CarrieStronggrog
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Hi, I'm a new member in this chipmusic forum, but I've been reading the forums since a couple of years smile

I prosounded my DMG01 and installed a backlight around 3 years ago and I'm rather happy with the result. But since the 8bit community is kind of small, and I have no one else to discuss this stuff with so I thought I'd go ahead to ask here to get it confirmed.

• Firstly, when I connect a minijack into the prosound output of my Game Boy and plug it into my mixer, the internal speaker of the Game Boy still plays. Does this have any drawbacks in terms of audio quality etc. ?

• Secondly, the ProSound output is really good, but the left channel has this tiny tiny hiss noise that's coming through.. Which becomes more prominent when applying effects such as reverb in post production. Is there something I could do to 'tidy up' the prosound mod to make the output signal cleaner ?

• Thirdly, I bought my backlight kit from NonElectronics and it's the V5 of his standard backlight. I tried to e-mail him several times two years ago and ask about the proper solder points to use because I just picked two points from a video tutorial I saw on youtube that was for an earlier version of the backlight so I'm not sure if it's the optimal ones.. I'm wondering because the intensity of the backlight decreases slightly when I push play in LSDJ. Is this the case for you other chipmusicians as well ?
(The two points I used are the ones just below the screen, on the same board as the screen.

Oh and by the way, the solder points for the Pro-Sound mod haven't changed right? I mean there hasn't been anybody else that have discovered a better way to solder the mod ?
- If No, Good, my DMG01 is soldered 'post' potentiometer as seen in this photo:
http://lowgain-audio.com/images/Gameboy … volpot.gif

Have a great sunday.

Carrie S.

Last edited by CarrieStronggrog (Feb 5, 2017 4:23 pm)

Psynaptik
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London, UK

1) afaik, no. Since you soldered your pro sound to be post pot (rather than pre pot), you won't be able to turn the speaker off (I.e. Without reducing volume to 0) without also losing your signal.

2) does making the pro sound pre pot make any difference? I do my pro sounds pre pot so haven't done a comparison. Also, are your solder joints all good? Sounds strange that it's coming through one channel only.

3) got to say I've never had that problem (although my backlights have been from deadpan robot and handheld legend, never tried noninfinites). I did have to solder a resistor in for my latest one (yellow from hhl), maybe yours needed this?

And no, prosound hasn't changed. I use that diagram myself!

Last edited by Psynaptik (Feb 5, 2017 5:48 pm)

e.s.c.
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IL, US

the slight dimming of the backlight is likely due to the way the power save feature works in lsdj. from what i remember, (i rarely use lsdj), it helps preserve battery life by using less power when nothing is playing, but ramps up as soon as you hit play

donotrunwithpixels
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Swansea, UK

Sounds a bit crazy, but depending on the version of LSDJ you're using, the dim can be better, worse, or almost unusable. I'm sure it's got something to do with Johan's power saving, as there are a lot of power saving changes in the Change Log on his site.

I have an old EMS blue cart with 3.?? on it, and it's almost unusable on a gameboy pocket, but my new EMS with the latest version on it works fine on the pocket.

pselodux
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Melbourne

Regarding the speaker, I'm not sure if this is an option for you, but I've disconnected the speaker on all of my gameboys after prosounding them, since I never used them without headphones. Of course, if you want to keep your DMG fairly intact, this probably sounds like heresy.

There's probably a more elaborate option, using a system/mechanism similar to the headphone jack, opening the speaker circuit (I think?) when something is plugged in, but I thought it was too much work for something I wouldn't end up using.

unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.

Hiya!

CarrieStronggrog wrote:

• Firstly, when I connect a minijack into the prosound output of my Game Boy and plug it into my mixer, the internal speaker of the Game Boy still plays. Does this have any drawbacks in terms of audio quality etc. ?

It shouldn't make a difference. When I first started modding I removed all of the speakers in my early DMGs, and now I wish I hadn't, as they are actually pretty handy for quick monitoring/checking things are playing when troubleshooting etc. I'd leave them in.

CarrieStronggrog wrote:

• Secondly, the ProSound output is really good, but the left channel has this tiny tiny hiss noise that's coming through.. Which becomes more prominent when applying effects such as reverb in post production. Is there something I could do to 'tidy up' the prosound mod to make the output signal cleaner ?

Just the left channel? Count yourself lucky! big_smile Seriously though, I wouldn't worry about it. Apply a noise gate or notch filter on the frequency and that should help, but trying to get a pure clean sound is a fool's errand when using a DMG. IMHO anyway.

CarrieStronggrog wrote:

• Thirdly, I bought my backlight kit from NonElectronics and it's the V5 of his standard backlight. I tried to e-mail him several times two years ago and ask about the proper solder points to use because I just picked two points from a video tutorial I saw on youtube that was for an earlier version of the backlight so I'm not sure if it's the optimal ones.. I'm wondering because the intensity of the backlight decreases slightly when I push play in LSDJ. Is this the case for you other chipmusicians as well ?
(The two points I used are the ones just below the screen, on the same board as the screen.

Doesn't really matter what points you use. The dimming of the lights is a bit irritating at times, and I'd be curious to find out if there was a way around this, but probably not. It's not just you that experiences it anyway. It gets more pronounced if you have low battery, fwiw.


CarrieStronggrog wrote:

Oh and by the way, the solder points for the Pro-Sound mod haven't changed right? I mean there hasn't been anybody else that have discovered a better way to solder the mod ?

Nah. Post or Pre-pot. Your choice. I don't really mind either way now - both have their up and down sides. Post pot is good to avoid dodgy old scratchy potentiometers, but having a line level trim can also be useful.

urbster1
Offline
Naptown
unexpectedbowtie wrote:

It shouldn't make a difference. When I first started modding I removed all of the speakers in my early DMGs, and now I wish I hadn't, as they are actually pretty handy for quick monitoring/checking things are playing when troubleshooting etc. I'd leave them in.

by the way, this reminds me that it can be interesting/revealing to listen to your tunes this way. you might hear something new or different that you hadn't noticed because (if you're like me) you were mostly paying attention to the wav bass :V

4ormal
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+1 on leaving DMG speaker intact.  Post pot pro-sound for me.  When you plug headphones into the pro sound, the volume of the speaker goes WAY down making it barely noticeable.

It's easy to blow out the bass on NL, so using the built in speaker is a good test, like others have mentioned for monitoring your mix.

Dimming of the DMG backlight is a pain.  The best thing that I've found is to play with the contrast until you find that "sweet" spot.  I've been fooled a few times thinking my batteries were low, but it was just that my contrast pot had got bumped.

Last edited by 4ormal (Feb 6, 2017 3:38 pm)

Psynaptik
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London, UK

I have to say that I don't get any noise at all on my 2 DMG pro-sounds, and they're both pre-pot. So getting a clean signal is NOT a pipe dream!

unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.
Psynaptik wrote:

I have to say that I don't get any noise at all on my 2 DMG pro-sounds, and they're both pre-pot. So getting a clean signal is NOT a pipe dream!

No noise at all? Would love to know how you managed that!

I don't get much noise from any of my DMGs, but there's definitely a buzz present when there's silence on any of the channels. To find any that really has no noise floor at all doesn't seem too likely, and is definitely rare at best. Either way, what I meant above was that there isn't much point in worrying too much about achieving perfectly clean audio given the nature of the device. It comes with the territory.

CarrieStronggrog
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Wow, I'm so happy that so many came out to help! Thank you all for participating and responding to my questions. I've been looking for an answer since quite a while. I thought about two more that I've been asking myself but forgot to add in my first post. Can the backlight cause buzz in the pro sound output (and the normal headphone output as well for that matter) ? - If, yes. How could this be fixed ? Would isolating cables inside the DMG with electrical tape and use heatshrink tubes  be sufficient ?
What advantage do you get from the RCA mod to your Gameboy ? Some of the most famous chip musicians use this mod and their songs sounds effectively really crisp and good... Personally I find it a bit bulky-looking, I'm a minimalist and I like the sleek little minijack prosound mod.
Also curious about how to acheive that noise free Pro sound mod. Should you like clean up the gameboy internally all over with isopropyl alcohol?
You guys are great!

Last edited by CarrieStronggrog (Feb 7, 2017 3:03 pm)

unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.
CarrieStronggrog wrote:

Can the backlight cause buzz in the pro sound output (and the normal headphone output as well for that matter) ? - If, yes. How could this be fixed ? Would isolating cables inside the DMG with electrical tape and use heatshrink tubes  be sufficient ?

I believe that it's possible that a backlight mod could add an extra bit of buzz, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Heatshrink tubes and electrical tape wouldn't make any difference as it'd be an issue with the circuit itself that would need remedied.


What advantage do you get from the RCA mod to your Gameboy ? Some of the most famous chip musicians use this mod and their songs sounds effectively really crisp and good...

The only advantage you get is the ability to use RCA cables, which have jacks that can be a bit less prone to pulling out accidentally, but that's it. There isn't any difference in audio quality between them and the minijack if done correctly.


Also curious about how to acheive that noise free Pro sound mod. Should you like clean up the gameboy internally all over with isopropyl alcohol?

I'm not sure that would matter. As Psynaptik mentioned, it could be a cold solder joint somewhere that's causing more of a buzz than usual. I still don't believe a completely noise free prosound mod is easily attainable. smile

Psynaptik
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London, UK

Did nothing special. First two mods (only done 2 refurb/mods) and seemed to go well!

Maybe I need to listen closer, but I'm fairly sure it's a clean signal.

Psynaptik
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London, UK

.

Last edited by Psynaptik (Feb 7, 2017 9:55 pm)

e.s.c.
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IL, US

it's probably got SOME noise. even on the better of my two modded DMGs there's a very subtle hiss that you might not notice without headphones and/or really good ears.. i 've had really good hearing for years, so i tend to notice sounds a lot of people might miss.. hell, i used to be able to hear if a CRT tv was on (while just set to an input with nothing in it, so black screen no audio) by the slight hum from 25 feet away through a closed door

pselodux
Offline
Melbourne
e.s.c. wrote:

i used to be able to hear if a CRT tv was on (while just set to an input with nothing in it, so black screen no audio) by the slight hum from 25 feet away through a closed door

oh god, I'm so glad CRTs aren't used (much) anymore for pretty much that exact reason