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View topic - any sms presets for vgm music maker

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  • Joined: 25 Feb 2016
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  • Location: ciletz, OR
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any sms presets for vgm music maker
Post Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 6:24 pm
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could make some instruments for vgm music maker that are from master system games. All of the genesis games had their instruments ripped, but none have been made from the sms, sg1000 or game gear.
I was thinking of going back into vgm music making in the future, but this time I would really like to fokus on 8 bit sega systems, as my brother has a game gear and because the sms comunity has mostly been dominated by europeans. I'm not descriminating on foregners, I'm just saying it doesn't get so mutch love in my country. Of course, since I am part irish, there's a chance that if my irish ancestors were still alive by 1987, they would have owned a master system rather than an NES.
If anyone was able to recreate the sms instruments in vgmmm, please post them here.
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  • Joined: 28 Nov 2014
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 12:48 am
Interestingly, I tried to look into this a little over a week ago. I gave up prematurely when vgmck was not working the way i thought it would.

You might be able to create "instruments" by importing vgms into mod2psg and looking at the volume envelopes. I'm guessing you could get the same effect be creating a volume envelope for a voice in vgmck or similar program. I have not actually verified this, but I think the solution lies in that direction. Some instruments also have pitch modulation which i am not sure how to recreate in the mml to vgm tools available.

It would be nice if there were a tutorial for beginners. MD music has instrument presets available, but it takes a bit more for sms. I'm not sure if the 8 bit generation pre or pseudo SMPS games have pre defined instruments at all or if it's even possible. I originally thought of making a database of voices for use if i figured out the trick, but i don't have a good understanding of interpreting vgm data as timbre.

You might want to look at the sonic disassemblies. I always confuse them, but I think only the MD versions had predefined instruments.

I'd love to know how to recreate instrument tones in vgm music maker or deflemask or vgmck etc, but i decided it was a bit too much for me, and I don't have as much time available at the moment.

It would be nice to have some contributions to this year's contest. A tutorial was recently made with programming a simple game which I have unfortunately not had time for. There are a few music makers on this site which might be able to answer your question, but i don't know if the answer lends itself to a forum post.

If you arrive at a solution, even a partial one, you could also post here for the benefit of future visitors.
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  • Joined: 15 Sep 2009
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:04 am
Keep in mind that especially PSG instruments are done differently in many programs and sound drivers.

SMPS (in all versions) usually stores an array of "volume values" with one value for each frame. PSG instruments are global to all songs of a game.
Sonic 1 SMS uses an ADSR-like algorithm. Instruments are encoded into the sequence data and have exactly 6 bytes.
In most sound drivers, PSG instruments are only volume envelopes, btw - pitch modulation is done separately.

From what I remember about VGM MM, it uses some of the Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release settings of the FM instrument editor to define how the PSG volume envelope is defined.
So looking at SMPS drivers will give you barely any clues about PSG instruments in VGM MM.

In general though, you try to emulate the volume envelope of a real instrument.
A harp or bell sound for example starts with 100% volume and fades to 0% pretty quickly. A trumpet-like sound fades to 70% volume and stays there. Strings might have a small fade-in effect.
The "typical" PSG instrument starts at 100% and fades to 50% (or even 25%) at a varying speed and stays at that level.
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