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ChipMusic.org / Forums / Nintendo Handhelds / "GB Boy Color" sound quality / any good for chipmusic?
Seem to be a load of these on Aliexpress cheaper than last time I looked, wondering if anyone knows how the sound quality is, and generally if they work OK with Nanloop/LSDJ etc? I read some reviews which say game music pitch is (sometimes) different which i guess could be a problem (if I wasn't a harsh noise artist ha)
Interested to hear any experiences thanks!
There is a difference but whether it's better or worse is a matter of taste. If you're sending it thru eq, effects, etc or recording into a daw it doesn't matter since you can adjust as needed.
Seem to be a load of these on Aliexpress cheaper than last time I looked, wondering if anyone knows how the sound quality is, and generally if they work OK with Nanloop/LSDJ etc? I read some reviews which say game music pitch is (sometimes) different which i guess could be a problem (if I wasn't a harsh noise artist ha)
Interested to hear any experiences thanks!
I'm not so sure I'd grab anything off aliexpress as those may not be actual official Nintendo releases and therefore might absolutely sound/perform differently.
Yeah I know it's definitely not official Nintendo 
it's "GB Boy Color', a well known bootleg gameboy That's why I want it, I love weird bootleg stuff, just wanted to know if the audio quality is OK... I don't mind it being a bit different sounding but would be good to know ifit's for any reason completely incompatable with music roms, or sounds drastically worse than normal GB/GBC 
There are reviews online but not from chiptune people so they don't go into the audio all that much
Bought several repro/fake game cartridges on aliexpress (rare/unpublished games, and also cheap pokemon bootlegs which I use to re-flash with GBxCart) and the quality seems really good
Last edited by Cementimental (Jun 17, 2020 8:03 pm)
There is a difference but whether it's better or worse is a matter of taste. If you're sending it thru eq, effects, etc or recording into a daw it doesn't matter since you can adjust as needed.
Thanks, so long as there's not some horrible screen whine or anything. I guess if I needed to correct pitch could also do the precision oscillator pitch control mod, guessing it would work the same way as a real GB
egr wrote:There is a difference but whether it's better or worse is a matter of taste. If you're sending it thru eq, effects, etc or recording into a daw it doesn't matter since you can adjust as needed.
Thanks, so long as there's not some horrible screen whine or anything. I guess if I needed to correct pitch could also do the precision oscillator pitch control mod, guessing it would work the same way as a real GB
Ohhhhhhh shit wait I thought you meant GBC vs DMG. I've had one of the GB Boys and they aren't great. They don't handle pitchbends correctly if I'm remembering correctly and sample playback is trash. Possible they've been updated since I had one.
Ohhhhhhh shit wait I thought you meant GBC vs DMG. I've had one of the GB Boys and they aren't great. They don't handle pitchbends correctly if I'm remembering correctly and sample playback is trash. Possible they've been updated since I had one.
Ah right, good to know. Still curious, and yeah I think there are various versions (tho probably pot luck which one you actually get, ha)
Obviously I didn't pay attention to the username when responding or I would have realized. Derp.
No probz I think i will just look out for a cheap enough one and give it a go
While the original GB Boy (pocket) may have been terrible (too fast clock speed from what I've heard,) the GB Boy Colour is so much better in comparison. It's basically a backlit GBC that has slightly wacky aspect ratio, no IR and runs less than 0.1% slower, from my probing with a logic analyzer and some calculations. The latest revision started production in 2018 (I actually got one just as they released the new revision.) Pressing buttons does cause the audio to buzz and click a bit because of a ground loop, but that can probably fixed with an internal prosound mod or an external ground loop isolator. IMO, it's as good as a real Gameboy/GBC (since the hardware is basically a 1:1 clone of the original,) and works great with LSDJ. It even works with GBVideoPlayer2, a video with audio encoder for the GBC- good enough to get me a temporary copyright takedown on YouTube playing the Pokemon intro theme. So yeah.
Last edited by JavierBlitse (Sep 23, 2020 5:45 pm)
Thanks for the infos Managed to find two different ones on ebay in the end! Pretty nice, haven't had time to properly study them but the sound is not bad.
This one was boxed as new, love the clear green:
This one turned out to have LSDJ on the cart with some tune/s, wonder if anyone here might recognise it?! :-S
So you aren't looking to buy one brand new??? They're pretty cheap, about $35 USD shipped from Aliexpress (China) (the latest one I ordered this year came in less than 2 weeks!), they're still made today. The one on the bottom is a rare clamshell variation of the Rev. 1 GB Boy Colour that isn't very well documented on the internet.
If the used ones aren't similar to the Aliexpress price, then it's a bit of a ripoff, unless you can get the clamshell one for a reasonable price, because IMO it's a collectible. And of course, it comes with LSDJ! And also, I'm pretty sure the clamshell version doesn't come with the built-in games.
Last edited by JavierBlitse (Sep 23, 2020 6:43 pm)
Yeah I was holding out for 2nd hand ones suitably cheaper than a new one, got lucky with these. Also didn't want to wait for Covid shipping times from china
Indeed the clamshell doesn't have any built in games.
I haven't properly tested either of them but either nanoloop one or one of my flashcarts (can't remember which right now) didn't work at all when I briefly tried! So there may be some incompatibilities. Will post here again when I can have more of a play
Last edited by Cementimental (Sep 24, 2020 7:56 am)
Believe it or not, I actually ordered it in late July/early August, in the middle of covid. I was surprised how fast it shipped considering the pandemic.
Does anyone know if the GB Boy Color works with a Teensyboy (Pro) and MGB? Does the pitch only get screwy with a tracker cart or do external MIDI signals also control differently?
Last edited by Doctor Octoroc (Sep 23, 2020 8:05 pm)
Flash cards (especially Everdrive GB) only really work on the GB Boy Colour with a fresh pair of batteries. It also helps to use lithium batteries, because they can provide more voltage/current for longer periods of time. If the batteries are even close to being empty, the GBBC enters a boot loop because either the batteries or power regulator/supply can't provide enough power to the flash cart. Regular carts still work fine, with partly dead batteries.