README.md

Rudimentary Drum Machine

This is an exercise in building a rudimentary yet functional drum machine in Go.

Generate Song Module

The generate module will generate a song json file representation with the command below. (Four On The Floor in this example)

    cd ./cmd/generate
    go run generate.go

The generate module has been built in a way that allows it to be easily extendable. If someone wanted to generate a different beat they would just need to setup an array of tracks(each with their name, id, and steps) and pass them into the buildSong method. It could also be extended in other ways such as outputting different file formats. JSON representation was chosen for generated songs because of its ease of use, flexibility, and readability.

Compiling Songs

In the generate module a song is initially represented by tracks. Each track has an associated name, id, and steps string. The steps string is a representation of when the instrument should be played on certain steps. In this example all tracks should have 16 steps therefore all steps strings should be 16 characters long. I chose to indicate the instrument being played with a 1 and not played with a 0.

Once the tracks are "compiled" together, with the buildSong method, the final representation of the "playable" song has been created in a []string. This is then written to the json file ready to be played by the play song module.

Testing Generate Song

This runs some song generations and checks that the steps are what would be expected in the output.

    cd ./cmd/generate
    go test

Play Song Module

This module will play a song json file with the command below.

    cd ./cmd/play
    go run play.go <Name of Song>

Example:

    go run play.go FourOnTheFloor