Thanks for the tip, poke. A friend of mine is going to the MSX fair in Nijmegen, and I asked him to buy me a music module if he could find them cheap. I have no idea if MuSICA will support it, but I hear there are a bunch of trackers that do anyway. Personally, I enjoyed the difficulties of only being able to work with one custom voice, but I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a hoarder when it comes to hardware 
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Sweden
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Eanske, Holland
ah, I got one left for 25 euros if you want. I was gonna attened Nijmegen like every year,
but can't make it since I'm on holiday 
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Milwaukee, WI
MSX music keeps seeming cooler and cooler! Any ideas where I could grab one?
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New York City
If you only want an MSX computer don't be looking for a Turbo R, you are better looking for a MSX2...
You can get one of the european Phillips MSX2 machines if you live in Europe, for a nice price.
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Milwaukee, WI
I'm in the USA. While I really only want one with the built in FM chip, I totally feel like geeking out on one of these and a Turbo R seems top of the line! 
I'll keep looking around...
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New York City
One with the FM thing built in means you have to get an MSX2+ and those are rare (like a Sanyo Wavy FD70, a Sony HB-F1XDJ or a Panasonic FS-A1FX).
It's easier for you to get a normal MSX2 and add the FM-PAC or Moonsound module later!
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New York City
ant1 wrote:
OPL4
That's Moonsound yes 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonsound
"18 channels of FM sound as well as 24 channels of 12 and 16 bit sample-based synthesis"
OM NOM NOM NOM
Last edited by akira^8GB (Jan 19, 2010 12:20 am)
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Milwaukee, WI
Hmmm, I saw that Moonsound but is it supported by anything? I thought the SCC, Phillips Music Module, FM-Pac, and FRANKY!!! would be my best bet but even there I'm running into cartridge slot issues! Maybe the Moonsound could simplify things a bit...
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uhajdafdfdfa
"Moonblaster for Moonsound FM
Moonblaster for Moonsound Wave
Moonsofts Amiga MOD file Player for Moonsound
Mid2opl4 midi file player for Moonsound
Meridian SMF midi file player"
according to the wikipedia page, I bet there's loads more too.
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Milwaukee, WI
I couldn't find much about those first two but they look to be the only ones for composing. Time to dig for apps...
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New York City
I don't know of any tracker that could use an FM-PAC + SCC chip.
POKE, any light shedding for us? Is it possible?
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SCC sounds cool. do you need a special pack to make tunes for SCC?
Just curious 
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Eanske, Holland
Yes there are a few trackers that support both iirc.
What comes to mind is oracle, and maybe meridian.
As for scc: there are a couple of trackers for it but i never
played around with it ( dont have an scc cart).
I think there was a nice one made about 2 years ago.
I wouldnt see the point in a turboR or msx2+ either
just for the fmpac. I prefer the music module (Opl)
due to the 16 custom voices. Fmpac only has 1, and 15
presets. So its always 1 custom fmpac voice that can play
as a standalone, all other voices played simultaneously would
have to be presets then.
The nice thing is having both fmpac and music module play custom
voices togethet, you can get very good fm leads that sound fat,
crisp and filtery.
As for moonsound (opl4): this cartridge is a scene developed extra,
manufactured by sunrise. Long sample playback and 4 operator fm
and bells & whistles. Moonblaster wave is the commonly used
tracker for it.
Ill upload a sneak prev soon for a new compilation,
so it gives a good idea of what you can do with msx fm.
Msx is by far the easiest way if you wanna composefm on a real 8 bit machine.
Pcs even read the 3,5" floppies since ms dos and msx dos are virtually
the same. Msx basic is by microsoft, so that explains.
Oh yeah i still need to put more ram into my msx2 if i want
to run oracle. That tracker seems to be very good but takes quite
some memory
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Eanske, Holland
Theta_Frost wrote:
Hmmm, I saw that Moonsound but is it supported by anything? I thought the SCC, Phillips Music Module, FM-Pac, and FRANKY!!! would be my best bet but even there I'm running into cartridge slot issues! Maybe the Moonsound could simplify things a bit...
You can buy slotexpanders. I think it expands to 5 extra slots, taking up 1.
And if youre dead set on opll (fmpac) you could buy an OCM,
the one chip msx. Has fmpac and scc emulated as part of the
hardware