Liven MEGA SYNTHESIS - Retro Game Music Production Machine
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More about the Sonicware Liven MEGA Synthesis:
Sonicware's Website: https://sonicware.jp/pages/liven-mega...
Trailer: • LIVEN "MEGA SYNTHESIS" (Official PV)
Yuzo Koshiro's Patterns: • Yuzo Koshiro Preset Patterns on LIVEN "MEG...
So I'm really excited about this one, Sonicware has made a new Liven that emulates the FM, PCM and PSG capabilities of my favourite 90s games console! It's sound had a huge influence on me back in the day and is probably the thing that drove me towards getting into electronic music, but more of that in a later video I think. I'm also therefore very familiar with Yuzo Koshiro's work so thrilled that he's worked on this too. This being an official Sonicware video, I can't mention the console by name here, but if you'd like to know more about the original hardware, this playlist will fill in a lot of the blanks for now: • YM2612+SN76489 Sound Capabilites
This Liven holds the distinction of being the first model to remove the knob shift button. This means that apart from the slight differences I mention when using the PSG channels, it's one knob per function where the other Livens have two functions per knob. This is also true when using the editing overlay and it makes it a lot easier to operate
Some deeper technical stuff:
As mentioned late in the video it removes some of the technical barriers that were present on the original hardware. The editing overlay on the MEGA give full patch programming including the YM2612's pretty unique 'SGG EG' which makes it possible to loop operator envelopes.
1: The YM2612 had a design flaw in it's 9-bit DAC which gives it a distinctive tone when played quietly referred to as 'the ladder effect'. Also the whole output ran through a smoothing filter to remove high frequency aliasing. On the MEGA you can turn this on and off per track so you can adjust it to taste using the Legacy Mode.
2: The YM2612 had 6 monophonic channels which can be switched into different function when needed. Sample playback on the YM2612 was only possible through channel 6 and was typically monophonic unless some clever software mixing was used in it's 'driver' (think software control of the hardware), but this would use up precious CPU resources. It was also uncommon to have samples pitched up and down as this also used up resources. When using samples, 5 channels were left for FM sounds. On the MEGA you can have 3 notes of polyphony for it's DRUM mode and chromatic playback in mono mode. It's also possible to pitch drum up and down using the Sweep function in envelope mode for greater flexibility. The polyphony for the PCM channel is separate from the FM polyphony so you still have access to 6 voices FM voices when playing samples.
3: Sample playback quality varied a lot on the original hardware with the sample rate usually being constrained by cartridge space and the driver. Though 8 Bit playback depth was the max the YM2612 could manage devs would often lower this to 4 bits to save more space. On the MEGA you can use 12, 24 and 48 khz sample rates at 8 bit and apply 4 bit depth using the Legacy Mode if you want to
4: Only channel 3 on the YM2612 could have FM operator ratios that were non-integer values and fixed frequency values. On the MEGA you can freely use these features on any operator and with polyphony bringing it more into line with DX FM hardware
5: While velocity response was possible on the original hardware I can't find many games that used it much beyond changing volume. On the MEGA you can program velocity sensitivity per operator so the tone can be really expressive which is something I love about FM!
6: The YM2612 and SN76489 could only play voices in the centre or hard panned left and right. On the MEGA you can freely pan your tracks and even automate this while the sequence plays. You can also adjust per track volumes too.
7: The YM2612 had a single LFO synced across the whole chip that was mostly used as an Amp LFO with vibrato usually being added from the 'driver'. On the MEGA you can set the Amp LFO speed and depth per patch.
8: The SN76489 can play square on 3 of it's 4 channels and noise on it's 4th, or a pretty out of tune pulse if it refers to channel 3 for pitch. The MEGA has 4 voice polyphony of square, noise or pulse to use freely
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