Hey there,

I was thinking:
\wouldnt it be cool if open Msx or Bluemsx would have VST Pluggin support for sound?
Then you can play those old msx games with full stereo delay effects, fat compressors and whatever EQ you want.

What are the possibilities for making this happen?

I quick google-search seem to indicate that this is some win32/directx dll thingy and since we are still looking for win32 openMSX developers...
If somebody could provide a GPL'ed vresion of these pluggins you're refering to, that ofcourse could have a positive effect.

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I quick google-search seem to indicate that this is some win32/directx dll thingy

VST originates from Cubase, if I'm not mistaken, but is now a general sound plugin thingy for Win32 platforms indeed.

For Linux, there's a plugin system named LADSPA, and it seems that there are some Linux hosts available for VST plug-ins as well, according to Linux-Sound.org

Except for a little EQ (for which you don't need VST) I estimate the sound only gets uglier by adding effects like compressors or delay/reverb.

I'd like it the other way around: An AY-8910 VSTi for music creation software!
Then again, with exception of the noise register, this can easily be simulated by 3 constant duty cycle squarewaves.

i like one nice sounds also used in my msx scene tune remix.....

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If somebody could provide a GPL'ed vresion of these pluggins you're refering to, that ofcourse could have a positive effect.

could you tell me some more about GPL ?

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xcept for a little EQ (for which you don't need VST) I estimate the sound only gets uglier by adding effects like compressors or delay/reverb.

I'm a produver/sound technician and I know a lot about this.
All the MSX tunes sound FAR from MASTERED. The EQ'ing miss a lot in the high-ends as well as the low's.
Next to that compressing them gives a nice FAT feeling to it.
Next to that a stereo delay (which would be barely present) gives allready a nice stereo feel (which is great for scc sounds).
If it would be possible to add VST (or DX) pluggins, then I could make great presets per game, adding a lot to the dimension of those old (mostly Konami) games.

I made a cd full with audiocaptures of konami games, and then mastered them.
The difference is huge, and the sound after mastering is amazing !!!

Yes I think it would be very nice to have too. The emulated audio devices are far from perfect and could definately be improved with VST plugins. Cubase have their own plugin interface right or is it the same as the DirectX interface that other music software uses? I downloaded an SDK a year ago and started looking at supporting DirectX plugins in blueMSX but I got distracted by other projects. If you know of a good SDK or something like that I can take a look. Iirc it was more work than a week or two but its definately worth it. At least in blueMSX and openMSX that already have most necessary features already.

Norakomi, I'm not to sure about all that. If you want to create a track to be souped-up with effects then usually you anticipate on that while composing, e.g. leaving some 'room' here and there which can be filled-up with effects. These MSX-tracks aren't made for compressors/delays/reverbs, so there's quite a chance that these DSP things actually get in the way and make the result a bit messy!

It would require quite some minimalistic tweaking to keep things acceptable, up to a level where I wonder whether it's still relevant to let it be worth it..

In the best case there would be a custom set o' effects per channel, per instrument. Global effects on everything, naaah, no good idea.

PSG/SCC/FM in a bathroom, the ultimate (K)nightmare

about mastering (yes, I'm a soundengineer )

Compressing the hell out of a already non-dynamic chiptune will only FLATTEN the whole darn piece of work. Compressing is, therefore, very very bad to do on them tracks. Phattening tracks, which is/was THE thing to do on pro audio recordings, will cut dynamics which boosts overall volume. Hence the PHAT feel. On PSG it would result in even more dynamic loss... NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Adding some reverb; aaaaah, there's something to gain. That might spice up the overall sound a bit (since chip channels don't have overhead problems they tend to sound very stiff and isolated) Adding rev will smoothen the track (ofcourse don't overdo!)

EQ: Matter of taste. I agree with the low and high end (but! remember to turn up volume to actually hear those ranges.. else use that button, u know that LOUDNESS button which will add some extra low/high.)

Gain/Normalize: Yup, might be worth to get equal volumes. Since chiptunes don't have huge dynamics, it's no problem to normalize to -0 db

Having said that, it looks like your stereoset/mixer can handle just fine. No VST/DX plug ins needed. If I wanna record some tunes I'll master them in my fave editor: Cool Edit Pro (yup, the syntrillium version) . period.

Well to be honest.... to my opinion the Msx chip sound in emu's is good already
what about implenting the usage of a MT32 vsti to emulate the idi GM sound used in XAK 3

Except for the moonsound emulated...... that sounds horrible.... (the original sound of a moonsound aka OPL-4 on msx is still the best to enjoy
better)

that part in emu's needs improvement

what about MIDI suport in emulators?

There's MSX-MIDI support in openMSX and blueMSX ... Try Illusion City on the Turbo-R GT (or generic machine in blueMSX) and enjoy

The MT32 would be nice to emulate iirc the people developing the very nice MT-32 emulator (not sure what its called) had to stop because of copyright issues with Roland. Reading about it it sounds like Roland is 1000 times worse than both Microsoft and MSX-A combined (In fact I think MSX-A is quite accepting to emulators especially concidering they have their own.) So I don't think you'll see MT32 emulated in an MSX emulator (at least not blueMSX) until Roland changes their policies.

btw, is there some MT32 recording of IC online somewhere? Somehow I feel someone needs to convince me of its superiority.