ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa

[20:42:01] <Theta_Frost> hey ant1
[20:42:18] <Theta_Frost> you should post your little pc engine thread on chipmusic d00d

PC Engine is without a doubt the best sounding console ever created (in my opinion), and using it will make your chip music sound better. tongue

So here's a collection of tools (MML compiler, wave editor, player, stuff), music and documentation I put together for people who are new to it.

zip

This stuff is windows only, although you can do it on a mac too. If you have any questions, or it doesn't work or you hate me then just post it in this thread or something. smile

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI

Haha man you rock!  Loving the PC-Engine!  smile

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI

For the uninitiated the PC-Engine packs some good sound specs.  It has 6 wavetable channels.  You might be thinking Namco N106 has 8! The PC-Engine shines through though because  it has a higher bit depth and channel 2 can modulate channel 1 with an LFO - creates cool FM like timbres.  Channel 5 and 6 also can produce noise waveforms.  The chip also can play 5 bit PCM samples with 20 bytes of sample data per channel.  Think of this like 6 extra high quality gameboy WAV channels.  It also has a feature where you can stream PCM audio through the channels as fast as the CPU can handle.  In this mode you can also combine 2 channels to play back 8, 9, or 10 bit PCM samples.  Let me tell you people, the PC-Engine can pack!

ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa

Yeah, it sounds really great. I'm pretty sure you can't get all of those features through Husic (i.e. the streaming audio) but you can make some really nice sounds. smile

smiker
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Marin<Pontevedra<Galiza<Spain

Epic.

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI

Well I've taken a bit of a leap of faith and ordered a Coregrafx.  I plan to replace all of its capacitors, add s video out, connect it too a PS1 LCD and add an op amp buffered output.  I'm getting to work on HuSIC and I'm attempting to learn some C and ASM to develop my own programs.  Right now I'm trying to figure out how to play .HES files on a actual PC-Engine because apparently I just read that they cant because there is no native .HES player!  I know some people have though so I'll email them and try to find out.  The demoscene on this thing is practically non existent as well!  I'm gonna need a flash cart soon as well!  Time to get to work...

animalstyle
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killadelphia

sweet - never messed with this - very cool.

ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa
Theta_Frost wrote:

Well I've taken a bit of a leap of faith and ordered a Coregrafx.  I plan to replace all of its capacitors, add s video out, connect it too a PS1 LCD and add an op amp buffered output.  I'm getting to work on HuSIC and I'm attempting to learn some C and ASM to develop my own programs.  Right now I'm trying to figure out how to play .HES files on a actual PC-Engine because apparently I just read that they cant because there is no native .HES player!  I know some people have though so I'll email them and try to find out.  The demoscene on this thing is practically non existent as well!  I'm gonna need a flash cart soon as well!  Time to get to work...

For your own music, this is no problem, as Husic creates executable along with the .hes output. For other people's music... better get cracking on that assembly! wink

edit: as for the demoscene, it's not a home computer (hard to program) and it was never popular in Europe, so that explains that. It would be nice to see some more though, but there is little to no interest so I guess it will never happen. sad

Last edited by ant1 (Feb 27, 2010 9:12 pm)

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI
ant1 wrote:
Theta_Frost wrote:

Well I've taken a bit of a leap of faith and ordered a Coregrafx.  I plan to replace all of its capacitors, add s video out, connect it too a PS1 LCD and add an op amp buffered output.  I'm getting to work on HuSIC and I'm attempting to learn some C and ASM to develop my own programs.  Right now I'm trying to figure out how to play .HES files on a actual PC-Engine because apparently I just read that they cant because there is no native .HES player!  I know some people have though so I'll email them and try to find out.  The demoscene on this thing is practically non existent as well!  I'm gonna need a flash cart soon as well!  Time to get to work...

For your own music, this is no problem, as Husic creates executable along with the .hes output. For other people's music... better get cracking on that assembly! wink

edit: as for the demoscene, it's not a home computer (hard to program) and it was never popular in Europe, so that explains that. It would be nice to see some more though, but there is little to no interest so I guess it will never happen. sad

Awesome, I was totally unaware of the executable.  Thanks!  I also have to put some of this on hold however because I'm also buying a C64C and I'm going to focus on that a bit first but this will come in time... smile
There was a beginning of a demo being created but it only had one screen - starwave, you can get the rom.  Someone who goes by trilinear also released some roms that are cool songs - Megaman flash man I think and Green Hill Zone one from Sonic 2.  Theres a brief demo of a bouncing ball oddly and Chris Covell has done some neat mini demos as well which can be found on youtube.

Last edited by Theta_Frost (Feb 28, 2010 12:36 am)

ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa

Well yes, there are some. Eaggy's Little Demo is pretty much the cream of the crop. There's a fair bit here, but not much of it is fully formed "demos" in that meaning of the word. Would be great if there was much more, though.

As for converting .hes --> .pce, I have no time or motivation to learn that specific assembly language (although the chip is supposedly pretty similar to the 6502), so I'm not going to work that out (plus I have no real interest in playing back on hardware - I don't own any). If you are learning the assembly anyway, though, it should be a doddle (the principles are the same as in this, although the code is of course going to be different, if that helps you get started), and maybe a proper hardware HES player can take shape one day (if it's considered useful at all, which maybe it won't be). smile

PCE music suddenly got more fun since I stopped being the only person who cared! tongue

Last edited by ant1 (Mar 11, 2010 8:22 pm)

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI

Thanks for those tip offs, Eaggy looks pretty cool.  This page is an interesting read and he managed to get something he made in HuSIC on a real PCE.  I'll try to email him to see how he went about it.  I'm also awaiting my confirmation at PCengineFX's forum.  Looks pretty cool.  What are you talking about PCE is always FUN!  big_smile

http://www.geocities.jp/team_zero_three … glish.html

ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa

B00daw talked about a mod to pce tool, and showed a song made with it. It was good. The future is bright! smile

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI

Awesome!  I finally got around to messing with your guide.  It's very nice - I have successfully compiled a .HES file and used the WAV editor to edit the wav's in your song... didn't make as much of a different I thought it would.  I haven't really dug into MML, but it doesn't look quite like my thing.  I am very excited about a MOD to PCE tool!  Links?  I remember Herr_Prof mentioned someone was thinking about deving a LSDJ style tracker for the PCE.  This is the coolest machine.  Who doesn't like a nice PC-Engine.

ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa

Yeah, MML is not for everyone. Mod to PCE will be nicer (can't find a link right now), although I'm a bit confused why mod was chosen - it generally doesn't have enough channels. LSDJ is not my favourite, and nor is tracking on anything but my PC, but that should be a cool thing anyway. smile

ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa

Another tool to use is Azasel, if you want to. It's like MML, but more complicated. Good luck.

Progress seems to be happening on Mod to PCE, already it is functioning mostly, I think, but not released yet. 5 channels of 32 byte chipsamples and a 6th channel of whatever you want (streaming PCM stuff wooop). Interesting. smile

an-cat-max
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astral cat
ant1 wrote:

Another tool to use is Azasel, if you want to. It's like MML, but more complicated. Good luck.

Progress seems to be happening on Mod to PCE, already it is functioning mostly, I think, but not released yet. 5 channels of 32 byte chipsamples and a 6th channel of whatever you want (streaming PCM stuff wooop). Interesting. smile

exciting!