New private beta release of MS²

With the current influx of new (potential) OPL4-cartridge owners because of renewed interest from hardware producers (DalSoRi by Junsoft, OPL4 Shockwave by Tecnobytes), one may wonder if there are any new software being written for these wonderful pieces of hardware. Fortunately, there is some good news for future and current users of these devices, which is the release of a new private beta of MoonSound Music Studio by TNI!

MoonSound Music Studio (or short: MS²) is a music editor for OPL4 sound cartridges, which aims to take full advantage of these expansions. An MSX2 with MSX-DOS2 and at least 256K RAM is needed to run this software. Ofcourse a MoonSound-compatible cartridge like a (Sunrise) MoonSound, OPL4 Shockwave, DalSoRi or Wozblaster is also required.

The major new feature in this beta is the definition of a MS² file format. Loading and saving now works, and although not all features in MS² are fully finalised yet, the file format will be kept as compatible as possible in future betas.

Here is a list of the most important user visible changes in this beta:

• Saving and loading of MS²'s own file format.
• Improved import of MBM/MFM/MWM music and OPLL instruments.
• Fixed display corruptions.
• Various user interface improvements.
• Note auditioning plays using the selected instrument for each channel.
• Block copy can be freely used between all channel types.
• Channels can be freely (and losslessly) converted between 2OP, 4OP and WAV.
• Song size indication in Song Info window.
• Many optimizations in processing speed, memory use and song format.
• Added a Tuning Manager for designing tunings.
• Instruments can be reordered in the Instrument Managers.
• Safely create more than 48 instruments per type.

For now, MoonSound Music Studio is in private beta. Follow the link below for more information about MS² and how to join this beta program.

Relevant Link: MS² - MoonSound Music Studio