In the last 12 months or so, I've been studying Yamaha's FM synthesizer chips from the 90's, how they've been used back then in PC AdLib/SoundBlasters, in Japanese NEC and Fujitsu PC's, in the Sega Megadrive etc, and finally how these chips could be used with a ZX Spectrum.
I already knew about the ZX Next expanding a previous "Turbosound" standard to handle 3x AY PSG chips, which is awesome, but only about 6 months ago I learned about the TSFM produced by NedoPC group. Now I understand that NedoPC introduced the 2x AY concept to the Speccy world around 2005. But what surprised me the most, was that 14 years ago their TSFM version also introduced the possibility of FM synth programming and music generation from the ZX Spectrum, with its' 2x YM2203 chips.
From my research, it looks like today a TSFM expansion board is still available from Zaxon and Velesoft, and is also included in Jan Kucera's FPGA products. Although the multiple-AY concept became an established standard, unfortunately it seems that the FM synth part never achieved the same success. Maybe because the hardware was expensive or difficult to obtain, maybe because FM music programming on a Speccy is too difficult, or maybe simply because there's still today too few games or demos showcasing the FM sound capabilities.
Going further with my own project, I've painstakingly translated NedoPC's documentation by copying each paragraph to Google Translator and back to MS Word, so I could understand it's details. What at first glance seemed like very good technical documents, after the still imperfect translation was revealed to me as an awesome documentation job by [mention]Alone Coder[/mention] and other authors. Although many years late, I'd like to congratulate him and all NedoPC team for their impressive work and continued support for the Speccy worldwide community.
I've just signed in to this Forum to express my gratitude directly to the original creators, and also to ask around for some help to further developing my own project, where I want to keep as much compatibility as possible to the original TSFM. So here we go:
(1) My goal is to develop a new expansion board for the ZX Spectrum (48K and above), with YMF262 (OPL3) and/or YMF288 (OPN3) chip(s). Although FPGA reproductions could be available, my interest is on the original SOP chips, which can be found cheaply as NOS. The YMF262 is well documented as it's used in AdLib/SoundBlaster cards. The YMF288 is very poorly documented, but basically it's the latest member of the OPN family, compatible with the YM2203 and still have the SSG (AY-compatible) included. Even if this new hardware is successfully implemented on the Speccy, it's crucial to have software to explore its' capabilities. As a first step, I'm counting on the few existing Speccy programs I know that play OPL (as a subproduct of Mick Labs' ZXM-Moonsound) and OPN (TSFM's FM-compatible programs as found in the ZXDB).
(2) The TSFM documentation mentions the YM2612 used in the Sega Genesis/Megadrive and how to convert music from that chip to the 2x YM2203 in the TSFM. Does anyone know about any past attempt to use the YM2612, or any other Yamaha OPN, OPL or other series' FM synth chips from the ZX Spectrum or compatible models? I've already gathered lots of references, specifications, hw schematics for general projects, but anything specific for the ZX Spectrum would be appreciated.
(3) Does anyone know about a VGM Player software, released or in development for the Speccy? If not yet, I'd like to suggest this as an exciting project for [mention]emook[/mention] or other music-oriented Spectrum software developers. Grauw's open-source VGMPlay for MSX could be a starting point for such project. A basic Speccy version could start allowing VGM files targeting the AY PSG to be played on a Spectrum 128K and above (or a 48K with AY add-on), then later allowing to play YM2203 and possibly later OPN2 music (Sega Genesis/Megadrive etc) through the TSFM. If my own little project becomes a reality in the future, it may allow a vastly expanded range of OPL and OPN music VGM files to be played too...
(4) Another music file format of interest is the S98, for OPN (YM2203/YM2608) music ripped from games for the Japanese PC88/PC98 computers. Recently [mention]LMN128[/mention] published a video of a S98 Player from [mention]NEO SPECTRUMAN[/mention], playing on his own hardware. I couldn't get this software anywhere yet, so I'd appreciate if someone could clarify a few points: does this software run on a basic ZX Spectrum with an original TSFM installed? Or does it really require the FM chip(s) mirrored on ports 7F3B and 7E3B as stated on screen? Does the MB03/eLeMeNtZX FPGA cores reproduce 2x YM2203 chips as in the original TSFM, or does it really reproduce the more advanced YM2608 as also stated on screen?
(5) I'd like to submit my automated English translations of "tfm_c" and "tfm-prg" documents to [mention]Alone Coder[/mention] for his revision, and with his approval, release them for the ZXDB. Maybe the translated documents will help sparking renewed interest in the TSFM in the western world. Please let me know what you think.
Thank you all for your patience reading all this, and thanks in advance for any answers and suggestions you may have.
