Prodigy Tracker - Sega Genesis/Megadrive Music Sequencer

Note: The name was recently changed from YMDj to Prodigy.

Runs on real hardware. Soon you'll be able to write music on a Sega Genesis/Megadrive.

SPECIAL THANKS:

-Note: if you feel your name is missing from this list let me know-

-Side note: if you would rather your real name or screen name be listed instead, please let me know-

-Another side note: these are the people that have helped in some way with this project (info, donations, life lessons)

-Final side note: This list is to be added to the tracker itself when the Options Menu is implemented-

My fiancee' Deseree

Scyhler

Jazzmarazz aka Jordan A. Joslin

Delek

Matthew Janik

Eudald Salarich

monkeymook

Professor Chuck Kelly

Peter Swimm

the mist toggles

David DeGraw

TmEE aka Tiido

powerofrecall

Chilly Willy

Stef

KanaedaFr

neologix

r57shell

Nemesis

Mask of Destiny

Lazerbeat

an0va

L-tron

Michael "Bibin" Moffit

James Hansen

Shirobon

Originoo Draggon Esopus

Michael Vallejo

Bart de Jong

Andrew Reitano

mz3364

General Thanks:

gendev.spritesmind.org

Chipmusic.org - Main development thread http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/15355/prodigy-tracker-genesismd/

Prodigy Tracker - A Native Sega Genesis/Megadrive Music Tracker

Prodigy Tracker, is a music sequencer/tracker programmed in 68k assembly and is in development for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive.

DEV TESTS/YOUTUBE VIDEOS

New Video testing Portament Up, Down, Porta to Note, and Arpeggio tracker commands.

Also tested are the PSG ADSR envelopes. Video cuts off before I can show more stuff because of Bandicam Time limit.

Old Video demonstrating playback of a song I wrote.

Currently: v0.20

Changed placeholder color scheme

Changed font graphics

More fixes.

Implemented Portamento Up, Portamento Down, Porta to Note, and Arpeggio commands.

Implemented Synth Editor.

Implemented Playback Engine.

Implemented FM channels 1-6.

Implemented PSG channels 1-4.

Implemented software envelopes for PSG channels.

Fixed many bugs and crashing issues.

TODO:

Navigation improvements

Gamepad button delay/speed improvements

Button combo handling improvements

Fix crash that sometimes happens on really low FM notes.

Fix PSG note table routines

Options menu

Palette Editing

Tempo Control

Interface improvements (On/Off for synth 0 or 1 settings) (Off Left Right Both for panning settings FM)

Remembering cursor position on Song screen

Fixing playback timing to YM2612 timers instead of vertical_counter

Tracker Commands

DAC support

Ch 3/6 special mode

Groove support

SRAM support Saving/Loading

Live mode

Look into CSM mode synthesis

This is NTSC only for now. When the tracker matures, support for PAL will be added.

EDIT: Jazzmarazz has confirmed this working well on a Sega Genesis model 3. Thank you for testing!

EDIT EDIT: Corthax has confirmed this working on a Nomad. Red + Blue is difficult to read. Time for a color change. Thanks Corthax.

DONATIONS:

I'm now accepting donations via Paypal. Donations toward this project will be used to fund

development. This means that your donations will go towards the costs of the hardware required for testing, cart runs, and keeping this project alive. Additionally if you donate, your name will be mentioned in the "Special Thanks" in the "About" section of the tracker when the Options Menu is implemented, please make sure I get your name!

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=WYDWYQK5YNTNA&lc=US&item_name=YMDj%20Development&item_number=YMDj&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donate_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted

Can I import MIDIs into it so that I can still compose in a DAW piano roll like I'm used to and have it come out through here?

No. At least not yet. But actual hardware MIDI support is in the Todo list.

Composing from a MIDI keyboard you mean? Better than nothing, but it still makes me wonder why so many trackers have poor or no import .mid function in them. Even the super-old and widely maligned GSXCC had EXCELLENT and easy import MIDI functions to it - why is it so hard to do it elsewhere?

Hell, I'd donate some money if I knew I could have an import .mid function to it. It'd be totally worth it from my end.

Hell, I'd donate some money if I knew I could have an import .mid function to it. It'd be totally worth it from my end.

Trackers work on different internal protocols than the MIDI protocol. It could be that no existing standardized translations between these systems and MIDI have been established yet, or that translation is too time-consuming and difficult a software design task in the context of the tracker already having been built.

It's always harder to modify your software to do X than to build it from the ground-up to do X, that's why trackers aren't good at it. They're not built for it, and no developers consider implementing a translation to have a good enough benefit to pour effort into. Also, GSXCC is a MIDI player. That's what it is, it's built for MIDI (easier to build something for X than to modify to do X). Also, it's not a tracker.

Fair enough on most counts, but it still seems like there should be a reasonable solution in there somewhere as I've been able to pull it off before... on a Game Gear tracker with limited use.

Should I be looking for a Sega Genesis MIDI player instead?

I've seen converters floating around that convert MIDI's to console music formats. I'm not sure something like this exists for the Genesis but...

The logistics of implementing .MID support would certainly be interesting. While I'm on the subject, I'm already planning on adding support for Deflemask's song/instrument patch formats, Delek and I already had a talk about it. See the tracker I'm developing is designed to run on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive itself as opposed to running on a PC. So you can write music on the console itself with no additional hardware required except for a cart. What I'm trying to get at is in order to get MIDI file support of any kind for Prodigy, I would write a .MID to Prodigy format converter. The only way to get the data in the tracker though is to author PC software that can write song data to the Prodigy ROM file itself. Seeing as how I'm already going to have to do this to add Deflemask support, it might be worth the time to look into .MID conversion as well. It would certainly be a challenge.

Well, I don't want anyone to go to hard work over my technical ignorance, I just thought it was something that should be feasible. If not, then my request is unfeasible. Simple as that.

Well, I don't want anyone to go to hard work over my technical ignorance, I just thought it was something that should be feasible. If not, then my request is unfeasible. Simple as that.

It's not that it's unfeasible. It's just that it would be "interesting" . As someone who started out composing via Piano Roll, I understand where you're coming from, I actually found the transition from Piano Roll to tracking quite smooth, although everyone's mileage may vary. This tracker will have support for custom rows and row highlighting, which would be the equivalent of setting your note grids, measures and to an extent triplets/nontriplets.

For MIDI import, the fun part would be determining in code where the MIDI data/notes would go, which rows the notes should be placed. I'm not sure about designing an algorithm that could do so effectively without user input. Basically you'd have to specify the base tempo, the grid and such... and then there would probably have to be some quantization. Which means it would be best to compose in Piano Roll with all of this in mind. Of course I'm just spouting off my current idea for a solution to MIDI import, there could be and probably are better ways to handle it, I just would need to do more research.

At any rate, I'm going to gauge public demand for this here and over at the Chipmusic forums. If it sounds like something a lot of people will use, I will find a way to get it working when the time comes. Finding out should be quick.

I don't know how much interest you'll get here and on chiptune forums, as the musicians are much more hardcore and thumb their nose at such devices (IF YER NOT WRITIN' YER TUNES ON THE ERIGINERL HERDWERE THEN YER NOT A REAL CHERPTURN ERTIST!) but if you put the word out at large, you'll get a good demand for it.

That's why gsxcc got famous in the first place - not because it was a stellar program, but because it was and probably is STILL the only program that does that out in existence. There's demand for it, I'd wager my left nut on it.