tadashibashi
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Los Angeles

Hello, I have 2 questions: I just bought an Arduinoboy and have been trying to find out how to exploit it's polyphonic capabilities to use the Game Boy as a synth through my MIDI controller in mGB. However I'm really confused about Channel 5. If I play a chord and, for instance, hold the top note, while having the two lower notes move to different notes, the top note will be killed since it cycles through the different channels. Is there some possible way to program a mode to kill notes that are being lifted off and keep notes that are still being held when new notes are being pressed? This would be soo helpful for performing.

Also I have a question about using a DAW (I have Logic) in playing mGB polyphony. So far I have 3 lines of midi notes in 3 separate tracks that are all sending MIDI messages to mGB channels 1-3, respectively. However, mGB only seems to process one voice at a time, so the result is one line playing at a time, priority given to lower-numbered channels. I also tried using channel 5 while copying and pasting all 3 lines onto one track sending each line within the track to channels 1-3 respectively. I also tried sending all the notes to channel 5, but it still will not play back as 3 separate lines. I'm out of ideas, is there some way to accomplish this so I don't have to go back and program it all into LSDj?

tadashibashi
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Los Angeles

Also for performance, is it possible to have this kind of midi keyboard set up: Keyboard is split down the middle, the top 2 voices are pulse waves, and the bottom is the wav channel?

herr_prof
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You can avoid it by simply not using channel 5. and programing the other 4 channels monophonicly. You can do a complicated split as you describe using midi rules plugin like:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10541/midipipe
or
http://www.midiox.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB … 1050360173

So you can have midi notes above say c3 go to midi channel 1+2, and notes below go to only channel 3. You can make a complicated note allocation rule that decides how note stealing goes as well. I would toggle between rules that PLAY ALL NOTES and ones that play ONLY THIS CHANNEL that can be changed on a song by song basis.

herr_prof
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I would just get another instrument to use a performance synth though, and let one instance of mgb be dedicated as the SEQUENCER INSTRUMENT though.

untilzero
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chicago

If you're sending three notes simultaneously (but monophonically) to three separate MIDI channels on mGB (except for channel 5), and you're not hearing all three notes play together, you're likely doing something wrong.  mGB/ArduinoBoy will play all 4 channels simultaneously (again, monophonically, one note at a time per channel) with no problems whatsoever when done properly.

[EDIT] (FYI - the pulse channels do have limitations on their note ranges...)

Honestly though, I would seriously just start thinking of your GameBoy as a multitimbral monophonic instrument.  The channel 5 polyphony thing is a neat feature I guess, but I immediately wanted to turn it off to get back a wasted MIDI channel in my setup.  Since you can't do that on the ArduinoBoy (you can only set them to different channels), I did it via MIDIPipe (since I am forced to use it for other reasons, sadly).  I can vouch for MIDIPipe though, it is pretty badass and runs very seamlessly (so far).

Lastly, most MIDI controllers worth using should be able to be split like that on their own (ie no extra software), but YMMV.

Last edited by untilzero (Mar 10, 2014 8:53 pm)

tadashibashi
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Los Angeles

I found the solution to the 2nd problem! I don't know why but either my setup (Akai MPK61 Midi Controller > Logic Pro 9 on my Macbook Air > Arduinoboy > Gameboy DMG-01 w/ mGB) or my Arduinoboy itself doesn't like it when notes across channels are activated at precisely the same time. So what I did was move each track each a hair later than the ones before it (such a small increment that you it's hard to notice audibly) and now it plays back perfectly smile

@untilzero & herr_prof: you guys are probably right, as a synth it seems like it takes more work than it's worth to treat the GB as a polyphonic instrument.  Maybe I'll just use mGB ch 5 and write in a way that is idiomatic for the setup. Thanks for the feedback, it's great to bounce ideas around.

tadashibashi
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Los Angeles

Oh I have another question. Do you guys know what Program Changes can do in mGB? I thought they were related to presets at first, but that doesn't make much sense because there is already a control for Loading Presets (CC05). I tried sending program change data but it doesn't do anything.

MaxDolensky
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Alabama

http://thursdaycustoms.bigcartel.com/product/usb-boy

Check out my cribsheet for the USB Boy. Operates similarly to the Arduinoboy but over USB protocol. My explanations and enhancements from the info on the Arduinoboy/mGB page is not obvious, but it has info about the parameters you mentioned. Mostly waveform and envelope controls.

herr_prof
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Program change does nothing in MGB currently.