What is brkchrd?

BRKCHRD turns a small handheld gaming device called the TrimUI Brick into a musical instrument you can play chords on, without needing a laptop or any other equipment. It is inspired by an earlier instrument called HiChord and gives the four main face buttons a set of musical chord functions, so pressing them plays full, playable chords rather than requiring you to know music theory or press many notes at once. The default set of buttons lays out the central chords of a musical key, while two shoulder buttons temporarily switch in alternate sets of chords for more variety. The D-pad lets you shift the color or mood of a chord, either storing that change or applying it only while a direction is held down. There are sixteen built-in sounds to choose from, covering things like keys, pads, organ, strings, choir, and bass style tones, each using its own approach to generating sound so that, for example, bass sounds avoid overly dense low notes that would clash. The whole interface can switch instantly between English and Russian, including a custom pixel font that supports Cyrillic characters, and there are five color themes for the screen that also change the startup logo. Voicing of the chords can either stay simple and repeatable or shift into nearby variations for a more expressive, human feel while playing. To install it, you download a ready-made package built specifically for your handheld's firmware, either for Knulli and PortMaster style systems or for NextUI, rather than using GitHub's plain source code download button. Building it from source uses CMake and produces a runnable program you can test on a computer before deploying it to the device. BRKCHRD is released under the GNU GPL-3.0-or-later license, meaning modified versions must stay open source and must keep a note crediting the original project.