Awesome 1

by snout on 30-03-2007, 14:30
Topic: Music
Languages:

Arnold Oudshoorn sent us a nice addition to our collection of freeware MSX downloads, the breakthrough Moonsoft music disk Awesome 1, the first music disk to support MSX-AUDIO and MSX-MUSIC simultaneously, in stereo. Later, this music disk proved to be a stepping stone into the development of Moonblaster.

Relevant link: Awesome 1

Comments (13)

By Huey

Prophet (2696)

Huey's picture

30-03-2007, 21:16

This brings back some great memories LOL!
B.t.w. I can't get stereo?!?!?!???!!! Only music or audio. Is my configuration perhaps wrong?

Which one was the one with the 'ZANDVOOOOORT!' (surfin' surfin')

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

Manuel's picture

30-03-2007, 21:52

Umm.... can I say BULLSHIT?

The demo uses FAC Sound Tracker 1 songs, and you can play them either on MSX-AUDIO or on MSX-MUSIC, but not both simulatenously in stereo. This is a 1991 production... Moonblaster didn't appear before 1993.

Maybe people who write news texts should read the scroll text first Tongue

Great that Arnold sent it though! Any more original Moonsoft stuff, Arnold?? Keep them coming!

By the way, the earliest STEREO effect seems to be done in INFODISK 6 (1991), with thanks to the amazing Byte Wizards Tongue (Thanks to AuroraMSX for pointing this out.)

By fondacio

Master (155)

fondacio's picture

31-03-2007, 09:50

I seem to remember though that Moonsoft did rework the Soundtracker replay routine a bit to enable both chips at the same time, and then proceeded to implement this in Moonblaster as well. Maybe with Awesome 2? (I also seem to remember that Impact contributed two tunes to one of those disks).

By meits

Scribe (6571)

meits's picture

31-03-2007, 19:57

I remember the same, and very well... Heard Popcorn in stereo as well... Was little puzzled when I found out this one is mono Wink

By ro

Scribe (5059)

ro's picture

02-04-2007, 08:35

Yup, Remco first wrote a replayer for FST which uses BOTH MA and MM. Then he got this CRAZY idea to create some new editor around it... MB was born.

BTW, I have more "awesome" disks here laying around. Are those PD? Then I could upload'm perhaps. (I was quite surprised this disk wasn't in the DL center already, maybe I should check MY collection against the DL center)

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

Manuel's picture

02-04-2007, 09:31

Whatever he did, Awesome 1 is as mono as it can get.

By Huey

Prophet (2696)

Huey's picture

02-04-2007, 09:52

If I recall correctly i remember there also was a music compilation creator that used that stereo routine from moonsoft/awesome.

By chaos

Paladin (821)

chaos's picture

04-04-2007, 23:15

Awesome!! This must have been the first musicdisk I've ever seen on MSX! I was very impressed and it was a good motivation for d-fader and me to start our own group.. Tongue

Is there any emu that plays the music well?

edit: must have been a problem on my pc @ work, because the music sounds alright here Smile yay!!

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

wolf_'s picture

04-04-2007, 23:23

Technically it will sound not 100% perfect with the music module due the lack of legato envelopes (which is obvious in some songs).

By chaos

Paladin (821)

chaos's picture

04-04-2007, 23:28

is it impossible to emulate the msx-audio chip for 100%?

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

wolf_'s picture

04-04-2007, 23:35

Nope, it's just incomplete, in its current state. This legato envelope isn't witchcraft, it was also present in common Yamaha synths.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

snout's picture

05-04-2007, 09:39

Perhaps my memory fails me, but if I'm not mistaken Moonsoft was the group that found the 'poke' to make the FAC replayer play a track on both MSX-MUSIC and MSX-AUDIO. Afaik Awesome 1 was (re)released using this poke so that one would have stereo sound. The next step was Awesome 2 (soon in the MRC downloads database, lads!) which offered real, per-channel stereo. Truely awesome, especially at the time.

Anyone who can confirm or deny this?

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

Manuel's picture

06-04-2007, 18:36

All I know is that this disk is really very mono, as I already said 3 times. Tongue