Follow along as Alex gets a YM2151 FM Synthesis connected to his Papilio.

Correction: There was a typo in the original post – Alex is using a YM2151 chip, not a YM2141 chip.

Alex, not satisfied with the current crop of audio chips available for the Papilio, is embarking on a mission to get a FM Synthesis chip connected to the Papilio. His target of choice is the YM2151 audio chip that was used in famous games like Double Dragon. His plan is to physically connect a YM2151 chip he bought off ebay to the Papilio. One of the hurdles associated with the chip is that it does not have an onboard DAC, but rather then be a detriment he is using that to his advantage by feeding the digital audio data back into the Papilio so he can add new effects and then use a Delta Sigma Dac.

The fact that the chip does not have an integrated D/A and requires additional external components might be considered a drag by some, but in this particular instance, for someone like me, the fact that the chip outputs digital data is actually a bonus since that output can be fed back into an FPGA (without going through a D/A and A/D conversion) and further processed numerically.

Alex’s writeups are always amazing and fun to watch, this is turning out to be no exception! Follow along in the forum as he does his magic.

Forum Post