chipmusic.org — LSDJ FAQ thread (2010–2011)

A catch-all question thread on chipmusic-org from the LSDj 3.9–4 era. Beside hardware chatter (cartridge power problems, keyboard wiring, USB transfers) it settles several command questions that the manual leaves implicit: how L is placed, why table volume fades click, how to sync a half-clocked Game Boy, and that chords are arpeggios by nature.

Key claims#

• Tempo changes mid-song: a T command where the tempo should change (Jellica, Bit Shifter).
• L slides (PixyJunket, egr, aphasia): L "bends the previous note to the new one" — the command sits on the target row (A#6 … C 6 L02 bends down to C; C 5 … A#5 L02 bends up); L on an empty step bends "anything down to nil"; in those versions only L01/L02 were "usable", faster values sounded odd; "the bend starts at the second note position." Jellica prefers P with the vibrato type for portamento; tRasH cAn maN: slides are not affected by the vibrato waveform (which offers saw, triangle, square — no sine), only by HF/non-HF.
• Volume-column clicks (PixyJunket, Jellica, nitro2k01): a table fade-in 01 21 41 61 81 A1 clicks at every step — "a hardware limitation. To change the volume, the phase of the waveform needs to be restarted, which causes a click"; usable only "if you actually want a static-ey sound". Work-arounds: chained E commands where one continues where the other stops; aphasia's stepped fade — a short loud 0F then a sustain of the wanted level, repeated (0F 48 -- -- 4F -- -- 88 …); or align the steps with the groove's ticks so the clicks land on the beat.
• Panning clicks (concealed, Zef, herr_prof, 2011): panning also clicks — "fade the instrument off before doing the panning".
• MIDI keyboard latency (RushCoil, aphasia): with an MC2/MIDI keyboard LSDj only responds while the sequencer runs and quantises key presses to the step; set the groove as low as possible in that channel and raise the tempo.
• Half-clocked Game Boys (Kedromelon, Jansaw, nickmaynard): two DMGs sync with one underclocked — make the normal one the master and the underclocked one plays at the same BPM an octave lower; or make the underclocked one master at double tempo (254 master, 127 slave). A variable-speed knob on the master changes its pitch and tempo and only the slave's tempo; on the slave only the slave's pitch.
• Chords (Llulagan, an0va, pixls, Jansaw): the C command alternates notes because "each channel is really just one channel"; slower table arpeggios come closest; "nes and gameboy have the same amount of pulse channels" (Saskrotch).
• Version notes (nordloef quoting the changelog): 3.9.2 (2008-12-26) replaced "purge sequencer/instruments" with "free unused data"; 3.9.e (2009-07-26) split it into "clean song data" and "clean instr data". The LSDj keyboard uses the DMG-07 cable: brown +5 V, red serial out, yellow serial in, green clock out, blue ground (quoting the LSDj wiki).
• Hardware: an EMS cartridge in a Game Boy Pocket restarts "because of power issues" (Axolotl, Beverage).

Practical takeaways#

Put L on the note you slide to; expect clicks from stepwise volume and panning changes on pre-8.8.0 versions and hide them with envelopes or on the beat; an underclocked Game Boy is a free sub-octave when synced.

Notable quotes#

"That's how the medium works, boss." — an0va, on chords

Pages touched#

pitch-slide-and-portamento · volume-slides · adsr-envelope · stereo-panning · sync · chord-arpeggio · lsdj · game-boy · chipmusic-org