NES-NES NSF Sync (Page 1) - Nintendo Consoles - Forums

1 Sep 29, 2010 5:13 am

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Brooklyn, NY

I took a break from FaMI to try out something new.

I've coded up 2 different NSF playing roms (modified versions of the amazing vegaplay - thanks to NO CARRIER) - one is a master that sends a "sync" signal and one is a slave that does nothing but wait for the rising edge of that signal. Based on the way I'm running the sync it should be impossible for them to fall out of time. Right now I'm using an Arduino as a clock source (which is overkill, you can use something like a 555 timer) in place of a "master" NES but you get the picture. I don't have 2 powerpaks to test out the real deal right now, but would anyone be interested in this type of thing (before I work on it more)?

Possible uses:
- 2 NSF / 10 channel songs?
- If you use 2 slaves running from a single clock source you can play the same NSF to switch over during a live performance in case one fails

I'll look into the LSDJ sync some more next.

Last edited by Batsly Adams (Sep 29, 2010 5:19 am)

2 Sep 29, 2010 5:17 am

enso

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Philly/NY

People better start making dual-NES songs now, or I will be so pissed.

3 Sep 29, 2010 5:48 am

celsius

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Melbourne, Australia

This is damn cool. Even in it's current form it makes for a nice "auto DJ"

4 Sep 29, 2010 5:52 am

animalstyle

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killadelphia

this would be really interesting in live mode with Pulsar or NTRQ. so it's basically like the LSDJ linker port thing for NES, right?

might also just be cool to double up the sound of the NES so it sounds fatter - kinda like guitar overdubs on rock recordings.

Last edited by animalstyle (Sep 29, 2010 5:53 am)

5 Sep 29, 2010 6:08 am

mechlo

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PDX, PDX

enso wrote:

People better start making dual-NES songs now, or I will be so pissed.

This can already happen. 2 Midineses, one clock source/sequencer and offset midi channels by 5. But yes, I want.

6 Sep 29, 2010 7:02 am

Saskrotch

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Chicago IL

Batsly Adams wrote:

Possible uses:
- 2 NSF / 10 channel songs?
- If you use 2 slaves running from a single clock source you can play the same NSF to switch over during a live performance in case one fails

- Dual NES DJ sets!

7 Sep 29, 2010 1:04 pm

herr_prof

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I saw a band called ROYAL SPACE FORCE that would do nes sound test mashups by just playing two songs at the same time, dj style. It was masterful....

Perhaps all you need is one controllers that could control to neses at once?

8 Sep 29, 2010 2:11 pm

Batsly Adams

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Brooklyn, NY

herr_prof wrote:

... playing two songs at the same time, dj style. It was masterful ...

That sounds awesome.

herr_prof wrote:

Perhaps all you need is one controllers that could control to neses at once?

That's a great idea - the two clocks shouldn't drift out of time really. I guess the worst case latency between the two tracks could only be ~16ms (1/60), since the NMIs wouldn't be synced between the two decks.
The only other issue is that it wouldn't be as simple as splicing the wires together because of the way the controller works. The solution to this would be to piggyback another CD4016 on top of the original one in the controller so that they share the 8 button lines, but not the clock, strobe, and data lines. I'm not sure if there is room for that, maybe a NES advantage would fit the bill here? Or you can build the whole thing from scratch, might be worth it for something like a foot controller.