Hi all, At the moment I'm very busy working on Meridian 2.2 to intgrate the MoonSound into it. The playroutines in Meridian has been prepared to handle all channels in the MoonSound. The technique I will use is called DCA (Dynamic Channel Assignment). This means that the wave and FM channels are not assigned to a fixed track number, but that they will be assigned dynamically to tracks, when the channels are needed. (the MIDI way...)
Some features I have in mind: - Available OPL4 channels: - 42 (24 wave + 18 2-operator FM) or - 41 (24 wave + 16 2-operator FM + 1 4-operator FM) or - 40 (24 wave + 14 2-operator FM + 2 4-operator FM) or - 39 (24 wave + 12 2-operator FM + 3 4-operator FM) or - 38 (24 wave + 10 2-operator FM + 4 4-operator FM) or - 37 (24 wave + 8 2-operator FM + 5 4-operator FM) or - 36 (24 wave + 6 2-operator FM + 6 4-operator FM). - The menubar will be extended by the 'Opl4' menu, containing: - Create wave tones (256) - Create 2-Operator FM tones (256) - Create 4-Operator FM tones (256) - Create Opl4 voices, 2 banks (128 GM + 128 user) - Create Opl4 drums, 2 drumkits (1 GM + 1 user) - Opl4 master settings (Wave/FM Mix and number of 4-OP FM) Advantages comparing to Moonblaster for MoonSound: - A program (=instrument) can be built up of more than 1 tone. Example: GM program 0 (piano) can be built up of 3 wave, 4 2-operator FM and 2 4-operator FM channels. In this case 1 single note played holds 9 (3+4+2) Opl4 channels. - I think the voices and drums will sound fatter, because a program can hold more than 1 channel. - More realistic MIDI approach according to the volume, because of the use of either the volume, expression and velocity data. Disadvantages: - No auto pitchbend - No auto fading Those features should be emulated in the old fashioned way using more steps. In case you think 'whow! 42 channels, is my good old Z80 processor capable to handle that number in DCA?' Well, I think it is capable, beacuse of the new play routine that buffers the data that has to be sent to the MoonSound. The timer of the MoonSound can already be selected in the menu 'Interface and timer'. This was easy because it's the same one as the timer in the Philips Music Module. Well, that was it. If you have some suggetions or ideas to improve this stuff, please let me know. Gtx, Michiel ______________________________________________________________ Gratis e-mail en meer: http://www.dolfijn.nl/ _______________________________________________ MSX mailing list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Info page: http://lists.stack.nl/mailman/listinfo/msx
