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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / ENC_'s music / W08 - 2 PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Songs On Hardware

W08 - 2 PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Songs On Hardware

By ENC_ on February 26, 2022 8:49 am

I came across a white model PC Engine in a local game shop at the end of 2021 and recently picked up the hardware to write music and record the machine. This week I took a stab at writing for the hardware for the first time. I ran into so playback issues due to Deflemask's inaccurate sound emulation and quirks but I managed to get roughly what I wanted.

There are 2 short songs for this week. The first song was the first test I made to feel out the PC engine's sound chip. It was not long enough to qualify for WB but I included it anyway. The second song was a song I did when trying to test the limits of the sample on the machine and it was long enough to qualify.

The PC Engine is a truly interesting machine and has bumped up close the Sega Genesis as one of my favorite consoles to explore and write for.

Gear Used:
PC Engine
Turbo Everdrive v2 (flash HUcard for song playback)
Deflemask
Tascam DR-40 (Quick recording)
Ableton (light mastering and BG sound clean up)

February 28, 2022 2:33 pm

Devieus

These sound real nice, something more than a crossfade would've helped, but it's fine like this

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March 2, 2022 8:56 am

cTrix

Nice track on PC engine :-)  Yeah, defle does have a different sound hey.  I find the real thing is way more muffled.  I might have to pull out the PC Engine out next week if I find time to make some new tunage :-)  (or finish an old track).  I like the way you've also included the pulse wave vibes in here ... and that fuzzy break too! Banging

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March 3, 2022 1:59 pm

ddmm64

the sounds are so nice and crunchy big_smile

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March 13, 2022 10:26 am

ENC_

cTrix wrote:

Nice track on PC engine :-)  Yeah, defle does have a different sound hey.  I find the real thing is way more muffled.  I might have to pull out the PC Engine out next week if I find time to make some new tunage :-)  (or finish an old track).  I like the way you've also included the pulse wave vibes in here ... and that fuzzy break too! Banging

I have had trouble matching deflemask to the hardware on the Megadrive/Genesis too. I recently updated and feel like the sound emulation is further off than it was previously. I could be remembering wrong though.


Would love to hear a PC Engine track from you somtime. I mostly know your GB and Amiga stuff from back in the day at blip festival. I am sure you could pull out a banger. I'll just chalk it up to being a quirk of the tool.


I am glad you pointed out the PWM! My tediously hand-drawn tables weren't for nothing. It ended up crunchier than I was expecting but it was good enough I think for a test. I probably could get them smoother if I up'd my math resolution when drawing (I got lazy halfway through).

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