m00dawg
Offline
Texas

I am looking for an NSF player for the NES that allows me to mute channels? The purpose is in order to record each NES channel (ie SQ1, SQ2, Tri, Noise, DPCM, Cart-In) individually for mastering. Right now, I have to manually cut out tracks I don't want and create multiple NSF exports from FamiTracker. While I did mod my NES for multiple outs (see this), but that still is fairly coarse if I want to grab each individual channel. It just means I can do 2 channels in one pass.

I assume this is really something I should address with RetroUSB and ask for an update to the PowerPak that could do this (since I assume the file-handling stuff it does is non-trivial?) but thought I would check smile Actually I sent an e-mail many moons ago to RetroUSB but didn't hear back. It either was lost in the shuffle or is not something that can/will be implemented.

Thoughts or suggestions anyone?

arlen
Offline

Audio Overload allows you to mute channels. I don't know about other NSF players.

ui
Offline
Venezuela

m00dawg, seens like you cant mute channels in the PowerPak, hachisanju on IRC told me this...

<hachisanju> hm... well you can split your NES into stereo so that you've got your squares in one input and your triangle noise and dpcm in another. then you can control them if you've got two outputs. but one channel you can't do.
<hachisanju> unless your NSF is muted on that channel.

other option is... compile the NSF/SONG into a NES file with a player itself...  miau and i, made something like that in a NES-DISK release...
here is the NES file
http://iloveui.com/music/KILLER_BEATS/u … y_miau.nes

You can mute each channel with B and A to select and pads for move. Honestly dont know how hard is to create a generic player to compile songs into a NES file... since i dont know anythign about code.

TristEndo-in-spacebutt
Offline
California

I am sure this might have occurred to you already but your looking for an easier way. Export spereate nsf files for each channel if its just for the studio. it will be a labor but one of love smile Just make sure not to have triangle and dpcm active at once.

wedanced
Offline
San Francisco

music box does.

m00dawg
Offline
Texas
TristEndo-in-spacebutt wrote:

I am sure this might have occurred to you already but your looking for an easier way. Export spereate nsf files for each channel if its just for the studio. it will be a labor but one of love smile Just make sure not to have triangle and dpcm active at once.

That is what I do now. The problem is that I have to manually delete the pattern data from Famitracker and then export the NSF. It is indeed a labor of love but is also error-prone.

@ui, thanks for the link I'll see what that might entail on my end to see if it might end up being easier to do than the above method smile

I wonder if the PowerPak guy takes paid feature requests smile

noisewaves
Offline
Michigan

you know you can mute and export each channel separately in famitracker right?

it might be just me, but i honestly havent noticed THAT much of a difference between exporting to .wav from NSF and exporting directly from famitracker.

m00dawg
Offline
Texas
noisewaves wrote:

you know you can mute and export each channel separately in famitracker right?

it might be just me, but i honestly havent noticed THAT much of a difference between exporting to .wav from NSF and exporting directly from famitracker.

I haven't tried it in 0.3.6 - that didn't work in 0.3.5. Muting the tracks did nothing to the resulting NSF. I did indeed work on WAV exporting though. Again I have tried neither in 0.3.6, to be fair.

As far as the NES not sounding that much different, tune your ears smile The NES sounds noticeably different than FamiTracker. Not in all cases, mind you, but the squares have quite a bit more character is one thing I have spotted multiple times. When using the VRC6, I like the sound of the PowerPak's emulation of FamiTrackers as well. Check these to hear a quick comparison - the squares are immediately noticeable.

Regardless, it's principle smile Which, I know, in some ways is a bit hypocritical since the whole goal is to record each individual NES channel so I can do post mixing on it. It's sort of required though for some things (like the triangle) in order to end up having a proper mix with other instruments.

EDIT: Just tried exporting an NSF from FamiTracker 0.3.6 with muted channels and the results are as I described - all channels are written out and unmuted.

Last edited by m00dawg (Jun 10, 2011 1:14 pm)

noisewaves
Offline
Michigan
m00dawg wrote:
noisewaves wrote:

you know you can mute and export each channel separately in famitracker right?

it might be just me, but i honestly havent noticed THAT much of a difference between exporting to .wav from NSF and exporting directly from famitracker.

I haven't tried it in 0.3.6 - that didn't work in 0.3.5. Muting the tracks did nothing to the resulting NSF. I did indeed work on WAV exporting though. Again I have tried neither in 0.3.6, to be fair.

As far as the NES not sounding that much different, tune your ears smile The NES sounds noticeably different than FamiTracker. Not in all cases, mind you, but the squares have quite a bit more character is one thing I have spotted multiple times. When using the VRC6, I like the sound of the PowerPak's emulation of FamiTrackers as well. Check these to hear a quick comparison - the squares are immediately noticeable.

Regardless, it's principle smile Which, I know, in some ways is a bit hypocritical since the whole goal is to record each individual NES channel so I can do post mixing on it. It's sort of required though for some things (like the triangle) in order to end up having a proper mix with other instruments.

EDIT: Just tried exporting an NSF from FamiTracker 0.3.6 with muted channels and the results are as I described - all channels are written out and unmuted.

hahha youre just being picky :] i guess for me the emulation is close enough to where i dont see the need to add an extra step, but regardless, its up to you.

have you tries NSFLive yet?

danimal cannon
Offline
buffalo, NY

notsofatso

m00dawg
Offline
Texas
noisewaves wrote:

hahha youre just being picky :] i guess for me the emulation is close enough to where i dont see the need to add an extra step, but regardless, its up to you.

have you tries NSFLive yet?

Picky has a poor connotation. Maybe OCD smile Really I'm just hot for hardware *shrug* and I do like the subtleties of using the real deal. It's things no one might notice, but if anyone asks, we can say yes we did indeed record our stuff using real hardware.

I saw mention of NSFLive but did some Googling and didn't find any information as to what it even is? I assume it's another way to play NSFs via the PC?

bucky
Offline
philly

Unfortunately I don't believe there are any options for doing this on hardware (yet). You'd have to make your own ROM with channel muting, or continue doing this the way you have been. smile

NSFLive is for PC (XP?). It's cool because it allows you to export .dmc samples from NSFs-
http://famitracker.shoodot.net/forum/posts.php?id=357

Last edited by bucky (Jun 10, 2011 9:13 pm)

m00dawg
Offline
Texas

Oooh that's a bonus! Thanks for clearing that up and for everyone's help! Looks like the way I'm doing it is what I'm stuck with for now smile

B00daW
Offline
Philadelphia, PA

NSFPlay (or NSFPlug) is great for muting channels.  It also has good expansion support.

Btw, weird how our names are similiar. o_O  ...

m00dawg
Offline
Texas

Yeah but both of those are Winders apps right? I need a native NES player that can mute channels for what I am using it for. Basically if the PowerPak's built-in NSF player supported mute, I would be all set.

Hah and yea weird, those name things.