Pocket Eight JA

Documentation

Pocket Eight

Eight Game Boy sound chips in one synthesizer

About this manual

Pocket Eight 0.9.0 Beta 1 is a beta. The manual is in preparation. What is here is enough to install it and get a sound out; the controls will be described in full by the release.

This beta plays until the end of 2026-11-13 (UTC). After that it loads and keeps your settings, but makes no sound. Once it has expired the LCD shows BETA EXPIRED, and clicking it opens hugelton.com. Anything you notice before then, please let us know.

Overview

Pocket Eight is a software instrument built from eight Game Boy sound chips (APUs). Each voice gets a whole chip of its own, with its four channels: Pulse I (with sweep), Pulse II, Wave and Noise. The screen is a 160 × 144 four-shade LCD; tabs 1 to 8 edit a voice, and tab 9 is the master page (key zones, MIDI channels, master level, bend range, voice copy).

Quick start

System requirements

  • macOS 10.15 or later on Intel, 11.0 or later on Apple Silicon. Standalone, AU and VST3
  • There is no Windows build in this beta

Installation

Format Where it goes on macOS
AU Pocket Eight.component in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components
VST3 Pocket Eight.vst3 in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
Standalone Pocket Eight.app in /Applications

The file names contain a space (Pocket Eight). After installing, restart your DAW or rescan its plug-ins.

Making a sound in the standalone app

  1. Open the app.
  2. In Preferences (⌘,) on the menu bar, choose the audio output and the MIDI input device. The MIDI input starts out as “none”, so a MIDI keyboard plays nothing until one is chosen.
  3. Without a MIDI keyboard, play the keys on screen.

The standalone app has no project to keep the sound in for you. Save anything you want to keep with ≡ → Preset → Save Preset As….

A first sound

Choose a preset from the preset field and play. Tabs 1 to 8 on the LCD edit each of the eight voices.

Changelog

0.9.0 Beta 1

First beta. macOS only.

Terms of use

This software, and everything that ships with it — presets, images, sounds, typefaces, documentation — is the work of Hügelton Instruments. Copyright belongs to Hügelton Instruments. It is not open source.

Buying it, or taking part in a beta, gives you a personal, non-transferable right to install and use it on your own equipment. That is all it gives you.

The following are strictly prohibited:

  • Reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling or otherwise analysing it
  • Redistribution, whether paid or free, in whole or in part
  • Resale, lending or transfer
  • Taking any bundled asset — images, sounds, presets, typefaces, documentation — and using it outside this software
  • Circumventing licensing or protection

The software comes as it is. There is no warranty on how it works or what it produces.