Hellooo!

In a recent post I readed that one user had the FM PAC in a philips at 7mhz!! We all know that playing games at that speed results in a distorted sound... So.. that it is possible??? (to have both syncronized) (I have the 8280 at 7 Mzh).

arigatou!

It is possible, when you cut the cartridge’s clock signal lead, and place a 3.58MHz clock crystal instead. This is also possible for the Music-Module, but that one will still have problems with I/O access speeds, and I’m not sure if an I/O delay solves that. Won’t know until you try, I guess, but I've had these experiences with my Toshiba Music Module at least .

I’d say it would work with an SCC as well, but SCC games and music very often use the PSG as well, which can't get fixed as it's inside the MSX-Engine in pretty much all MSX models, not a separate chip anymore. So no running Snake while still listening to the nice music, unfortunately . Same of course goes for the FM-PAC, depending on the game. It’s even so for the MoonSound in the PA3 and TLW RPG games! But in those it’s basically just the sound effects in battle mode, so that’s not a big deal .


~Grauw

Quote:

It is possible, when you cut the cartridge’s clock signal lead, and place a 3.58MHz clock crystal instead.

Thank you for the explanation, but, how can I do that?? what is a clock crystal???? I don't anything about electronics.... could anyone do this to my fmpac? :S

Using a separate clock for the fm-pac doesn't work 100%,because it is not in sync with the rest of the system. You will experience missing notes now and then.

how sad...

A better solution would be to use the osc of the z80 and divide it. I think most 7.16Mhz use a 14.32Mhz osc. I've you divide that by four you get 3.56Mh again. But then in sync. Problem with all soundcards on msx (except the moonsound) is that they use the osc of the z80 to generate sound frequencies. The moonsound has got it's own 33.xxMhz osc, so no problem there.