MIDI Sync with MTV Music Generator/Music 2000
Posted: November 7th, 2017, 2:11 pm
MTV Music Generator (known as Music 2000 internationally) is what got me started making music back when I was young. It's a pretty basic tracker composition software that's very easy to learn, and it comes with an extensive library of pre-packaged sounds to work with. I find a lot of the default melodic sounds to be pretty cheesy, but the drum presets are very usable and given that the 2MB RAM bottleneck of the PS1 often prevents you from getting too crazy with song creation anyway, you're usually better off just keeping it simple with drum tracks. The ability to rip custom samples from CD and store them on your PS1 memory card vastly expanded its versatility, although I still mostly used the limited sample memory for drum sounds. Before I finally shelled out for a drum machine I frequently used the game as a rhythm section on several demos, but without MIDI sync functionality it's little more than a fun oddity to fiddle with every now and then.
I think the PS1 supports some flavor of MIDI sequencing natively through its sound processing chipset (correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm equal parts confused and intrigued by this YouTube video from 2010. It seems to demonstrate some preliminary form of MIDI sync coming out of a PSX running Music (the prequel to Music 2000/MTVMG). I tried contacting the channel to ask more questions but his account has been inactive for four years now so I don't expect to hear anything from him.
From what I've gathered reading his replies to comments on the video, it seems as though whatever MIDI sync mod demonstrated in the video is not being achieved through a sound sync workaround. That would require him to send a lone timing pulse through one of the L or R channels to generate MIDI clock while all the other sounds would be forced onto a single mono RCA out, which is a less than ideal solution for recording and performance purposes.
In the comments he further explains that the MIDI output is being sent through some kind of external adapter that he built himself. He had plans to update it to work with MTV Music Generator and then build the adapter into the PS1 itself, but alas, that never panned out. I know next to nothing about PS1 modding, but I'm fairly certain he's not using a modded version of Music because modded PS1 games basically don't exist. It's more likely that he's taking the timing messages straight from a pin on the SPU or the CPU and using this adapter to translate them into MIDI clock signals, but again, I don't know jack about the PS1 and this is just my best guess.
Anyone have any idea what's going on here, or what his adapter is doing? I think this could be a really cool project if developed further and I would be happy to help however I can. I like making chiptunes and I'm an active part of the online scene, and even though this can hardly be considered "chiptunes" given the hardware at play, a lot of folks have expressed a fondness for the program and an interest in implementing it in their set-ups. There are plenty of more capable music composition games on more modern consoles (the sequels to MTVMG are a great example), but there's something about the vintage aesthetic of the PS1 that seems to appeal more to the lo-fi/chiptunes/video game music scene.
If you don't have any idea how he managed to rig up this prototype, I would appreciate other suggestions on how to proceed with this project. Thanks a bunch!
I think the PS1 supports some flavor of MIDI sequencing natively through its sound processing chipset (correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm equal parts confused and intrigued by this YouTube video from 2010. It seems to demonstrate some preliminary form of MIDI sync coming out of a PSX running Music (the prequel to Music 2000/MTVMG). I tried contacting the channel to ask more questions but his account has been inactive for four years now so I don't expect to hear anything from him.
From what I've gathered reading his replies to comments on the video, it seems as though whatever MIDI sync mod demonstrated in the video is not being achieved through a sound sync workaround. That would require him to send a lone timing pulse through one of the L or R channels to generate MIDI clock while all the other sounds would be forced onto a single mono RCA out, which is a less than ideal solution for recording and performance purposes.
In the comments he further explains that the MIDI output is being sent through some kind of external adapter that he built himself. He had plans to update it to work with MTV Music Generator and then build the adapter into the PS1 itself, but alas, that never panned out. I know next to nothing about PS1 modding, but I'm fairly certain he's not using a modded version of Music because modded PS1 games basically don't exist. It's more likely that he's taking the timing messages straight from a pin on the SPU or the CPU and using this adapter to translate them into MIDI clock signals, but again, I don't know jack about the PS1 and this is just my best guess.
Anyone have any idea what's going on here, or what his adapter is doing? I think this could be a really cool project if developed further and I would be happy to help however I can. I like making chiptunes and I'm an active part of the online scene, and even though this can hardly be considered "chiptunes" given the hardware at play, a lot of folks have expressed a fondness for the program and an interest in implementing it in their set-ups. There are plenty of more capable music composition games on more modern consoles (the sequels to MTVMG are a great example), but there's something about the vintage aesthetic of the PS1 that seems to appeal more to the lo-fi/chiptunes/video game music scene.
If you don't have any idea how he managed to rig up this prototype, I would appreciate other suggestions on how to proceed with this project. Thanks a bunch!