Circolate

Circolate is a low-end type tracker-player for all types of source files like FLP, VGM, and MIDI, turning them into a readable language (HALOTEXT) that can be more easily edited and shared.

Halotext can support just about anything, but FLP conversion is still a little early cause FL Studio is very obtuse and I'm not a producer.

This project really is one of my long-standing dreams, is filled with a lot of my past, and will become my future. I hope you enjoy it and it becomes your angel too.

What it does

• Plays and converts VGM, MIDI, and FLP files into .halo.txt (Halotext).
• Visualizes playback in the terminal with a TUI, spiral visualizer, and braille waveforms.
• Connects to VS Code and Kate for a live, auto-scrolling playhead while you edit.
• Archives projects into portable .hlz files (which are just zipped folders with a manifest).

Building

Requires the VST3 SDK built at /opt/vst3sdk (or set VST3_SDK to your SDK path):

git clone --recursive https://github.com/steinbergmedia/vst3sdk.git /opt/vst3sdk
cd /opt/vst3sdk
cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DSMTG_ENABLE_VST3_HOSTING_EXAMPLES=OFF \
    -DSMTG_ENABLE_VST3_PLUGIN_EXAMPLES=OFF \
    -DSMTG_ENABLE_VSTGUI_SUPPORT=OFF
cmake --build build --target sdk_hosting sdk_common sdk pluginterfaces base

Then build Circolate:

cargo build --release

Development Notes

This project was built as a directed collaboration with AI. The architecture, language design (Halotext), visualizer, and overall project direction are human-designed. AI was used as a pair-programmer to assist with boilerplate, refactoring, and Rust implementation details.