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PinSound / PPS partnership

mwong168

mwong168

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Everything started few years ago, when the PinSound board was not even a board, but barely a proof of concept of a system to replace the sound of our own pinball machine. We brought this prototype to a local pinball show and the feedback was absolutely amazing!

Encouraged by many pinball collectors, two more years were then necessary to industrialize the product and get a fully plug'n play high quality sound board. Now, with the PinSound Board, any pinhead can simply upgrade a wide range of compatible pinball machines, offering a completely new game-play.

Today, we're very proud to announce a new partnership with Planetary Pinball, rights holder of Bally/Williams.

This connection will enable us to reach a new step in the PinSound ecosystem as we will now develop new high quality sound packages: original, remastered and exclusive ones.

The PinSound board is a unique piece of hardware for pinball machine, already compatible with:
- Data East Rev 3 (Rev 2 to come later)
- System 11C (A/B to come later)
- WPC 89 (pre-DCS)
- WPC DCS
- WPC 95
- more to come soon!

Check all the features here: https://www.pinsound.org/

In the following weeks, original and remastered sound packages will be available for download on PinSound.org website.

We are looking to artists & musician who would like to create remastered or original contents for our product, contact us, we would love working with you!

Thanks again for all the great feedback and the huge support from the pinball community, we'd like also to thank Rick from PPS who has been very nice to work with.

For those of you who are attending the Pinball Expo at Chicago, the PinSound brothers will be there, stop by our booth to say hello or hangout with us
icon_wink.gif


Meanwhile, the PinSound board is in stock, both at https://www.pinsound.org/shop webshop and Planetary Pinball Supply (http://www.planetarypinball.com) and Bay Area Amusements (http://www.bayareaamusements.com) for online purchase.

Nicolas & Timothée
 
BMHouze

BMHouze

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Mar 11, 2014
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So in laymans terms what does this all mean?
If I put this board in lets say a checkpoint
It will play the default sound as normal. Plus I can download new and different background music?
Will I be able to put my own muaic in (say I am a fan of a certain band, etc)?
Also of note what format is the music in mp3, wave, etc?
Is music upgrade free as I bought the card or is it fee based aswell.
Am I going to need to upgrade my cabinet speakers and add a sub (que link to 5k diamond lady) to get the real effect?
Could get pricey like all those 'free' games on my phone.
Just saying I don't see the whole big picture quite yet.
 
Fifty

Fifty

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Apr 22, 2014
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Rick just confirmed that he is "ok" with Williams/Bally re-orchestrations on PinSound. Looks like White Water is going to happen!
 
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Monkeybug

Monkeybug

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Nov 14, 2012
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For those of you that do not know what Pinsound is, here is the summary.

  • Pinsound is a replacement sound board for many of the newer systems (1985+).
  • The same pinsound board can work on different platforms. You do not need to buy a particular model. This means the same pinsound board can be swapped in and out of your Data East, WPC, Sys11 etc.... It is a pretty amazing engineering feat.
  • Pinsound is developed by two guys in France with no official help from anyone.
  • Pinsound allows you to have multiple mixes pre-loaded and can be user selected by various means. For example, on a DE machine, turning the volume to zero, automatically loads the next sound package.
  • All sounds/packages are on a USB stick and are in WAV/OGG format.
  • Games have a pre-determined folder format for the game system. Once you have a mix, you can swap in/out whatever sound you want. You need to ensure that the clips are usually the same length to have a consistent mix because the original code expects sound clips at pre-set lengths.
  • Not all games are available. Many people have made 'dumps' of existing mixes and offer them at various places. It is from these templates that you can create your own mix. If a dump is not available for your game, you can create one via the Pinsound board.
  • Pinsound offers an application tool that allows you to record macros of games being played (via Pinsound). You can then use this to run your mix through to see how it sounds. Much easier than having to load your mix everytime you want to test.
  • The Pinsound board boots a bit slower than the regular game you may need to wait 20 seconds extra or so before you hear sound.
  • The Pinsound board boots on its own and is not tied into the MPU or overall architecture.
  • Upgrading speakers is an option but depends on the platform. Data East has true stereo and really can shine with this.
  • There are advanced options for you mix such as audio ducking but the documentation is pretty crummy from Pinsound on this. This is their biggest weakness.
  • With the folder format, you can add multiple sounds per event. When this happens, it will randomly play one. For example, if a game only has a single 'extra ball' call out, you can add 3 different ones for a variation.
  • Pinsound has gone through some firmware changes over the past few years but is very solid. This is not to say that future firmware upgrades may not happen. They are quite easy to do via USB.
  • Pinsound has a lot of little pots to dial in the sound output giving complete control on the type of sound you want and what is most apt for your system.
  • There is an audio jack in the pinsound board that allows you to run headphones out of it. When headphones are plugged in, the speakers go silent.
  • Planetary Pinball seemed to get their nose out of joint when it first appeared, but the legality is quite grey, like ColorDMD. They were mostly left alone until a super user named EndProdukt created some serious re-orchestrations of T2 and IJ. He upgraded many of the callouts from the movies. WH20 was redone with help from the original WPC team which is were the legality got a bit touchy.
I personally think it is an amazing product that has limited audio packages for it. If you like to tinker or if there is a great package out there, it is a much better investment than say a ColorDMD. How often do you look at the DMD versus listening to the game?



 
BMHouze

BMHouze

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Mar 11, 2014
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I could see how this could make some of the 'electronic' sound much better in a title like Harlem Globetrotters or for. DE a tmnt could in theory play the cartonn music. Even and old Bobby Orr could play the tunes they play at the breaks (Gary Glitter)
The headphone ability is a real plus. I have been pricing these out on feebay and theu run over 100 usd on their own.
Now don't mess with Williams. I personally loved it when High Speed would play some of their electro mix. It reminded me of their arcade titles like Robotron...
 
Menace

Menace

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Nov 14, 2012
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I have been watching that Wh20 re-orch for a while and hoping Rick would work something out with the Pinsound guys! There is just way too much effort put into these projects not to release them for all to enjoy. I will be ordering one for my Wh20 for sure.

D
 
Monkeybug

Monkeybug

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I am trying to figure out how Rick is going to monetize this? Have a flat 'tax' on all hardware? Offer Itunes like downloads for your game?
 
Fifty

Fifty

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Apr 22, 2014
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Menace said:
I would suspect it's just a portion of the sale of the PCB. (like 10% of the sale price or sometihng)

D
Click to expand...
This is what I assume as well. These companies (PPS/PinSound) are not technically sophisticated enough to follow the iTunes store model. Even if they were I doubt they could be bothered to do it that way. For WH2O you will have an onslaught of people downloading the file in the beginning and it will taper off quickly to 1's and 2's downloading it.
 
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