Oerg866's Echo Player + New Song :)

[bgvanbur]

Now that you mention CD, that reminds me, Echo doesn't work there >.>' The Z80 can't access MCD hardware (not even the work RAM), nor it can read MD RAM, essentially leaving it unable to access anything. Though luck =/

I was hoping the word RAM was accessible from the z80. Couldn't you potentially use the VRAM (even though it would be more of a headache in the end)? But basically if you want to use the MD for sound in a practical way, you have to use the 68k. I guess I will probably continue with my CD side PCM/CDDA original plan.

[Sik]

Couldn't you potentially use the VRAM (even though it would be more of a headache in the end)?

...

But basically if you want to use the MD for sound in a practical way, you have to use the 68k.

Many MD games disagree with you, handling all sound entirely Z80-side =P

But yeah, sound in the MCD is gonna be a headache - or better said, MD-side sound on a CD game, because there the only thing you really have to control it is the main-CPU and 64KB of RAM (which is also used for a lot of other stuff).

For that you're better off with a MCD-specific sound engine. Maybe some day I make EchoCD, though it'd eat up some sub-CPU time and some PRG-RAM =| There's a general purpose timer though, and it generates an IRQ, so it wouldn't be tied to vblank anyways.

[Chilly Willy]

For that you're better off with a MCD-specific sound engine. Maybe some day I make EchoCD, though it'd eat up some sub-CPU time and some PRG-RAM =| There's a general purpose timer though, and it generates an IRQ, so it wouldn't be tied to vblank anyways.

A MCD player would be nice - you can see from the PCM chip that it's meant for music: you have eight channels that can be independently panned, have their own envelope volume, and looping control. It's clearly meant for wave table synthesized tracker music. All the 68000 has to do is process the envelopes and track events, and the timer let's you set the rate for that. The biggest limitation for music on the PCM chip is the lack of wave ram - 64KB is not much when it comes to instruments, particularly since there is no compression. You need to be pretty frugal about your instruments. For a CD game, I'd probably play tracker music on the CD PCM and leave the sound effects to the MD.

[djshok]

Very cool project. Well done sir.