Wow! that's huge. Gimme some time to think about this great reaction... Gtx, Michiel
> At 06:09 PM 9/27/02 +0200, you wrote: > >Even the mere possibility of playing MIDI files on MoonSound alone would > >already be great. Adapting Meridian for MoonSound use would be even more > >awesome, 'couse I really have to agree with you on that Moonblaster is > >limited in its possibilities. > > aaargh! PLEASE forget about midifiles!!!!!!! > > Playing a midifile on a moonsound is the worst idea in the history of bad > ideas! This would be the same as converting a score (from a random book you > buy in a music shop) to, say, fm-pac or/and msx audio. It just doesn't work > that way! It will definitely sound like lamer-plastic. Listen to microcabin > FM tunes, do they sound like the average casio dinky-toy you bought in the > 80's? Nope, Micorcabin tunes sound better, but those keyboards mostly had > the same chips, or at least comparible chips. I mean to say that if ppl > spent some programming on dinkey-toy keyboards, they can sound way better > aswell. Midifiles can sound good on your 2000$ Roland/Korg/Yamaha etc., but > these models have at least 2..8 dsp functions onboard (reverb, chorus), > filters, and way more ROM for their instruments. Surething that midifiles > sound good then, have you ever tried to connect your msx audio to a reverb > unit? You'll be surprised how fat that can be! DSP chips can make the worst > casio sound reasonable. Anyway, even on mid/high-end keyboards, midifiles > sound dull. Who the hell needs that 'gunshot' or that insane 'bird tweet', > not to say that the 'fretnoise' sounds like an old granny with breathing > problems. You have to thank Roland for this stupid setup, it was their > idea! :) > > Anyway, the moonsound doesn't have DSP chips nor does it have reasonable > ROM sounds (let's face it!). So, to compare it with "the world around us", > you shouldn't use the card like that. The BEST way to get big sounds from > the Moonsound is to carefully program it.. pay all attention to details and > don't ever try to accomplish things the same way you're used to do with > your other normal keyboards/synths. > > So, let's judge what we have then: > > 24 wave channels, playing ROM and RAM samples. Yeah well, the initial > release should have had the full 512kb, now we're stuck to 128kb as not > everyone has 512kb.. (and downsampling isn't an option as many samples > probably are already 11khz/8bit :) I can guarantee that 24 wavechannels > are far enough channels for most of our tunes, although it (or mbwave ??) > lacks volume-ramping (meaning that you hear ticks between notes on the same > channel). > Unfortunately there's a number of limits in mbwave whichs prevents good > voicecontrol; (based on the version I used some months ago, didn't use it > much lately) unable to make more instruments out of 1 sample, bad frequency > tables (try to copy some ROM strings to it, you can't get it in-tune!) and > some minor things. > > The pattern editor: many peoply will say that they want more events per > track. Honestly this is the least important issue! (surprised?) It's not > unimportant, but there are things that really have more priority. Mostly > they are simple things like channel-naming, quick mute/unmute keys, more > pattern-scan levels/stages (to prevent waiting seconds when you're working > in position 150 orso). IMO there are 2 ways to give the user more freedom: > multiple events per step OR an advanced instrument editor. This instrument > editor can provide special 'new' voice controls like pitch-envelope (which > is basicly automaticly pitching like [C 4]->[P+3]->[L+3]), custom LFO (for > pitch/volume/pitch/FM brightness) including a smooth random pattern (to add > analog/acoustic fluctuations, you'll be amazed how much this can do!) and > random timing differences (to make all things less static). > > FM: FM rules! Actually I think I'd use FM rather than Wave :) With FM you > can polish and tweak until it's right, but above all: it doesn't sound > lo-fi! FM-strings/pads can sound better than those in the ROM. The ultimate > pattern-editor has 24 wave and 18 FM together. > > -> The most important rule to remember is: better a good synthetic sound > than a bad pcm sample. <- > > darn, it's past 00:30 > > anyway, it would be great if meridian could be the package we're w8ing for > since 1994 :) > > ttyl... (Zzzz..) > > _______________________________________________ > MSX mailing list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > Info page: http://lists.stack.nl/mailman/listinfo/msx > ______________________________________________________________ Gratis e-mail en meer: http://www.dolfijn.nl/ _______________________________________________ MSX mailing list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Info page: http://lists.stack.nl/mailman/listinfo/msx
