I havent followed the entire thread but didn't flyguille mention somewhere that there is no way to change volume (eg on demand fade out a song etc)? That is kinda nice to have imo (for in a game).
anyway
How did you like the sound chip though?
Ive been a casual fan of ym2151 for a while, though only from a listener POV. (casual as in I just know a handful of songs/games that I really like)
I think the chip is amazing, and I am not really pulling the stops/using it optimal in that short snippet I posted, it could sound like this in the right hands.
I wonder if the OPL3 can do the same type of FM sounds like the ym2151, I will have to learn to use FM synthesis before I can find out though.
I guess YM2151 + OPL4 could make a nice combo that can play tunes of this kind of quality, but we need sofware more than anything. GuyveR800 said MoonSound Music Studio will support more than just OPL4, also YM2151 amongst others, so I am really trying to help him with/push him to continue and finish that tool ;) Imagine 24 PCM channels + opl4's FM + YM2151 8ch FM .. and throw in a SCC and a bunch of PSG+clones into the mix :)
Also maybe some people can make cheap small-sized YM2151 carts? :)
(sorry a bit offtopic)
YM2203 is basically the same as the YM2151 in terms of operator configuration (you can share the same voice data between chips even though the register layout is not compatible) but YM2203 can apply PSG envelopes into FM Synth while YM2151 can't. Also YM2203 is just three FM channels, along with threee PSG channels it can make really rich sounds like these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfLqablnJNU (1xYM2203)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2jQ2z1qRZk (2xYM2203)
Real 4op FM synth make really delicious sounds.
OPL family (what we had on the MSX and IBM PC) was simplified a lot because it was meant to be lower cost range for consumer grade computers... The Yamaha CX5M was not meant to satisfy that class/grade so they went for the best they had at the time (YM2151).
What a great player you made, Grauw! With already a ton of fantastic VGM-files out there, it is a miracle to hear all these great tracks on my trusty MSX! It even persuaded me to buy a SFG-05 and UCN-01 to hear the original Yuzo Koshiro music from Falcom games from almost 30 years ago. (I really like the Sorcerian and Ys 2 packs for Sharp X1 turbo)
My setop is a One Chip MSX with multi mente. It is flashed with the latest stable KdL firmware. I use the following sound chips:
PSG/MSX-Music/SCC+ - emulated by OCM (emulated MegaFlashRom SCC+ in slot 2)
MSX-Audio - Toshiba HX-MU900 with MSX-audio ROM and 256K sample memory (thanks Bas!)
YM2151 - Yamaha SFG-05
YMF278B - Moonsound clone by Reprofactory (Thanks ericb!)
The only problem I encounter is the MSX-Audio isn't working when the SFG-05 is inserted in the other slot. It plays fine when the Moonsound is inserted, but not in combination with the SFG. It just doesn't show up in VGMPlay. Are these chips sharing ports or something, or did I do something wrong? (BTW: Unknown Reality doesn't even start if the SFG module is connected)
The other thing is a question :-) Would it be possible to emulate the OKI (and preferably other) PCM chips? If you can manage that, a huge library of X68000 and arcade tracks begs to be played!
Thanks for all the hard work and time you clearly put in this player!
Hi Avkooi, glad you like it . To emulate of OKI and SegaPCM chips on OPL4 is on my wishlist.
The SFG and Music Module should not conflict, and they work fine together on my turboR. However I can indeed reproduce the problem you experience on my Zemmix Neo.
After looking into it a bit further, it appears to be an OCM bug; the MSX-AUDIO detection is very simple, it simply reads I/O port C0H and expects the value 6. However, when the SFG is inserted, the value 0 is returned and thus the MSX-AUDIO is not detected, and VGMPlay does not try to play on it.
More strangely though, when I check the value from Basic with ?INP(&HC0)
it does return 6. Turns out that in assembly code, when I use in a,(0C0H)
it returns 0, but when I use ld c,0C0H
; in a,(c)
it does return 6, while that should make no difference whatsoever. So there seems to be a bus timing problem with this combination of modules in the OCM, that I can’t do much about.
I’ll paste this convo in the OCM firmware thread, maybe KdL can investigate further.
Sander visited with a Darky prototype and I hacked together a quick prototype of Darky support in VGMPlay. Made two videos:
VGMPlay for MSX, Darky dual PSG
VGMPlay for MSX, Darky stereo PSG, reverb + echo effects
Enjoy.
Still trying to find a reason to order one when it's released. But I'll buy it without a reason as well
I do like those hardware effects. Dunno any fact of the Darky, but I'd like it to have some tweakable firmware in which the user can do some settings so they'll apply in the game you're about to play.
Panning, delay, volume, the mentioned reverb and echo. Would be nice to assign those effects to any of the channels and since Darky has twice as many channels it would be great to be able to clone original channels with a different volume, panning and effect for maximum stereo effect...
If any of those wishes is granted I found a reason to have one
In the second video it seems that it has a built-in firmware with the values for all of that controlled by pots. My main hope is that someone creates some software to take FULL advantage of Darky. Having not one, but TWO AY8930s is too much potential to be wasted on just having 2xPSG and reverb effects.
9 logarithmic duty cycles (3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, first four inverted), 5-bit volume STANDARD (not only during envelope generator use), 8-bit AND/OR masked white noise period value instead of 5-bit, and envelope generators on ALL channels. That is everything PSG fans like myself could possibly hope for.
There’s no firmware in the current prototype, I changed the DSP effect settings from Basic before running VGMPlay.
Agree with you though .
Nice, thanks for the demo guys!
Bryan from the Pixelated Audio podcast asked me to do a segment for their VGMRips anniversary episode, which was released a few days ago:
5 Years of VGMRips – Pixelated Audio 68
You can hear my bit at 35:46. I talk a bit about the track I selected (BGM 1-1 from Quarth), the SCC and VGMPlay for MSX. Also be sure to listen to the rest of this nice episode with good entries from many active VGMPlay community members, honoured to be asked along with them.
Check out some of the other Pixelated Audio episodes too, Bryan and James have a really nice podcast, with many different episode themes.
Enjoy!