Most of the time I come up with a heavy riff on my guitar, then I improvise on it in the same scale (which is pretty much always blues) about an octave or 2 higher, following any key changes.
Or I just fart around on a scale with my keyboard.
34 Feb 18, 2015 4:06 am
Re: Stevie Wonder: Songs In the Key of Life (5 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Stevie Wonder is awesome, btw.
35 Feb 13, 2015 5:52 pm
Re: Punk goes 8-bit (28 replies, posted in General Discussion)
MIDI + GXSCC + SMB sprite rips is the only way to 8-Bit
36 Feb 3, 2015 6:31 am
Re: Awesome pixelated Simpsons intro with chiptunes! (4 replies, posted in General Discussion)
So much better than this pixel art Simpsons intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tCZiHLFk5A
37 Feb 1, 2015 5:48 pm
Re: [SEGA MD / GEN] GenMDM SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive MIDI Interface (1,383 replies, posted in Sega)
yogi wrote:
RatShack wrote:Isn't GENMDM just MIDI -> commands via some serial protocol over a joystick port -> Register writes -> Sound output?
The source for SMSM is pretty bare bones, I'd imagine GENMDM is the same way.
Yes as I understand it. The Teensey does all the work. The Sega ROM just loads registers.
EDIT: after a basic read thru of the source code, the main loop of the GenMDM run on the 68000. There is a 'Z80 driver' loaded into the Z80 ram but the 68000 seems to do all the writes to the YM and PSG.
Yogi
There's obviously demand for this thing and it's relatively simple... what's stopping anyone else from developing something similar? Lack of console development experience?
38 Feb 1, 2015 7:57 am
Re: [SEGA MD / GEN] GenMDM SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive MIDI Interface (1,383 replies, posted in Sega)
Isn't GENMDM just MIDI -> commands via some serial protocol over a joystick port -> Register writes -> Sound output?
The source for SMSM is pretty bare bones, I'd imagine GENMDM is the same way.
39 Jan 31, 2015 7:33 pm
Re: the sound of the 555 timer chip (7 replies, posted in Other Hardware)
The 555 doesn't produce square waves by itself, the signal produced depends on the circuit used with the 555. It's operation is based on charging and discharging a capacitor. It can be made to generate pulse waves of different duty ratios, not just square waves.
It was one of the first chips (1971), performs a very basic function, and is very cheap so it will not go away anytime soon. If you need to generate timed pulses and are not using a microcontroller it's a good chip to use. Everyone learning electronics uses one at some point.
The Apple II actually used one to blink the display cursor.
40 Jan 8, 2015 6:57 pm
Re: Underrated NES / SNES Games? (36 replies, posted in General Discussion)
NES:
Eliminator Boat Duel
Skate or Die 2
Cheetahmen II
41 Jan 6, 2015 4:42 am
Re: Programs for writing .mid files? (16 replies, posted in Software & Plug-ins)
Fruity Loops is awesome for MIDI.
I would invest in some sort of MIDI interface if you don't have one so you can compose with it. I use a Roland Um-one.
43 Dec 24, 2014 1:13 am
Re: First Trip Comicon or Something Like It (6 replies, posted in General Discussion)
MAGFest++
44 Dec 17, 2014 11:16 pm
Re: Master System VGM playback (10 replies, posted in Sega)
cTrix wrote:
Hey mate - hit up Batsly Adams in about a month about this ;-)
I'm in the midst of totally breaking his (heavily modified) VGM player with all sorts of crazy experiments. What are you using it for? Is this a one off set of tracks or are you just trying to play VGM rips?
Primarily for the ability to play my own or other's tracks on hardware.
That's awesome to know other people are trying to work on VGM playback for the master system. I tried to set up a dev environment recently but it wouldn't compile the hello world example, it just kind of sat there doing nothing.
If i ever get it working I was going to mess around with Maxim's VGM player source and see if I could figure anything out that would cause issues on PAL vs NTSC. I did notice something weird with a pre-compiled hello world rom, the Everdrive start menu is still visible the whole time. I've never seen any games have this problem, makes me wonder if it's assuming clean RAM. Also wondering if it's something related to the Everdrive that wouldn't be an issue if it was on an EEPROM.
45 Dec 4, 2014 12:51 am
Re: PBS TV's Beyond Geek Episode 3 - Chipmusic & Home Brew NES Games (7 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Since when is something on PBS not on video.pbs.org?
Oh well, will have to settle for this:
http://video.pbs.org/video/2331914171/