VGM Music Maker

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:51 am

The problem that loudness of FM is very uncertain parameter, even with one instrument it can vary greatly. I need comparsion with a certain instrument.

Jet · Post by **Jet** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:26 am

When will the VGE file format be published?

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:31 am

When there will be actual need in this. It require time to document the format, I don't want to waste time doing things that no one really need.

From all the feedback I've got since VGM MM release I clearly see that very few people actually read docs, so the docs now has really low priority for me.

CosmoBuggi · Post by **CosmoBuggi** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 3:58 am

This was the case with TFM as well, but is it possible there could be both speed and tempo control like in ModPlug and Famitracker. Apologies if not possible. And no rushes for this if it takes a lot of time to do such a thing. I just ask cause sometimes it won't be the speed i want it to be, it's either got to be too slow or too fast.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:51 pm

No plans for tempo. Speed quantization is just one of limitations of chip music, although introduced not by sound chip, but by available source of sync with real time.

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 7:17 pm

There's two sources for tempo in songs - the delay in processing events in tracks, which most trackers allow you to directly edit, and the amount of time between calls to the tracker playback code, which used to be fixed, but eventually changed so that the overall tempo in beats per minute could be altered. Depending on how a player is written, the second may be difficult to change. For example, maybe it's driven off the vertical blank, which is fixed.

My mod player for the 32X used to have that issue - it was hard to change the beats per minute until I realized I could use ANY sample count for the DMA (one of the nice things about the SH2 DMA), so I changed my code so that setting the beats per minute changed the samples per buffer, with the player callback occurring between buffer fills. So the beats per minute is as accurate as you can get within one sample period... which is very good. The only drawback that method has is I have to reserve as much memory as may be needed by the SLOWEST tempo (slow tempo == much time between calls == more samples == bigger buffer). I set a bottom limit so that MAX_NUM_SAMPLES is never exceeded.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:27 pm

Interestingly, current volume balance is pretty close to real MD1 PAL (compared with recording provided by Tomy). However, in latest versions of in_vgm PSG is way louder than in the editor and in the recording, so I honestly have no idea what to do with this.

Groovemaster303 · Post by **Groovemaster303** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 7:23 am

Just a little track me and Jredd cooked up the other day.

http://soundcloud.com/groovemaster303/v ... feat-jredd

I'd like to say a big thanks to Shiru for this awesome program. Being able to use PSG for backing up the FM part or adding chords, arps etc. It really adds another dimension to my music.

Shiru wrote:Interestingly, current volume balance is pretty close to real MD1 PAL (compared with recording provided by Tomy). However, in latest versions of in_vgm PSG is way louder than in the editor and in the recording, so I honestly have no idea what to do with this.

I've only experimented with this a couple of times so far but I did notice when using 3 channels of PSG it was much louder in Kega. Still I imagine just dropping the volume of the 3 PSG channels before export would remedy this. For those of use who used to constantly export TFM files to see if the panning worked ok... This seems like a fairly easy workaround.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 7:25 am

I would add a possibility to change levels of PSG and YM on the editor, and not care so much about what happens in the VGM file.
Next VGM format update should get adjustable chip volume levels, as the chip as they're used in various machines have different relational volume levels

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 6:00 am

Download VGM Music Maker v1.02

The docs wrote:1.02 08.07.11

* Help item disappeared from the About menu after a module or an instrument has been opened
* VGM output is improved and optimized, also fixed bugs with exporting modules with large amount of sample data
+ Built-in VGM optimization code from VGMTools by Valley Bell
* Saved VGE files were too big, had 32K of empty data added by a mistake
* PSG envelope now is reset on every new note, previous FM-like behaviour didn't allowed to use instruments with slow attack in a predictable way
* Effects above F were displayed incorrectly in previous/next patterns
* Resampling had problems with large samples with 32000 Hz samplerate
* DAC and FM desync by a frame in the VGM exporter is fixed
* Detune parameter of a wrong PSG instrument has been used
* Unsupported WAV files were blocked until the editor closed
* Some clicks in the end of samples are removed
* Default volume is lowered a bit to prevent clipping
* SMPS instruments import is fixed
+ Automatic horizontal scroll in the pattern editor for cursor movements
+ Now detune for PSG is audible in the instrument editor
* Periodic noise was detuned because of wrong emulated PSG settings
+ Adjustable pitch for samples
+ Testing samples with Space key

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:28 pm

Nice! No problems so far.

Jet · Post by **Jet** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 4:41 pm

Another question - why PSG channels sounds so quietly? When I play songs using emulator or in_vgm plugin, they are louder.
P.S. My cover o_O http://www.mediafire.com/?af8bud84gfq501g

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:24 am

FAQ wrote:Q. PSG sounds much louder with in_vgm plugin than in the editor.
There is a problem that the volume balance differs between different models of the original consoles and between emulators. Volume balance was checked after a recording from MD1 PAL provided by Tomy (I don't have any hardware), it matches to the recording more or less.

CosmoBuggi · Post by **CosmoBuggi** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:52 am

Something i am wondering. I notice PSG Channel four will sometimes play Note G fine(All octaves seem to be the same), in a way where it can be used as a convincing enough hat, and other times it plays back as a static hit sort of noise where it is rather tough to hear unless everything else is muted or there aren't enough busy channels.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 12:21 pm

That's the most often asked question, the answer is in the docs:

The docs wrote:PSG channels aren't equal. There are three tone channels (PSG 1-3), and one noise channel (PSG 4). There are few noise channel modes, some of them also use PSG 3:

Normal white noise mode only allows to use three pitches of the noise - low (note C), middle (note C#), high (note D). In this mode noise channel does not interact with PSG 3.

With note D# on PSG 4 you enable fine pitch control for white noise. In this case pitch of the noise is defined by a note on PSG 3, and both channels sounds at once (tone from PSG 3 and noise from PSG 4). If you want to mute the tone completely, use a PSG instrument with TL=127 on PSG 3.

G is the same as D#, the four modes repeats - C,C#,D,D# and E,F,F#,G and G#,A,A#,B.