VGMPlay for MSX | MSX Resource Center (Page 47/56)

Expert (101)

18-10-2019, 12:25

Thanks Grauw! After flashing with FF's detection in the main slot is flawless, so with or without the BIOS dipswitch in 'ON' position.

However, in the Tecnobytes slotexpander VGMPlay still 'sees' a normal MoonSound cartridge.

Par alexito

Paladin (761)

18-10-2019, 19:25

Testing VGMPLAY Ver1.3 RC5 with my SANNO MKIII (MMM + PLAYSONIQ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKxq4ztvxPg

Par Grauw

Ascended (10821)

21-10-2019, 22:44

Interview (in English) with Spanish podcast Conexión MSX:

ConexiónMsx wrote:

A short interview to Laurens Holst is available in the english channel of MSX Connection.
Thanks @Grauw !

All english interviews are available at:
https://ivoox.com/podcast-msx-connection_sq_f1690994_1.html

Enjoy!

MSX Connection - 1x03 - Laurens Holst

Par ren

Paragon (1947)

27-11-2019, 20:20

Continued from openMSX 0.15.0 released news post

Grauw wrote:

Alisia Dragoon and Thunder Force work fine for me, but maybe I don't know the music well enough to notice any issues.

Tested some Alisia Dragoon, w/ VGMplay 1.3-RC5 on the latest available openMSX Win dev build (Vampier) (which, btw (hi Manuel ;)) hasn't updated anymore since commit 4057b29 + Fixato's latest build is from late August..)

Alisia Dragoon sounds pretty ok, but throughout the DCSG seems too loud, check e.g. the snares in Stage 1-3 & Stage 3.
Stage 4 sounds a bit off, esp. noticeable in the first section.

In Stage 6-1 the lead synth (DCSG again) is too loud (couple of seconds in)..

Is that stuff you can do something about, or is it perhaps also a situation like change something here, some other side effect is happening over there? :) Or perhaps it sounds better on real hw? Could some extra accompanying config/instruction per VGM pack help (just throwing a thought here)?

Gonna test some more (the other games), and 'll report, cheers!

Par Grauw

Ascended (10821)

27-11-2019, 22:40

First three things:

1. You can adjust the openMSX volume settings per sound chip.
2. The SN76489 has a slightly different noise sound compared to the one in the SEGA VDP (which Alisia Dragoon uses), so this could account for a difference in sound.
3. On a turboR the timing will be more accurate than on other machines, although it should still be plenty good, it can account for some subtle differences.

In principle VGMPlay requires zero configuration, it automatically picks the best matching chips to play on. VGMPlay also generally does not touch the music data from the VGM unless needed.

Taking the Alisia Dragoon DCSG for example, when played on a Franky or PlaySoniq (SEGA VDP inside) it will not touch the data at all. When played on a Musical Memory Mapper (SN76489 inside) it will generally play the data as-is but do a mild translation when a frequency of period 0 is used, because the SN76489 and SEGA VDP treat it differently (some Sega games do this). And lastly when playing DCSG on the internal PSG it does a full-blown emulation and although it comes close you should by no means expect perfection here. This also applies to playing OPN2 music on the OPM, this is also emulation.

Par Grauw

Ascended (10821)

27-11-2019, 22:25

@ren Btw here is an older vid where I captured Alisia Dragoon playing on my MSX turboR with a Yamaha SFG (YM2151 OPM) and Musical Memory Mapper (SN76489 DCSG):

https://youtu.be/weBaw1xxN_4?t=145

Par ren

Paragon (1947)

01-12-2019, 14:06

Yes, I realize the sound chip volumes can be adjusted, kinda assumed the defaults should be reasonable, but seems the SFG-05 output is way too low by default. To get a faithful representation of the MD tunes I now have a DCSG(MMM):SFG ratio of somewhere between 30:100 & 40:100 (have to crank my stereo way up )

If I spotted (thx for the vid link) correctly, you externally mix the SFG-05 with the MSX internal output. The MMM doesn't have discrete output I believe. Does the SFG-05 still send out an internal audio signal as well?

Stuff sounds better now indeed, Gauntlet IV sounds proper (how do you like those apples Grauw? ;) (That soundtrack makes for good demo material I think.. At least one should check out Sortie & Transparent Obstacle, omg ;))

Thanks!

- edit: oh wait, you're using the SFG-01 there... openMSX volume wise doesn't seem to make a difference there.. (near identical chips right?) When both plugged in VGMPlay picks the 01

Par Grauw

Ascended (10821)

01-12-2019, 15:11

ren wrote:

Yes, I realize the sound chip volumes can be adjusted, kinda assumed the defaults should be reasonable, but seems the SFG-05 output is way too low by default. To get a faithful representation of the MD tunes I now have a DCSG(MMM):SFG ratio of somewhere between 30:100 & 40:100 (have to crank my stereo way up )

I’m just playing the music data from the VGM so it kind of relies on an external mixing facility to reproduce the exact mixing from the original system (which varies) if it differs too much. Also openMSX mixing ratios may not be 100% perfect, and real MSXes also have differences in mixing balance.

For the NEC PC-xx series even between their own machines the mixing of the PSG with the FM of the OPN and OPNA (separate outputs on those chips) has quite big variations.

I do have a planned feature to support manually balancing chips in VGMPlay itself, but as it involves manipulating sound data as it is played you can imagine that it’s not a trivial thing to do.

ren wrote:

If I spotted (thx for the vid link) correctly, you externally mix the SFG-05 with the MSX internal output. The MMM doesn't have discrete output I believe. Does the SFG-05 still send out an internal audio signal as well?

I pulled loose the airwire inside the SFG-05 that connected the sound output to the MSX cartridge slot audio input. Otherwise mixing them is annoying because the mono output through the MSX will cancel out the stereo output (the filters give them a different phase so it doesn’t just amplify).

ren wrote:

- edit: oh wait, you're using the SFG-01 there... openMSX volume wise doesn't seem to make a difference there.. (near identical chips right?) When both plugged in VGMPlay picks the 01

Yes identical as far as sound reproduction is concerned. VGMPlay picks the first one it finds.

Par da_Dude

Resident (33)

07-12-2019, 15:26

Here is another upload from my updated 4GB VGM SDcard i have in my MFR.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/z89acbk2fiy9xix/SceneCAT_MSX_M...

These are all *.VGM files so a 'normal' MSX/MSX2/MSX2+ with VGMplay will run these without waiting for gunzip to unpack them before playing. I also removed all m3u/png files, and ofcourse I do keep the original Untouched VGMpacks in their *.VGZ format on PC. [damn you TR users! hehehe]

Usage:
You can Write this *.IMG to a 4gb SDcard using Win32DiskImager, or just unpack it with 7zip to a destination of choice and copy the content to whereever you'd like it.

The 'submssns'-folder contains fresh Submissions on VGMrips site/forum, but haven't been added to it's
database yet. these are actually the files recently added to this MSX.org Database.

Note: to keep this SDcard mostly with content from www.VGMrips.net and alike, i keep removing stuff from the Scene folder to make more free space for updates from those sources. Ofcourse i move these to other partition on my 32GB MFR SDcard.

VGM RULES! \0/

Greetz,

SceneCAT
https://www.twitch.tv/scenecat/videos

Par Grauw

Ascended (10821)

03-04-2020, 15:56

ToughkidCST Kim uploaded a nice comparison (with a nice surprise half-way in ):

SN76489(DCSG) vs DCSG played on MSX internal PSG with VGMPlay

I won’t say the “emulation” always works perfectly, but this is pretty spot on!