New MSX sound card from LPE Electronics

Source: HispaMSX (Spanish MSX mailing list)

Leonardo Padial has released a new MSX sound card that contains the 3 classical MSX sound generators: PSG, SCC and FM-PAC (MSX-MUSIC). The SCC and the FM-PAC each have 512 Kb of flash memory. The FM-PAC and the PSG can be redirected by software to allow their simultaneously usage with another FM-PAC or PSG. The cartridge has also built in a 0.3 watt per channel amplifier that allowes you to connect stereo headphones or small passive speakers.

Comments (27)

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

26-10-2003, 17:28

What is the Flash used for? Padial's page doesn't seem to mention the use either...

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

26-10-2003, 17:28

It would be cool if the SCC could be addressed via I/O! That's really lacking from the current SCC, slotswitching (especially to subslots) is SUCH A PAIN!

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

26-10-2003, 17:44

I have a feeling the scc flash is used to program scc games in. It would be cool if it contains some sort of SCC-Basic.

By Grauw

Ascended (10721)

26-10-2003, 18:13

And the FM Flash ROM you can use for FM-Basic, and maybe also extensions like KUN-BASIC etc? Well, ok, I agree that 1 grand meg of flash ROM is a bit much ^_^.

~Grauw

By Grauw

Ascended (10721)

26-10-2003, 18:14

Oh, I forgot: cool! ^_^ This is a very important part if you want to build your own (modular) MSX.

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

26-10-2003, 18:22

Well, it doesn't have joystick ports, so I wonder how those are handled...
Afterall the PSG handles them, so another card with joystickports will clash with this PSG... Ofcourse you can disable it with that adressing thingy, but then you don't have PSG sound from that card anymore...
Or am I missing something?

By makinavaja

Master (220)

26-10-2003, 19:03

how much it costs? I can't find its price on padials web ...
and, the scc chip, where did he purchased them? original cartridges?? ARGH!!,

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10096)

26-10-2003, 19:08

the psg chip is bigger than the fm chip ... lovely, isn't it ?

and why not scc+ btw ?

By snout

Ascended (15187)

26-10-2003, 21:12

Hmmm just a thought, but maybe Padial and Sunrise can work together and create a new Moonsound this way? MSX-Audio (muziekmodule) emulation would be very cool as well, esp. with 256kB sample RAM... ahhh wishful thinking, I already LOVE this project. Keep up the good job, Padial!

By Ivan

Ascended (9342)

26-10-2003, 22:40

The price of this new soundcard is not still in Padial's page.

The "part number" of the soundcard is LPE-SAN3-V1.

By Grauw

Ascended (10721)

26-10-2003, 23:20

Ah, yes, seems you're right Patriek. Maybe he let it ignore all (read) access to the joystick port registers?

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

27-10-2003, 10:06

Try getting enough SCC+ chips

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

27-10-2003, 10:08

Or Padial has thought up another use for these ports. I surely doubt the PSG and OPLL are connected to the same I/O ports as their non-combined-on-a-cartridge versions.

By Arjan

Paladin (782)

27-10-2003, 16:57

expect it to be more expensive than the FM-PAC only solution he's selling (which is €75)

By Sander

Founder (1871)

27-10-2003, 17:31

Well, it probably will cost something, but it would be fun to listen to 6 channel psg tunes

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

27-10-2003, 18:59

Using the price list on his site and checking the parts on the card:

- 2 * 512 KB flash ROM of â‚¬ 70,-
- OPLL cartridge â‚¬ 75,-
- SCC about â‚¬ 30,- (desoldered from a Konami cartridge no doubt)

Leaving the PSG out it would cost 70 + 70 + 75 + 30 = â‚¬ 245,-

Moonsound anyone?

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10096)

27-10-2003, 23:13

btw.. how are the balances between the chips done ?

There's the issue with balances on 8250 machines, where the psg (compared to fmpac) is louder than on 8245's. iirc, the turbo R and the 8245 are calibrated the right way. Emulators are unfortunately not based on this balance (:-(

imo that's why illusion city has so much psg added to the fm-music.. because a turbo-R-only game guarantees the ideal fmpac-psg balance.

By roadfighter

Champion (453)

28-10-2003, 21:42

Hi,

IF the Sound ships are from original products , who wants this card anyway.
I rather have 3 originals than 1 made of originals

By sjoerd

Hero (609)

31-10-2003, 17:50

Is it stereo? It has a stereo headphone connector

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

31-10-2003, 19:23

if sound is divided over two channels, you can asume it's stereo

By sunrise

Paragon (1091)

31-10-2003, 19:27

Good idea this Padial
AMusement
Cartridge
Its price 60 euro, as we can see now, but what do you get.
Right Bifi the flashroms ,jackplug, pcb, a lattice mach chip( logic chip. pld)
You should take care yourself for PSG,FMPAC-chip and what about proper software.
It would have been a very good product if he ahd chosen for a much bigger pld ,fpga whatever of lattice with more gates.
So a better idea is ese-pld minus logic of z80 and vdp 9918 and add moonsound in pld form.

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

31-10-2003, 23:28

And when I snap my fingers...

Software emulation of MSX-MUSIC isn't even 100% correct. A hardware implementation is even harder. Let alone MoonSound, which is several times more complex...

Has anyone ever seen/tested Padial's VGA board which claims V9958/V9990 emulation? I sincerely doubt it's 100% compatible, or he is a magician.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

31-10-2003, 23:47

furthermore, judging from the picture it looks like Padial is using genuine PSG, OPLL and SCC chips?? (did he kill SCC games for this?)

By sunrise

Paragon (1091)

01-11-2003, 11:18

In order to get the chips for SCC, FM-pac and PSG you need to buy or to strip without any doubt.Please read (although Spanish) his pricelist.
And those components are rare to buy, or you must have the chips , capable of stripping it in a proper way.
I know Guyver that the Fm-pac is not 100% already in the Ese Pld, but it need not much to complete and the PSG,SCC and SCC+ are present , I was just playing with it when I saw the announcement from Ivan. Moonsound , indeed , even as snout I was whisful thinking.
But since Open MSX as well as Nlmsx are already far, it must be possible to write the code into VHDL as well.
Padial chooses also for PLD with his Lattice chip, so why donot extend it further ?

By usuario_msx2

Paladin (757)

14-11-2003, 18:19

Hello for everyone!!

Talking about sound: recently, I’ve got the sound card LPE-SAN3-V1. It’s avalaible in lpadial.amsx.org.

In my opinion, it’s a good choice, because, instead only one, you have 4 cards for loading games:
PSG+FMPAC+SCC+Flash.

I’ve been testing it, getting ON and OFF its chips by software, wich is quite convenient. Moreover, they work together, with sound/ games/ demos programs.

The sound is really good, it`s stereo,d the SCC sound source is amplified, so it`s no necessary increase the volume every time I load a SCC Konami game.

By the way, it hasn’t been difficult to get the chips looking for them in breaking ups
I got a PSG of an amstrad , an ancien recreative motherboard FMPACK, and a Konami F1Spirit SCC (this one was mine ;D).
(If someone wants any PSG, I can get them for you).

I only must test the flash when loading games. I know there is a program made by JAM for loading ROMs in Leonardo’s Flash; I supose it needs a little change for profitting this flash.

Have any body got the card?

If any body has it or wants to ask me for anything, I’ll be pleased to answer him.

usuario_msx2@yahoo.es

Greetings!!

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

15-11-2003, 00:15

Thanks for this information!

By usuario_msx2

Paladin (757)

07-12-2003, 21:52

Hi Everybody,

Now it's possible loading rom files for the new sound card from L.Padial.
16k/32k/64K rom at the moment.(megarom future versions).

It's possible having some roms loaded in the 2 flashrom, and enable/disable it via software.

If anybody wants the loading software, I've got the program.
Software upgrades, ( saving games.....) are welcome.

Bye!

New MSX sound card from LPE Electronics

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