ESP32-S3 · hardware

Alma Tracker S3

The pocket edition of the Alma family. A minimalist pattern tracker that runs on an M5StickC S3 — two buttons, one wrist, four tracks — powered natively by the MusiKa engine.

Hardware M5StickC S3 (ESP32-S3) Engine MusiKa File .alma

Made to carry

Four tracks, sixteen steps, classic vertical columns. Every track gets its own tint; a compact card shows the patch assigned to the selected track; the bottom strip shows transport, BPM and current step. Everything runs on the same MusiKa engine the desktop apps use.

Two buttons and a wrist

You drive Alma Tracker S3 with two physical buttons and the built-in accelerometer. Tilt the device to switch columns. Press to step. Long-press to change mode. When the sequencer is playing, you can wobble it like a theremin to shape the sound in real time.

Screens

Every pixel below is a verbatim render from the same LVGL UI that ships to the device — captured via the built-in SDL simulator so they match the real 240 × 135 screen exactly.

Tracker page — Tracker · 4 × 16 steps, vertical columns, transport at the bottom.

Tracker in edit mode — Edit mode · cursor placed, press `1`/`2` to toggle a note.

Instrument browser — Instrument · browse factory patches and assign to a track.

Song page — Song · pattern chain and global BPM.

Settings page — Settings · volume, swing, Tilt FX depth, backlight, radios.

Controls

Two buttons, one tilt axis, two gestures. Long-press holds for roughly 400 ms; combo means both buttons at the same instant.

Gesture	Anywhere
`1` + `2`	Play / stop
`1` long	Toggle edit mode
`2` long	Next page

On the Tracker	`1`	`2`	Tilt ◀	Tilt ▶
Navigation	cursor up	cursor down	prev track	next track
Edit	toggle note	toggle note	—	—

On Settings	`1`	`2`
Navigation	prev field	next field
Edit (slider)	−5	+5
Edit (toggle)	flip · reboots	flip · reboots
Edit (long)	load song	save song

Tilt FX

A single slider in Settings turns the device itself into a performance controller. When the sequencer is playing and Tilt FX depth is non-zero, the roll angle drives two MIDI-style continuous signals in real time:

|roll| → CC 1 · mod wheel. Universal expression CC that patches internally route to filter cutoff, LFO depth or drive.
roll → pitch bend · gentle symmetrical wobble, about ±2 semitones at full depth.

Messages are de-duplicated so only meaningful changes hit the audio core. Flat = clean; tilt either way = progressively wild.

While performing

Tilt is temporarily reassigned from track-switching to sound. Stop the transport or set Tilt FX back to 0 to navigate tracks again with the wrist.