VGX Live

Details

Unsure of how to perform your Sega Mega Drive / Genesis chipmusic live?
Tired of dragging your laptop to live shows to play chipmusic?
Always wanted to make your chipmusic performance more dynamic?
Do you want a way to showcase your live Sega Mega Drive / Genesis music to the world without just pressing ‘Play’?

Then VGX Live is for you! We’re developing a brand new tool enabling you to play your Sega Mega Drive / Genesis live. Simply create your music in Deflemask tracker as usual, then add in loop point commands to divide into blocks. Export your music as a VGM file and using our super simple tool, create a ROM with one or many VGM files ready to perform a live set. VGX Live can be used standalone with either one or two joypad controllers and without any need for a laptop. Features include seamless skipping between non-consecutive loops, muting/unmuting instrument channels on the fly and a track display and selection interface. In addition, if you want to have greater control and versatility and experience the true awesomeness of VGX Live, you can use a first generation Novation Launchpad to control your music playback via a live performance-tested hardware interface based on the ubiquitous Teensy LC microcontroller. So what are you waiting for? Give it a go!

Components

1 × Teensy LC

1 × USB Host Mini USB host based on MAX3421

1 × HCPL-0700 Opto and Fiber Optic Semiconductors and ICs / Optocouplers and Optoisolators

1 × 74AC125DG125

1 × 74AHC1G00DBV

Project Logs

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Feb 2016 - Arduino Version
Nathan Stanley • 11/21/2018 at 23:15 • 0 comments

After the initial development of VGX player software to run on the Mega Drive with the custom button grid, a hardware interface was devised which consisted of an Arduino Uno, a USB Host Shield based on a MAX3421E and a Sega joyport cable. The idea was to be able to replace the custom button grid with a commercially available MIDI controller and the Novation Launchpad seemed like a good option as it includes 64 light up buttons, a USB interface with bus power and is inexpensive and readily available to buy second hand.

Arduino Version of VGX Live Interface
Showcase Video of the Arduino Version of VGX Live
Jan 2016 - Alpha Version
Nathan Stanley • 11/20/2018 at 22:35 • 0 comments

The alpha version used a custom built button grid that was equivalent to all the buttons from two regular joypads.

Custom Button Grid Based on Two Joypad Controllers

The original Mega Drive visuals matched the 5 x 4 button layout of that grid as shown below.

Alpha Version of VGX Live Software on a Mega Drive Model 2

Though still in development, I risked playing live with the alpha version using the dual joypad button grid - it was a lot of fun, though the software was still a little buggy and unstable. Here's a video clip courtesy of xspheric from the first ever live performance using the software. Everything except the main melody being played on the keyboard is from VGX Live. You might not notice that VGX Live actually crashes at the end!