R4 3DS .org

Rhythm games have always been one of my favourite types of games.  I don't know if it's because I like music as much as I do - and want very much to learn how to play an instrument, or because games like guitar Hero and DJ Hero end up making any one of us feel like we're rock stars, to some degree :-)

While we're not musicians here, there are plenty of really talented people out there.  And while almost every computer both in the past and present has made creating music easy and affordable, the Nintendo DS, DSi and Nintendo 3DS have as of yet not really made any headway in to the musical world.  But what if we told you that with the R4 3DS card, and some homebrew software, you could turn your Nintendo DS, DSi or Nintendo 3DS in to a really cool instrument - or digital instrument.

That is exactly where CellsDS comes in to play.  CellsDS is a Nintendo DS Homebrew Piano Roll / digital Sequencer application.   It is completely programmable and a full grid-based music sequencer for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi and of course the Nintendo 3DS system.  But it is not just a single sequencer.  It's actually 6 sequencers in one, and each of the different sequencers can be controlled by a script that is defined by the user.

The DS and Nintendo 3DS have pretty decent sound capabilities, and as such, CellsDS plays back some good realistic sounds.    With CellsDS, you can actually use your Nintendo 3DS as a mini-sequencer, putting together an entire track of music using different instruments and sounds.  A pretty impressive little piece of freeware application programming. 

With 175 different sounds built in and included with CellsDS, and the ability to add your own, you truly have a full fledged sequencer, that you can carry around in your pocket.  The user interface is extremely easy to use, and you'll be up - and creating - just a few minutes after the app is loaded.

How to use CellsDS:

Using CellsDS is actually easier than even we imagined.  It is made of up 3 different "pages".  Each of these pages has a feature or function in and of itself.   

The first page is the actual Sequencer Page.  It's actually the most important page.  The sequencer page is actually split between the grid and the engine buttons.  With the grid being on the left of the screen, while the engine buttons are on the right (see screenshots).  Using your fingers or the stylus and touching the squares will allow you to place and remove individual notes themselves.

On the right of your screen is the engine button.  There are 6 of them, allowing you to create 6 different layers of music.  Engine is just a fancy name really for track in our opinion, but that's indeed what they are called.  All six engines, or pages, play simultaneously during playback.  By adding notes to each one, you're able to make short but nice full song. 

Page 2: The Clock Control

You can use this section of CellsDS to control the BPM / beats per minute of the actual sequencer playback, allow you to speed up or slow down the tempo of the song. 

And finally, Page 3: Snapshots

This is the section of the app that lets you save your "song" and all of the settings along with it using the save / load feature page.  You can actually save up to 200 different snapshots in total.  There are clear instructions on the snapshots page itself. 

CellsDS Controls

• L/R button - switch between pages
• Select Button - select an engine
• Start Button - start/stop the sequencer
• All other controls are based on the engine

Check out the video below for a great demonstration of CellsDS.  The demonstration is done using a DS Lite console, but naturally, it works with the R4 3DS and the Nintendo 3DS, 3DS XL and even the new Nintendo 2DS systems.