sayit

SAY IT 1.0b is a fix release for both machines: triggering a word no longer spikes the DSP meter or clicks a neighbouring track's FM voice.

What changed

A note start was carrying more than one audio block could hold. The block that started a word carried SAM's whole reciter and its rule tables, then the chunk's frame list, every phoneme blend, two walks of the frame slots, a full lookahead of synthesis and, at the first note after a machine load, the 32 formant entries THRT and MOUT rewrite. The render runs at interrupt level, 1500 blocks a second of 667 us each, and the machine's code and tables sit in DDR with no cache in front of them.

• The recitation runs ahead of the trigger. The UI task builds each track's phrase into a plan, one token a tick, and a note start only copies the packed stream it needs: the render never recites. A token the plan has not reached yet leaves the voice silent for a block and asks for it, so the word starts a tick later rather than stalling the block.
• A chunk's tables are made in slices. The frame list, blends and contour arrive a slice a block with silence until the last one, and the machine's per-block hook runs every block and holds the writer back in the block that finishes a chunk - so a block carries a slice or a ring refill, never both.
• The formant pair is cached and primed on the UI task instead of being rebuilt inside a note's first block, and the port's writer stops two blocks (SAM_LOOKAHEAD) ahead of the reader rather than filling the ring in one call.

In the cycle model the render's worst block is now 64.9% of its 667 us period with none late, against 120% with two late at 1.0a. On the Digitakt the same work is what the machine's own render hook does once per block.

The two machines

asset	device	stock OS	companions to tick in elekloader
sayit-1.0b-digitone.elemod	Digitone mk1 / Digitone Keys	1.44	core-dn1 4.0 + machines 0.2
sayit-1.0b-digitakt.elemod	Digitakt mk1	1.54	core 4.0 + machine-pages 1.2

Machine id 77 on both. On the Digitone the five controls are borrowed FM parameters on the SYN first pages; on the Digitakt they are the machine's own SRC-page parameters and the machine renders the track's audio itself. Nothing else about how the machines behave has changed: a phrase typed at 1.0a is the same phrase here.

Install

This release is the mod, and nothing else - no OS image, because a custom image contains Elektron's firmware and belongs on your own unit only.

1. Build a custom OS with elekloader, in the browser at https://irpina.github.io/elekloader/ or from source with python -m elekloader: your own stock OS file for that device, this release's asset for that device, and the companions above.
2. Send the result to the unit with Elektron Transfer, as for any OS update.
3. If a custom OS will not start: hold FUNC while powering on, press TRIG 4 (OS UPGRADE) and send the stock OS .syx. The bootloader is never touched, so that always restores the unit.

Controls, the naming screen's keys, the C5 token map, where a phrase is kept on each device and the upstream limits are all in the README.

Checksums

file	sha256	size
sayit-1.0b-digitone.elemod	269b41ad87d4385de2b830d24f32a88a787cc676e91f86d903bbb74e0a807a7b	496 098 bytes
sayit-1.0b-digitakt.elemod	25f671ed9550d4fdec2ab79fa49729465e586ce703e6d559035cab9bc5b5beaa	753 845 bytes

What is verified

• 222 host checks over the real C core, green, including the plan (a note started from a plan is the note started from the text, sample for sample), the sliced setup and the two-block lookahead. SAM parity 20/20: the port in sam/ still renders byte-identical streams to upstream SAM (s-macke/SAM).
• Both .elemods lint and link at 1.0b for their own device (core 4.0 > machines 0.2 on the Digitone, 0 sites, RAM 145 316 of 1 310 720 bytes; core 4.0 > machine-pages 1.2 on the Digitakt, 0 sites, RAM 201 860 of 262 144 bytes), and the patch step verifies every written section byte for byte.
• The payload in each asset is byte-identical to the corresponding 0.1e build apart from the version and author fields, so this release is the code that was measured, not a rebuild of it.
• Digitone: verified on hardware at 1.0b.
• Digitakt: tested in digiemu only, not on a Digitakt.

Licence

SAY IT's own code is GPL-2.0-or-later, by x2k. Unofficial and not affiliated with Elektron; it contains no Elektron code.

Its voice is S.A.M. by Don't Ask Software, 1982, in Sebastian Macke's C translation (https://github.com/s-macke/SAM). Neither carries an explicit licence and SAM's vendor no longer exists, so the provenance is stated plainly in sam/README.md and the original authors are credited. If an author or rights holder objects, open an issue and it will be removed.

SAY IT puts S.A.M. - Software Automatic Mouth (Don't Ask Software, 1982) inside an Elektron box as a machine: type a phrase on a factory-style naming screen, then play it from C5 upwards, one word (WORD) or character (CHAR) per key. The voice is SAM's own reciter and formant synthesiser, its 8-bit stream resampled to 48 kHz and handed to the track's voice, so the stock filter, mixer, effects, AMP envelope and LFOs still shape it. Every track has its own phrase and its own voice.

The two machines

asset	device	stock OS	companions to tick in elekloader
sayit-1.0a-digitone.elemod	Digitone mk1 / Digitone Keys	1.44	core-dn1 4.0 + machines 0.2
sayit-1.0a-digitakt.elemod	Digitakt mk1	1.54	core 4.0 + machine-pages 1.2

Machine id 77 on both. On the Digitone the five controls are borrowed FM parameters on the SYN first pages; on the Digitakt they are the machine's own SRC-page parameters and the machine renders the track's audio itself.

Install

This release is the mod, and nothing else - no OS image, because a custom image contains Elektron's firmware and belongs on your own unit only.

1. Build a custom OS with elekloader, in the browser at https://irpina.github.io/elekloader/ or from source with python -m elekloader: your own stock OS file for that device, this release's asset for that device, and the companions above.
2. Send the result to the unit with Elektron Transfer, as for any OS update.
3. If a custom OS will not start: hold FUNC while powering on, press TRIG 4 (OS UPGRADE) and send the stock OS .syx. The bootloader is never touched, so that always restores the unit.

Controls, the naming screen's keys, the C5 token map, where a phrase is kept on each device and the upstream limits are all in the README.

Checksums

file	sha256	size
sayit-1.0a-digitone.elemod	6e5dee14078d92d027c8c2b0fb618098963404b39ae77873feefcd7fc5cc9e45	377 710 bytes
sayit-1.0a-digitakt.elemod	b6d29711f362f853e8add8ee042ff8dbd00b8794691004067b543fe9bfd5c502	606 247 bytes

What is verified

• 139 host checks over the real C core, green, and SAM parity 20/20: the port in sam/ renders byte-identical streams to upstream SAM (s-macke/SAM).
• Both images built from this tag boot, settle and run in digiemu 0.4.1 with no violations of their own, and every scripted screen matches the stock firmware.
• Digitone: played on hardware at OS 1.44 - the MACHINES tile, both pages, the naming screen and its keys, the five knobs, p-locks playing their values, a held trig showing its step's locked values, one SAY IT per track with its own settings and voice, the two system LFOs, and the page staying up through RECORD+PLAY while FUNC+RECORD's COPY PATTERN puts it aside.
• Digitakt: emulator only. It has not run on a Digitakt yet, and no phrase has been seen to survive a power cycle - treat it as a working port nobody has heard on that box.

Licence

SAY IT's own code is GPL-2.0-or-later, by x2k. Unofficial and not affiliated with Elektron; it contains no Elektron code.

Its voice is S.A.M. by Don't Ask Software, 1982, in Sebastian Macke's C translation (https://github.com/s-macke/SAM). Neither carries an explicit licence and SAM's vendor no longer exists, so the provenance is stated plainly in sam/README.md and the original authors are credited. If an author or rights holder objects, open an issue and it will be removed.