Music tracker with HX-MU900 keyboard support

Resident (34)

21-05-2013, 16:38

Hi guys,

I've got a quite specific question that I could not find on the forum yet.
I have bought a Toshiba HX-MU900 music module, including the keyboard.
The built-in software from Toshiba is not really made for making arrangements of music, like Moonblaster is.

However, in moonblaster, I could not find any support for my music keyboard. (is it available?)

I would like to record pieces of music by playing my keyboard, an then arrange then in a moonblaster-like interface.

Do you know of any MSX music tracker that will be capable of doing that?

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Por anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

21-05-2013, 20:31

Hi losje.

In Moonblaster, you can use the keyboard (or any MIDI instrument) only to audit the instruments (push [F3] in the instrument menu). That's unfortunately as far as its MIDI support goes.

There is MIDI Saurus
http://www.generation-msx.nl/software/bit2/midi-saurus/1414/
but I think it needs additional hardware:
http://www.msx.org/wiki/MIDI-Saurus
I have never seen it in action, let alone used it myself, so I don't know if it's worthwhile.

TNI is working on a tracker for Moonsound:
http://www.tni.nl/products/ms2.html
which is planned to support MIDI, but it's still in development. I think one can become a beta-tester.

FAC Soundtracker Pro
http://www.generation-msx.nl/software/fac/fac-soundtracker-p...
supports MIDI, but I've understood that it doesn't work that well.
http://www.msx.org/wiki/FAC_Soundtracker

These guys are working on a way to import/convert MIDI files to MSX compatible (MML and MSD) files:
http://www.popolony2k.com.br/?p=859

And there's something called "Channel Pressure"
http://www.generation-msx.nl/software/the-bytewizards/channe...
which seems to be quite elusive:
http://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/hardware/philips-music-mod...

That's all I know, sorry.

Por Manuel

Ascended (19678)

21-05-2013, 21:14

Note that the HX-MU900 is NOT a MIDI keyboard. So MIDI is not relevant here.

Por losje

Resident (34)

22-05-2013, 12:23

Hi John,

At least thanks for the effort of putting this all together
As Manuel already said, the HX-MU900 is not a MIDI device, but specific to the Toshiba music module.

I'm still looking for a tracker with HX-MU900 support...
Hopefully somebody knows of the existence of a program that I can use for this!

Por syn

Prophet (2135)

22-05-2013, 15:03

Surprisingly this question has been asked many times, and keeps coming back. Imho is a shame that there is seemingly not much support for the (MIDI) keyboards softwarewise. Sometimes I wonder how many potential musicians the msx scene "lost" because of this.

In time (like in a few months/years when im more familiar with coding z80) I would really love to experiment with MIDI/keyboards and create some software that utilitize those.

Por losje

Resident (34)

23-05-2013, 15:01

Hmm too bad.. I know moonblaster has support for a virtual music keyboard (using the MSX "QWERTY" keyboard) but that is not real time. I could fabricate some hardware patch which maps the HX-MU900 keys to MSX keyboard, but that does not solve my multi-track recording issue.

Seems like an easy piece of additional programming in moonblaster, is anyone still working on that software?

Por syn

Prophet (2135)

23-05-2013, 16:56

moonblaster 1.4 is open source now, if you can code you can add it in yourself if you want

Por d-fader

Champion (293)

23-05-2013, 21:02

iirc I have implemented support for that keyboard in SCC Blaffer NT. Just like MB1.4 it's only in the instrument selection screen.

Por d-fader

Champion (293)

24-05-2013, 21:37

I've checked the source and although my z80 asm is very rusty, I can confirm the Toshiba keyboard is supported. From the active help (ctrl+h in the instrument selector) I read that you can use shift+f2 to select the keyboard type. Use that key combination until the toshiba keyboard is selected

Por msx fan finland

Champion (505)

04-06-2013, 05:08

If someone do this i will buy it too.
Im trying to learn how to make more music on msx.
i have got a several music modules too. like fm pac and midi pac and moonsound. but i try to combine psg and scc and other msx music formats together. so then i can make even more good msx music with my msx tr gt.