SpritesMind.Net

PSG tone and noise support added. Working on the YM2612 sound tests now.

Good morning. Im up too, just had my coffee and am now researching NES graphics manipulation.

Good to see how motivated you are; day after day.

Jazzmarazz wrote:Good morning. Im up too, just had my coffee and am now researching NES graphics manipulation.

Good to see how motivated you are; day after day.

That sounds interesting. Maybe one day I'll have a go with Nintendo's cpus. A tracker for the SNES would be interesting and challenging to do! Like how to handle sample storage on a rom and stuff, I'd like to look into it some more. Maybe if YMDJ works out well then I'll probably do a native SNES tracker next.

Count SymphoniC wrote:

Jazzmarazz wrote:Good morning. Im up too, just had my coffee and am now researching NES graphics manipulation.

Good to see how motivated you are; day after day.

That sounds interesting. Maybe one day I'll have a go with Nintendo's cpus. A tracker for the SNES would be interesting and challenging to do! Like how to handle sample storage on a rom and stuff, I'd like to look into it some more. Maybe if YMDJ works out well then I'll probably do a native SNES tracker next.

That would be cool. I believe C-trx may be working on one but its not fully publicized. I am writing a horror game based on my home town, loosely in the style of Tombs and Treasures.

I'll just focus on the Genesis side of things then. It's nice to know someone has SNES taken care of.

I've never played that game before, but from the looks of images, it would be a good programming exercise. I've always loved adventure games and rpgs.

Hi guys, regarding MIDI, I guess you mean MIDI sync? In my mind being able to sync the hardware to a PC DAW or sync multiple instances of YMDJ would be imperative.

Also, I wonder if you already have ideas about the FM instrument editor. I think getting that part right will also be a crucial part of the design, as there are a lot of parameters and I think some visual/graphical feedback will be necessary. For example, I have used Shiru's TFM /VGM Music Maker extensively and I find the FM instrument editor GUI to be quite nice (see link below). Perhaps for changing the envelope values (0-127) a system could be used where for example holding button A and pressing up/down (D-Pad) changes values by 10 or 20 then B + up/down changes by 5 and then C + up/down increments values by 1. That way it would be fast but also allow precise changes which are extremely important for creating FM instruments.

See Here

freezedream wrote:Hi guys, regarding MIDI, I guess you mean MIDI sync? In my mind being able to sync the hardware to a PC DAW or sync multiple instances of YMDJ would be imperative.

Also, I wonder if you already have ideas about the FM instrument editor. I think getting that part right will also be a crucial part of the design, as there are a lot of parameters and I think some visual/graphical feedback will be necessary. For example, I have used Shiru's TFM /VGM Music Maker extensively and I find the FM instrument editor GUI to be quite nice (see link below). Perhaps for changing the envelope values (0-127) a system could be used where for example holding button A and pressing up/down (D-Pad) changes values by 10 or 20 then B + up/down changes by 5 and then C + up/down increments values by 1. That way it would be fast but also allow precise changes which are extremely important for creating FM instruments.

See Here

With MIDI it's a bit early to say much on, but we want as much MIDI support as we can get to work. But that's the idea, as well as MIDI controllers. More on this as the tracker develops.

I started work on the instrument editor last night. The idea that I came up with has the FM synth editor slide in from the top and to the right half of the Note Entry screen, so you can edit your instruments, parameters, notes, and playback all at the same time... this way you can hear what your instrument sounds like as your editing it if you so wish and make changes as desired. Now the graphical parts of the synth editor, is the very tricky part, because the Genesis' graphics are tile based and not bitmap based... so it's going to be really interesting just drawing ADSR envelopes to the screen. But I definitely see the need to make this as easy and fun to work with as possible, because the FM synthesis part can scare alot of people out of using alot of trackers!

I've tested YMDJ on sega nomad and it works fine . But blue text on red is almost unreadable on small screen (white on black works better IMO..) and B + dpad to navigate, not A

Corthax wrote:I've tested YMDJ on sega nomad and it works fine . But blue text on red is almost unreadable on small screen (white on black works better IMO..) and B + dpad to navigate, not A

Okay, I've updated both threads. Thank you for putting in the time to test this on real hardware.

Cool. The MD desperately needs a tracker that is decent.

Are you planning on adding MIDI?
Options: RS232 and USB if using UMDK.

I can help contribute MIDI/Serial code if you need it.

It makes good sense to have MIDI control as then musicians can get their hands on the MD

MintyTheCat wrote:Cool. The MD desperately needs a tracker that is decent.

Are you planning on adding MIDI?
Options: RS232 and USB if using UMDK.

I can help contribute MIDI/Serial code if you need it.

It makes good sense to have MIDI control as then musicians can get their hands on the MD

UMDK is out, but feel free to shed any light on RS232 communication. Do you by chance have an idea of how Little Scale does it with his Teensy adapter through controller port 2?

Jazzmarazz wrote:

MintyTheCat wrote:Cool. The MD desperately needs a tracker that is decent.

Are you planning on adding MIDI?
Options: RS232 and USB if using UMDK.

I can help contribute MIDI/Serial code if you need it.

It makes good sense to have MIDI control as then musicians can get their hands on the MD

UMDK is out, but feel free to shed any light on RS232 communication. Do you by chance have an idea of how Little Scale does it with his Teensy adapter through controller port 2?

Sorry, but why would UMDK be "out"? Is this project going to be Open-Source?

I can write you the RS232/Serial code for the MD side and even the host side if you need some kind of special application software running on the PC (not sure why you would need that and I am thinking that you'd want to make it so that anyone with a MIDI cable and software could hook up directly to the MD).

I know what Little-Scale would have to do in order to make MIDI a reality.
The code on the Tiny can be read back from the Microcontroller if we wanted an exact command for command set of code but that is not necessary as we only need to get MIDI working and not adhere to LS' implementation.

It does not matter which Port is used and I would make it selectable.

To conclude: I can help but I will only do that IFF the project is Open-Source.
I am actually pretty displeased with how LS managed the entire fiasco with GENMDM and I do not wish to see that type of screw up happen here.

I have just literally registered here just for this.

I absolutely love the idea of having a proper tracker that is made enterely for the hardware, within the hardware.

However. I am not really happy about the UI myself, those colors and those fonts would make working on a CRT ( or most monitors, for that matter )a pain, specially after looking at the screen for more than 5 minutes.

I have been doing all sorts of stuff for the MD for years ( even i think someone posted a small demo here containing my graphics ). So i think i could help to the project by supplying some small hel pwhen it comes to graphics and presentation.

While i understand this closely resembles the UI for the original LSDJ, this is not the GB and the MD could benefict from some things here and there, and i'd be glad to help on that.

ZanaGB wrote:I have just literally registered here just for this.

I absolutely love the idea of having a proper tracker that is made enterely for the hardware, within the hardware.

However. I am not really happy about the UI myself, those colors and those fonts would make working on a CRT ( or most monitors, for that matter )a pain, specially after looking at the screen for more than 5 minutes.

I have been doing all sorts of stuff for the MD for years ( even i think someone posted a small demo here containing my graphics ). So i think i could help to the project by supplying some small hel pwhen it comes to graphics and presentation.

While i understand this closely resembles the UI for the original LSDJ, this is not the GB and the MD could benefict from some things here and there, and i'd be glad to help on that.

Hah, yes. He has already addressed the red assault (as I will refer to it from nowon) and I have been pushing for alternate GUI selections in a menu. He seems to more focused on functionality than anything else currently. I would push for a simple white on black, or Grey scale option personally as one of the many options. This should be as simple as a pallets reload correct?

Hell, even a hex color editor wouldn't be too far fetched for both text and backgroundbackground as an option inthe menu; but the current priority is function.

Added a video link in the main post demonstrating the new colors, playback engine, FM1-FM6 playback and the Synth editor.

I'll worry about purtifying the GUI when I've gotten everything else done.