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Spoken by some dude who now requires at least 64MB to get the latest Windows running... kinda.

Well, that guy isn't very prescient, is he?

Is it actually possible to 'upgrade' your MoonSound like that? If I hear stuff like SMD with lots of pins and extra mixing circuitry... Sounds to me like it would need an entire new board. Extra RAM (NO Wolf, NOT 1 MB ) will have to suffice, if you ask me.

~Grauw

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Quote: Spoken by some dude who now requires at least 64MB to get the latest Windows running... kinda. Well, that guy isn't very prescient, is he?

He never was I guess

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Extra RAM (NO Wolf, NOT 1 MB ) will have to suffice, if you ask me.

Ehrm... Wolf_ came with 640K SRAM should be enough for everybody... I have 1 MB in my MoonSound.

It might even prove to be enough after some fixes in mbwave .. I always keep dynamic loading in mind, like having one major 4mb samplepool, and load whatever you need from it during a game orso .. ofcourse you want a harddisk/cd/cf for that

Or you can also use a CF of 128mb
[edit]Darn.. you just said that[/edit]

Hi,

Sure I did think about it. We wanted the best of the best but sometimes you have to make compromises to make a product that actually fit's the market. We were not exactly making a product for pro music-studio's ;-)

1) Price (YSS225 + 2 or 4 x 256k psram ram-chips needed)
2) Size (Larger PCB needed, I wanted it to fit into the konami-sized box in the final version) 100 pin YSS225 plus 2-4 extra psram chips would take up too much space.
3) Poor effects routing
All voices going through the effect-chip would have to share the same effect algorithm: reverb, chorus, flange, delay, pitch-shift, EQ, wide stereo, SRS.
You can just send the sound through an external effect module and get the same functionality ;-) (I have used Modulizer Pro for that just for fun)
4) Sound quality
I wasn't satisfied with any PC-soundcards at the time because you could always hear a 'hiszzzzzzzz' from the graphics-card or just from the CPU. All due to poor design. They were (and most still are) useless because the sound is so filled with noise. There would be a big risk that we would get the same sort of hiss from the MSX if we put on extra digital chips with heavy activity.
5) Current consumption
With the effects processor and extra memories we would probably break MSX specifications of current consumption in 1 cartridge-slot. Again this would have given poor sound-quality on some MSX computers since we would get voltage drops when large currents are drawn.

But WOW I would have LOVED to make a MoonSound with effectchip ;-)

P.s. no I never got paid anything (nor intended to be) for doing MoonSound, GFX9000, IDE interface. When I politely asked MSX Club Gouda to actually be paid some royalties for my big-selling SCSI interface they just had someone make a few silly changes to the bios and then selling it under a new name so they didn't have to pay me NFL 2 per interface. (WOW! what a royalty ;-))

But it was all great fun to do!

Henrik Gilvad

I guess you never thought MoonSound would be such a huge success when you first designed it?

Wow, a legend speaks!

I'm very glad to see you're still following the MSX scene, Henrik!

Could you tell us about your current activities, if any?

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We were not exactly making a product for pro music-studio's ;-)

Pro-studios wouldn't use a moonsound with reverb, this is just about end-users who get a better soundquality..
It seems 'normal' to divide amateurs and pros in terms of equipment, but that's not true.. the real difference is hobby/job .. and thus fun/$ . There are amateurs who have more synths/stuff than some professionals .. are the amateurs the professionals then, and the professionals the amateurs?

anyway .. nevermind

A global reverb for orchestral music isn't a real problem .. after all, the whole orchestra sits in the same hall That's actually the only useful effect.. the rest (chorus, flange, delay, pitchshift, SRS is just bogus-stuff that only uglyfies your tune )

EQ as end-effect could be useful tho..

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EQ as end-effect could be useful tho..

So you route your MoonSound's unfiltered, low-noise, hi quality output through an EQ. Presto

o_O ? I don't get your point ..

The point being that there's no need for an on-board effects chip on the MoonSound cartridge. Unless you'd want to EQ each channel seperately...

I'm talking about a global/mastering EQ, for all channels .. which isn't a bad idea at all. Sure, a seperate EQ for each channels is nicer .. but that's more like a mixing-EQ.

I'm talking about a 'mastering'-EQ, which basically means 'an EQ for the whole output'.. which is common practice for all studios and mastering-suites on this blue planet ..

Henrik, would it be possible to do with the non konami-versions in your opinion.
Oh btw Koen asked me if you could send him the contents of de gal/peelchip of the GFX9000. I donot know if you have it still somewhere

Rob