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mardi 17 février 2009

Shit! Fuck! Man! Rude Words!!!


I lost all the saves on my LSDJ cartridge. Thus all of my tracks, all the work in progress, as well as all the finished tracks, all of that *poof* vanished. I will never improve here or there such instrument or such harmonic progression. I will never be able to make listen with pride the proto-track “Ufology” I made up at the Cafeteria Casino of La Défense (a disgusting Food Court at a Parisian Mall) during one of the UFO loonys meetings saying “It was my very first test on LSDJ!”
Moreover, I do not remember even the tune! I do remember the “Mini Army” one that I had made while sitting in the john at my parent’s, but it was not so good, farewell too to “FAMED! US!” on which I was working on at the moment and which had a nice strange chord progression a bit like Atari ST tunes have.

Bawwww.

Good thing I re-recorded the day before the crash my “Mysterious Cave in the Mystic Forest of Mystery” track with the good GB and the pro sound output. But “Glorious Battle of Epic Proportions” will have to remain for eternity with a glitching short circuit sound due to my crappy volume pot in the right ear at the middle of the track.

The gives me the cockroach. Meaning in French that I’m depressed.

All that because of a fucking pink GB Pocket which must have a voltage problem of some sort. BING. The song screen lokked garbled and then I could’nt save anymore. I was done for. I even thought of giving up composition on GB for a second or two.

The next second though (the third then) , I went back to my strange Nanoloop 1.2 beta cart to test it once again. Finally I succeeded in making a loop. It is not so bad after all. Even if you cannot save a thing. I hate Nanoloop.

Kiss !

samedi 14 février 2009

Bagpipe Attack!

Here is the newest track, still hot, boom boom, fresh man!

This image does not have any relationship with the post whatsoever except it's what went in google images when I typed down “Scotland” and “Cosmos.” I hope you will like it. Me, I do.

Galaxy of Supreme Bagpipe




It is a Scottish spaceship which is very proud to cross the galaxies killing the magical cosmos ninjas. BADABOUM!!!

I do not manage any more to be perfectly sure of what I like or dislike in this track, I triturated it in all possible ways for a full week, removing bits here, adding others there, changing the instruments. My head's gonna explode, and I'd rather deliver the baby like that, pouf pouf.

It is done with one single GB running LSDJ. I believe that I deviated a little from the “simple” way that I had decided to follow in the beginning of this blog. But wellllzzz you knowwww, I consider that it still sounds very “Video Game” thus I do not disavow my initial postulates (if that's proper english I'll be damned!)

All your constructive comments are extremely welcome and required!! :)
Kiss!

lundi 9 février 2009

A Relax Max Weekend


Hi chickens! It's been a long time since I've contributed to this blog. I'm sorry. I will not try to justify me, I'm just lazy as fuck. This is no surprise. Everybody is aware of that.
A lot of stuff happened since the last time! The number of the year changed. That's a fact. Then we all got ill, several times, well, I did anyway. I tried to keep on making music with my pretty Game Boy, but hey, y'know, the atmosphere, all this winter... I would like to promise more regular updates in the future and everything, but I do not know if I could.

ANYWAY, I wanted to tell you a story that took place this very Saturday.
Attention, picture start!

So I was at home, Saturday morning, relaxed and all, and everybody told me "yeaaaah, y'knoow, please do more updates on your blooog, we want more musiiiic etc. Good. And me, I like to be a teaser, so I take my time y'know, like "welll, we'll seeee" and everything. But, having listened to a really nice track the previous evening on 8bitCollective that the guy (cuz it was a guy) said he had composed with Nanoloop only, I found the motivation. The motivation to find my long lost Nanoloop cartridge. A friend (Tigrou Browne) kindly gave me his a year ago (at least) because he NEVER FUCKING understood how it worked, and it was shity and everything and to make a long story short, he actually never wanted to hear about that anymore. Ever. Thinking that would appeal me in some way as I was only collecting GB games at the time, he gave it to me. I quickly started the thing, but had no clue either about how to use it. Then the cartridge was forgotten, collecting dust in the middle of all my other games.

So I sorted what I had, I took all the cartridges out, and I wanted that Nanoloop BADLY.

The whole morning was nice, it was hot in my living room. I dug up in the piles of gray-ish and black carts, trying here and there a forgotten game. A level of Balloon Kid, one or two innings of Famista, the first world of MarioLand shouting "GUTTO WEPON!! WOUUU" etc. Sausage Soup, Sympa. (It's french, it means that's cool)

Finally, I found Nanoloop.

(Here is a picture found on the net, to give you an idea. But my cartridge is more or less the same except it's written NL12b .)

So, quick quick, I grab my DMG-01 and I start it! Bing! I * yet again * strictly understand nothing. I'm wondering if my cartridge doesn't have a problem or something, everything seems so erratic and sluggish. Crap crap crap and shit. That's what Nanoloop is at this very moment. I do not even manage to get a single fucking sound out of it. Good! Total disappointment. Like a broken toy on Christmas Eve. White plastic where it has broken. Unfixable. Tears.

So, I want to make some LSDJ. And fast!! But it is true that the sound of the GBColor is not top-notch, and that my big DMG is completely rotted by years and dust that was in the fucking volume pot and everything. And then I remember what my friend Tam sent me earlier this week: A great DIY super hyper easy to understand to "Pro Sound" a big grey fat GameBoy.

Basically, this is an extremely complex mod (yeah sure.) It consists in making a second sound output that does not go through the shit amp the game boy has, nor the daughterboard for the headphone jack, nor the crap speaker or the volume pot. Basically an exit row with more potatoes if you see what I mean. In french it makes sense! MORE POTATOES!!! MORE POWER!!! Like Medabots!! If you plug the baby into an amp, no breath or buzzing, and they also say you get that so-called "deeper bass" BOOM BOOM! DEEEPPPPER BAAAAAAYSSSSSS!!! WOUU!

I'm itchy. Eager. Especially since a guy from work generously gave me the other day a big gray Game Boy which he had lying around his basement, mainly because the screen was fucked: big white vertical lines were zebring the screen (yeah, zebring, like a zebra). I had it undergo a quick test run and effectively, no way you could play anything. And when it comes to reading indications from LSDJ don't even bother. Still, it was in good cosmetic condition, and the sound was very good. I decided to keep it as a chiptune "player" (no need for a screen to press start.)



We see here Baptiste (since that is his name, thank you my friend) bringing me the GB in a plastic bag. Said Bag also contained a small briefcase for GB transport, some games (pure crap) and a Yeno Light Boy-like.

So, I have a kind of guinea pig. This GB has no sentimental value to me and its screen is almost dead, I have no qualms about trying to dismantle it for the greater good!

So here we go. After a short pinball break (CSI: the last table from Stern) at Marcel's café at Gare de l'Est with my friend (w)eska, we head towards Eastern Paris to buy what we need for this already great adventure. Selectronic, a mini-hack pharmacist welcomes us. I bought 3 stereo jacks "3.5", 3m. of wires of color, a set of precision screwdrivers, tweezers for manipulating very fine components and two halogen LEDs because I MAY THINK that I could also try modding the Light Boy. Total cost: 6€! I feel so poor now!

A lil'go around the shops in République (Akihabara in Paris man!) to buy a Tri-Wing screwdriver (Y-shaped) which is the only way to open Nintendo gear, and we're set! We go back home. (w)eska kindly accepted to stay and assist me. His hands were also used as models on many of the pics that follow.

You unscrew the whole thing, Zoupla, you got 6 screws. Aside ...


So there's a kind of a flatpin connector that connects two parts of the GB. You have to disconnect it being careful not to tear it or whatever. (Here are my hands.)

Here, (w)eska shows us the "screen" side and the afformentioned flat cable. Please note the small and cute icon meaning "human operator attention! No screws in that hole! No no no!" And what I love is how everything is completely clear. Everything is illustrated! The whole board schematics are actually printed out on it! Ha, the 80's... It was a pretty crazy time for electronics enthusiasts. You could actually understand machines with the naked eye, just by looking at the stuff you could understand what was what! WOW! Think about the PSP motherboard nowadays!



Let's twist some components on the headphones board to make a bit of room in the box, and the "battery" side is ready for receiving the welding blessing of PROSOUND MODDZZZ!!!



The "screen" side must now be drilled to receive the jack. I dig up the powerdrill from my closet. I used a drill bit designed for concrete. Well, *Normally* you should use a Dremel, or at least a drill bit for steel. But I had none, and after all, who cares? It's Effing plastic! IT WILL END UP WITH A HOLE ANYWAY! It's softer than concrete, it should work! (At first I thought about melting the hole like a pig right through the PVC hull with my soldering iron, but hey, I'm a professional or what? ...)



After several tests, here's the bit I used to get the hole the right size, it's 6. If you want to do it at home. It went just fine, don't drill too fast or it will melt the plastic.

Adjusting the jack, and there... is the tragedy.



The port doesn't stick out! Or just barely! And fuck! People are supposed (yeah people) to screw a washer on it to attach the whole thing to the hull! We can not leave it like that! It will fall inside and travel around the case, and in addition will break the welds and everything, and oh la la ... Misery.

WELL. I hereby decide that we will see later how to deal with that. In the WORST case, I'll put a jack extension cord hanging out, use it that way until I buy a longer jack that I will install later (like in "never")

I prepare the wires, I solder them to the jack.




Then I make my solder points on the motherboard. Right on the sound chip output. Do not shake... It's hard, especially with my 20W soldering iron which is about as hot a cheap hotel hair dryer. Crappiness!!! LULZ! Anyway, I solder the the left channel, the right channel...



...and I face the impossible, the ground pin. No way I can de-solder the ground pin. It doesn't fucking melt at all! I then decide to ass flux and solder and I make a big mess, nothing welds, notching combines... I admit that I do not understand why, but everything is useless! Then well,... a ground is a ground huh?

So I decide to solder my wire directly on the big brass thing that looks to be a ground precisely. It's really a super clean job as you can see. Super professional adhesive tape, a great piece of paper hyper insulating... Real art.



Honest, Hats off to this good looking work.

Time ellipse / Time Paradox. The pic that follows was taken later in the night (it was 3 in the morning, I was back from a pancake-night at Minishort's, we watched Wall-E and the first Nightmare on Elm Street. It was cool.) But I could have and should have done it at this time of the project.

Basically, it made me feel like serious shit that this screen was not working properly, especially since (This is a complete storyline spoil, but at the time this pic was shot I knew already!) the pro-sound mod worked hyper extremely well. And I remembered that my mom's clear case GB had the same vertical dead lines issue and that many other GB a little neglected I could have seen in attics and garage sales were just the same. Other people should have experienced the same concern! Perhaps they even found the solution !!!???!!!?!!!

I grabbed my computer and I searched frantically on google with hyper specifics arguments like "bring back old vertical lines on game boy screen that's yellow" or "vertical lines fix on dmg-01" or "narcoleptic funny dog video rusty. " And after a few minutes of laughing frenzy watching the narcoleptic dog a dozen times, I finally found a thread on 8Bc where guys would give plenty of grandmother recipes to repair it (because obviously, everybody had the problem.) You could find any magic way there, ranging from "push like crazy on the screen until it becomes black, but does not break" to "put the game boy in the oven set to a very low temp in a towel for an hour" or the incredible "Iron the scren with an iron set on cotton-nylon" like wowzorz ...

In any case, all these remedies had one thing in common: the pressure and the heat. It would seem that the problem is caused by a kind of small flat cable controller under the screen that is not welded or plugged into a connector, but just plain glued to the contacts. The problem is that over time the glue dries, and it comes off, mostly on the edges, hence the disappearance of lines on the sides first. Well, actually, with heat, it "could" be "recast" and the glue could re-stick.

This is where having a super cheapo soldering iron running only low temperatures is appreciable, I quickly dismantle the screen plate, remove the kind of black rubber shit underneath which is glued with urine and I apply the hot tip of my iron (sassy...) just under the screen, console turned on to control if the lines are coming back.



And then, incredible miracle, the lines reappear!! If I remove the iron, they re-disappear, press hard again, and then eventually, they stay. The screen just goes a bit crazy due to the heat (understand that it becomes almost black at the bottom) but recovers quickly when colding, so no worries. Wonder-Marvel! The resurrection of the GB! WOUHOUHOU!

Let's go back in time then, and let's pretend I repaired the screen in the afternoon with (w)eska and everything. Well, erm, NEAT! The screen is repaired! And now, time to close everything up...

The problem that remains is the fucking jack. As we failed badly to fix it to the hull, what could we do? And suddenly, enlightenment! Eureka-from-above-style! What is stronger than all that is? What is stronger than a steel chain ? What can keep a basketball hoop glued steady to a wall ready to receive dunks like crazy? What's the material the fallout shelter are made of?
THE NEITHER NAIL NOR SCREWS OF COURSE!

I dunno how you call that in english, but in France, the Neither Nail nor Screws is a kind of crazy composite blue tac that hardens and becomes rock solid when mixing it with itself! I have tons of it at home! Hurry!!

It looks plain gross seen like that, but it actually makes a super good job of holding the thing together! The headphone port is literally petrified in that amalgam or neither nail nor screws! No hassle, no mess! I begin to wonder if I shouldn't have used Neither Nail nor Screws to solder the pro sound output instead of actual metal. It would probably have held for centuries!

The only pb = can never change the jack, it becomes one with the shell. If a lousy joker was to pour, let's say chewing gum, glue or even worse, some neither nail nor screw in, I would be fucked!

I close everything, being careful when it comes to plug back in the flat cable. Do not bend it too much, it seems that it may cause vertical dead lines on the screen, and after, you need an oven and all that shit. Pain in the ass.

Et voilà TA TA TA!!

PRO SOUND MODDEDZ GAME BOY BABY !!!!! In addition, the greatness unexpected brought by the Neither nail nor screw is that it looks like a super "pro" mod because there's no DIY-washer srewed on the additional output! It looks like it is factory made!! (Don't open it up though) Ha ha ha. What a tube!! (Which means in french, "what a classical hit you can hear on the radio!" If that doesn't make sense to you, well, I'm french, sorry.)

I frenzy-hurry to test, and the result is amazing! No static at all, a volume multiplied by twelvethousandzz when plugged into an amp. Intersting to note tat no sound or very little sound is heard if you connect a headset, but it is not the point, so. The sound is really better defined, but as for the "deep bass" bof, I thought my bass to be already pretty deep in the begininng, I did not feel that it changed something so greatly for the "bass" matter, but in all cases very very good mod!

Enthralled by this success, I litterally jump on the Yeno Light Boy!


I reverse engineer like mad to discover two huge bulbs that are void of the sentence!

Ha ha, they SUCK!


"Buu, look, we shine a little, buu" USELESS PIECES OF CRAP!


That is over bitches, THE BIG WHITE LED races for your pussies!!! The whore your mooommmmmm !!!!!


Go bam, quick unsoldering, connecting! 3.2v voltage recommended for LED, 2x1.5v = 3V. Resistor protection not needed, I'm doing it like a fucking monkey-pig! GO!

THE SUN!! IN MY KITCHEN!! BOOUBOUBOUBOUMMMMM !!!!!


I cannot hold my excitement, I close the thing and then have a look at these photos speak volumes!


My bed is ready to take FIIIIREEEEE!!


BOOM! I can do some in-the-dark-LSDJ!! DON'T GIVE A SHIIIT!!!! Take this! Darkness!! (Please note BTW the screen which was not yet repaired with dead lines on the edges.)



I feel MEGA BOOSTED!!!! And I even made a new song to celebrate! I finish it and I post here soon!

Kiss chickens!
And see you soon!