Chip maestro and midi controller (Page 6 of 8)

Just wanted to add that the CMaestro can be upgraded with improvements to the Arduino code, within the limits of the ATmega168 (would have been nice to see a better/bigger chip). In the end the design of the 2A03 interface is rather good, simple and minimalist.The loop is as fast as possible on the 2A03; no overhead for reading ports/video/saving variables: just keep poking values into the PSG.
IMO for a chipmusic setup, having the NES trying to do video or anything else beside sound is a drawback. Using a coprocessor allows for some very interesting effects and note handling at a much higher speed then the 2A03 could ever manage. For comparison, there are a few around here that will testify to the differences between a C64 and a SammichSID; both use a SID chip but one uses a 6502@1MHz and the other a PIC@40MHz.

As to SNES it's a DSP sample player at heart, so in and of itself doesn't have a unique sound quality. I think that most people rip the SNES  game samples and compose on a PC. It's hard to beat the functionality of the PC.
Yogi
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I found some useful information about the ownership of the code present in the midines.

Source: http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?t=780

Thanks for your input Neil, perhaps in the future you could share a little of your knowledge about the APU. I for one would very much like to see a Midi interface happen, and where as a basic design is possible such as the Chip Maestro, I envision a a far more feature rich controller.
  For my part, a PIC or ARM based system seems doable at a HW level, but a knowledge of the 'tricks' that make the APU sit-up and speak are beyond my kin. The key is the modulation and envelop handling which you are a master of.
  Yogi

For any Midiboxers out here, this blogger has a veriation on the Tsundere/Chip Maestro interface that seems perfect for a MIOS core
http://shiftmore.blogspot.com/2012/11/a … art-i.html
Food for thought
Yogi

I think there was some work a while ago posted on the MidiBox blog about an NES synth. It harvested the actual 2A03 off the mainboard though (much like how MBSID does). Since it's not socketed, that makes me nervous.

I think just having a MIDI clock sync solution would be pretty huge as then NSF players and trackers can use that for their BPM. That doesn't necessarily allow for full on live play but it means the NES could then be sync'd to the same MIDI clock everything else might be using.

MidiBox already has lovely MIDI support (obviously) though for just interpreting MIDI clock and sending pulses, I wouldn't imagine the piece would be so difficult. Modifying, say, an NSF player to respond to the signal - that's not something I have even begun to figure out.

Oh snap! I forgot about that project. Does PULSAR support clock sync with MCTRL yet? That's just about a "problem? solved!" solution for me if so!

Valid point about DPCM. I don't know the capabilities of PULSAR, but being able to sync an NSF lets you use DPCM in that context. I think Batsy Adams' sync experiments used the PowerPak's NSF player - he just added sync.

All that said, in terms of an interface, where MidiBox can be nice, I would say, is with the USB MIDI stuff it can now do via CORE32. I'm trying to move away from using a laptop during a live show instead, I'm trying to build and, if need be, augment the MidiBox MIDIO128 to serve as our MIDI playback/sync device. However, I'm in the minority Having MIDI over USB is pretty glorious. Plus the new CORE32 boards can do routing and stuff. There's plenty of power there to handle sync to the NES plus likely most of the core MidiBox functions.

@m00dwg
I don't know if Neil's latest Public release does, but Ninstruments does offer a sync enabled Pulsar cart/MCTRL bundle, as well as PR8, NESK-1, GlitchNES and Lightwall cart bundle options. (wow I kind of sound like a salesman) So there is a working system here and now.