WACOMalt
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Ohio, USA

Hi all. I just got my USBBoy in the mail from Thursday Cusoms, the thing is awesome big_smile

So I loaded my DerpCart with mGB and started to get to work.

I have tried it out with both FL Studio and Renoise, and both seem to have the issue of missing notes randomly. Sometimes it happens when I'm sending a lot of midi signals, other times it just happens when I'm playing a very slow thing. This happens live, or sequenced from either program.

Where does the fault lie here? Is there a solution?

As awesome as USBBoy is, I'm beginning to think the problem lies with it, though I hope not since it was fairly expensive.  The only other thing I could think is that maybe it's inherent to the gameboy itself, but yet LSDJ never seems to miss a note so I doubt that.

Would overclocking the thing help? Or maybe the USBBoy just isnt up to the task? If so what is a better approach for live or PC controlled Midi synth? Is ArduinoBoy a better option, or Nanoloop USB?  Does Nanoloop USB work with a Derpcart for Midi input?

I also have another question that I'm betting the answer to is no... but I don't want to start another thread for it wink
Is there any Mod out there that allows you to branch off each of the 4 channels from the GB board before they get mixed to stereo?  Like a 4 channel unmixed output bridge? (Prosound Xtreme 4 it should be called tongue... if it were to ever exist)

katsumbhong
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Taichung, Taiwan

Do you have a ground pin on your computer's ps?

MaxDolensky
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Alabama

Heyo. I used the USB Boy recently to drive a Gameboy Color with mGB when playing in a funk group. I used a USB MIDI keyboard and had it run through Ableton with the USB Boy to send output to my Gameboy Color. I experienced VERY little note dropping when using the Gameboy Color (has a processor twice as fast as the DMG's, perhaps you should try using a GBC).

I believe the issue of note dropping has to do with how the serial port on the Gameboy works, not something to do with the USB Boy. You might want to experiment with the LSDJ keyboard setting on the USB Boy and prepared LSDJ instruments if you want to do single-line stuff.


As far as the 4-audio out method... not really. It's easiest to prosound 2 Gameboys and use 2 instances of LSDJ with the same song playing (synced one master one slave) with channels panned left and right (pu1 and pu2 on one DMG being L and R, WAV and Noise on DMG 2 being L and R) then sending all of those into a mixer or audio interface. I haven't tried it, but I know that it *should* work. It isn't possible to do a quadruple prosound due to the nature of the Gameboy's synthesis being done in the CPU and mixed down into stereo channels before it hits the amp.

herr_prof
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Mess with the  max editor and the delay settings, or try a color or gameboy advance.

WACOMalt
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Ohio, USA

Alas, I was afraid these would be the answers. I just spent a fair deal of money on this DMG, sad to hear it'll need to be dumped if I want to use it for live play. But I suppose I should have read up a bit more.  As far as other models of gameboys go, which would be recommended? I quite liked the Advance SP, thanks to the backlight and portability. Does it need a prosound mod, or is it good out of the box? Also since the USBBoy has a DMG style Link port, and the GBA would of course have GBA style, will I need to find an adapter? Not sure which Id need.

herr_prof wrote:

Mess with the  max editor and the delay settings, or try a color or gameboy advance.

Max editor? and delay settings? Where cna these be found in FL Studio or Renoise?

katsumbhong
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Taichung, Taiwan

There are link cables out there on ebay that have both dmg and gbc/gba link end connectors.

herr_prof
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Read the arduinoboy page for more information about the max editor and it's settings.

MaxDolensky
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Alabama

Pretty sure he doesn't know about it. Does the MAX plugin evin work in FL or Renoise? I know it does in Ableton.

nickmaynard
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rochester, ny

i found that when the notes touch each other in whatever daw you're using, that you'll have more dropped notes than if you add a tiny bit of space between them.

the problem comes from the computer sending a midi note off message and then INSTANTLY sending a midi note on message. drag the first note back by like a 128th note so the two things don't happen simultaneously, know what i mean? that helped me a lot.

MaxDolensky
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Alabama

Should be able to fix this also by forcing note length/envelope and velocity of the notes down. ^

herr_prof
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The max editor works in the max runtime environment independent of any daw.

herr_prof
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The max editor works in the max runtime environment independent of any daw.

uXe
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Melbourne, Australia

Maybe the issue is in the TeensyBoy code?

http://code.google.com/p/noizeinabox/wiki/TeensyBoy

mGB mode is listed as "finished and seems working need further tests"?!

Tweaking the value of the line 'delayMicroseconds(100);' in the Mode_MidiGb_teensy.ino file (see below) might help?

void sendByteToGameboy(byte send_byte)
{  
  delayMicroseconds(100); // NIB : delay needed otherwise this function is triggered too fast for the gameboy
  for(countLSDJTicks=0;countLSDJTicks!=8;countLSDJTicks++) {  //we are going to send 8 bits, so do a loop 8 times
   if(send_byte & 0x80) {
       PORTF = B00000010;
       PORTF = B00000011;
   } else {
       PORTF = B00000000;
       PORTF = B00000001;
   }
   send_byte <<= 1;
 }
}
herr_prof
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The editor lets you tweak that value directly without having to compile code.

herr_prof
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The editor lets you tweak that value directly without having to compile code.

herr_prof
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The editor lets you tweak that value directly without having to compile code.