Category: Platforms

  • Sega Sound Comparison

    sega_genesis2_1

    “There are many hardware and software options available to those that are writing music for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis video game console. Each option has its own unique flavour of sound upon playback, in terms of tone colour, spectrum, clipping / overdriven waveforms, signal to noise ratio and the amplitude of the signal.

    The aim of this page is to provide composers and musicians with an opportunity to listen to a number of the different models of Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. Below there are a series of recordings, made using the same music data and recorded using the same recording setup and gain structure. The resulting audio has not been normalized or affected in any way.”

    The page can be found here. Additional content will be added over time.

  • “Ahh.. the tape loading era!” by Ate Bit

    thx 4mat!

  • eMod Universal Tracker Appeared

    ss

    CHIPFLIP has news of a new universal tracker in the works for Windows:

    eMod is being made with a vision to provide several tools to work with music modules of any format, across multiple platforms (amiga included of course!).

    for now, only the player tool has been implemented; other tools will include a ripper, editor/sequencer, a formats ‘encyclopedia’, repair tool, convertor, and some other stuff. it’s been WIP for about a year. i’m thinking about releasing it as shareware but most probably it will become open source upon the first stable release.

    this alpha release implements music playback for four amiga formats; future composer 1.0-1.3, future composer 1.4, delta music 2.x, and protracker 4-channel modules.

    via English Amiga Board.

  • gwEm interview pt 2

    gwem

    This is the second part of our interview with gwEm, you can find the first part here.

    LB – In the maxYMiser FAQ you make the comment that the other trackers available for the machine lacked in some way, I was curious which limitations encouraged you to start on maxYMiser.

    gwEm – Well, there were 3 different trackers all doing something different, I wondered why.. then I read a deeply inspiring interview (note: links to myatari.net zip of May2003 issue which contains the interview) with the legendary Tao, which went into details about his techniques. I decided to put all the effects into one tracker.

    LB – Did you develop maxYMiser in secret for a while or were you getting input from other Atari experts?

    gwEm – I make most of my projects secret, since I don’t want to disappoint, maxYMiser was a big secret though. I got input just from Dma-Sc on the interface – he tried all the early versions, from the very first mock up. I asked him, since I am a big fan of his music style, he seemed interested in trying a new tracker out, too – he was one of the first to move to Triplex. After the first couple of releases I got advice from 505 instead, since Dma was busy. Except for those two guys, I didn’t really listen to anyone else. But they are, in my opinion, the best two musicians on the Atari ST demoscene.

    LB – How did the ST community react to maxYMiser?

    gwEm -Well, I released some stuff – firstly the song ‘maxYMise’ as a compo tune. ‘maxYMise’ didn’t do that well, which effected motivation. I realized then, its not all about fancy effects. Next thing was ‘The Phatt Demo‘

    (more…)

  • gwEm interview pt 1

    gwem2
    Pictures used with kind permission of Bit.Shifter

    I was lucky enough to chat a little to gwEm, author of Maxymiser, hell survivor, Hardcore rave tunesmith and International Rock Star.

    LB – Thanks most kindly for doing this.

    gwEm – No worries!

    LB – What came first for you, music or computers?

    gwEm – Hard to say… Today music comes first though, I don’t care too much for computers. I was very young when I had my first computer, so I can’t exactly recall. Maybe I had a musical instrument before then..?! No idea :)

    LB – What was your first machine?

    gwEm – It was an Oric Atmos 48k

    LB – Not the most popular of machines at the time, did you start coding on it?

    gwEm – Yes, but I was very young, and didn’t do much worth speaking about. It was all BASIC stuff.

    LB – Did you hop from that to the Atari series or was there something in between?

    gwEm – No, the Oric broke, and then our family got an Atari ST.

    LB – Did the sound chip capture your imagination right away?

    gwEm – I’d have to say no – that came much later. The late 80s demo scene didn’t attract me at all. Atari ST was based around the megademo format – which in retrospect is kind of cool but at the time I thought it was an ugly way to present screens. But it only took a couple of years to get into making music on the ST.

    LB – Which trackers did you start on?

    (more…)