Hi guys,

I own 6 MSX machines, ranging from MSX1 to TurboR GT. But as emulators are getting better and better and as space in my condo gets more and more crowded, I seriously consider to get rid of all the hardware and move on to emulation-only.

But before I do so, I would like to know if it is hard to somehow build a tiny PCboard with SCC chip, feeding data to it via LPT or COM and connecting output to Line-In or Aux-In of the PC audio card.

I know this was done for PSG by Spectrum folks (AY on LPT project) and something similar was done with SID by C=64 folks. Did anyone do it? If yes, was it hard?

I don't mind ruining several Konami SCC game cartridges to scavenge the chip out of them. Those carts are loose (no box, no manual), so they aren't of particular value to anyone.

If you feel like you think it's a bad idea to dump actual hardware and break real game carts for better sound in MSX emulators, please don't bother wasting your breath on me. We just have very different views, and so let's just coexist, if we can't be friends and lovers

(this is a crosspost from MSX mail list)

Hmm, I wonder why you'd want to do that, as the emulation of the SCC in most MSX emulators is close to perfect already. Connecting the SCC to the line-in of a PC soundcard will not easily improve sound quality. Besides, after developing the device, you still need the software to support it. I'd stick to normal emulation

About getting rid of 6 MSX computers: you probably won't miss them, but do think (at least) twice about that GT. It's a very special machine. If you are to sell it, one day, you will regret what you did.

Yeah, I know I will

I need to buy a large new two-betroom condo to accomodate all my geeky needs

As of near-perfect SCC emulation, I am afraid I can't agree yet. Even OpenMSX doesn't sound like the real deal. Somehow sound from the real chip sound more sharp and vibrant...

I don't mind using soft-synth for MSX-Audio and MSX-Music, but SCC is a different matter

I think the (main) problem lies within filters on your soundcard and/or your amplifier/speakers. Connecting an external SCC to that same soundcard and/or amplifier/speakers will probably result in similar SCC quality (loss). I'll try and compare real SCC and emulated SCC on my equipment later this week, to check if I can hear the same differences. At least I can't say it ever bothered me before...

I already said in another thread that emulation's far from perfect, and it will always be other than perfect. Now I've tried BlueMSX, I must say I'm really impressed but it's still too far from being real (aside from the fact it doesn't emulate Turbo R yet).
But if you really want to go over to emu-only, I can't stop you. But please reconsider, since I know a lot of people who start slamming themselves because they gave away all of their hardware... Please don't rash, think it thrice over instead.

I think emulators oversample the SCC sound (compared to the actual cartridge), so it sounds more smooth on them.

Maybe you can sell/give away 5 of your MSXes and keep the GT? It's relatively compact considering all the stuff it has built in.

Emulating the SCC so that it sounds roughly the same as the real thing isn't hard, but making it sound exactly the same is hard. To do that, you would have to emulate the resistor array of the cartridge and also the filters inside the MSX which the sound passes through as well. Actually, the SCC doesn't sound the same on all MSX models, probably because the MSX internal filters are different.

I'm not even sure whether the analog stuff inside the cartridge and inside the MSX are dependent or independent. (I know very little about analog circuits.) If they are dependent, one would have to emulate the combination, instead of emulating each one separately (2 filters in a chain).

Yeah, this must be it... Filtest in cheap built-in AC97 PC codec... Hehe, I should buy myself a super uber audio card... Crative Audigy 2 ZS or whatever is the latest greatest money waste for PC

Quote:

I already said in another thread that emulation's far from perfect, and it will always be other than perfect.

You should try NLMSX then... I sure as hell can't hear the difference with a real SCC...

Thanks bro, I'll give it a try...

Here is info on how to hook up PSG to PC parallel port:

http://home.t-online.de/home/mirkoroller/ym2149/