YM3812 SynthCard Module

[@groovingood]

Nice vid man

[@MordacksOrgan]

Why Sierra changed the orchestration for different versions of tracks is something that I find interesting too. I’ve recorded different versions of Sierra’s soundtracks and uploaded them to my channel. For example, I have MT-32, AdLib & Game Blaster versions of KQ5. I think Sierra has always focused primarily on optimizing their soundtracks for the Roland MT-32 and Roland SC-55. Other adaptations of the soundtracks seem to be something they churned out at the last minute and were included as more of an afterthought. It seems like the PC Speaker track was always the absolute last one they worked on. Game demos for Gabriel Knight and Quest for Glory IV have music tracks for sound cards, but not PC Speaker. The PC Speaker tracks were obviously added much later. In the case of Gabriel Knight, some of PC Speaker tracks were added via last minute external patch files literally crammed onto the game disks days before it shipped. If you delete the .snd patch files in the game directory of the floppy version, the sound cards will still have sound while the PC Speaker is silent on these specific tracks. In your LSL3 intro example, my guess is that they took out those instruments because they were worried about maxing out the AdLib’s polyphony voice count and just didn’t care enough to bother testing if they could squeeze back in more voices. I noticed a similar thing where they cut some of the instruments in the AdLib version of KQ4. In other later instances, I think they were sometimes composing on the fly and experimenting with different instrumentation as they made the conversions. For example, in KQ6 (which was written in General MIDI on the Roland SC-55) the music that plays when you get captured by the guard dogs inside the palace features dogs barking rhythmically to the music, but only on the MT-32. If they wanted to include dog barking sound effects with the General MIDI track, they could have easily simulated barking with a cuica friction drum (which is an instrument in the standard General MIDI percussion set). Dog Barking present in MT-32 conversion: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZ7RlomXm9eja80 Dog Barking absent in original General MIDI track: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGOsfGCDq653jbs Compare to simulated dog barking using cuica friction drum in Rise of the Triad (General MIDI): kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHuZenV9Z8lkfbc The MT-32 track uses a special dog barking instrument patch, not the cuica drum, so maybe Chris Braymen never thought to use a cuica for dog barking? The point still stands that someone, possibly Chris Braymen himself, felt the impulse to add dog barking to the MT-32 conversion that’s not present in the original General MIDI track - or any other version. I see the Quest for Glory boxes on your shelf and I can think of another similar example. Compare the presence/absence of the snare drum part during the intro movie & title screen music in QfG4. Intro Movie w/ snare on AdLib: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaTPqWqDbLdghJo Title Screen w/ snare on AdLib: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaTPqWqDbLdghJo The snare drum is completely absent in the original General MIDI version of these tracks: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHOyiq1uapaSo7s With the MT-32, the snare part is present during Intro Movie, but not the Title Screen: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qn7WomxofJuIqM0 Something I’ve debated in my mind is if the snare was added by Aubrey Hodges during the conversion process -or- was it present in the original GM but taken out later by Hodges for aesthetic reasons? Maybe he simply forgot to take it out of the AdLib tracks too? Or did he feel the music needed a little extra kick when he got to the AdLib conversion and forgot to add the snare into the General MIDI? I find it curious that the snare is present on the MT-32 conversion in one track but not the other. I know with PC Speaker tracks, they liked to add arpeggios to make them less boring, which can totally change melodic feel of a track. King’s Quest I SCI Intro MT-32: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3i1oodpqZugp9k King’s Quest I SCI Intro PC Speaker: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6WlYaqdebd3fJo My first computer as a kid didn’t come with sound card or CD drive. When we added a Sound Blaster in 1994, I remember being disappointed by this specific track and finding the PC Speaker version far more memorable and interesting.

[@Cesarsound1]

You managed to make magic of putting the whole circuit on such a small board and with PTH components. Beautiful work.

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

Thank you so much! It was a fun puzzle. And I almost got all of the traces on one side, but alas, I think there were 3 or 4 that eluded me :)

[@dtharmo]

Impressive results ! Love it

[@Jchot]

OH yeah. This-a-way. This is the better way to explore the chip. Wait, is the midi on a separate...oh probably another vid

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

Midi is on the same board, along with the microcontroller and YM3812… assuming that’s what you were gonna ask :) I still need to make the rest of the videos on the EuroRack module, but this was my business card-sized “synth-card” diversion

[@nickademus489]

I am in a few groups on Facebook with Juanito. He and I have been working together on making PSUs for Eurorack systems, dead-bug circuits, circuits inside toys, and he is really into synths inside cans. We just really have fun building noise makers! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYWbfWeGa5KBodU

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

I love the learning that comes from raw experimentation and circuit-bending stuff. You can really create unique results that you'd never get to any other way. Dead-bug style is an aesthetic all its own. :)

[@oliviergrimard7345]

Very cool. Thank you for sharing this project. For the PJ366ST / PJ398SM, do you know if we can find something equivalent at Mouser, digitkey or aliexpress?

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

I found these on AliExpress, but they only come in a set of 100. 100PCS JINGTENG 3.5mm female pcb panel mount socket STEREO version Eurorack Jacks WQP-WQP419GR use for Modular Synthesizer a.aliexpress.com/_mLasTgw

[@jkuebler89]

Ah this is amazing, I have been waiting for the next video in series, and this is perfect since I've been following along on breadboard. Do you think you could do a video/tutorial on sending general midi to the circuit? I am a complete noob with midi, so far I've only been doing diy modular, and I had ZERO luck sending midi from reaper to the circuit? Would be super helpful! Thank you. Time to get an order going w/ JLCPCB! 😊

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

Awesome! I think a tutorial on setting up midi is an excellent idea! I will try to work it into the next video.

[@000mig000]

Hi, nice series about YM3812. I have a question: When you play music from MIDI file it is possilbe control registers (Tremolo, Vibrato etc.) thru MIDI file? Or it si possilbe only in source code? Thanks.

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

There are established MIDI commands for tremolo and vibrato. So you could definitely write the code to respond to those commands and adjust the settings on the YM3812. That said, not all settings on the YM3812 map to established MIDI commands. So you would have to decide how to map MIDI commands to those settings, and it would be non-standard. At one point I went down this path, but it ended up being super convoluted.

[@000mig000]

@@ThingsMadeSimple Thank you for answer. But I thinking... it is not possible make full control od the chip over MIDI. This chip is simple but have many parametrs (time 07:40)... kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4TQlK2vpbWbpMUsi=Fx0q_xkDZZRJDPkk If i had two of these chips. I need a MIDI splitter for sending for example channel 1-3 to first chip and channel 4-6 to second chip or is it easier make channel filter in AVR?

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

Definitely easier to do in the AVR. Also, you will be able to do panning that way. That will likely be the subject of the next video too :)

[@ThingsMadeSimple]

Also, it’s not impossible to make everything controllable over MIDI, it would just be non-standard. Like you could assign different control codes to different elements in the patch. They wouldn’t directly line up with their intended function, but they would work