On Mar 9, 7:45 pm, "Radium" wrote:
On Mar 9, 6:55 am, "Richard Smol" wrote:
The CMS220 uses a Yamaha YMF262 chip, just as the Sound Blaster Pro I
once used. A lot of people actually love the sound of those old FM
chips since they sound oddly warm. I myself actually recorded some
stuff off my old SoundBlaster just because of the sound of that one
chip. It's just to say that I follow you so far.
Yes. Creative Music Synth does provide warm sounding qualities.
It's not commonly known as the "Creative Music Synth" though , so that
might cause quite a bit of confusion with people you ask about it.
You'd better refer to it as the "OPL3" or the "YMF262 chip", so people
will know what you're talking about.
There is a select group of people that likes the sound of this chip,
comparable to the Commodore SID scene and those people will not frown
upon it when you ask about this "non-professional" piece of equipment.
BTW: I personally believe that anything that makes sound can be used
professionally, but that's another discussion entirely.
If you are really smitten with the sound of the YMF262, you might try
to make a hardware unit that uses this chip. For instance, this one:
http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_fm.html
I am afraid though that you will have to assemble it yourself. I
didn't find any ready-built ones anyway. There are also other cards
that use the same chip, like the AdLib, so you might like to check
those out.
Oh Cool!!!
How much would it cost for me to get someone to assemble it for me?
You might join the forum on that site and ask politely if someone will
assemble it for you and how much they charge.
Alternatively - and actually even better - you might try to assemble
one yourself and use the forum as a source of help. People in that
scene are generally very helpful and when you're polite and show a lot
of self-dependency - e.g. you shouldn't ask about every tidbit, but
only when you get stuck. It's a great way to know more about the
technology you're using ... and you might even get to make that chip
sound even better.The stuff you need is also not very expensive, so
you can afford some misses.
But please, don't go on ranting on those forums like you do here. It
puts a lot of people off. Stay positive and focus on what you want:
the sound of that chip in a handy package.
So why don't you keep on using that same effect then? It's no use to
change the basic chip to accomodate your wishes.
Cuz, I'd rather all of the effects be performed via the digital FM
domain. Even before the FM carrier signal reaches the amplitude-
processing part. Better yet, instead of adding that effect, I would
like FM chip to be built based on that effect. IOW, the sounds should
be what they would be like if they were only the signals that the out-
of-phase signals were in the original stereo FM chip.
The "karaoke" effect doesn't have anything to do with FM though. It's
brute force phase cancellation, e.g. something you do on the resulting
audio. I would advise you to find out *why* you like that particular
sound. What is going on when you apply the effect? And why does it
sound good to you especially in combination with the YMF262 chip? BTW:
you never even mention the brand and type of the karaoke effect, so
nobody will be able to help you in that regard.
Personally, I would prefer the raw sound of the chip itself. It has
lovely bells, for instance, just look at this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtnUMpykQLc
Most of the sounds you hear are from that chip.
And here is where I totally don't get you anymore. The CMS220 has its
parrticular sound qualities just *because* of the severe limitations
of its sound chip. Upgrading its resolution and sample rate would
actually totally ruin the original characteristics. In short: you'd
get more or less the same thing as you can buy already (although
without that unrealistically high sample rate).
I doubt it. What makes you so sure?
Because the sound is caused by the technical specifications of the
chip. That counts for *all* hardware-devices. Take a SID-chip, for
instance.. it sounds radically different still (and is even more
primitive). Trust me, you want the chip to be as original as possible
to get your type of sound. The slightly out-of-phase character of the
YMF262 is caused by the limitations of that chip - frankly, it's an
error! But errors like that can sound lovely ... to some ears at
least
BTW: one think to consider is that the chips of that era were also
notoriously unstable, e.g. a chip could sound slightly different from
one production run to another. It might take some tweaking to get
exactly the same sound you like... but that is all part of the game!
Well, I gave you a site where schematics to make your own YMF262-based
synthesizer. You could enhance it with anything else you might desire,
so why don't you go for it?
Well, thanks a bunch for that website.
You're welcome. Now get to work to make your dream synth. Stay
positive and get out your soldering iron. Just make sure to take
safetly precautions
RS