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San Francisco

Actually... found this guy.
http://milkcrate.com.au/littlescaleweb/midi_mapping.pdf
waaay clear and more visual.

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wedanced wrote:

Actually... found this guy.
http://milkcrate.com.au/littlescaleweb/midi_mapping.pdf
waaay clear and more visual.

Very helpful, thank you.

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United Kingdom

Hi Seb,

I was reading your previous blog posts on your website. I was wondering how close are you to completing an instruction manual for the GENMDM, as your website mentions you planned to create one back in 2012. smile

Would be great to get some specific tips/tricks on using this device to its full potential.

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Hi,

I'm still waiting for my unit that I ordered on 1 Dec 2012, I was wondering how many others are still waiting? And if Seb reads this, good luck on building those units!!

Cheers, peace, bless

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Brighton

Yep, you are not the only one.

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Phoenix, Az, USA

Also eagerly, yet patiently waiting.

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Baltimore

Yep.  Still waiting. 
Also ordered on December 1st.

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So... I'm getting some crazy amounts of aliasing. Is this how the Megadrive actually sounds or do I have a whack console? I got my hands on a japanese model since I read on some forums that they had the best sound output.

It's like... I have a hard time hearing there's an actual sine tone underneath the aliasing.

Might just be that I just need to figure this out.

Last edited by _-_- (Nov 29, 2013 10:47 pm)

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FRANCE
_-_- wrote:

So... I'm getting some crazy amounts of aliasing. Is this how the Megadrive actually sounds or do I have a whack console? I got my hands on a japanese model since I read on some forums that they had the best sound output.

It's like... I have a hard time hearing there's an actual sine tone underneath the aliasing.

Might just be that I just need to figure this out.

Here is what you should get if you got an early model 1... >> http://www.alyjameslab.com/tutorials/MD1_LADDER.wav
what you call "aliasing" is a known "bug" in the early YM2612 DAC. It is better known as the "Ladder effect" in the MD scene.
Or maybe you actually got real aliasing but it is not going to happen on the sine signal alone (just one operator with no modulation).

I know well this effect as I have emulated it in my FMDrive 2612 Vst ... please post a recording of your crazy amount of aliasing and your console model.

Best
AJ

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That is exactly how it sounds. Damn it!
I just wrote aliasing for lack of a better term.

Thank you for clearing that up!

It's a shame though. It's a very nice MD.
I read alot about european models being flaky (with the va7 on later models and all) - so I found this japanese one rather cheap, and since you can discern an early one (which I read was supposed to have nice quality) with the "AV Intelligent ..." text I thought it would be the safest bet.

Well, well.

Last edited by _-_- (Nov 30, 2013 9:10 am)

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FRANCE

There is a common mistake about the MD sound...
To simplify what is considered "best natural sound" is early model 1 that contains "the ladder effect" you talked about and the output circuitry gives a nice bass response.
then there is some later MD1 and some MD2 that are considered "bad sounding" they do not have the ladder effect anymore but the output circuitry is crap...
Also there is some MD2 with a modified DIY output (CCM crystal clear mod for example) that gives the cleanest sound.

Anyway, I personally prefer the distortion (ladder effect) that gives the MD output a special character smile

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San Francisco

I personally am cool with my MD2 (unmodded). While distorted in the output circuit, it does an ok job. I find that when I write for the machine, I auto adjust when doing my sound design so that it sounds good for the model. The only time it bothers me is if I use the same patches on another model.

That CCM does look good though.

The MD2 version of the sound chip technically has the cleaner sound but a terrible amp system if i recall. The original chip was revised to get rid of that ladder effect and with higher resolution. People seem to like the first model because it was the original and people got used to the sound characteristics both good and bad parts.

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Milwaukee, WI

I'm a big fan of the modded model 2 sound.

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Aly, wedanced - interesting. I did find it far more enjoyable when I "figured it out" and made sounds that worked with the ladder effect. But the softer more subtle sounds just didn't sound good at all in my opinion. Especially not with a short percussion-like envelope.

Anyway, I'll be sending the unit back (hooray for swedish return policy) and have ordered a european mk1 instead.

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FRANCE

Yeah the ladder effect can be good for distorted sounds, for example starting a line at low volume will start distorted then slowly becomes cleaner as the volume increase. This type of effect is impossible to make with a clean sounding model.
On the other hand I agree that a clean FM sound is preferable for most of the things smile
That is why I got both and even an YM2151 with external DAC when in need.
On top of that there is even a mod for MD1 that consist of replacing the YM2612 by a YM3438 chip (the one that is included in the custom asic of MD2) however there is a need to keep the YM2612 only for the Timer to not break compatibility...

I have added both models in my FMDrive 2612 VSTi for the same reason smile

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Are there plans for making one's own around?