Jump to content

For all you chipfans: Chip Maestro Kickstarter - turn your NES into a Midi-controlled music machine


Level 99
 Share

Recommended Posts

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jarek/chip-maestro-an-nes-midi-synthesizer-cartridge

I already know at least one of you has already backed this project, but I think any of you chip-oriented people would be interested in this. They've already passed the bar to get funded but there's still a bit over 100 of the standard carts remaining to get dibs to preorder for $50.

"I am prototyping, designing and assembling a special cartridge called Chip Maestro which can be used in any Nintendo Entertainment System. This cartridge will accept a MIDI input from any instrument, and by passing the MIDI notes through the NES, the cartridge will make the NES synthesize 8-bits of awesome in true NES squarewavey goodness."

There's a video demo on the kickstarter page. Thoughts? Did you back it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm kinda curious what Chip Maestro offers that MidiNES doesn't-- and as ProtoDome said, $50 seems like a lowball number for the hardware... the MidiNES is going for $110 but each one is built as the orders come in, not mass manufactured. It seems like making a bunch of these for such a niche market is rather silly though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haha you beat me to talking about midines. I think that midines might be a bit over priced just because there is NOTHING else like it until now. Or maybe the Chip Maestro will actually be the same price-ish but just a special "help me get it done" deal right now. It sounds like a pretty awesome deal and I kind of want to go ahead and do the $50 pledge. I've been wanting midines but can't afford $110 for something like that right now. I personally wouldn't know the first thing to do on the dev kit so I don't need that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe because I don't particular have any music capabilities myself to appreciate it being live, but the demo sounded pretty bad. I know of the technical aspects and the limitations of the NES and all that, but if it can't demo it live AND sound good: Not a good sign for your product :/

Definitely not going to hear awesome chiptunes out of it unless its properly tracked anyways, honestly

Also a neat feature would of been nice to have the VRC6 chip (contained in some FC games, and real popular in the chip scene right now. Wouldn't work on a NES though) or something to make it different then the aforementioned midines. Someone should do that, the 4 Square would make live MIDI more feasible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe because I don't particular have any music capabilities myself to appreciate it being live, but the demo sounded pretty bad. I know of the technical aspects and the limitations of the NES and all that, but if it can't demo it live AND sound good: Not a good sign for your product :/

the quality of how it sounds is related to the fact that they did actually record a track and put it in in post. They simply recorded it playing through a amp on a camera mic so the sound quality is shit. I'm sure if you put in a game into your nes and recorded what it sounded like with a camera and played it back that it would sound very similar to this. I think it's going to sound just fine!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, I'm 100% sure it would sound better unless you picked a game with a crappy sound track. And that would have to be pretty bad. (Edit: or your LoZ cartridge is very broken, they did play the LoZ theme). I'm not talking about the sound quality, I'm talking about the actual musical tones.

It seems like its making up for the ability of not being able to play more than 2 Square channels (standard 2A03) by throwing in the triangle channel as a 3rd tone, which its doing completely randomly every time they press 3 keys simultaneously and just sounds terrible IMO.

Not sure if theres a 2 tone mode option or some better control over the triangle they ad later, but that live demo is terrible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the idea behind it, but I do wonder what they use to change the phasing of the rectangle waves. By the looks of the video there was no way to change it, but they have to have something incorporated to make that sound. It'd be daft to say something was using NES hardware if you couldn't use all of the hardware.

I also noticed the issues with the triangle wave. Hopefully these issues are resolved someday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, I'm 100% sure it would sound better unless you picked a game with a crappy sound track. And that would have to be pretty bad. (Edit: or your LoZ cartridge is very broken, they did play the LoZ theme). I'm not talking about the sound quality, I'm talking about the actual musical tones.

It seems like its making up for the ability of not being able to play more than 2 Square channels (standard 2A03) by throwing in the triangle channel as a 3rd tone, which its doing completely randomly every time they press 3 keys simultaneously and just sounds terrible IMO.

Not sure if theres a 2 tone mode option or some better control over the triangle they ad later, but that live demo is terrible.

Love the idea behind it, but I do wonder what they use to change the phasing of the rectangle waves. By the looks of the video there was no way to change it, but they have to have something incorporated to make that sound. It'd be daft to say something was using NES hardware if you couldn't use all of the hardware.

I also noticed the issues with the triangle wave. Hopefully these issues are resolved someday.

ummm... you guys should maybe read the info on that page.

How does the Chip Maestro handle polyphony?

When 2 or more notes are pressed on a MIDI instrument, the user has the option of selecting which waves are played in which order.

When using the Chip Maestro with a computer, sending notes to specific MIDI channels triggers specific waves to play.

As for phasing and other options, it will use midi cc

What CC messages are supported?

My primary focus of the Chip Maestro was the ability to fully use it using the simplest MIDI Keyboard, so settings must be changeable using unused notes (currently the lowest octave -0). I am currently implementing CC controls per requests, so if you would like to see a specific CC message implemented, please wait until later this week when I begin releasing technical documentation. Then you will be able to see exactly how the Chip Maestro works, and send in feature requests.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...