulation speed. Flip is reverse reverb. Ash is wet audio out.
• resonator: A 16-band sympathetic resonator. Earth controls the central pitch. Flip switches between Organ and Gong mode. Skip toggles an octave down. Patch audio or press the Button to ping/excite the resonator. Yellow is bit-crushed audio.
• harmonizer: Pitch-tracking harmonizing resonator generating 3 delay taps of over/under tones. Sounds like a Tambura when processing a sine wave when Earth is modulated. Earth controls pitch tracking stability vs. LFO modulation. Flip switches between harmonics and sub-harmonics. Skip switches the prime math. Button parameter-locks all controls. Yellow is a stepped harmonic LFO.

• flanger: A very short delay. Earth controls the tape head spread. Send LFO to Earth for basic effect. Skip acts as a momentary buffer freeze. Ash and Yellow provide stereo wet outputs. Ash is required to hear the effect when Main Output is mixed with Ash for classic flange effect. Turn up feedback to strengthen effect. Try patching the golden CV into earth and gesture as if pressing your finger on the flange of the tape wheel.
• saturator: A multi-mode distortion featuring 9 modes. Press the Button to cycle through the 9 distortion modes. The Lamp will blink to indicate the current mode number (1 to 9). The lamp will otherwise follow the envelope or the input. When flip is switched on, because it is a latching switch, the lamp will turn on and override the envelope. The selected saturation mode will be recalled if switched to a different preset and back again. Use the mixer in the firmware to adjust levels between modes. Skip and flip are programmed to be latched, so you can set them up with a physical switch and play it like a stompbox. Ash output is required because the Feedback knob introduces feedback to the saturator which changes the effect. Ash outputs a warm line level signal at full volume. Yellow is the bit-crushed line level audio.

See table below.

• drone: Navigates a tonal lattice of the first 31 prime numbers to generate complex chords. Earth moves the harmonic center. Button cycles through 4 geometric chord shapes. Skip toggles between dense and spread voicing. Flip toggles between overtones and undertones.
• wavetable: Wavetable synthesizer with ring modulation against the audio input. Earth modulates pitch. Flip switches between wavetable banks. Skip selects a random waveform. Button freezes the current wave.
• karplus: A Karplus-Strong string physical model. Button or Skip "plucks" the string. Flip toggles between quantized and fretless tracking. Earth modulates pitch over an 11-semitone range. Yellow is the button gate press so that the button can modulate other things.

• bytebeats_mod: A slowed-down version of the stock bytebeat equation. Earth controls the sample-rate / speed.
• megabytebeats: 16 distinct algorithmic beats. Skip cycles through the 16 equations. Earth modulates variables within the math. Flip plays the beat in reverse. Button parameter-locks the beat.
• arcade: Generative 8-bit music system with three voices: Lead or Arp, Bass, and Drum voices. Earth selects the game "Cartridge" (Genre/Tempo). Button toggles the B-side sequence. Skip enables Lead. Flip enables Arp. Skip+Flip enables Power mode. (Cartridges: 1. Hero, 2. Dungeon, 3. Techno, 4. Boss, 5. Forest, 6. Space, 7. Broken, 8. Crash).
• FX: A generator for 37 sound effects. Earth acts as the cursor to select the sound. Skip triggers the selected sound and allows re-triggering. Flip fires a random one-shot sound with no re-triggering. Button freezes the selected sound as last triggered by Skip and locks out Flip. This can be used to treat the FX sound as an oscillator if triggered at a high rate.

• groovebox: Topological drum machine playing sampled kits. Earth scans through the selected drum axis. The active axis is selected via jacks (Flip = Snare, Skip = Hat, Flip+Skip = Kick). Button activates an energy "Fill" mode. Yellow outputs a clock pulse (16ppqn)
• polyrhythms: Topographic sequencer based on overlapping polyrhythmic bar divisions. Navigate exactly like groovebox (Earth scans the axis selected by Flip/Skip). Button freezes the currently playing pattern configuration. Yellow outputs a clock pulse (16ppqn).

Preset Playlists were created to give different recipes for Cafe. You can build custom Playlists by adding a new playlist. This makes navigation faster and lets you customize your Cafe for specific needs.

To use one of these lists, type its name into the #define ACTIVE_PLAYLIST line in esp_cafe.ino before flashing.

• playlist_classic: A modded Cafe experience.
  • (0) coco_mod, (1) echo_mod
• playlist_old_school: A modded Cafe experience.
  • (0) coco_og, (1) echo_og
• playlist_loopers: Focused on manipulating live audio buffers.
  • (0) coco_mod, (1) formant, (2) scrambler, (3) sampler, (4) sampler_4x, (5) granular, (6) phasing, (7) window, (8) splicer, (9) dissolve
• playlist_reverbs: Presets capable of syncing to or generating clock signals.
  • (0) echo_mod,(1) echo_og, (2) reverb_spring, (3) reverb_granular, (4) reverb_feedback
• playlist_sync: Presets capable of syncing to or generating clock signals.
  • (0) coco_mod, (1) external_sync, (2) sampler, (3) sampler_4x
• playlist_all_delays: All time control.
  • (0) coco_mod, (1) external_sync, (2) formant, (3) window, (4) splicer, (5) scrambler, (6) sampler, (7) sampler_4x, (8) granular, (9) phasing, (10) echo_mod, (11) reverb_spring, (12) reverb_granular, (13) reverb_feedback, (14) flanger
• playlist_live_FX: Real time FX processing
  • (0) saturator, (1) flanger
• playlist_bytes: Generative, algorithmic, 8-bit nostalgia.
  • (0) bytebeats_mod, (1) megabytebeats, (2) arcade, (3) FX
• playlist_synth_voices: Generative synthesizer voices.
  • (0) drone, (1) wavetable
• playlist_resonance: Physical modeling and sympathetic strings.
  • (0) karplus, (1) resonator
• playlist_drums: Generative beat-making.
  • (0) groovebox, (1) polyrhythms
• playlist_ambient: Spatial and atmospheric.
  • (0) reverb_spring, (1) echo_mod, (2) reverb_granular, (3) drone, (4) phasing
• playlist_all: The complete collection. Loads all 31 presets sequentially in the order listed on the .ino file. Not Recommended to use this unless experienced with navigating the preset selection menu system.
• playlist_new_stuff: coco_mod, tape_deck, dissolve, splicer, window, reverb_feedback

If you want to build your own presets, look in stuff.h for macros that give hardware access and serve common needs programming on the ESP32.

The OS overrides the Lamp during the preset menu. Inside your presets, you can call these macros without conflicting with the menu system:

• LAMP_ON: Safely forces the LED on.
• LAMP_OFF: Safely forces the LED off.

The firmware uses ash and yellow for different purposes depending on the design of the preset, but often they provide audio or clocking, both for interfacing with the outside world, but just as well in the Ciat Lonbarde ecosystem as well.

• COMPRESSED_ASHWRITER(val): Boosted into limiter with asymeterical clipping, full volume. Outputs a clean, softly clipped audio at line level. Optimizes the dynamic range in the buffer with quiet audio input.
• CLEAN_ASHWRITER(val): Outputs a 7-bit, symmetrical, unclipped half-volume signal to the Ash jack. Uses dithering and delta-sigma noise shaping. Boost 6db to match unity input gain.
• CLEANER_ASHWRITER(val): A refinement of the warm_ashwriter below. 8-Bit asymmetrically clipped, full-volume, no dithering.
• WARM_ASHWRITER(val): Outputs an 8-bit, asymmetrically clipped, full-volume signal to Ash. Shifts the DC center to clip the LM3900 chip.
• YELLOW_AUDIO(val): Acts as a 3.4-bit pseudo-DAC. Maps 12-bit audio to the 10 Yellow pins to create a bit-crushed output. Can be used for odd stereo image with ash.
• YELLOW_PULSE(val): Sends a square pulse. Ideal for sending clock/sync signals to external gear. Could be expanded for more square wave type synthesis.
• YELLOW_BINARY(val): The original Cocoquantus yellow organ sound. It is the buffer-position Binary Code in waveform.

• BUTTON_PRESSED: A boolean read of the button state. It returns false if the OS preset menu is currently active, preventing the playing preset from triggering while you are trying to change presets.

To prevent memory crashes while changing between 8-bit tape loops and 16-bit synthesis algorithms, use the included buffer morphing functions at the very top the preset loop:

• morph_to_8bit(): Formats the shared RAM back into delaybuffa for native dellius() calls.
• morph_to_16bit(owner_id, length): Wipes the shared RAM and formats it into a high-resolution buffer_16bit[] array.

• New Cleaner Ash output (others available in stuff)
• Improved button response in Preset Selection Mode
• Added visual feedback in Preset Selection Mode
• Configuration for Original Cocoquantus startup mode available
• Preset that replicates Cocoquantus available as coco_og
• Fixed DC Offset in Ash for Saturator Preset
• Plus: External Sync preset modified to sync with another cafe module in coco_mod preset
• Plus: coco_mod yellow clock out expanded for different PPQN settings

• New Preset: Tape Deck, an interface to save and recall loops in persistent memory, even across power cycles
• Load a tape deck slot during power on instead of noise. Set up in Boot configuration below
• New Preset: Window from Daniel Fishkin
• New Preset: Splicer
• New Preset: Dissolve
• New Preset: Feedback reverb
• Added Crossfade from Peter's Firmware
• Plus: Added crossfades for reverbs
• Plus: Many under the hood improvements