VGM Music Maker

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 1:30 am

The first release had all kinds of problems for me in wine - it didn't export, it didn't quit, it didn't produce any sound when you clicked play. The current version has none of these problems that I've seen so far. Everything is the bee's knees.

I rather like the instrument and sample panels. The look good, and are pretty intuitive. Is 255 instruments going to be the limit? No that that is much of a limit... if you need more than 255 FM instruments AND 255 samples, you're trying to overcompensate for something.

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:14 am

Found a bug... I think. I notice you set the data block first, then you seek to zero, then you enable the DAC, then you start the music. However, I could not locate a command to set the pan position of channel 6, so the samples are never played on real hardware unless the player code sets channel 6 before starting the vgm. After enabling the DAC, you should set the pan pos of channel 6 as well.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:38 am

CosmoBuggi, if you can't open chm file with your software, there are chm decompilers and online services to browse chms.

Chilly Willy, I don't think anyone really need more than 255 instruments/samples in a single sound. It is actually should be more like 32-64, I just thought, if I have two hex digits for the instrument/sample number, why not make it to the max.

I don't really understand about the bug. I set pan to the center for all the channels before play/export. Is DAC mode has its own pan register, so I should set it when in DAC mode? And why samples play with Mike-Stamp's VGM PLAY in an emulator? Remember, I don't have the hardware, so if a problem only happen on the hardware, I need ideas how to fix it, all I can do is take a guess in this case.

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:47 am

Shiru wrote:Chilly Willy, I don't think anyone really need more than 255 instruments/samples in a single sound. It is actually should be more like 32-64, I just thought, if I have two hex digits for the instrument/sample number, why not make it to the max.

Yeah, that's what I figured.

I don't really understand about the bug. I set pan to the center for all the channels before play/export. Is DAC mode has its own pan register, so I should set it when in DAC mode? And why samples play with Mike-Stamp's VGM PLAY in an emulator? Remember, I don't have the hardware, so if a problem only happen on the hardware, I need ideas how to fix it, all I can do is take a guess in this case.

You set the pan register for any FM channel, but when you use a sample instead of FM on channel 6, you aren't setting the channel 6 pan register. For example, the test.vge file only uses channel 1 and plays drum samples on channel 6. The vgm data only sets the pan register for channel 1, not for channel 6. The pan register is the ONLY register for channel 6 that affects the DAC; that way you can steer to DAC to left/right/center. So when you export to VGM, be sure that if a sample is played that you generate the command to set the pan register for channel 6.

Does vgm_mm allow you to set the pan for samples? As mentioned above, you can set the DAC to play out the right, left, or both sides (mono). I noticed that channel 1 was set to mono (0x52, 0xB4, 0xC0). Maybe you can allow setting the pan on any of the channels.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:05 am

I set pan for all the channels at the start. Maybe it is exporter problem that it omits pan for other channels, I'll check this out.

There is effect Pxx (P10, P01, P11) to set the pan for any channel.

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:40 am

Shiru wrote:I set pan for all the channels at the start. Maybe it is exporter problem that it omits pan for other channels, I'll check this out.

With the test file, only one channel has the pan set. It seems like the export doesn't set the pan for "unused" channels, and it thinks that ch6 is unused, even when samples are played.

There is effect Pxx (P10, P01, P11) to set the pan for any channel.

Okay. I suppose mono out is the default.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:47 am

I looked into the VGM ouput, seems almost whole init sequence is missing (that sets some registers to 'default'). Yes, mono is default.

Should warn everyone who uses PSG: I'm going to change PSG envelope behaviour. Currently it works like FM envelope, never resetting output value. It could be useful for FM, but makes only problems for PSG, so I'm going to reset it on a new note in next versions.

Txai · Post by **Txai** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:45 am

Awesome release. Is there a way to set tremolo for any channel?

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:55 am

Chilly Willy, check this VGM, that's how it had to be, but wasn't because of a mistake. Is this fixes the problem?

Txai, if you mean tremolo as in 'tremolo pedal' for guitar, there is no tremolo. You'll get a lot of clicks if you will change volume on FM channels often. However, you can get it with AM modulation feature, but you can't control speed of the tremolo very well, there is just 8 possible rates. If you mean tremolo as in 'tremolo picking' on guitar, you can use high speed or E9x effect.

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 6:03 pm

Shiru wrote:Chilly Willy, check this VGM, that's how it had to be, but wasn't because of a mistake. Is this fixes the problem?

Yep! Plays samples fine now.

CosmoBuggi · Post by **CosmoBuggi** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:20 am

I am liking this, it gets to be a pain in the butt at times due to voluming issues mainly with the sample channels on, but it does let me see why the fm channels when dumped are on a quieter volume than i use in TFM, but i grew to love it more that i used it and got used to it and figured more things out, and it seems t be pretty accurate to the original hardware from what i can tell. I use channel 6 for samples now due to sharing and use psg for either backing or i might try melodies sometime in the future, much like many games on the mega drive.

But if i may make any suggestion, could you possibly make panning audible in tracker if possible?

mic_ · Post by **mic_** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 5:05 am

But if i may make any suggestion, could you possibly make panning audible in tracker if possible?

Have you tried using headphones? The YM2612 doesn't have variable panning. It only has an on/off setting for left and right for each channel.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:30 am

Panning is audible in the tracker from the v1.0.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:45 pm

I have difficulties with setting proper volume balance between PSG and FM. I don't have real hardware to measure it, and it is differs among emulators and in_vgm versions. It seems PSG volume is too low in the editor right now. Can someone check it and give an advice on this?

Also, FM and DAC volume balance is differs from latest in_vgm, that's strange. I'd expect it to be correct, considering how many people worked on the emulation code.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:20 am

max volume PSG should be a as loud if not a bit louder than full volume FM. I made a MD ROM for doing volume testing once, I need to record its output sometime. PCM should be 6db more quiet than FM is.