Sega Genesis F-Mdrive User Guide
Contents
1. 1 VST USER MANUAL 1 2 BY Aly James f 2013 ALYJAMESLAB TABLE Or CONTENTS 1 SEC S SII 3 ING FA 6 CONROE PAINE S cay OE EE 9 THE AMARA E 11 OPERATOR 12 ENVEEOPEGENERA TUIS 14 ALGORTAN 20 23 51882 0 25 wa qM P 2 30 A 32 ee ee er 35 EXPOR 37 40 148 UW2. COMPATIBILITY FMDRIVE isa Windows 32Bit VST Instrument for use with MIDI capable DAWSs RUN on 32 64 Bit Systems If you wantto use it with a 64bit DAW you can use JBridge INSTALL VST 1 Decompressthe downloaded archive file 2 Copy the entire Folder AJLAB to your VST PLUGINS folder 3 Load it in your DAW INSTALL STANDALONE 1 Decompress the downloaded archive file 2 Copy the entire Folder FMDRIVE where you want 3 Simply RUN FMDRIVE exe State of FMDRIVE 2612 current features WIN 32 VST runs on 32 64Bit Systems and it is multicore compatible HIGH QUALITY GUI Different panels for controls etc INSTANT UPDATE FOR ALL CONTROLS FULL MIDI AUTOMATION With midi learn right click to assign MIDI POLY amp MONO MODE with Glide Control DIRECT OUTPUT OR MD1 Headphone Outfiltering TWO AUDIO MODELS HQ and MD1 Crystal clearand high resolution processing and MD1 emulate distortion and low resolution of MD1 model 2612 classic features 4 OP FM SYNTHESIS PARAMETRIC Envelope Generator SSG EG LFO AM amp PM CH3 SPECIAL MODE Different frequencies for each OP also different key on off by External Midi channels CSM MODE Kind of early vocal synthesis CH6 DAC MODE 4 slots to load any PCM WAV files auto converted to mono 8 4bit 22 11 8Khz with selectable start end points loop and pitch control 2612 extended switchable features OVERDRIVE LADDER E
3. e Six concurrent FM Channel Voice e Four operators per channel e Two interval timers Asine wave low frequency oscillator e Analogue stereo output most other contemporary Yamaha FM chips require a separate external digital to analog converter chip e For channel three operator frequencies can be set independently making dissonant harmonics possible Normally they would have asimple relation relative to a common base frequency e Forchannel six 8Bit PCM samples be played instead of FM sound e Per channel programmable stereo sound Left Right or both Left and Right particularimplementation of the DAC produces some noticeable artifacts on the Sega Megadrive sound output similar to distortion the sound can clip at high levels and the sine wave output start to change at low volume mixed with a squared signal The chip was also stripped of its predecessor s YM2608 SSG component although its vestigial SSG envelope generator is still functional OPERATOR UTI UTI UTI Each Operator is switchable Mask on off to receive note on off commands Doing this also disable the envelope generator saving system memory resources when not in use LIST OF PARAMETERS TL Operator general volume on MD1 Mode TL below OX67 104 will produce no audible output KS Key Scaling change the timing of the EG according to the pitch of the notes the higher the pitch the shorteris the e
4. oe The choice of algorithm is essentialin the process of sound design the following type of sounds be achieved depending on the choice Some examples of sound types 0 Distortion guitar high hat chopper Bass 1 Harp PSG type sound 2 Bass electric guitar brass piano woods 3 String folk guitar chimes 4 Flute bells chorus bass drum snare drum tom tom 5 Brass organ Xylophone tom tom organ vibraphone snare drum kick drum Pipe organ CSM speech The First SLOT Operator 1 is capable of self modulation called feedback FB Regarding this formula y x p siny x 0 Bx 1 Itisassumedthat x isthe output of the oscillator is the phase accumulator ranging from 1 to 1 and B is the scaling function The effect is slowly changing the sine wave into a saw tooth waveform then into noise Depending on the TL volume of M1 operator and the setting of FB the effect will be more or less pronounced The feedback system is based on Tomisawa 1981 US patent Tone production method for an electronic musical instrument U S Patent Feb 10 1981 FIG 7 a Et qme FIG 7b gt ya PAETHE E Note on filtering Filtering the output is done internally LFO be used for tremolo type effect AMS or vibrato PMS both used for FX The LFO is a basic sine wave in the YM2612 Others types
5. FO parameters will not be loaded or saved with the TFI patch e will not be loaded or saved e SPECIAL MODE frequencies CSM and 2 will not be saved You can of course save all these information in the native FMDRIVE PATCH format from the main panel Copy Patch Load Inst Save Inst Save Bank About LIST OF PARAMETERS AUTO amp MANUALMODE when switched to AUTO TFI preset is loaded immediately after clicking in the GUI browser In MANUAL you need to select it first then click on the GAME PAD LOAD button BE SURE TO BE IN MANUAL MODE IF YOU SEND A MIDI PROGRAM CHANGE WHEN TFI PANEL IS ACTIVE TO PREVENT AUTOMATIC DATA LOADING ATTEMPT SAVE amp SAVE AS will save the actual FMDRIVE data to a TFI file Save will save the preset at the current location and save as allows specifying the location OPEN will use the standard WINDOWS browser to search for files that may not be accessed by the GUI browser if folders names or path are too long The actual registers data and the last changing parameter are displayed on the TFI GUI Panel and can also be saved as a simple text file for further conversion BENDNC BEERE YM2612 L SN7G4P The FMDRIVE add the unique ability to tweak the system in many ways Opening the tweaking panel lead you to these following controls over the FM engine GLOBAL VOLUME useful to adjust the level when clipping occurs or boosting s
6. DRIVE the user can control the SSG part by selecting from witch stage the loop occurs until itreaches custom sustain stage point So you got complete control over a custom SSG Mode Zoom Insert Stage Delete Stage Adjust Total Time Close POP UP MENU allows changingthe global time using a percentof the actual time The Stage loop point can be defined onthe GUI also inthe POP UP menu Each stage shape can be adjusted by the userby just left clicking on it The Release stage will include all stages after the sustain point VELOCITY CONTROL The VL slideronthe TL CTRL panel will adjust the amount of velocity that will be applied to the operators volume The velocity max is the TL of the current operator A VL enable square button is available on the TL screen foreach operator Velocity can add expressivity to the sound when used on Modulators RATE RATIO CONTROL RATE RATIO CONTROL Allows to change the global EG RATE SPEED from 0 1 to 4 for rapid tweaking and adjustment of the envelopes 15 INVERTED when in PARAMETRIC MODE 0 1 4 and 4 0 1 ACGORITHAS There is 8 operator s combination connection status available in the YM2612 Each slot works by the algorithm as a modulator or a carrier However the fourth slot C2 is always set to the carrier regardless of the algorithm Graphic representation is also available on TL panel FL FL FL
7. HR SET 1 _ 7 5 SS Kl 3 1 Brass mc 5 YM2612 INFOS htto www smspower org maxim Documents YM2612 HOPE YOU HAVE FUN WITH FMDrive gt IQISCLU XZ AAUCI LICENCE AGRECACNT DISCLAIMER FMDRIVE the software is provided as is without warranty of any kind Aly James Lab alyjames info gmail com the Author disclaim all warranties relating to the Software whether express orimplied including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and all such warranties are expressly and specifically disclaimed The Author Shall not be liable for any indirect consequential or incidental damages arising out of the use or inability to use the Software even if the Author has been advised of the possibility of such damages or claims The user of the Software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the Software If your computer blows up say I wasn t there of course that should not happen LICENCE AGREEMENT FMDRIVE is copyright 2013 Aly James FMDRIVE the software is not public domain and is protected by the copyright laws of the international community In using FMDRIVE you are not obtaining title to FMDRIVE or any copyrights You may not sublicense rent lease convey distribute copy modify translate convert to another programming language decompil
8. ability toload and save TFI file format that is compatible with most of the YM2612 software Tools allow extracting instruments for original SEGA MEGADRIVE Games VGM music on a per song basis The VGM format is a standard for YM2612 register writes it contains all of the data that the chip or game emulators will need to play a song The internal browser is limited to certain number of characters so you will have to put your TFI presetfolderintothe rootlocation C ifthereisany problem Howeverthere is no problem with that if you use the OPEN button on the JOYPAD to load from any location using the windows explorer FMDRIVE 2612 INSTRUMENT IMPORT B TFIBANKS GAMES ROM BANK streets of rage bare knuckle Organiser Nouveau dossier Nom Biblioth ques 2612 OPMs s Aly James LAB Hl Documents lH 13 big boss 64 tfi 13 big boss 65 tfi 13 big boss 66 tfi 13 big boss 67 tfi Images 14 game over 68 tfi Musique 14 game over 69 tfi B Vid os 15 you became the bad quy 7041 15 _ became the bad guy Ordinateur LabI C Disque local D Disque local E 5 Lecteur de CD 6 15 you became the bad quy 72 tfi 15 you became the bad quy 73 15 you became the bad quy 74 tfi 15 you became the bad quy 75 tfi 15 you became the bad quy 76 tfi 16 good ending 7841 16 good ending 79 tfi Gl R seau r Mom du fichier Modifi le 22 01 2013 04 11 22 0
9. each operator volume M1 feedback global velocity sensitivity velocity enable foreach operator and number of polyphonic voices fixed frequencies for SPECIAL MODE 1 Overdrive Ladder effect level 4 Operators panels one for each operator access vialeft white buttons orclicking on the operator name on the envelope generators display 1 DAC panel with one sub panel forthe DAC custom waveform 1 LFO panel 1 TFI control panel for loading and saving allows browsing patches viainternal browser windows explorer 1 Tweak control panel for circuit bending and additional control OPERATING MODES S 5 imei era SLIDERS i SEGA ON OFF or RESET ZAIIveN gt 32 gt VST FAN SYNTH BY ALY JAMES LAB STRAN I P i SEGA Right click on a knob button orslider will open a midi learn assign menu Ctrl click move allow fine tuning THE 3 01 314 3 1 52 aM Vcc MOL A GND RD WR CS IRQ un YAMAHA YM2612 GND DO D2 D4 D6 NC IC GND YM2612 aka 2 is a six channel sound chip developed by Yamaha It belongs to Yamaha s OPN family of FM synthesis chips used in several game and computer systems lt was most notably used in the Sega Mega Drive Sega Genesis game console YM2612 has the following features
10. it seems SEGA did not find any use of this or developers found it too hard to program CSM stands for COMPOSITE SINE WAVE MODELING aka early speech synthesis system What this do is automatically Key on off operators very fast precisely at the speed of TIMER A Each time the Operator 15 key on the phase is restarted this happens so fast that we actually hear a tone instead of a looping envelope This method of synthesis tends to produced what is called vocal formants As there is 4 Operators different settings on TL volume and frequencies at precise timing plus different TIMER values can mimica talking voice and produce vocal sound and even words However there are no easy implementation or values tables internally in the YM2612 chip All of this should be programmed by software Implemented a complete speech synthesis system could have been great but nothing was done in this way for YM2612 by YAMAHA FMDRIVE does not include a speech driver but adds interesting new control over the CSM TIMER A is one of the two onboard timers of the YM2612 chip The lowest period is 18 4ms 19 4 PAL and the shortest is 18us Very fast period produce very high frequencies higher than 40 000 Hz this is why FMDRIVE limit the highest period to 1 13636ms A5 it saves CPU and still maintains the useful musical range In conjunction with the SPECIAL MODE external MIDI control we can produce interesting talking vocal effects Activating the MIDI swit
11. of wave could only be achieved by software programing FMDRIVE adds 5 classic waveforms List of parameters FRQ the frequency of the LFO ranges from 3 98Hz to 72 2Hz on the YM2612 CUSTOM FRQ MODE Will set FRQ to an even more usable range kind of like YM2151 from 0 013Hz to 53 49Hz The SONIC sprite will run according to the frequency AR Attack rate slowly increase AMS PMS to the setting point 127 no attack RR Release rate starting on KEY OFF Similar to AR WF 6 Waveforms SIN SAW RAMP TRIANGLE SQUARE NOISE AMS Amplitude Amount of Modulation EFFECT VOLUME EFFECT ON PITCH No effect Displacement of 1 4 dB Displacement of 5 9 dB Displacement of 11 8 dB No effect Displacement of 3 4 PMD Displacement of 6 7 PMD Displacement of 10 PMD Displacement of 14 PMD Displacement of 20 PMD Displacement of 40 PMD Displacement of 80 PMD 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNSYNC PMS Disable the global PMS control and add a PMS parameter per Operator PMD Pitch Frequency Amount of modulation can increase the initial YM2612 limit of PMS STEP LFO waveform stepping EX OFF STEP 6 STEP 12 STEP 3 SOUND 5 MD1 SEGA MEGADRIVE MODEL 1 MOEL 1 FMDRIVE try to approximate the real hardware distortion HARMONIC DISTORTION LADDER As previously stated the first generation of SEGA MEGADRIVE consoles produced harmonic distortion It gives the sound a special character t
12. 017 54 41 GENTON 42 43 e ____ ________ _______________ _ 46 ABP END M e 47 pd 52 INTRODUCTION My name is Aly James French steam funky musician composer and creator of strange musical DIY devices and software Normally lam more inclined to make some guitar amp bass oriented devices but am also fan of the SEGA GENESIS MEGADRIVE sound it was my first console and it opens up my imagination and lot was not very used to tracker music making or MML programming which is why needed an YM2612 VstInstrument for personal use Also needed a way to control the real hardware via MIDI learn a lot from documentations and hardware tests and from all the nice people who documented the YM2612 on the web You know who you are It turns out to be quite nice 501 decided to make it publicin exchange small donation forthe large amount of work put intothis This emulation uses a totally new core that started from scratch a few months ago and was almost fine tuned by earso minors differences with the hardware could appears sometimes The goal was on one hand to reproduce the hardware distortion ladder effect of the Sega Megadrive model 1and
13. 1 1 1 1 111 iT 167 LIEST LES 21111117 Sy ABLE TO LST 110111 MA Ba PHS CASE 141811 E ENBENFEHNHSNNS 4 7 YAMAHA ai VOMATH i 1 41177147 eS 4 T a j j 1 Li L F 1 8 X TESTE lt CLICK 2 CHANGE 1 E NW 1 8 Em YAMAHA ion 1111 4455 Aly James centric links Official Website www alyjameslab com Dev Blog www alyjameslab blogspot com Facebook News www facebook com alyjamesound Youtube Channel www youtube com alijamesproduction Soundcloud demos http www soundcloud alyjameslab Twitter alyjamestwitt CONTACT alyjames info gmail com External links GENMDM http little scale com An Introduction to FM https ccrma stanford edu software snd snd fm html http www soundonsound com sos aprOO articles synthsecrets htm YAMAHA chips numerical classification http www vorc org text column hally ymxxxx html YAMAHA FBO1 This boxis basically an YM2151 in the box with MIDI IN amp OUT same as YAMAHA CX5M computer Get one SS I
14. 1 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 22 01 2013 04 11 Type Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Fichier TFI Taille 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 tool VGM2TFI 2 0 allows extracting instruments from a loaded 2612 music file This means that you can load thousands of instruments from your favorite VGM songs It could be a start for designing your own instrument or simply a large database of presets Also certain game emulators Regen GenKmod have the ability to save TFI presets from the game being emulated FroG VGM2TFI 2 0 DROP one or many VGM VGZ files CONVERT to output TFI wgm2tfi tfiextractor exe dropfiles Holding no files amp 63 Quit Esc LIMITATION TFI format contains all of the main parameters that define an YM2612 sound However the TFI format does not contains data for e LFO DAC e EXTENDED FEATURES That means that e You will need to use ONLY PARAMETRIC EG and activate all Operators when loading TFI
15. 980s with their line of DX synthesizers which were instrumental both the downfall of classic analogue synths and giving keyboard players worldwide a polyphonic palette of groundbreaking new sounds to use Dedicated FM synthesizers are digital in nature due to the instability of analogue VCOs andthe nature of FM synthesis techniques makes it very easy to create un pitched and metallictones rather than standard subtractive sounds FM synthesis 15 based on two key things a modulator oscillator and a carrier oscillator These oscillators usually both use a sine waveform and from this the modulator oscillator works just like an LFO because it modulates the frequency pitch of the carrier oscillator You can try this yourself ona normal subtractive synthesizer by setting up a sine wave oscillator and an LFO and using the LFO to modulate the pitch of the oscillator as you increase the rate of the LFO the sound becomes non harmonic Note thatin FM synthesis the word oscillator is often replaced with the term operator As you change the modulation of the carrier operator the frequency of the carrier will constantly move up and down depending on how the modulator is set up and in doing this different harmonics are created called sidebands because these harmonics surround the carrier frequency depending on how it is modulated Because of the somewhat lifeless sound of the operators FM synthesizers tend t
16. FFECT CONTROL Works only in MD1 MODE adjust to taste RATE RATIO CONTROL Change the global EG RATE SPEED from 0 1 to 4 forrapid tweaking adjustment of the envelopes GRAPHIC EG Up to 8 stages 8 stage shapes custom loop point aka custom SSG and sustain point CUSTOM LFO RATE forlow modulation 6 LFO SHAPE Including noise ATTACK amp RELEASE Time for the LFO DT2 PARAMETER from YM2151 UNSYNC PMS Different settings for each OP OP FILTER aka PHASE MODULATION FILTERING Reduce the modulation at high frequencies according to the amount of filtering GLOBAL FM SAMPLE RATE CONTROL Skip audio samples POLYPHONIC REDUCER Kind of increasing the FMbit crushing audio effect according to the number of voice keys played DAC CUSTOM GRAPHIC WAVEFORM 14 bytes DRAW MODE or LFSR Random bytes generated clock divider sync with host tempo CSM Timer A Control by MIDI notes Shortest period limitis 1 13636ms note A5 LOADS 4 SAVE PATCHES Manual or auto load for fast selection LOAD amp FULL PATCH amp BANKS FXB FXP CONTROLS THE REAL MEGADRIVE HARDWARE VIA MIDI NeededLittle Scale GENMDM Midi Device PANELS FMDRIVE GUI INTERFACE stores the different parameters on different panels The central visual interface can be opened or closed clicking the led next to power These are 1 VU METER only when the central panel is closed 1 TL panel allows control over
17. ch next to the TIMER A allows the frequency of the period to be controlled by MIDI notes in the limit of TIMER A speed turning the CSM mode into another useful filtered vocal singing waveform and enhancing the FMDRIVE variety of sound MIDI MAPPING for CSM TIMER MIDI e Timer A Frequency Period is controlled by MIDI CH14 In CSM mode only the Release Rate RR will have a noticeable effect on the sound NOTE Onthe 2612 Performing a manualkey on will overwrite CSM key on off and deactivate the effect until manual key off Also the EG has little to no effect on the fast key on key off events happening mode However if an attack phase is set gt 30 no sound will be produced FOR MORE PRACTICAL USE FMDRIVE ACTIVATE THE CSM MODE on each CHANNEL 1 MIDI KEY ON and DEACTIVATE on each CHANNEL 1 MIDI KEY off and EG is bypassed IMPLEMENTING THIS CSM FEATURE ON THE REAL SEGA GENESIS HARDWARE could be done in future GENMDM Updates 1 000 919 IM W c 812 LJ 766 715 2 5 4 owel 7 7 em 1 2512 513 552 510 e 408 357 m 305 255 2 Me s EIE 00 102 mis MIDI 05 TIMER A ri Freg E 1 i e 2 7 14 pL 00 00 04 DOO 05 448 00 00 05 965 ods 8548 E A practical way for using the mode is MIDI a
18. d visual feedback See the GENMDM Control MANUAL The VST plugin can control the GENMDM by setting the appropriate MIDI on each parameter Howevera special VST version GENMDM CONTROLLER ONLY is provided with all the MIDI CC pre assigned and no sound emulation This is more practical than loading the emulation engine and saves CPU resources Controller version still in development for 1 2 Some of the extended features are not available yet on GENMDM such as GRAPHIC ENVELOPES CSM and custom parameters Some are still in development and could be implemented in future FWDRIVE and GENMDM updates LIST GLOBAL PANEL LM R output FM sound hard left center or hard right ALGO REGISTER Switch between different Operator configuration DAC Disable FM Activate the DAC an open the DAC control panel TFI Open the TFI control panel TL CTRL Open the TL control panel LFO Openthe LFO control panel CARRIER2 1 MODULATOR 2 1 Open the chosen Operator panel you can do the same by clicking onthe op nameon EG Display NORMAL SPECIAL switches between normal and special mode TL PANEL POWER reset OPERATORS FEEDBACK and VELOCITY TL Total attenuation level of the selected Operator FB Feedback level of Operator M1 VL Global velocity sensitivity for all Operators per operator enabled VOICES Controls the amount of voice in polyphonic mode 3 or 6 FREEZE Assign a fixed frequ
19. e or disassemble the Software for any purpose You may only redistribute the Software for promotion purpose with Aly James prior written permission Where redistribution is authorized in writing by the Author FMDRIVE must be redistributed in its original archive format and must not be modified in any way All such authorized redistribution must be accompanied by clear messages stating the origin of the software as an Aly James Lab product this license alink to the Website alyjameslab com The user ID is hard coded into the GUI and each version of the software is unique By Using the Software you are agreeing to this disclaimer and license VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH FMDRIVE does notemulate aSega Megadrive console but the sound chip that was inside witch basic function is reproduced here but enhanced a lot It is not a straight binary copy and the system is totally new Secondly the use of Seganame and logois use strictly here for the legitimate purpose of comparison and tribute this great console and does notin way imply SEGA s or YAMAHA s permission or endorsement of the FMDRIVE product
20. ency behavior in SPECIAL MODE OVERDRIVE Controls the amount of ladder effect in MD1 mode max 15 like the real chip OPERATOR PANEL POWER Disable or enable the operator to receive key on off commands KS Key Scaling level Reducethe envelope time according to the note pitch MUL Root frequency multiplier DT1 Small detune DT2 Large detune Enable ordisable amplitude modulation by LFO PMS Level of pitch modulation by LFO Global or Unsync SSG Disable orsetthe specified SSG envelope sequence AR Attack rate DR First decay rate SL Secondary amplitude level sustain point D2R Secondary decay rate RR Release SPECIAL MODE amp CSM PANEL F NUMBER the root frequency of the current operator RESET Reset root frequency to 440 Hz ratio 1 1 MIDI activate external midi control for that operator and or for TimerA TIMER A Speed of the Timer Period LFO PANEL POWER Enable or disable LFO FRQ Frequency of the LFO AR LFO PMS AMS attack rate RR LFO PMS AMS release rate WF Waveform shape of the LFO AMS Amplitude modulation sensitivity PMS Pitch modulation sensitivity PMS REG choose between normal or un sync PMS LFO choose between normal or custom LFO frequency STEP LFO waveform stepping SYnTHESIS WHAT IS Frequency Modulation yes the same as that thing you listen to on the radio synthesis was made popular by Yamaha in the early 1
21. es from YM2608 and where not implemented for use with an attack phase on the Sega Megadrive When the Attack phase is inverted this can creates an attack curve which makes several extremely large audible steps from Odb Rate 0 00 o 00 00 20 342 00 01 20 934 Technical manuals claim that AR should 31 no attack when using SSG however setting an attack phase and producing this behavior can be used in a creative way Here is an example of SSG behavior with an attack phase AR of 8 and D2R of 10 SSG from O to 6 GRAPHIC ENVELOPES LeftClickon the top of the graphic will open a POP UP MENU Extended feature of FMDRIVE allows the use of custom complex envelopes instead of the original parametric can be done on areal YM2612 by sending software envelope data to TL register Left Clicking on a stage will change the shape click at the top of the graphic envelope opens pop up menu allowing full control Zoom from 100 to 1000 and SHIFT CTRL for fine amp ultra fine mouse control e GUI CONTROL zoom handle box size etc e CHANGE STAGE SHAPE ADD OR REMOVE UP to 8 STAGES e DEFINE CUSTOM LOOP POINT AND SUSTAIN POINT e ADJUST GLOBAL TIME GRAPHIC CONTROL Initially YM2612 has 4 Stages EG With FM DRIVE the user can add up Shapes to 8 Stages to improve control Sustain Stage Also the original SSG EG part was Repeat Stage fixed on the chip like shown on 1121 Active Stages Box Size With FM
22. hat actually no software has emulated before Consider a pure sine wave signal at 440 Hz it will ideally produce only one strong frequency at 440 Hz However observing the Megadrive sine on a Spectral analyzer and on oscilloscope shows a lots of harmonics components are added to the original frequency and also a change on the sine shape resultingin aricher distorted sound The effect is even more pronounced the lower 15 This unique sound problem to the YM2612 DAC is called The Ladder effect And can be used creatively TL HWARE wav 00 00 07 610 4 00 00 07 620 00 00 02 516 Spectrum Analysis 16384 v Blacman Haris E 2 25 12347 1 500 Mono 1350 1250 1150 1050 950 850 750 650 Freq 50 00 00 06 935 00 00 07 288 00 00 07 529 00 00 07 769 00 00 08 009 00 00 08 249 00 00 08 490 00 00 08 730 0 00 00 08 970 00 00 09 210 00 00 09 451 When using MD1 Model the Overdrive parameter allows to fine tune the effect to taste most notably when ALGO 7 is in use the output might distort too much Different Sega models and revision will produce different result in real world The Sine wave also clip when is set to 0 max volume 8 8 5 1 11123411 180 ENVELOPE CYCLES YM2612 Attenuation Values The envelope generator maintains a 10 bit attenuation value for each operator follow
23. hey might not be scanned the folder to use windows explorer with no limitation of location A global SAMPLE RATE CONTROL allows outputting 22 KHz 11 KHz or 8 KHz A global BITRATE CONTROL allows switching between 8bit 4bit The start and end sliders controls the starting point and ending point of the loaded sample data The pitch slider controls the playback rate and the LOOP switch toggles the data loop mode on or off SLOTS are MAPPED to standard midi GM drums MIDI CH1 Notes like so MIDI MAPPING for DAC SAMPLE SLOTS e Slot 1 MIDI notes 35 36 KICK e Slot 2 MIDI notes 38 40 SNARE e 51063 MIDI notes 41 43 45 TOM1 e Slot 4 MIDI notes 42 44 46 HIHAT CUSTOM WAVEFORM 14 bytes of data can also be directly written to the DAC allowing the use of raw custom waveforms this feature is also possible on a real YM2612 DRAW MODE allow direct draw of the shape on the GUI LFSR MODE randomly generates data bytes on each key on This produces a constantly changing waveform The rate of the random change is governing by the clock speed LFSR CLOCK is syncto the HOST tempo That meansthat it will bein syncwith the song A divider will change the clock speed regarding the master tempo Example of the LFSR output waveforms LARGE SCROLLING TFI FORMAT The TFI format is a 42 Bytes binary file it contains register values for the main parameters of the YM2612 chip FMDRIVE has the
24. iginal setup This particular implementation allows getting over the original six channels limit if ones need it Like 15 instances of FMDrive for example for a massive FM wall of sound However you can still have a lot of control on only one instance as everything can be MIDI automated in a DAW you can have a maximum of control over the chip for example you canchange the algorithm and others registers via MIDI CC on the same instance and same MIDI track Every registers can be automated or recorded via the GUI and his will change the sound Basic MIDI implementation MIDI IN FMDrive receive MIDI CH1 as main source for notes and key on off However when in SPECIAL MODE FMDrive can optionally receive MIDI CH 11 12 13 to control operators key on off and frequency separately and MIDI CH 14 to control CSM timer period by note this is explained in detail later MIDI OUT FMDrive can send MIDI CC data over any MIDI channels For example if you assign MIDI CC 15 to the LFO speed register when itis changed FMDrive will also send CC 15 DATA over the chosen MIDI Channel allowing to control another instance of FMDrive or another Vsti Imagine that on another FMDrive instance you assign the same MIDI CC 15 to the Frequency of an operator in SPECIAL MODE Then when the LFO change on the first instance the second instance will change the Frequency of the operator following the LFO speed change Now imagine what it is capable of
25. ing different update cycles Depending on the Rate setting at the moment of the update the attenuation will occur more often for high rates than for low rates This particular implementation is very practical to obtain very long envelopetime and still maintain accuracy at short settings However this actually means that you can hear stepping when rate is low Ex try this setting on MD1 sound model ALGO 0 C2 TL 0 AR 31 DR SL D2R 0 RR 15 M2 0 AR 31 DR SL 0 D2R 2 RR 15 NOISE FLOOR The Output resolution is also limited and no sound will be produced if TL is lower than 104 Quantification noise could also be noticeable at very low volume settings or when the envelope ends toward max attenuation value Here is a comparison between the FMDRIVE output and the Real SEGA hardware FMDRIVE B MEGADRIVE 1 PAL YM2612 LADDER FMDrive_test08 0 5 A C V neg 0 009 What have found during close experimentation on the real chip is that the distorted part is actually here even when the output register fora channel are zeroed out This leads me to search for an analog problem then trying to do basicreverse engineering have implemented a negative value bug that reproduces the effect closely especially at the very end of an envelope where the signal period also change HQ MODEL CRYST Designing anew core adds the ability to completely remove the hardware limitation No ha
26. ity Key 19 General Purpose Slider Poly Velocity Key Off 20 Poly Aftertouch 21 Voice ID Bender 23 Channel Pressure 24 Almostall type of MIDI message be assigned MIDI learned NOTE If a TFI preset is loaded during an automation recording every registers change will be recorded It can be a fast way to write automation different than global MIDI program change MIDI OUT All assigned midi parameters will also send MIDI OUT message The MIDI OUT Channel is chosen via the tweak panel All assigned MIDI parameters will send MIDI OUT data on global patch change You also sync parameters between different FMDRIVE instances using one instance to control the others via MIDI Ex Assign LFO ON OFF to 25 each instance of the plugin Then allow other instance to receive MIDI in from the FMDRIVE chosen master Instance Now each time you activate or deactivate the LFO from the master instance of the plugin all others will follow GENAD 71 GENMDM is a midi hardware interface created and designed by Sebastian Tomczak that allows the real SEGA MEGADRIVE GENESIS to understand MIDI data It means you can control the YM2612 sound chip in real time via MIDI The PSG SN76489 sound chip is also supported and will also be controllable via a separate VST plugin in the future FMDRIVE can act as a visual controller forthe interface allowing more user friendly control over the huge list of parameters an
27. nvelope KS affects AR DR D2R and RR in the same way KS 15 the degree to which the envelope becomes narrower as the frequency becomes higher MUL Frequency Multiplier 0 5 to 15 where 1 15 the actual ROOT frequency 0 15 an octave below This follows harmonic relation to the root frequency DT1 Fine detune following this table frequency is a small number small detuning can create movement on the sound 0 1 2 3 45 6 7 FREQUENCY DETUNE 0 1 2 3 1 2 3 DT2 Coarse detune Large frequency detune modeled after YM2151 chip F DETUNEHZ 0 194 2158 23 77 AM Enable LFO Amplitude Modulation AMS for that Operator Relevant only if both the is enabled and AMS amplitude modulation sensitivity is non zero PMS Pitch Modulation Sensitivity EFFECT ON VOLUME EFFECT ON PITCH No effect Displacement of 3 4 Displacement of 6 7 Displacement of 1096 Displacement of 1496 Displacement of 2096 Displacement of 4096 Displacement of 8096 No effect Enable AMS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 of a halftone ENVELOPE GENERATORS Pre t TL t key on key off PARAMETRIC ENVELOPES The typo used for naming the envelope stages varies with documentations FMDRIVE uses AR DR SL D2R and RR for Attack First Decay Sustain Level Secondary Decay and Release The sound starts when the key is depressed a process called key on The sound has an attack a strong primary decay f
28. o include somewhere around 4 8 operators ona synth to spice things up These extra operators can be routed in all sorts of different and interesting ways called algorithms For example with the addition of an extra modulator operator we can arrange the operators so that they go modulator 1 amp modulator 2 into the carrier or modulator 1 goes into modulator 2 which goes into the carrier this being more complicated and creating a new waveform Therefore using many operators can produce unique and lifelike sounds unachievable with other types of sound synthesis Early Interface design sketch amp design r Y 0092207 n A 2 3003 07 C 4 2002207 o offre os as Y 12 4 SN764 1022 Ams rms mun 1 0 LT LT gt Li Ad SEGA 16 BIT Some hints EXT velocity i per operator 1 OVER 2642 8824 M26 y mL p v3 4 Rom it WIS Eir
29. ollowed by a slow secondary decay The sound continues this secondary decay until the key is released a process called key off The sound then begins a rapid final decay representing for example a piano note after the key has been released and the damper has come down on the strings The envelope isrepresented by the above amplitudes and angles and afew supplementary registers Used in the above diagram are TL Total level the highest amplitude of the waveform AR Attack rate the angle of initial amplitude increase This be made very steep if desired The problem with slow attack rates is that if the notes are short the release called key off occurs before the note has reached a reasonable level DR The angle of initial amplitude decrease SL The amplitude at which the slower amplitude decrease starts D2R The angle of secondary amplitude decrease This will continue indefinitely unless key off occurs RR The final angle of amplitude decrease after key off IMPORTANT NOTE ON EG BEHAVIOR The Volume value is an ATTENUATION VALUE ex TL 127 means that the attenuation is MAX so volume is MIN TL 0 means that there is no attenuation so volume MAX IF AR 0 YM2612 consider the Attack stage as Infinite so no sound would be produced Setting AR to 0 in PARAMETRIC EG will also disable GRAPHIC EG output regardless of the graphic settings IF DR O DR stage is off and the Envelope swi
30. ome TFI patches that may be too quiet POLY amp MONO switches between 3 Voice polyphony and mono voice Keepin mind that on the real console each channel is always mono and polyphony were only achieved by using multiple channels GLIDE two parameters to controls the amount of time the pitch will reach the note played DR or HP Direct Output or Headphone out filtering can add analog feeling to the sound OP FILTER a GLOBAL parameter that will filter out high frequencies during phase modulation Leave to max for MD1 realistic emulation Can be used to reduce the harshness of the sound at high frequencies reduce aliasing and also be used as an automatable low pass filter SAMPLE RATE DEGRADATION can degrade the audio output signal by skipping samples When set to max it switches to POLYRATE POLYRATE degrade the output according to the number of voice being played Polyrate is a kind of dynamic sample rate reducer AUTOMATION MIDI LEARN Almostall of the FMDRIVE parameters can be automated via midi learn or DAW automation allowing great control over the sound Excepted graphic envelope parameters Simply right click on a button knob sliderto assign external MIDI Control or use DAW automation Assign Controller lt none gt RPM 15 Poly Trigger 16 General Purpose Slider Poly Gate 17 General Purpose Slider Poly Pitch 18 General Purpose Slider Poly Veloc
31. precise setting and more decimal points ex 221 25Hz At initialization every operatorfrequencies are tied to MIDI CH1 Settinga different frequency will change the root note so if you play an A 440Hz on the keyboard having 540Hz on Operator M2 will play 540Hz instead of 440Hz This means that operator M2 is detuned by 100Hz from the note played However you can optionally Freeze the frequency of all the operators M1 C1 or M2 to have a fixed frequency setting This means that if you play an A 440Hz on the keyboard having 540Hz on Operator M2 will play 540Hz instead of 440Hz but playing a C note will still play 540Hz on M2 This can be done by activating the FREEZE button on the TL panel When freeze there will be a freeze indicator next to the frequency on each operator panel it is not working when external MIDI switch is set even if Freeze is activated a Activating the MIDI switch next to an OPERATOR allows frequency and key off happening independently Controls are made by a different MIDI channel for M2 C1 and M1 HS F cL c Agm ine MIDI MAPPING for SPECIAL MODE MIDI 2 15 controlled by MIDI CH11 e 1 15 controlled by MIDI CH12 e 1 is controlled by MIDI CH13 CSMA Monue CSM illegal Mode This mode is will also switch the YM2612 in special mode It was officially called Illegal Mode because
32. rmonic distortion is produced in this mode just perfect sine Output resolution if far more capable using 24 Bit resolution as are the envelope update cycles that maintaining high precision even at low rate value high envelope times HQ Model will produce YM2612 sound at ideal capabilities removing hardware limitation Ex try the same setting as before with HQ sound model ALGO 0 C2 TL 0 AR 31 DR SL D2R 0 RR 15 M2 TL 0 AR 31 DR SL 0 D2R 2 RR 15 DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU NEED these two sound models can provide a variety of nuance thus enhancing the sound capabilities of FMDRIVE Note that the stepping on some others parameters like TLis also greatly improved in HQ mode FMDrive sound models be changed into the CIRCUIT BENDING PANELS It can be done simply by clicking on the model in order to switch to the other monre YAMAHA added to the YM2612 three different settings that produce change in the global function NORMAL MODE Under normal mode each operator will received the same root note frequency on each key on The frequency relation can be changed harmonically with the MUL parameter or detuned by DT also DT2 on FMDRIVE SPECIAL MODE Under special mode each operator on channel 3 can have a different root frequency setting allowing special effects and more inharmonicsounds The frequency can also be entered with the PC keyboard on FMDRIVE GUI for
33. tch directly to D2R stage however if SLis non zero will have no effect and the envelope will sustain at TL volume whatever value SL is IF D2R 0 off the envelope will sustain at SL volume USING HIGH Release Time close to 0 is more CPU hungry in poly mode avoid using high release time when not needed GRAPHIC representation of the envelope helps to understand the behavior It can be changed with a small knob at the top to a solid ora line view SSG ENVELOPES MODE When activated SSG mode will loop the envelope from AR to D2R included following 8 defined shapes and behavior The envelope timeis also shorter than normal and will never reach MIN volume except when HELD If an Attack stage is set AR is gt 31 or 30 the behavior of the SSG is changed Graphic representation of the envelope on the SSG panel will show the effect CLICK TO ACTIVATEAND CHANGE SSG SHAPES SSG envelopes are combination of these following behaviors NS horm the envelope plays normally A iw The envelope is inverted hen The envelope is held at Max attenuation value HELD envelope is held at Max volume ALT The envelope alternates between NORMAL amp INV ant each pass Envelope shape The phase is also reset in SSG mode at the beginning of each repetition of the waveform in cases where both the HLD and ALT bits are unset This produces different harmonic results when the envelope is very short SSG part com
34. the features of the YM2612 chip and onthe other hand to expand further the original capabilities and create ahigh resolution processing mode for perfect sound quality needed atoy to have best of both world an inspiring FM synth tested the not well known CSM illegal mode usage designing custom ROMS to investigate further and finally include away in FMDRIVE 2612 to use CSM for modern music production All and all the SEGA MEGADRIVE EXTENDED emulation turns out to be a fantastic FM synth suitable for chip music and Sega nostalgic pleasure and also a powerful tool for modern music production The product has been crafted through the SYNTHEDIT engine using the very last version custom C coding and third party licensed code It may be ported to OSX at some point in the future Thanks to all the nice people that started to use FMDrive and support my projects A special thanks to Sebastian Tomczak who designed the GENMDM midi hardware interface and provide great sources of inspiration and to Yuzo Koshiro for his FM music and support on FMDrive Credits can be accessed onthe FMDrive GUI panel Mainly FMDRIVE can act either as the YM2612 CH1 2 3 with special mode or CSM 4 5 or 6 FM or DAC It can be either polyphonic up to 6 voices or mono like the real chip can actas 6 2612 channels at once with the same patch when in poly mode However you have to load 6 instances of the VST to have the YM2612 six channels or
35. utomation Use Midi Channels 11 12 13 and 14 in your DAW to control Operators frequencies and Timer A by Midi notes Pitch bend values can add to the natural vocal tone of the sound Here you can see the word Hello programmed in Cubase with automation similar to the vocal spectrum at the left Try to produce a formant by playing notes on the keyboard and setting different frequencies for each operator CSM Speech is most effective on Algorithm 7 when all operators are non modulated in order to produce a sum of sinusoids similar to the FFT approach 77 7 CARRIER CORD TONE OF VOICED SOUNDS KLEL LEAT 257 m 7 7 BREATH OF WHISPER Trh JE _ cac c cm m 12 Co 3 2 n T Fu H 1 4 4 or C Oo J x e i9 IG 5 34 320 HOLLY INGOW JdAL Rom SLOTS EL LOADING SAMPLES The YM2612 has the ability to play 8bit PCM sound data instead of FM sound on the Channel 6 It is useful to play complex sounds effects vocals and percussions that FM alone could not reproduce Activating the DAC disable the FM part FMDRIVE has 4 SLOTS to load sample data from wave files WAV and will play them like on the Megadrive with a crunchy sound Click on the OPEN button to browse your hard drives and load WAV files Avoid using very long paths for folders as t
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