TX81Z : The advanced 4-OP FM Synth

Apart from the CX5M and CX5M-II I also own a TX81Z. Why? Do you ask – I just say: “LatelyBass”!

In more words, this TX81z is a 4-Operator FM synth like the CX5M but you have the ability to change the operator waveforms itself. This allows you to make more complex waveforms with just one operator.

Matt Gregory has a very informative webpage for the TX81Z which also explains a lot about FM-Synthesis and programming; also a good read for the CX5M users: http://the-all.org/tx81z/ Anyone who also owns the TX81Z by the way is more or less obliged to have this editor.

VOG Files

So a while ago I got a request from Paul Deco if I could put the .vog soundfiles back online. The CX5M shares the instrument-data structure with the FB-01 so they could be handy for FB-01 users too. I’ve zipped them here

Now, In the previous version of this site there was also a .VOG decoder. I’ve been working on that too so you can see what sounds are inside the .VOG files (typically 48 instruments per file). I have not made the file uploader for that decoder in this new CX5M site (a bit worried about security since the contact form is already spammed now and then) but you can browse through some instruments. You can click on the links below and see how the sound parameters are setup. WARNING: It’s a load of numeric stuff if you’re not into FM programming…

Click to view a few examples:
ARK1.VOG
ARK2.VOG
ARK3.VOG
ROCKKIT.VOG
JAZZKIT.VOG
SOUNDSFM.VOG
MOSCOW1.VOG
MOSCOW2.VOG
MOSCOW3.VOG
MOSCOW4.VOG
ELECTRO.VOG
FEX1.VOG
FEX2.VOG
FEX3.VOG

The FD-051 Floppy disk interface

Configuring the CX5M-II device with disk access in the blueMSX I found out I did not know what controller was used in the FD-051. Opened it up and found it’s the FD1793 controller, you can download the datasheet here

Now where did I leave my EPROM burner/ripper…

TakTech online FM synth

Wow, this is great… I had the iPad/iPhone app DXi to emulate FM synthesis but it seems TakTech have also managed to work the FM synthesis in HTML5! Take a look

MIDISlav 1.4

*update* – Midislav disk is downloadable here

It’s still running but after about 30 years it’s probably time to backup the floppies…

CX5M DMS -II 16 track MIDI sequencer

The attic revealed some more gems I collected over the years. This is Carolyn Eng’s DMS II cartridge

A small youtube CX5M collection

RaspberryPi and MSX

openmsx-8 So. OpenMSX is also on RaspberryPi Opposed to the Easy ‘Click ‘n run’ CocoaMSX this is not for the faint at heart but I guess when you own a RaspberryPi you probably aren’t.

I posted this tip on raspberrypi.org to get you started on getting the emulator to work and I’ll repeat it here:

Nice, I managed to install and run it on the small moebius release package:
http://moebiuslinux.sourceforge.net/

With the help of installing the libraries below Download your openmsx binary and install these:

libsdl-dev
libsdl2.0-dev
tcl8.5
libglew-dev
libtheora-dev
libao-dev

Handy; A list of modes to set your RCA to PAL/NTSC or whatever, not sure if you want to but just to make this a complete post:

nano /boot/config.txt

sdtv_mode=0 Normal NTSC
sdtv_mode=1 Japanese version of NTSC – no pedestal
sdtv_mode=2 Normal PAL
sdtv_mode=3 Brazilian version of PAL – 525/60 rather than 625/50, different subcarrier
(taken from http://elinux.org/RPiconfig#Video_mode_options )

MSX and OSX

admin

August 28, 2013

Ok sorry guys and gals, cx5m.net has been sort of ‘offline’ for quite a while. I was a bit careless in domain expiry. I hope it won’t happen again…

CX5M.net

The Yamaha CX5M Music Computer Resource