Sega Genesis F-Mdrive User's Guide

LOAD & SAVE FULL PATCH & BANKS in FXB/FXP CONTROLS THE REAL MEGADRIVE HARDWARE VIA MIDI (Needed Little Scale GENMDM Midi Device) CONT

Right click on a knob, button or slider will open a midi learn assign menu. Ctrl click + move allow fine tuning.

THE YAMAHA YM2612 FM CHIP The YM2612, aka OPN2, is a six-channel sound chip developed by Yamaha. It belongs to Yamaha's OPN family of FM synth

The particular implementation of the DAC produces some noticeable artifacts on the Sega Megadrive sound output, similar to distortion, the sound can c

DT1: Fine detune/ following this table (frequency is a small number) small detuning can create movement on the sound. DT1 0 1 2 3

ENVELOPE GENERATORS PARAMETRIC ENVELOPES The typo used for naming the envelope stages varies with documentations, FMDRIVE uses: AR, DR, SL, D2R and

TL Total level, the highest amplitude of the waveform. AR Attack rate, the angle of initial amplitude increase. This can be made very steep if desi

SSG ENVELOPES MODE When activated SSG mode will loop the envelope from AR to D2R (included) following 8 defined shapes and behavior. The envelope time

The phase is also reset in SSG mode at the beginning of each repetition of the waveform in cases where both the HLD and ALT bits are unset. This prod

Technical manuals claim that AR should be 31 (no attack) when using SSG…however setting an attack phase and producing this behavior can be used in a c

FM-DRIVE 2612 VST USER MANUAL 1.2 BY Aly James ©2013 ALYJAMESLAB

A click at the top of the graphic envelope opens a pop up menu allowing full control. Zoom from 100% to 1000% and SHIFT/CTRL for fine & ultra-fine

RATE RATIO CONTROL RATE RATIO CONTROL Allows to change the global EG RATE/SPEED from *0.1 to *4 for rapid tweaking and adjustment of the envelopes.

Some examples of sound types: 0 Distortion guitar, “high hat chopper” Bass… 1 Harp, PSG type sound… 2 Bass, electric guitar, brass, piano,

Note on filtering: Filtering the output is done internally.

LFO LFO can be used for tremolo type effect (AMS) or vibrato (PMS) both can be used for FX. The LFO is a basic sine wave in the YM2612. Others type

AMS EFFECT ON VOLUME PMS EFFECT ON PITCH 0 1 2 3 No effect Displacement of 1.4 dB Displacement of 5.9 dB Displacement of 11.8 dB 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

SOUND MODELS MD1 SEGA MEGADRIVE MODEL 1 FMDRIVE try to approximate the real hardware distortion HARMONIC DISTORTION – LADDER As previously stated,

When using MD1 Model the Overdrive parameter allows to fine tune the effect to taste, most notably when ALGO 7 is in use, the output might distort

NOISE FLOOR The Output resolution is also limited and no sound will be produced if TL is lower than 104. Quantification noise could also be notice

What I have found during close experimentation on the real chip is that the distorted part is actually here even when the output register for a chann

Table of Contents FM-DRIVE 2612 VST ...

are maintaining high precision even at low rate value (high envelope times). HQ Model will produce YM2612 sound at ideal capabilities, removing hardwa

NORMAL/SPECIAL MODE YAMAHA added to the YM2612 three different settings that produce a change in the global function. NORMAL MODE Under normal mode

Activating the MIDI switch next to an OPERATOR allows frequency and key on / off happening independently. Controls are made by a different MIDI ch

CSM MODE CSM (illegal Mode) This mode is will also switch the YM2612 in special mode It was officially called “Illegal Mode” because it seems SEGA di

MIDI MAPPING for CSM TIMER A MIDI ON • Timer A Frequency/Period is controlled by MIDI CH14 In CSM mode only the Release Rate RR will have a noticeabl

D.A.C LOADING SAMPLES The YM2612 has the ability to play 8bit PCM sound data instead of FM sound on the Channel 6. It is useful to play complex sou

SLOTS are MAPPED to standard midi GM drums. MIDI CH1 Notes like so: MIDI MAPPING for DAC SAMPLE SLOTS • Slot 1 MIDI notes 35, 36 (KICK) • Slot 2 MID

TFI IMPORT / EXPORT TFI FORMAT The TFI format is a 42 Bytes binary file, it contains register values for the main parameters of the YM2612 chip.

The internal browser is limited to a certain number of characters so you will have to put your TFI preset folder into the root location C: if there i

INTRODUCTION My name is Aly James; French steam funky musician, composer and creator of strange musical DIY devices and software. Normally I am more

LIMITATION TFI format contains all of the main parameters that define an YM2612 sound. However the TFI format does not contains data for: • LFO • DA

CIRCUIT BENDING The FMDRIVE add the unique ability to tweak the system in many ways. Opening the tweaking panel lead you to these following control

MIDI AUTOMATION MIDI LEARN Almost all of the FMDRIVE parameters can be automated via midi learn or DAW automation allowing great control over the so

You can also sync parameters between different FMDRIVE instances, using one instance to control the others via MIDI. Ex: Assign LFO ON/OFF to CC 25 on

PARAMETERS LIST GLOBAL PANEL L M R = output the FM sound hard left, center or hard right ALGO REGISTER= Switch between different Operator configura

TL PANEL POWER = reset OPERATORS, FEEDBACK and VELOCITY TL = Total attenuation level of the selected Operator FB = Feedback level of Operator M1 VL

RR = Release rate SPECIAL MODE & CSM PANEL F-NUMBER = the root frequency of the current operator RESET = Reset the root frequency to 440 Hz (r

FM SYNTHESIS WHAT IS FM? Frequency Modulation (yes, the same as that thing you listen to on the radio) synthesis was made popular by Yamaha in the ea

APPENDIX Early Interface design sketch & design

Some hints…

Mainly, FMDRIVE can act either as the YM2612 CH1, 2, 3(with special mode or CSM) 4, 5 or 6 (FM or DAC). It can be either polyphonic (up to 6 voi

LINKS Aly James centric links Official Website www.alyjameslab.com Dev Blog www.alyjameslab.blogspot.com Facebook News www.facebook.com/alyjamesoun

HOPE YOU HAVE FUN WITH FMDrive!

DISCLAIMER & LICENCE AGREEMENT DISCLAIMER FMDRIVE (the software) is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. Aly James Lab (alyjames.info@

INSTALLATION COMPATIBILITY FMDRIVE i s a Windows 32Bit VST Instrument for use with MIDI capable DAWs. RUN on 32/64 Bit Systems. If you want to use i

State of FMDRIVE 2612 current features WIN 32 VST runs on 32/64Bit Systems and it is multicore compatible HIGH QUALITY GUI (Different panels for c

YM2612 extended switchable features OVERDRIVE LADDER EFFECT CONTROL (Works only in MD1 MODE, adjust to taste) RATE RATIO CONTROL (Change the g