240114 - Jamuary2024 - PSG Tracks Only Liven MEGA Synthesis

video upload by ChrisLody

"Full Disclosure: I occasionally take on freelance work at Sonicware on an hourly rate producing synth & sample sound design, beta testing, checking English text, video manuals etc. This video wasn't paid for directly but as a result of my work with Sonicware it is marked as Paid Promotion

So someone asked me in the comments (@ArtFluids) If I could make a demo track on the Liven MEGA Synthesis using just the PSG tracks, so here it is. Using the Liven MEGA like this makes it sound quite a lot like the 8 Bit Warps, but I'm only using a very small part of it's feature set. I've restricted myself to not playing notes with the square below an A2 like the original hardware, but it can actually play lower than that. Also no FX at all.

The Liven MEGA Synthesis seeks to recreate the audio capabilities of the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis. So the Sega Mega Drive was built upon the hardware in Sega's previous console, the Master System / Sega Mark III. The sound capabilities of that machine were 4 channels of audio consisting of 3 square wave channels and 1 noise/pulse (under quite specific restrictions). So the Mega Drive / Genesis contained that sound chip too and was mostly used during music to add layers of square waves to the sound or noisy percussion, it was rarely used up front.

The MEGA Synthesis emulates that chip and users can program it from 2 dedicated tracks. So you're a little restricted in the fact that a track can only play one sound at once, though using automation you can change the sound on the fly. Using automation, Track 5 is playing drums and a pulse bass (on even steps only but somehow that still sounds fine 🤷‍♂️) while Track 4 plays everything else which must use the same envelope, modulation settings etc at any one moment. So it's more restrictive in some ways than original hardware, but also it's less restrictive in other ways like allowing 4 voices of noise, square or pulse to play at the same time. So like most of the features on the MEGA, it captures the overall sound without being overly concerned about super specific technical restrictions."