Retrogaming tech talk

CiDeRmAn

For those members who find the difference between general a&r chit chat and the more technical stuff, we create a separate thread, so get your 60hz on here!

Retr0gamer

PAL 50Hz sux.

Professey Chin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRsPheErBj8

Myrddin

I love the smell of solder in the mornings

The Last Bandit

When it comes to endians bigger is better.

CiDeRmAn

EnterNow wrote: »

I love the smell of solder in the mornings

More like the smell of the burning flesh of my index finger, as I forget science 101 and the fact that copper is an excellent conductor of heat.

Pyongyang

I hypothesise that the hypotenuse of a hypocratic isoseles triangle is subdued by the existential radius of pollen to bees in the southern colonies.

The price of shares can go down as well as up. Subject to the worlds favourite band, Status Quo.

Jack burton

Pyongyang wrote: »

I hypothesise that the hypotenuse of a hypocratic isoseles triangle is subdued by the existential radius of pollen to bees in the southern colonies.

The price of shares can go down as well as up. Subject to the worlds favourite band, Status Quo.

Pyongyang

Is it possible to plug a console audio output in to a mixer (Makie etc) and assign the audio on to a track?

I'm thinking of a SCART with phono breakout to a stereo input assigned to one track. I assume it becomes more complicated with SPDIF, is that encoded though?

Not interested in video capture here, just audio.

Doge

Pyongyang wrote: »

Is it possible to plug a console audio output in to a mixer (Makie etc) and assign the audio on to a track?

I'm thinking of a SCART with phono breakout to a stereo input assigned to one track. I assume it becomes more complicated with SPDIF, is that encoded though?

Not interested in video capture here, just audio.

Seems pretty standard to me.

lf it's a stereo output console, then the last channel on a mixer usually has 2 x RCA female connectors for stereo signals.

If it doesn't then you would need a cable with a 1/4" in jack at the end of it to plug it into a channel on the mixer.

For a stereo signal in that case, you would need 2 mono 1/4" jacks on the end of the cable, and plug them into 2 channels.

Pyongyang

waveform wrote: »

Pyongyang wrote: »

Is it possible to plug a console audio output in to a mixer (Makie etc) and assign the audio on to a track?

I'm thinking of a SCART with phono breakout to a stereo input assigned to one track. I assume it becomes more complicated with SPDIF, is that encoded though?

Not interested in video capture here, just audio.

Seems pretty standard to me.

lf it's a stereo output console, then the last channel on a mixer usually has 2 x RCA female connectors for stereo signals.

If it doesn't then you would need a cable with a 1/4" in jack at the end of it to plug it into a channel on the mixer.

For a stereo signal in that case, you would need 2 mono 1/4" jacks on the end of the cable, and plug them into 2 channels.

Suppose i could also just use a composite cable to save buying breakout cables and boards too? Problem is i think my MX 4000 tv is SCART only... Maybe S Video, i forget.

What about toslink though? Guess id need to convert that?

Looking at a Behringer or Makie mixer. Nothing overly fancy, just enough to put in live console audio, microphone, laptop input to capture Skype and monitor inputs. Wish i could find a usb midi controller input on a mixer but i guess the laptop input would compensate. Also another track to output to a digital recorder, or input from it.

Thoughts welcome.

Doge

Pyongyang wrote: »

Looking at a Behringer or Makie mixer. Nothing overly fancy, just enough to put in live console audio, microphone, laptop input to capture Skype and monitor inputs. Wish i could find a usb midi controller input on a mixer but i guess the laptop input would compensate. Also another track to output to a digital recorder, or input from it.

Thoughts welcome.

Ah I see. Don't you have an audio interface already you can use for this, and use a software app to mix and record the channels?

Or do you want to be able to monitoring everything away from the computer?

The Last Bandit

Do mixers now days not have a digital input of some sort ? I've an old DMX 6 with digital inputs and can do exactly what you want, just assign the relevant input in cubase or whatever and mix away

What is generating the toslink signal as it maybe possible to convert it from optical to coaxial , done this mod on a xbox a few years ago.

Pyongyang

Nope, no interface. I really want to be able to monitor and adjust levels live and compress tracks, e.g. mic levels, real time. Hence looking at a mixer.

Also the blue yeti I bought last week is usb out. I want to convert that to xlr in if possible.

Maybe a mega board isn't the answer? A 5 input and do the rest on the laptop would work? A 12 or 16 input is overkill I think but smaller mixers don't seem to offer the flexibility or features.

Doge

Pyongyang wrote: »

Nope, no interface. I really want to be able to monitor and adjust levels live and compress tracks, e.g. mic levels, real time. Hence looking at a mixer.

Sorry, I was remembering things that didn't actually exist in your man cave pic!

What your asking is a little complicated so I need to try and get inside your head!

Why do you need a mixer with a Midi Input?

Is it for space reasons? I.E. you want some kind of compact Rack mount mixer, that doesn't have it's own faders and knobs?

Or is it for another reason?

I'm still not quite sure exactly what will suit you, but it sounds like you might need a digital mixer.

Doge

And as for the USB mic:

http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/


If this is what you're talking about then it has a Stereo headphone output, that you could put straight to the mixer. Although the fact it's not a true line output might degrade the quality of the signal.

The problem with USB mics is since they have an Analog to Digital converter inside, even if you did somehow manage to convert it to XLR, there would be huge latency.

This was an issue for me when I bought a Samson usb mic, i was trying to monitor it in my DAW and even with the buffer turned down low in Asio4all there was still a noticable delay.

You'd have been better off with a Phantom Power condensor hooked upto the potential mixer your buying through XLR.

Doge

Bit low on energy today so I'm probably not much of a help!

But if you could draw out a simple wiring diagram of all the input and output devices going to your dream mixer, it might help in deciding what exactly you need.

It would help my little brain understand it a bit more too!

Steve X2

waveform wrote: »

Sorry, I was remembering things that didn't actually exist in your man cave pic!

What your asking is a little complicated so I need to try and get inside your head!

Why do you need a mixer with a Midi Input?

Is it for space reasons? I.E. you want some kind of compact Rack mount mixer, that doesn't have it's own faders and knobs?

Or is it for another reason?

I'm still not quite sure exactly what will suit you, but it sounds like you might need a digital mixer.

This might help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NioLf8y8F94

.

Doge

Steve SI wrote: »

This might help

.

Ah cheers! Now I think the I have the answer.

What he needs a 24-bit digital mixer, with 5 analog pew pew pew inputs,
and a digital plasma beam input for capturing firefights in Darius .

Pyongyang

Something like this:

Pyongyang

I've been going over different scenarios of how I'd want to put the rig together and while doing so conducted a quick test.

I took my old Saturn composite cable and ran the two phonos to a PHONO to Headphone jack converter. Popped that to the mic input on my laptop, opened Soundforge and hit record. It worked a treat, minus I needed to adjust the EQ a bit. I've overkilled it on the sample and put a hard limit on, just to see how it would work.

But it does what I want it to do. So, I figure what I can do going forward, if I want live audio commentary or just in-game audio capture, is run the SCART to a Sync Strike box, take that to a scaler and VGA out from that (or the sync strike) to my LCD monitor. In the meantime, take the phono breakout and pop that in to the mic input on my laptop to record sound.

Post-process it in Sound Forge and then start messing with my Mic for voice overs etc.

I guess where it gets odd is if I want to record the game audio from the mic input and record my USB mic at the same time.

Also, I had a dig round my boxes of cables and found a toslink converter that clips on the end of the toslink and I think it's a headphone jack. Should be grand, even putting a 1.4 adapter over the top of that no?

So now I'm wondering if I really need to go for a big 16 input mixer at all? Especially if I am editing individual items. Would I be better off with a little 5 input mixer? Or even just a USB audio interface?

Steve X2

All this seems really unnecessary, completely excessive and will cost a fortune to get what you want Pyongy.

I love it!! :D

.

Pyongyang

Steve SI wrote: »

All this seems really unnecessary, completely excessive and will cost a fortune to get what you want Pyongy.

I love it!! :D

.

If a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Doge

Pyongyang wrote: »

I guess where it gets odd is if I want to record the game audio from the mic input and record my USB mic at the same time.

Should be absolutely fine with a multitrack recording software than can use 2 audio inputs devices at once.

I'm not sure if soundforge can do this, but free DAW's like Reaper can.

Pyongyang wrote: »

Also, I had a dig round my boxes of cables and found a toslink converter that clips on the end of the toslink and I think it's a headphone jack. Should be grand, even putting a 1.4 adapter over the top of that no?

I have one of those also, but it doesn't convert the digital signal to analogue.

Its basically used for plugging into a "mini Toslink" (or S/PDIF) socket, which takes the 1/4" plug.

So unless the mic input in your laptop is capable of receiving a digital s/pdif signal, then I'm afraid you're out of luck there.


I think you'd almost be better off recording everything in a multitrack and doing the mixing and eqing afterwards.

This way you can play with all your levels afterwards for each track.

You could use a sidechain compressor to automatically lower the volume of the console track, every time you voice is heard in the mic track.

An audio interface with a good few Inputs would do the trick for it.

If you want a better opinion you should post it up in the Music Production forum,

you will get a lot of opinions there.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=607

Pyongyang

Well, I tried a proof of concept with the earlier MP3, now I just completed another proof of concept by rigging up the following:

Sega Saturn > RGB SCART OUT > Sync Strike > VGA OUT/Phono Breakout

From there the phono breakout goes to my phono to headphone jack and in to the mic input on my laptop. The VGA from the Sync Strike goes to my scaler and out to VGA and from there to my LCD monitor.

I fired up the Saturn, fired up Sound Forge, hit record and sure enough I got a solid capture.

I processed it a bit, and I think it sounds great. Have a listen to my MP3 through a nice set of speakers and I hope you agree it turned out good.

The main problem with the game I chose (prize if you can guess the game!) is the bomb sfx is very strong. I had no way to EQ it while capturing, so even during processing I could do little to reduce how strong it was.

So my two proof of concepts worked. Ideally I'd like all this running in a DAW so I have the game audio being recorded and my USB mic recording commentary over the top.

Perhaps though it would just be better to record commentary later? In that case I don't need any of the extra gear at all. Although I thought a USB interface would be good so I can at least adjust the gain before capturing? Sound Forge offers no hot adjustments while it's armed for recording. That's where I thought a mixer would be useful. But post processing sorted that.

Not sure how far I want to run with the idea, just something for my blog I wanted to try out, so going crazy buying mad pricey gear isn't really the right move I don't think.

I'm thinking a shopping list consisting of:

• A pair of MS16 Behringer monitors
• USB audio interface (an M-Audio with pro tools perhaps?)

Finally a few cables to get sound from the game while I'm capturing the audio. Although that makes commentary impossible then.

Anyway, here's the MP3, see what you think.

http://www.filedropper.com/kgptest

Andrew76

What are you actually trying to do man??



P.S. That link doesn't seem to work?

Pyongyang

I want to capture audio from my games and layer commentary over them. Like a podcast, but discussing a specific game.

Also I want to capture audio from SFX tests so I can send them to my MIDI controller as samples or to a launchpad in order to remix tracks live. Finally, I want to buy a Zoom H1 for my DSLR for another project (non-gaming) but I plan to take the H1 to a game centre and record a tour of the game centre I'm in when I go to Japan. Has potential for location interviews and ambient captures in future too.

That link works, just the site seems down? Very odd.

EDIT: The link works now.

Steve X2

Pyongyang wrote: »

I want to capture audio from my games and layer commentary over them. Like a podcast, but discussing a specific game.

Also I want to capture audio from SFX tests so I can send them to my MIDI controller as samples or to a launchpad in order to remix tracks live. Finally, I want to buy a Zoom H1 for my DSLR for another project (non-gaming) but I plan to take the H1 to a game centre and record a tour of the game centre I'm in when I go to Japan. Has potential for location interviews and ambient captures in future too.

That link works, just the site seems down? Very odd.

EDIT: The link works now.

Emm, camera in game centres and arcades in Japan.
Good luck with that

.

Pyongyang

Steve SI wrote: »

Emm, camera in game centres and arcades in Japan.
Good luck with that

.

Nope. I'm only thinking of taking a digital voice recorder in with me. The H1 can hotshoe to my DSLR when I'm doing touristy guff.

Doge

Pyongyang wrote: »

Nope. I'm only thinking of taking a digital voice recorder in with me. The H1 can hotshoe to my DSLR when I'm doing touristy guff.

nom

purplec

These links might help

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33679

http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=13214&hilit=Record

underpantshead

Hi all,

Been a stalker/voyeur of the forum for so long now that i feel like i am asking celebrities questions here. i really admire the dedication ye have for the retro scene! i am only in the beginning stages of reclaiming my 8 and 16 bit childhood and i hope i make sense!?

1. if you region mod a european megadrive, will it play pal games at 60hz or do you need to get the ntsc cart and then flick the console to u.s.?

2. region lockout games - how do you know if there is a region lockout on a game?? and if for example you had a pal megadrive game and wanted to play it u.s style and it came up saying "this cart is only allowed to be played on european consoles" what happens then? just play it european style? or is there a by-pass?

3. does the same work for snes too? or nes and master system for that matter?

hope i am not asking questions that have been asked too recently? i checked through a good few threads and didnt find much.

thanks!

Myrddin

underpantshead wrote: »

Hi all,

Been a stalker/voyeur of the forum for so long now that i feel like i am asking celebrities questions here. i really admire the dedication ye have for the retro scene! i am only in the beginning stages of reclaiming my 8 and 16 bit childhood and i hope i make sense!?

1. if you region mod a european megadrive, will it play pal games at 60hz or do you need to get the ntsc cart and then flick the console to u.s.?

The majority of PAL games can be played at 60Hz. There are some carts that are PAL optimized, which won't run at 60Hz though. Virtua Racing & Sonic 3 spring to mind. There should be a list somewhere on the web

underpantshead wrote:

2. region lockout games - how do you know if there is a region lockout on a game?? and if for example you had a pal megadrive game and wanted to play it u.s style and it came up saying "this cart is only allowed to be played on european consoles" what happens then? just play it european style? or is there a by-pass?

To bypass locked out games, the accepted method is to let the game boot at 50Hz, then once it gets to the title screen, switch over to 60Hz. This will work 99% of the time, & providing the game isn't optimized for 50Hz, will work just fine. This method won't work for later release SNES games, as they check the Hz during play, not only at boot.

underpantshead wrote:

3. does the same work for snes too? or nes and master system for that matter?

The mod is the same on all systems yeah, as I said though, later SNES games like Super Mario RPG will check the settings more than once. There's links to all the mods in my sig which might explain them better

underpantshead

could not of asked for a simpler explanation....i only seen the odd youtube video of the mod being done and it's been eating away at me for ages!

thanks so much!

underpantshead

EnterNow wrote: »

There's links to all the mods in my sig which might explain them better

sorry just one more thing....is the sig link missing? think i am going blind in my auld age!

Myrddin

underpantshead wrote: »

sorry just one more thing....is the sig link missing? think i am going blind in my auld age!

"Mods & Repairs To Date" will bring you to the content page

Edit - it's possible you don't have avatars & sigs turned on if you can't see the link. Check your CP

Andrew76

EnterNow wrote: »

"Mods & Repairs To Date" will bring you to the content page

Edit - it's possible you don't have avatars & sigs turned on if you can't see the link. Check your CP

Link isn't working for me either dude. Getting re-directed to some Vettel fan site??

Optimus Prime

underpantshead wrote: »

sorry just one more thing....is the sig link missing? think i am going blind in my auld age!

You also might have to go to your User CP, click edit options under "settings and options", scroll down to "thread display options" and tick show signatures and save that.

I think i had to do that before, im not sure if they are hidden by default i cant remember. but if you cant see it then try that.

underpantshead

keithgeo wrote: »

You also might have to go to your User CP, click edit options under "settings and options", scroll down to "thread display options" and tick show signatures and save that.

I think i had to do that before, im not sure if they are hidden by default i cant remember. but if you cant see it then try that.

got it now....thanks for that!

Doge

keithgeo wrote: »

You also might have to go to your User CP, click edit options under "settings and options", scroll down to "thread display options" and tick show signatures and save that.

I think i had to do that before, im not sure if they are hidden by default i cant remember. but if you cant see it then try that.

I think they must because I had to do it also.

Not sure when that came to be though, and if it's the same for new users right now.

The Last Bandit

Anyone got a guide on calibrating the laser on the Amiga CD32 ? CD-R playback is proving to be troublesome..

Pyongyang

Got it sorted now. I've got a pair of Behringer studio monitors on the way to me now and a few choice cables. No need for a mixer presently, I'm just altering the main mic input gain on the sound card and it's grand for what I need.

I managed to record a session playing Darius Burst iOS on my iPad 3 earlier too. Now problems at all with the gain down. Might look at a 5 input in future but don't need one right now.

Looking forward to grabbing some nice audio now.

Doge

Pyongyang wrote: »

Got it sorted now. I've got a pair of Behringer studio monitors on the way to me now and a few choice cables.

Is that the Truth?

Pyongyang

waveform wrote: »

Is that the Truth?

Yep! Though I would love to get a 22 input mixer for absolutely no reason at all other than it looks seriously cool. Maybe get 5 of them and stack them.

Actually, I'll be in the market for an Apc 40 and/or a Launchpad later this year. Once I've other stuff on the 2012 task list done.

Doge

Pyongyang wrote: »

Yep! Though I would love to get a 22 input mixer for absolutely no reason at all other than it looks seriously cool. Maybe get 5 of them and stack them.

Actually, I'll be in the market for an Apc 40 and/or a Launchpad later this year. Once I've other stuff on the 2012 task list done.

What model monitors did you buy actually? I just realized that the "Truth" aren't the only model Behringer do, so might have wasted a joke (that was bad to start with!)

The Allen & Heath Zed series mixers are very seductive, you'll want one now just by looking at it!

I have a 16 channel digital Behringer mixer myself that I bought on Adverts a while back, its the DDX3216 with automated faders.

I feckin haven't been using properly yet though, the bloody thing is huge.

It's like you and me are trading places!

I've went from buying music gear to retro gaming gear in the last year, and you're doing the opposite! (although to be fair you're probably still buying just as much retro gaming gear! )

Doge

I received my new Soldering Iron tip cleaner in the post today, to replace my ghetto version thats on the left:





With these there's no thermal shock or steam which is very nice.

Wet sponges are good, but this one ........is BEST™!



The box that came with it, has some cute and amusing Chinglish too!

Pyongyang

My Behringer monitors arrived today. I'm currently enjoying this being played at an incredibly high volume through them.

Y'know, just to stretch their legs loike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLD8ojYeKkw