240114 - Jamuary2024 - PSG Tracks Only Liven MEGA Synthesis
Вставка
- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- If you'd like to support the channel I will make a small profit from any purchase you make after using one of these links:
Amazon UK - Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Audio Interface amzn.to/3zYoVvo
Amazon USA - Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Audio Interface amzn.to/3BIZXQm
Amazon UK - Rode NT1A Microphone amzn.to/43jG3Zj
Amazon USA - Rode NT1A Microphone amzn.to/3CfezrS
Alternatively you can grab a 'Pay What You Want' album from my Bandcamp or an instrument, kit or badge from my Etsy.
chrislody.band...
www.etsy.com/u...
Full Disclosure: I occasionally take on freelance work at Sonicware on an hourly rate producing synth & sample sound design, beta testing, checking English text, video manuals etc. This video wasn't paid for directly but as a result of my work with Sonicware it is marked as Paid Promotion
So someone asked me in the comments (@ArtFluids) If I could make a demo track on the Liven MEGA Synthesis using just the PSG tracks, so here it is. Using the Liven MEGA like this makes it sounds quite a lot like the 8 Bit Warps, but I'm only using a very small part of it's feature set. I've restricted myself to not playing notes with the square below an A2 like the original hardware, but it can actually play lower than that. Also no FX at all plus the noise and pulse play in mono mode.
The Liven MEGA Synthesis seeks to recreate the audio capabilities of the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis. So the Sega Mega Drive was built upon the hardware in Sega's previous console, the Master System / Sega Mark III. The sound capabilities of that machine were 4 channels of audio consisting of 3 square wave channels and 1 noise/pulse (under quite specific restrictions). So the Mega Drive / Genesis contained that sound chip too and was mostly used during music to add layers of square waves to the sound or noisy percussion, it was rarely used up front.
The MEGA Synthesis emulates that chip and users can program it from 2 dedicated tracks. So you're a little restricted in the fact that a track can only play one sound at once, though using automation you can change the sound on the fly. Using automation, Track 5 is playing drums and a pulse bass (on even steps only but somehow that still sounds fine 🤷♂️) while Track 4 plays everything else which must use the same envelope, modulation settings etc at any one moment. So it's more restrictive in some ways than original hardware, but also it's less restrictive in other ways like allowing 4 voices of noise, square or pulse to play at the same time. So like most of the features on the MEGA, it captures the overall sound without being overly concerned about super specific technical restrictions.
/ chrislodymusic
/ chrislodymusic
chrislody.redb...
/ chrislodymusic
#ChrisLody
It would be cool if there was a way to fade from it just being PSG into the FM sounds. Like as if the quailty and color hmjust transforms
Awesome man. I’ve been trying to find out a way to make longer songs than just getting to 132 steps and being looped back around. I can see here that you’re switching patterns to essentially change verses. Is that how you have to do it? If so, can you copy an entire pattern to another pattern, if say I wanted to keep the baseline or drumbeat flowing, but modify the melody? Rather than me having to start all over again and reprogram tracks 1-5 just to create say, a second verse or chorus? I hope that makes sense? Thanks for any help you can give me 😊
Yes that's how it works. So create a pattern, press Func+Ptn to save it into a slot and press OK, then you can press Func+Ptn again but choose a different pattern slot before you press okay to copy the pattern. The you can modify it and save again. You can also use the pattern chaining feature to play these patterns back in sequence which you can access by pressing the Ptn button twice and selecting multiple patterns
Alternatively you can use the Copy and Paste functions (Func+ the keys with Copy & Paste) below them to copy whole tracks from pattern to pattern
So you CAN make Master System music with this. Cool.
Yes with the caveat of having to control 4 channels from 2 tracks, but it certainly makes all the right noises 😁
@@ChrisLodyMusic They say limitation breeds creativity. 🤷♂️ I only have a 2 channel interface, so I just have to layer stuff, anyway.
This is just great : )
I'm interested in getting one of these but it keeps selling out its run ! LOL
Wondering how it would sound paired with the 8bit warps ... ?
Yes hopefully Sonicware start making bigger batches 😄 Pairing it with the 8 Bit Warps is definitely something I'll try at some point. It'll probably end up sounding like an arcade machine as they were often capable of plenty of synth voices
That was the first thing i thought of when i saw this ! LOL
Thanx by the way for the great vids ! Anytime i need to figure out something on these Sonicware synths you always have a vid to cover it ! 🤘
Great as always ! Hope you can find the time to make a full tutorial of this machine
Edit : just found part 1 of the tutorial on you channel 😊 thank you !
Thanks for the self edit 😄 Have fun👍
Really awesome! I want one of these so bad, I grew up with a Sega Genesis after the NES, and I still love all those old chiptune sounds.
Yes me too. Good memories 😁
Very cool for just the PSGs.
Question though: I haven’t found a way to stop a pattern and have the notes continue ringing out. I’m getting around this by just muting the tracks but I wish it didn’t just hard stop everything with the play button. Any tips? Am I missing some setting?
Stopping a pattern will always kill all voices so yes using the mutes is the best way to do things, at least on the MEGA with the pattern mute mode anyway.
Hey, thanks! It sounds awesome!
You're welcome, quite a satisfying thing to try 😁
Very fun sound! Nice work!
Thank you 😁
A MASTERpiece!
Ha thank you 😄
Is it analog bc of the recreated chips?
I think predictive text butchered your question 😄 If I understand correctly, I talk about the Legacy mode in the main tutorial which enables you to turn on and off the YM2612's slightly faulty 9 bit DAC per channel. It doesn't affect the PSG channels
@@ChrisLodyMusic thank you for the response, I misspoke I am wondering about the recreated chips, what is the YM2612 why was it recreated what does that mean, it seems like this would make it a very unique synth?
Oh I see what you mean now, sorry. No it's not analog. The YM2612 was an FM synthesis microchip developed by Yamaha. FM synthesis was developed by Yamaha as a way to bring digital synthesis to the market starting with their famous DX7. The YM2612 has a cut down version of what the DX7 was capable of in terms of spec but because of it's use in game soundtracks is highly regarded. It's not manufactured anymore so Sonicware have emulated it, by which I mean it's a digital recreation of a digital device.
@ChrisLodyMusic Ohhh, so it is like an emulation of the YM2612, not the actual chip?
Sad they don't make the real ones anymore, those would be neat to play with once I get some more soldering experience.
Yes it's purely a software recreation of the YM2612. You can still buy old stock YM2612s but some of those will be salvaged chips which are not always of the highest quality unfortunately. This video will explain better than I can ua-cam.com/video/k72SFBOZ_lw/v-deo.htmlsi