Tomy
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Finland

https://tomy.bandcamp.com/album/psg-series-4



Welcome back to PSG cyber world!
Please connect and be ready for the cold, harsh reality.

~90 minutes of hardware recorded Master System PSG music. I lied last time when I said I couldn't get anything more out of the SN76489..
This is more experimental, not everything is nice and clean as I really tried to push it far.

(I got better recording equipment too, so everything in my bandcamp site has been updated.)

Last edited by Tomy (Jun 12, 2016 1:32 pm)

irrlichtproject
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Nomad's Land

Hell yes! I'm only half way in, and I can already say this is even more awesome than the previous "PSG Series" releases.

SketchMan3
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NC in the US of America

I like this. 1/4 of the way through the first track and I'm already hooked. So simple but so good... so effective.

Last edited by SketchMan3 (Nov 7, 2015 6:06 am)

gotoandplay
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Getting something nice out of the PSG is super hard so I credit you for excelling in this - theres some interesting effects used here which at first glance made me think "how?", nicely done!

marcb0t
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Hi Tomy,
I am probably one of your biggest secret fans! ^o^

I've listened to your music so much, it's rediculous. I like how you put so much effort into whichever chipset you pursue, and it has inspired much of my chip music to this day! The dissonant half step chords you use every once in awhile is one of my favorite things. Really adds good flavor, and is very creative.

Yes, I've listened to all 3 of your PSG albums more than once, and I like how each album, I hear your technique improve album by album. It's really neat.

Currently, I've been expriementing and trying to push as much out of the Sega PSG chip as I can in Deflemask. It is such a fun little thing with hidden surprises. Arpeggios are my favorite thing to mess with.

I think I'll listen to your new album now. tongue

(P.S. "Heroine Dive Bomber" and "Cyber Marionette" are my favorites!)

Last edited by marcb0t (Nov 8, 2015 5:22 am)

Tomy
Offline
Finland

Thank you for the comments! Makes me happy to hear that there were some little surprises too. There are some things on the album that I wouldn't have believed to be possible. I got ideas that at first were like: "No way it would work, I'll just try it for fun"... And then the SN76489 actually pulled it off. This chip is really underused, not as bad as it's reputation seems.

marcb0t, many thanks for your kind words. It feels weird to hear that I've inspired someone with my weird music, but really, thanks! Trying to get the most out of any soundchip is about half the fun, I love to use synthesized sounds and create my own. One soundchip/synthesizer making every sound in a track is awesome. Great to hear you like my occasional dissonance, I've mostly heard negative feedback about that. That and the chromatic stuff is what I like too.

That is very cool that you're working with the PSG chip! The "DEMO Rob0t In Action" at your soundcloud is such a fun track. That square wave modulation is just killer, would be cool to hear more of that used on the hardware.

Hope that Series 4 doesn't disappoint you. smile

marcb0t
Offline
Tomy wrote:

Thank you for the comments! Makes me happy to hear that there were some little surprises too. There are some things on the album that I wouldn't have believed to be possible. I got ideas that at first were like: "No way it would work, I'll just try it for fun"... And then the SN76489 actually pulled it off. This chip is really underused, not as bad as it's reputation seems.

marcb0t, many thanks for your kind words. It feels weird to hear that I've inspired someone with my weird music, but really, thanks! Trying to get the most out of any soundchip is about half the fun, I love to use synthesized sounds and create my own. One soundchip/synthesizer making every sound in a track is awesome. Great to hear you like my occasional dissonance, I've mostly heard negative feedback about that. That and the chromatic stuff is what I like too.

That is very cool that you're working with the PSG chip! The "DEMO Rob0t In Action" at your soundcloud is such a fun track. That square wave modulation is just killer, would be cool to hear more of that used on the hardware.

Hope that Series 4 doesn't disappoint you. smile

Hi there!

Hey, sorry I never saw you reply until today. tongue

Yeah, I totally agree with the Sega VDP PSG chip being underused. Hopefully, we can fix that. GameBoy is not the only chipset to play with. And also, about the dissonance, it just adds such an interesting flavor, like putting a little bit of spice on your food. For me, it's just the right amount, and fits well with the whole "cyberpunk" theme of a lot of your music. I kind of want to start trying that as well. smile  Afterall, who says that 12 note western music is the "correct" style anyway?  I am always open to new ideas and experimentation, and I really enjoyed how you did it. Even my little brother, got hooked on your 4th FM Album. That one is probably my favorite.

The square wave modulation in my "DEMO Rob0t In Action" song, that is a little difficult to get onto actual hardware. I know that Aly James is working on a way to convert his MIDI data to cartridge data. He's a smart guy, so I think eventually it will happen. But it takes too much CPU to run a game at the same time. Haha! XD  But as you said, getting the most out of a soundchip is half the fun. And there is a whole new dimension of sound just waiting to be explored on the SMS. You can do the same modulation stuff on a Sega Genesis. And if you use a Game Gear, then you can do stereo as well! I'll keep you updated with that project, as I can.

Your PSG Series 4 album inspired me to start experimenting more with PSG lately. Especially when I heard a pitch bend of melodic noise in one of your tunes. I was baffled that you did that in VGM Music Maker! A few days ago, I figured out how to do the same thing in Deflemask, so things are going well!  I like how you make the music lower in tone, and it just has this really deep moody feel in a lot of your songs. You sir, are an outstanding audio engineer!

I will see you around!

Last edited by marcb0t (Dec 4, 2015 2:35 am)

Tomy
Offline
Finland

I have now re-recorded the whole album from real SMS hardware.

Couple of things were found out the hard way while doing this. First of all, lower frequency noise isn't as audible on SMS than it is on MD. I have not found any emulation of SMS PSG to be accurate, either the noise balance is based on MD or the noise channel can't properly play the more advanced sounds. This means that I had to re-balance everything. The other thing is that also the PSG suffers from the usual pops/clicks, but emulation and MD (filtering?) mask those. You can't do too extreme frequency jumps. Just wanted to mention this information, so someone could learn from my mistakes. Check with hardware if you can. The good news is that the sound quality is very good, volume changing is smoother and instruments are "longer". It doesn't sound that obvious now that I'm interrupting sounds all over the place. smile

marcb0t, thank you once again for your awesome comment! About making the music lower in tone.. I actually use a trick in some of these tracks where I transpose everything below what is normally the lowest note in Master System with standard tuning, the note A. It can go little bit deeper than that, not enough for G# though. 5th Unit for example is done this way, also slightly lower frequency thanks to PAL format, it's about the lowest you can go with square tone bass. But it's painful to do, I have to transpose every single note by hand.

Very interested to hear more examples of that modulation technique, and most of all when hardware playback is possible. It's exciting to hear you're getting things working out in Deflemask too, I can't wait to hear more Master System music!

marcb0t
Offline
Tomy wrote:

I have now re-recorded the whole album from real SMS hardware.

Couple of things were found out the hard way while doing this. First of all, lower frequency noise isn't as audible on SMS than it is on MD. I have not found any emulation of SMS PSG to be accurate, either the noise balance is based on MD or the noise channel can't properly play the more advanced sounds. This means that I had to re-balance everything. The other thing is that also the PSG suffers from the usual pops/clicks, but emulation and MD (filtering?) mask those. You can't do too extreme frequency jumps. Just wanted to mention this information, so someone could learn from my mistakes. Check with hardware if you can. The good news is that the sound quality is very good, volume changing is smoother and instruments are "longer". It doesn't sound that obvious now that I'm interrupting sounds all over the place. smile

marcb0t, thank you once again for your awesome comment! About making the music lower in tone.. I actually use a trick in some of these tracks where I transpose everything below what is normally the lowest note in Master System with standard tuning, the note A. It can go little bit deeper than that, not enough for G# though. 5th Unit for example is done this way, also slightly lower frequency thanks to PAL format, it's about the lowest you can go with square tone bass. But it's painful to do, I have to transpose every single note by hand.

Very interested to hear more examples of that modulation technique, and most of all when hardware playback is possible. It's exciting to hear you're getting things working out in Deflemask too, I can't wait to hear more Master System music!

Hi Tomy!

You know, part of the bass not being as loud with your Master System recording, is probably because when you record it off of the MegaDrive, you are using Tiido's Crystal Clear Audio Mod. That would make the sound quality much better than an original Sega Master System. Those are my thoughts. Also, volume fade-in's and fade-out's are very good for masking those clicks and pops. Which I see you do a lot... which I also enjoy alot! So keep it up, hehe!

In the back of my mind, I was aware about the lower than normal note when using PAL, but since you mentioned it, I want to play around with that a little more. And, wow! That's a lot of work to transpose every note like that. I know how tedious it can be. Your recording on real SMS hardware sounds fantastic though!

Here's another example I made of the square modulation stuff: https://ucollective.org/audio/marcb0t/m … rpsg+test/

This time, I basically took the vgm file from a GameGear Sonic game and converted it to MIDI data. Then I played it using Super PSG, which emulates ALL the features of Sega Master System, even the weird modulation. So what you will hear is very close to how that music would sound through an actual GameGear with Stereo! Just without the analog distortion.

Here is how the song sounds without square modulation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT6XJN3BTn0

I have a request, though. Could you record Tarzan Boy playing through Sega Master System hardware? :3  The ROM download on the description of the song should be in PAL format! Here it is again: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2C160 … sp=sharing

Thank you, and have a good week!

Tomy
Offline
Finland

I tested this with MD1, MD2, SMS1 and SMS2. The MD's have the same balance between them (CCAM makes the MD2 PSG a bit brighter) and the SMS's have the same balance between them. The SMS PSG is super bright.

Haha, yeah your SuperPSG test version sounds wildly different. big_smile I'd definitely use it to make deeper tone drums in my music, that's one thing I miss.

Let's see.. I couldn't get the rom to work. But you had the .vgm file there, so I grabbed that and made another rom using Maxim's VGM Player. Works now. Let me know if something goes wrong, here's Tarzan Boy recorded from my SMS2 in .wav and .mp3 (I only boosted the volume):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5hatuod93utx … 2.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2026ge9nw38cl … 2.mp3?dl=0

Imaginary
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Whateverville, California

Damn this is solid. So much music! You've been busy my friend. big_smile

marcb0t
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Tomy wrote:

I tested this with MD1, MD2, SMS1 and SMS2. The MD's have the same balance between them (CCAM makes the MD2 PSG a bit brighter) and the SMS's have the same balance between them. The SMS PSG is super bright.

Haha, yeah your SuperPSG test version sounds wildly different. big_smile I'd definitely use it to make deeper tone drums in my music, that's one thing I miss.

Let's see.. I couldn't get the rom to work. But you had the .vgm file there, so I grabbed that and made another rom using Maxim's VGM Player. Works now. Let me know if something goes wrong, here's Tarzan Boy recorded from my SMS2 in .wav and .mp3 (I only boosted the volume):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5hatuod93utx … 2.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2026ge9nw38cl … 2.mp3?dl=0

Tomy, thank you very much for those! They sound great. I like the way the melodic noise sounds on hardware. It's got this softer warmer buzz. I noticed a couple of spots that had a sudden dip in volume for one of the instruments, and also one breakdown section that had the snare drums sounding a little funny, but everything else sounded very nice. It was very neat to hear!

You are right, the PSG sounds brighter on SMS. Even my little brother noticed the difference in quality. And I heard just a little bit of clicking in a couple of spots. But it does not bother me. I like the glitchiness of the original hardware. This made my day. Thanks again! big_smile

ptesquad
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UK

This is nice. Reminds me of Solar Jetman in parts. Always a good thing.

Tomy
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Finland

Thank you Imaginary & ptesquad! I wasn't planning to do this release, but since I found new things from the SN76489 I knew I had to do it. So many hours spent tracking the music... But I'm very happy with the outcome. Exactly what I wanted to show - a different side of Master System music.

marcb0t, no problem. smile Just hit me with a message somewhere if you need any more hardware recordings, I can do SMS & MD (NTSC / PAL, shouldn't matter).

marcb0t
Offline
Tomy wrote:

Thank you Imaginary & ptesquad! I wasn't planning to do this release, but since I found new things from the SN76489 I knew I had to do it. So many hours spent tracking the music... But I'm very happy with the outcome. Exactly what I wanted to show - a different side of Master System music.

marcb0t, no problem. smile Just hit me with a message somewhere if you need any more hardware recordings, I can do SMS & MD (NTSC / PAL, shouldn't matter).

Wow! Thank you for that offer! I really feel like I owe you so much. See ya around!

(P.S. How can I send you a donation? I did not see a PayPal link on your Bandcamp page.)