33 Reply by metropeak

(14 replies, posted in Motion Graphics)

I've heard of Milkymist (http://milkymist.org/3/mmone.html) - don't know much else though.

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34 Reply by metropeak

(36 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Signed up! That process was tricky though - required a tough password and then the question at the bottom may confuse some people who want to participate - not everyone is an expert on all FM hardware!

You've also fallen into the trap many new forums have - too many categories. Better to have 2-3 categories at first till the memberbase grows. Just a suggestion.

Go to forum: General Discussion

35 Reply by metropeak

(143 replies, posted in Sega)

Thanks for the feature suggestions guys, updated the original post. Those have been in the original design since the start (we discussed a lot of features a few months back), but I forgot to include them here.

thebitman wrote:

I know that for a fact most of the Sonic community would be into this. Is VGM going to be the only sound driver supported, and will it be possible to adapt this for other drivers later?

Writing the VGM driver in Z80 is one of the toughest jobs Mike is facing right now, so that format is going to take priority over anything else. It is also the only format people are able to easily create their own songs in with VGM Music Maker. This means other formats are not really on the drawing board right now - I appreciate the support though. If this changes I'll let you know.

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36 Reply by metropeak

(143 replies, posted in Sega)

I have been working with Mike Stamper since February, the guy who wrote VGMPLAY, to co-ordinate an improved native VGM player - it will feature playback controls and a Chaotix soundtest style piano view as the song plays.

He has been trying to move the VGM player coding from the 68K processor to the Z80 chip to free up up the 68K for more playback and graphical enhancements.  Problem is the Z80 is not fun to program for, so it has been taking a while for him to do. It's not a fully fledged tracker but will still have a number of usability improvements as well as graphical. I suggested the following to him:

Track Controls: Play/Pause/Resume, and "trigger keys" - a certain controller button or combo triggers instant playback of a specific track.
Snap-to-Bar A-B Loop: If it can detect the start of each bar, a way of doing an A-B loop between bars would be great for live performance and improvisation.
Transpose: being able to transpose the VGM up or down.
Flexible Playlist: in-ROM playlist sequence setup (with option to wait for trigger on track-end, or continue automatically)

Suggested here:
Mute/Solo Channels - Thanks herr_prof
Tempo Adjustment - Thanks Theta_Frost

How many of these features will appear in the final version remains to be seen but he has shown interest in all of them. Please post if you're interested in seeing this happen, since Mike needs to know there is support out there for him to be motivated enough to get this complete.

Go to forum: Sega

37 Reply by metropeak

(36 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I'd never heard of Slowtracker 2 - sounds like a good way to breathe life into some 386/486/Pentium machines. Not sure how many people really do it this way though, depends on the type of chipmusic and how "legit" you want to be I guess.

But yeah, some funny bits in there.

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38 Reply by metropeak

(10 replies, posted in Sega)

Perhaps an easier solution would be some way of holding the cart securely in place inside the genesis. You can get mini bungee cords from home depot that are probably good enough, and have to be other options too. Just clean the connector first. Trying to replace the cart slot sounds risky unless you're experienced with soldering, and trying solder the everdrive directly in the genesis sounds like quite a sacrifice, you're ruining a perfectly good genesis...

Go to forum: Sega

39 Reply by metropeak

(143 replies, posted in Sega)

I would be interested to see at least a native VGE (from VGM Music Maker) or VGM player that had:
* better visuals than just a static screen, like actually showing the notes being played in the style of a tracker or some other visualization
* an interface to toggle different patterns, sections or tracks, making it more useful for live performance

Go to forum: Sega

40 Reply by metropeak

(16 replies, posted in Sega)

Wow nice detective work - I owe you one dude! That thing sure is picky, that's great though, should be able to whip up a script to batch convert all my OPMs now and update my site, thanks big_smile

Go to forum: Sega

41 Reply by metropeak

(16 replies, posted in Sega)

Thanks for the comments!

But yeah, I was hoping to avoid extracting them from the VGM again, since I'll have no way to match them up with my already extracted, split and sorted OPMs...

Go to forum: Sega

42 Reply by metropeak

(16 replies, posted in Sega)

robugaa wrote:

On a side note, I think it would be cool if someone could figure out how to write an algorithm to determine what type of patch each .tfi is (brass, guitar, bass, bells, etc) based on the register data or w/e, and organize them into folders accordingly, with the name of the game and song still intact somehow. Idk, just an idea that was floating around in my head.

Would sure beat having to manually categorize them like I had to do for my Sonic 1 soundpack release. Link:
http://metropeak.ca/packs/[SotXB]%20[Vol.01]%20Sonic%20the%20Hedgehog%201/index.html
(silly messageboard keeps breaking the link, copy and paste the whole thing, same for the link below)

I did use scripts to break apart the OPMs and in the process remove duplicates which helped.

Anyway, I'm actually having trouble myself converting the OPMs I released there into TFIs. vopmxtfi.exe gives me the same "0 instruments converted" error - even with single OPMs, is there something wrong with the format of these files? This is a sample file: http://metropeak.ca/packs/[SotXB]%20[Vol.01]%20Sonic%20the%20Hedgehog%201/A-LEADS/Accordion%20%28MZ%234%29%20%28CREDITS%2313%29.opm

Something I'm missing? Perhaps something wrong with the format?

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43 Reply by metropeak

(1,383 replies, posted in Sega)

Great project little-scale, I really hope another batch of these is made available for purchase soon! Would be great to put my old Megadrive to some use in my studio, it's an asian model 1 megadrive which I held onto for having pretty decent sound quality.

Go to forum: Sega