A VERY special preview, just for all you guys (^_^)

[Keranu]

Excellent, that would work out lovely so it would give me time to do other things as well and it builds up anticipation for the next episode. I hope to someday hear an episode where a Turbo star cameo appearence comes in like Bonk and Guy Kazama on PC Engine FX radio - that was hilarious.

[Kaminari]

Besides, the emulated sound on Magic Engine is 99-100% perfect on most games (not all)

Depends on what version you're talking about

The sound core of Magic Engine 1.0 PR9 and onwards is around 90% perfect, which is not bad compared to all the previous versions (0.99 and early 1.0) which were more around 50%. The noise emulation was particularly flawed, and the logarythmic volumes tables were not even implemented, resulting in a very flat response of the sound.

Since PR9, we worked hard with David to completely overhaul the sound emulation of Magic Engine. It's still not perfect but I think we reached a good compromise, at least good enough to favorably compare with a real system. Yet if you seek a near perfect sound emulation, I suggest you give a try to PC2E.
http://mapage.noos.fr/kaminari/tmp/Ziria2_ME.mp3
http://mapage.noos.fr/kaminari/tmp/Ziria2_ME2.mp3
http://mapage.noos.fr/kaminari/tmp/Ziria2_Duo.mp3

[esteban]

Besides, the emulated sound on Magic Engine is 99-100% perfect on most games (not all)

Depends on what version you're talking about

The sound core of Magic Engine 1.0 PR9 and onwards is around 90% perfect, which is not bad compared to all the previous versions (0.99 and early 1.0) which were more around 50%. The noise emulation was particularly flawed, and the logarythmic volumes tables were not even implemented, resulting in a very flat response of the sound.

Since PR9, we worked hard with David to completely overhaul the sound emulation of Magic Engine. It's still not perfect but I think we reached a good compromise, at least good enough to favorably compare with a real system. Yet if you seek a near perfect sound emulation, I suggest you give a try to PC2E.

Magic Engine 1.0 PR8
Magic Engine 1.0 PR9
Duo-R

As always, excellent post . Thanks Kaminari.

I've been capturing the analog signal from an actual PCE because I was unsure how accurate emulated sound was. The mp3's you provided deftly illustrate your point about ME's emulated sound. Bravo!

I'll have to experiment further before I decide what to do for my future recordings. I'm a dinosaur, so I'm leaning towards the old-skool, low-tech method (capturing sound from a console).

*So here's the million-dollar question, Kaminari: how did you capture the PSG from your DUO? Any and all details will be greatly appreciated (i.e. sound card, software, PC specs, etc.).

Any recommendations / insights you'd like to share would be icing on the cake. I've had "buzzing" in my recordings, perhaps this is inherent in the PSG, or perhaps I have some intereference that I can reduce / eliminate.

[Kaminari]

My pleasure Steve

The distorsion you get might be due to the input line you're using. Some sound cards and notebooks don't have a specific line-in jack (light blue) and only offer a mic-in entry (pink), which is absolutely not suited for capturing any other sound source than a monaural micro.

My sound card is a good old SB Live! Value (Player 1024). It has a line-in plug which I use for various external sources, including my Roland CM-500 and my Duo-R. I'm a bit spoiled because my console is a RGB-modified one with a SCART cable and separate Cinch outputs; I capture the sound (whether it's PSG or CD) through a Y cable (Cinch to Jack 3.5) plugged into my line-in. But you can probably do the same with a standard Duo via the headset output.

The only problem is that the Creative sound cards have a weak line-in; what I mean is that the sound level is usually not amplified, and you have to boost it afterwards with Audacity or any other sound editing program to get a decent volume.

[esteban]

My pleasure Steve

The distorsion you get might be due to the input line you're using. Some sound cards and notebooks don't have a specific line-in jack (light blue) and only offer a mic-in entry (pink), which is absolutely not suited for capturing any other sound source than a monaural micro.

My sound card is a good old SB Live! Value (Player 1024). It has a line-in plug which I use for various external sources, including my Roland CM-500 and my Duo-R. I'm a bit spoiled because my console is a RGB-modified one with a SCART cable and separate Cinch outputs; I capture the sound (whether it's PSG or CD) through a Y cable (Cinch to Jack 3.5) plugged into my line-in. But you can probably do the same with a standard Duo via the headset output.

The only problem is that the Creative sound cards have a weak line-in; what I mean is that the sound level is usually not amplified, and you have to boost it afterwards with Audacity or any other sound editing program to get a decent volume.

thanks. Oh, I know about mic-in vs. line-in from past follies (i.e. attempting to record a CD onto an audio tape with a "boombox" back in the 80's The boombox lacked proper line-in jacks).

My current setup:

PCE coregrafx II + standard issue A/V cables --> RCA to 1/8" mini-plug convertors --> line-in on my old PC. My old PC has a soundblaster sound card, i believe, but perhaps I should test things out to see if anything records nicely on my PC (perhaps its the PC itself).

[nodtveidt]

The only problem is that the Creative sound cards have a weak line-in; what I mean is that the sound level is usually not amplified, and you have to boost it afterwards with Audacity or any other sound editing program to get a decent volume.

Line-in circuits are supposed to be unamplified...a line-in is intended to accept a raw signal. What you do with it after that is up to you...Creative has the right idea.

[Kaminari]

Hmm, that's not exactly what I meant ^^

Creative cards have a despised feature called ARL (Automatic Recording Level) which forcefully reduces the volume level of anything you record via the line-in jack in order to prevent clipping. The downside is that the sound is much weakier than it really is, and eventually you have to boost it manually in any sound editor -- which kind of makes this "enhanced" feature moot at best.

There has been much talk at Quest Studios about how to disable it, and we found no satisfactory solution.

[MotherGunner]

The way I capture music is by simply running Magice Engine, use the sound ROM for your game of choice, and capture it a program called Audacity.  Initially it will be mono, but you can easily re encode it with the same program to make it stereo.