MD tracker 0.3 ALPHA

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:20 pm

Adding PSG to my tracker got a big slowdowner :

* uncommented code is having its revenge on me

Also I need a list of each notes frequencies, otherwise I'm not able to add PSG support (PSG can do only 1024 tones, and I need that info to get the note range of PSG and to write Z80 driver to get sound)...

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:34 pm

Note frequencies is here. It very possible that you will need to re-tune YM2612 also (I'm not sure that table from Sega.doc is correct; I did my own table in TFM MM).

PSG divider calculates as described here, in section 5.1.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:41 pm

Thanks a ton !!!

Another slowdowner : School started on 1st September (I'm in 12th grade now, last step before university or where-ever I go next)

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 5:25 am

Code: Select all

Note range : A-3 to B-7

MIDI            PSG
note, freq    - tone, freq
 45, 110      - 1008, 109.9607
 46, 116.5409 - 952, 116.429
 47, 123.4708 - 898, 123.4303
 48, 130.8128 - 848, 130.708
 49, 138.5913 - 800, 138.5505
 50, 146.8324 - 755, 146.8085
 51, 155.5635 - 713, 155.4564
 52, 164.8138 - 673, 164.696
 53, 174.6141 - 635, 174.5518
 54, 184.9972 - 600, 184.734
 55, 195.9977 - 566, 195.8311
 56, 207.6523 - 534, 207.5663
 57, 220      - 504, 219.9214
 58, 233.0819 - 476, 232.858
 59, 246.9417 - 449, 246.8606
 60, 261.6256 - 424, 261.416
 61, 277.1826 - 400, 277.101
 62, 293.6648 - 378, 293.2286
 63, 311.127  - 357, 310.4773
 64, 329.6276 - 337, 328.9033
 65, 349.2282 - 318, 348.5547
 66, 369.9944 - 300, 369.468
 67, 391.9954 - 283, 391.6622
 68, 415.3047 - 267, 415.1326
 69, 440      - 252, 439.8429
 70, 466.1638 - 238, 465.716
 71, 493.8833 - 225, 492.624
 72, 523.2512 - 212, 522.8321
 73, 554.3652 - 200, 554.202
 74, 587.3295 - 189, 586.4572
 75, 622.254  - 179, 619.2202
 76, 659.2551 - 169, 655.8604
 77, 698.4565 - 159, 697.1095
 78, 739.9888 - 150, 738.936
 79, 783.9908 - 142, 780.5662
 80, 830.6094 - 134, 827.1672
 81, 880      - 126, 879.6858
 82, 932.3275 - 119, 931.432
 83, 987.7666 - 113, 980.8885
 84, 1046.502 - 106, 1045.664
 85, 1108.73  - 100, 1108.404
 86, 1174.659 - 95, 1166.741
 87, 1244.508 - 90, 1231.56
 88, 1318.51  - 85, 1304.005
 89, 1396.913 - 80, 1385.505
 90, 1479.978 - 75, 1477.872
 91, 1567.982 - 71, 1561.132
 92, 1661.219 - 67, 1654.334
 93, 1760     - 63, 1759.372
 94, 1864.655 - 60, 1847.34
 95, 1975.533 - 57, 1944.568

This is as accurate as it'll get, I hope it is enough.

This is not a promise, but I think next version is available by the end of this week.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 2:49 pm

New version with PSG !!! Check it out !!!

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:11 pm

There will be a new version available soon, with lots of new stuff... and hopefully partially working module player.
Other news : with a cable between your MD and PC, you'll get real sound out iof this tracker !!! (requires me to finish most of the Z80 module player).

TulioAdriano · Post by **TulioAdriano** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:20 pm

Tiido, now you're speaking my language. That interests me very much, since I have a flash cart, I can write your music player and run on my megadrive. I have also the EXT port (genny model 1) note my genny is NTSC (USA Standard) so please take into consideration the international settings!

I will probably have to wait to test, though, since my cart writer uses LPT1 and my computer only have USB ports. I may have to ask my girlfirend to use her computer, heheh

I have a question about the PC software. How do you communicate with the sound card? The reason is that since it is DOS, I have to use Virtual PC and I think I cannot change the IO Address/IRQ/DMA settings for the emulated Sound Blaster 16. How does it work?

Edit: It works great on my WinXP so nevermind that. Just let me know where to download the updated version since the one in the link still the 0.2a.

Tulio

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:36 am

The sound driver is not PAL/NTSC specific at all, it should work near identical on PAL and NTSC (fixed to 50Hz, use of YM2612 timers).

Well, if I buy a computer mobo, and it doesn't have LPT, I'll not buy it !!! And you need it to connect it to MD (once I get that far) !!!

Sound is done that way : I only output MIDI data to 330h (or 300h), standard MIDI ports... it is up to your emu to catch these MIDI bytes and feed it to your OS sound system.
Nice to know it works great on some XP machines.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:52 pm

New version... lots of bug-fixes... and few enhancements

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:54 am

I have idea about problem with lack of sound emulation in MD Tracker and possible problems with working under non-9x Windows.

MD Trackers works under DosBox, as already mentioned in this thread, and DosBox is open source. So, we can slightly mod DosBox - add YM2612 and SN76489 emulation, and these devices will be available for MD tracker through some I/O ports and can be programmed just like Adlib etc. We also can remove (disable) emulation of any hardware which is unneeded for MD Tracker to make DosBox faster.

Of course, it will require some support from MD Tracker side and relatively powerful PC to work, but at least it will not require any additional hardware to hear exact sound while tracking.

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:19 am

Making a plug-in wouldn't be enough?

Anyways, modding DosBox could be a good idea, removing emulation of unneeded stuff to make it faster. Moreover, if you dare we could use DosBox with MD tracker as a stub program that will run automatically, completely removing the DOS shell (not removing it really, but making MD tracker run immediately). When MD tracker quits, DosBox quits. Quite interesting

HardWareMan · Post by **HardWareMan** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:20 am

Shiru wrote:(I'm not sure that table from Sega.doc is correct; I did my own table in TFM MM).

Confirm that. Working with my frequencies meter and simple program on MD I have got different numbers than in "sega2.doc".

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:26 am

That document explicitly say that those values are approximations made by the guy who wrote that, and are not the exact values. And probably it's trial and error, I wouldn't be surprised if the frequencies to be used change depending on the octave.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:42 am

I forgot to mention that using modded DosBox also can make MD Tracker available to many other platforms, not only Windows.

Sik wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if the frequencies to be used change depending on the octave.

It does not. D3..D5 of A4+ changes only octave, not note. It's like multiplier of frequency which defined by D0..D7 of A0+ and D0..D2 of A4+.

Sik · Post by **Sik** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:52 am

I know, I know, but see, the circuitery used for the octaves may not be perfect, hence small variations may occur. Probably frequency values would have to be changed a bit (not much, I highly doubt the difference between two octaves would be > 10).