Jornadajazz

Following on from my last post...I've been using Sunvox on the Jornada a lot this last week and it's great how well Sunvox runs on such a minimal spec'd machine (206mhz proccessor). It handles multiple samples really well. Anyway I've written this track using just the Jornada and the Boss micro br and a gameboy advance sp. I used the br to record the guitar parts, the music tech pro parts off the gba sp and also to sample my resurrected yamaha DX11. All the samples were exported out of the micro br with no effects used and loaded back into Sunvox so all the effects are Sunvox only.

I've been brave (or foolhardy!) and uploaded it to a great chipmusic site, Chipmusic.org.

Listen to and comment on it here

The dulling edge...Jornada 720 and Sunvox

I have this Jornada 720 pda from around 2001 which by modern standards is massively underpowered and has limited functionality in that it has no bluetooth, wireless etc...but there are numerous reasons why I still love it as a piece of technology. First and formost it is still the only device I have with a good sized useable qwerty keyboard that I can turn on and type into a txt or a word.doc within 5 seconds (instant boot, slight lag to boot pocket word). Its really useful when I am poking around hardware/circuit bending and want to make quick notes. It also has a magnificent battery life I still get 7 hours plus runtime from the battery (and I've got 2!) and when turned off it keeps charge for months.

In a fit of fiddly hacking about today I've got the mighty mighty Sunvox music tracker running on it. I have already got milkytracker on it which is excellent (head to this thread here if you need to know how to do this) but slightly annoyingly milky would only run in 340x240 resolution using a tiny bit of the Jornada's large screen real estate. Also I am really into Sunvox at the moment it's combination of tracker form with modular instruments and effects is a glorious combination and a credit to its creator. Find out more and get Sunvox for virtually every platform here.

To get Sunvox running on your jornada you will need 2 things. The first is to install gapi on your Jornada which is available for free here. Secondly you need to place a sunvox_config.ini file or sunvox_config.txt file in the directory you install Sunvox to. In the config file you need to put

"width 640height 240"

without the quotes of course!

Lastly...why do this? Well because I can..but also it is great to use portable tracker apps in something with both keyboard and styli input..I'm using sunvox a lot at the moment on my dell axim x50 which is great.. but for writing complex parts..like drum patterns a keyboard is a godsend. Finally finding new uses for older tech feels good and I think is important.

Post proudly typed on Jornada 720:)