Any way to see which channels are playing/mute instantly?

[Lee Bee]

Hi, I'm new here! I've always been a fan of retro videogame music, but only just discovered the VGM format and this site! It's fantastic!

Anyway, I've installed the Foobar plugin (foo_input_vgm) and it works great. There's just three things I wish I could do...

1. I was just a little disappointed how slow it takes to mute/unmute channels. I was wondering if there's a frontend that will mute channels instantly?

2. Also, it would be really useful to see which channels are playing. Is there anything that shows waveforms/VU meters?

3. Finally, I find it a shame that the plugin doesn't tell me what chips the current song uses. Is there any way to do this? Ideally, it would be good if all the chips disappeared from the list except the ones used in the current track.

[kirishima]

There's not much the devs of this site can do for the foobar version since it's maintained outside the site by an anonymous Japanese programmer(I think). That's why it's not officially distributed on this site. That being said, the only current way of finding out what chip is being used is through the song's properties menu. The other issues, there's not much that can be done.

[Lee Bee]

Hi kirishima, thanks for the reply.

To clarify: I don't need to stick to the foobar version, that's just the only version I've tried. I know that the official player is command-line only, but I want a graphical interface. Has anyone made a proper standalone frontend? That's what I'd really like.

[ValleyBell]

1. If you can/want to use Winamp or XMPlay, you can use the "official" in_vgm plugin. It has an option called "Immediate update" that makes muting/unmuting happen instantly.
2. It doesn't have anything to show the currently active channels though. The VGM player doesn't have any functions for that.
3. in_vgm shows the used chips in the "Song Info" dialog (Alt+3 in Winamp). I assume that's not what you want though, or is it?

[Lee Bee]

Thanks for the info, ValleyBell

Ah, "immediate update" - that sounds like what I'm after

I'd really been hoping there was a stand-alone VGM frontend as I like to have dedicated programs for each thing I do, rather than bolted-on addons running in the background of some other program. I'm also not a fan of using Winamp (I hate the interface which seems prehistoric to me). But I suppose, as long as it does the job then it will do. Thanks! Ultimately I only want to export to wav anyway, so it doesn't matter how pretty or ugly the interface is.

And yes, currently used chips in the "song info" - that's what I want. Just to know what chips are used in the current song. It would also be cool if all the unused chips disappeared from the selection list. Even better would be if there was no selection list, and just one screen showing all the channels for all the chips in the current song - with VU meters, but not to worry, I am very happy with this software as it is! Thanks

[ctr]

MDPlayer is probably your only option if you want a fancy GUI. Keep in mind that it is not really based on our VGMPlay code, so compatibility might not be the same, and any issues should be directed to the developer, not us.

If you only want to export to WAV, the standalone VGMPlay should be all you need. Just set "LogSound = 1" in VGMPlay.ini and drag and drop your VGMs to the VGMPlay exe, and you will quickly get a rendered WAV file in the VGM file's directory.

If you want to export each channel to WAV, you can specify muted channels in VGMPlay.ini as well, but it might then be quicker to use a program like MultiDumper (sorry, I can give no help about using this program, ask in the chatbox / IRC if you're interested)

[Shywolf]

Just to know what chips are used in the current song.

Note that some packs (such as this one) will include all of the listed chips in the header of every song, including in songs that do not actually contain data for one of the chips. This is done in order to keep track volumes consistent across an entire OST, as chip volumes and balancing are auto-adjusted depending on how many chip(s) are enabled.

[Lee Bee]

Thanks ctr, that's helpful I'm not a fan of command line programs, but I guess VGMPlay will do the job for ripping WAVs (just to add to my music collection).

But I'll also be using the Winamp plugin too as I want to play around with muting channels. (I'm a musician and love to listen to individual parts, and see how other musicians have allocated the channels.)

Note that some packs will include all of the listed chips in the header of every song

Yes, that's absolutely fine.

(such as this one)

Ah, the AY chip… my favorite! I've made a lot of music for that chip (not commercially).