A nice multi-band compressor with side-chaining, brings a lot of utility.

While we're on the topic, does anyone know an easy way of added digis to your goattracker song? Or perhaps a powerful tracker that features both powerful SID control and digi tracking?

Currently I'm using digi-organizer and then using a utility to link it to my goattracker SID/PRG but it's an awkward way to compose and a bit of a hassle working with both a C64 and windows program.

531

(1 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Shoot me a message!!

532

(9 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

Yeah, the GQ-4X is a great unit (based on the same Willem burner design) and like DSC said the setup, software and use is easy. That said, if $100 is too steep then nearly any Willem EPROM burner (maybe all?) will work with the same software packages.

Also, I definitely agree that the more technical forums are a better place to start. AtariAge (http://atariage.com) might be the best fit for you seeing as how the Atari is of particular interest to you but nesdev has some of the smartest and friendliest people around and is a great place to go for pretty much any vintage hardware project.

533

(9 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

In that case, I'd recommend a professional burner like that Willem rather than building it yourself. Unless all those platforms happen to use the same chip or chip family.

What sort of computer are you using? What's the OS, do you have a parallel port?

534

(9 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

If you shoot some more details about what you aim on doing, I can give you more specific details. If you're just looking to burn some chips with software that's already out there, you might want to consider contacting someone in the community to burn them for you and ship them as it'll be cheap and painless.

535

(9 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

The entire process can be broken down into 3 main categories.


[1] EPROM chips
[2] Programming hardware (ie, EPROM burner)
[3] Programming software and source code

.
[1] EPROM chips
----------------------

This step is generally the easiest. A quick google search will get you an idea of what EPROM chip, chips or family of chips can be used on your target platform. Sometimes you'll even be able to read the info off of your donor carts' existing EPROM chips. These chips can be sources on sites like digikey, direct from manufactures and on sites like eBay. If you're buying bulk, look around a bit as prices can vary a lot.


[2] Programming hardware (ie, EPROM burner)
-------------------------------------------------------------
EMROM burners have come down in price a lot in recent years. Even USB models can be had for under $100, generally. However, I still find you get more bang for your buck with the parallel models. If you have a parellel port (or a USB parellel port) then I'd recommending looking in that direction to save a bit of money. I have a Willem EPROM burner from SIVAVA (https://www.sivava.com/EPROM_Programmer_5.html) and I've had no complaints with the linux programming software for it. Obviously, you want to make sure that the programmer supports the target chip you aim to use! If you are certain that you'll only ever be programming a certain type of chip, you can go pretty cheap here but I recommend a unit that supports as wide a variety of chips as your budget can afford, it'll save you in the long run.

I also have a homemade ATMega-based burner and there are lots of options for using AVR chips or Arduinos to build your own EPROM burner. A good resource can be found here (http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=163682.0). The downside here is that a simple burner like this will probably only support one chip or family of chips. You could design a more complex burner but then you're doing a lot more work and it's probably easiest to just spend $50 on a more professional device.


[3] Programming software and source code
-------------------------------------------------------

The first thing you'll want to look into is the code that you plan on using or writing. Depending on the target platform, you will probably find a variety of software packages for writing and burning your code. Some will be full-fledged IDEs with all the compilation, linking, and burning done with a click of the build button and others will simply be a little utility that takes your finished object code and burns it.

Without knowing exactly what you aim to do, it's hard to say exactly what sort of software you'll need but for bare minimum burning capabilities there are lots of open-source options and your EPROM burner hardware will probably have it's own software or recommended software. One thing to keep in mind if you aim to do the coding yourself (as opposed to simply burning pre-built code) is that you probably want to do a bit of research into the most accurate emulators available for your target platform, it's better to do as much of your debugging on an emulator as possible for your platform.

Hey Delek, one thing that'd be nice would be support for windows symbolic links. I have a very large folder of samples and I tried adding a shortcut to the folder into the Deflemask /samples directory but it doesn't parse the shortcut as a symbolic link (simply listing it as "shortcut.lnk"). If it's not too hard to add, it'd be a welcome addition.

537

(1,620 replies, posted in General Discussion)

This is my "medium" size setup. No Amiga or Atari ST but still more than just a Gameboy and an MC-10.

Confirmed as working flawlessly on an MSI Wind U123 running Windows XP.

539

(37 replies, posted in General Discussion)

TylerBarnes wrote:
jefftheworld wrote:

Don't forget that a sound can't be copyrighted. So if you sample individual sounds rather than elements of a composition you'll be fine.

Ie, sampling a snare drum is safe, sampling a bar of drums may not be.

I may or may not know what I'm talking about.

You're sorta right. The way I was always taught is that the recording itself is the media in question and every waveform in that recording is subject to the copyrights. Will anyone recognize a single snare hit from a semi popular song? Probably not. My advice is if you sample, you should also plan on modifying it enough to be able to call it you're own.

The performance and the arrangement may be copyright, but "the sound of a snare" is not a valid copyright. It's possible that someone would try to take you to court to sue over stealing their "performance" of a single hit of a snare but they'd be so unlikely to win and potential remuneration would be so small it wouldn't be likely to happen.

540

(15 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Most of the flash cart programmers out there use the parallel port, but you can buy a USB parallel port if your computer lacks one.

541

(37 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Don't forget that a sound can't be copyrighted. So if you sample individual sounds rather than elements of a composition you'll be fine.

Ie, sampling a snare drum is safe, sampling a bar of drums may not be.

It's my real name backwards.

543

(20 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Cipher_Punk wrote:

I am going to have to stretch my bandwidth for this event to run the livestream in less than optimal conditions (seriously, convention internet is extortion) so I'll need local copies of anything. I am not opposed to buying albums from you all; I mostly just wanted to be sure I had permissions to use them. Of course, free is always better. tongue

Download links are easy to find on my site (the albums can be downloaded as a single .zip with mp3 or flac, or individually as mp3) but if you have any questions or need different file formats just shoot me an email or PM.

544

(13 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

"8-Bit" doesn't mean anything meaningful aside from talking about a time period (The days of the 8-bit processors in early microcomputers).

If you want to be really anal, chiptune music isn't anything to do with any number of bits, but is music made with early PSG/FM soundchips. There are lots of different ways you could measure the number of "bits" used by these chips; do you use the addressing bits, the data/register bits, the number of bits on the DAC, the number of bits on the main CPU bus, the number of bits that the keyboard matrix uses? Who fucking cares?

I really love working with hardware, it's fun for me and helps me stay creative. I love the unique sounds of the SID, the AY/YM, the 2A03 and many more and I love working on the hardware that these chips were originally found on, but I also love the chiptune aesthetic in general. Who cares how someone achieves that aesthetic if the music sounds good?

TL;DR: Fuck all 8 bits.