more SNES fun
Added 2015-09-14 05:10:26 +0000 UTCbeen playing more with doing stuff with the super famicom's sound chip. the "spc700" stuff here is recorded directly from actual hardware. pretty cool what you can crunch down to 64kb at a time! i mean, i'm no stranger to that, i grew up with trackers, but it's just a wonder to hear these things from that hardware. still don't like its built in filtering, but it's interesting to play with regardless, and explore sounds that none of the people that worked on the console actually did.
which is interesting, actually, since so many euro devs released software for the console, and since breakbeat hardcore and rave music were so big over there at the time. you'd expect to hear at least something on the thing, but i guess not! bizarre.
the 2a03 acid track is just a fun jam directly from my famicom. gotta do something with these sounds!
Comments
in the early to mid 90s it was actually mostly about samples, rather than synths. rave music was samples samples samples, and it was quite uncommon to hear complex synthesis of any kind (especially FM synthesis!) in that kind of music haha
msx
2015-09-15 16:24:30 +0000 UTCI'm really loving these.
matt
2015-09-15 08:51:40 +0000 UTCI think it depends on which side of the spectrum you come from for what you'll see as easier, speaking in the time period, I believe people who had interest in such tracks would have or seek some knowledge about synthesizers. Might just seem that way to me because I initially took to synthesizers for being able to alter the sounds from within themselves. I don't think sounds in the YM2612 given example are bad in themselves, they're unpanned and flat and the composition is just boring overall, but it doesn't sound like they didn't know how the synthesis functions. Samples can be done lazy too, I have been guilty of using just one sample, no modulation whatsoever, sounds incredibly lackluster. I've been learning to curate this when I use samples, heavily in thanks to you. Speaking of that I've been wanting to thank you for posting the tracker files, they've been a real eye opener for sample usage.
sequenceofnumbers
2015-09-15 05:48:15 +0000 UTCPlok definitely has one of the best (and highest quality) sound banks on the console.
msx
2015-09-15 04:10:18 +0000 UTCi'd actually say the YM2612 is much more difficult to "grab and go" since if you don't know FM synthesis it sounds absolutely awful by default: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFJb98Ormoc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFJb98Ormoc</a> the SNES is much easier to "grab and go" since it's sample based. you just need to dump in the samples you want to use instead of actually programming FM patches (or your own sound driver, in many cases). SNES developers weren't really "stuck" with anything. Capcom is a really good example, as they had a few different sound banks that they sourced from all sorts of different romplers at the time. i'm not sure what browsing "all binary possibilities" really has to do with that. plenty of developers clearly had the ability to convert and use whatever samples they wanted: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqnkpLA8voU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqnkpLA8voU</a> it's simply a question as to why more developers -didn't- and stuck with predictable and boring sound banks, and the answer, i believe, lies in the fact that the SNES was just a very safe console in terms of content. personally the SNES doesn't suit me very well because of its terrible sample interpolation. i'll take the YM2612 over it any day of the week, and the YM2610 much higher than that still. i like aliased samples and FM synthesis working in tandem.
msx
2015-09-15 04:08:09 +0000 UTCOops, I was under the impression that the SPC had an on-chip soundfont, but a brief view of some technical documents purged that misunderstanding. I'll just delete the erroneous paragraph I wrote.
K_A
2015-09-15 00:24:41 +0000 UTCI had misunderstood 'devs' as program developers as to music producers, my bad. I think ultimately SNES is a sampler, and as a sampler it is only as power as what you can load into it. Unless you want to browse all binary possibilities, you're stuck with whatever libraries you have, or what you can convert to fit, if you have a method of doing so. Even then, that's a multiple step process. The YM2612's frequency modulation lends itself well to the creation of distorted and noisy sounds, which is well suited for the given genres. Much easier to just grab and go if you intend to make that sort of music. Given how a lot your music is tracker and sample based, I believe the SNES' functionality suits you well. Music being released on cartridges would be pretty badass if you're thinking about that, but I don't know about the accessibility or the pricing.
sequenceofnumbers
2015-09-14 23:42:40 +0000 UTCHonestly, the closest I can recall off the top of my head is 2Unlimited's American soundtrack for _Bio Metal_. I feel like I've caught some hardcore music somewhere during my heavy SNES-playing days, maybe even off a homebrew thing. BTW, the "Beach" theme from Plok is a really good dancey but spacious piece that plays well with the SNES's capabilities (and uses great sampling). * OH, and Equinox's boss battle music starts up a house beat, too. (It was developed really early in the SNES's life despite coming out here in the US later.)
K_A
2015-09-14 18:51:01 +0000 UTCthe sales figures have little to do with the fact that there were many european developers putting out content on the super famicom / SNES, and that many of these developers also made games on the amiga, which had plenty of breakbeat rave music happening at the time. there was a biiiiiiig crossover, especially because so many of the people making rave music at the time were using amiga applications to do so. it really does come to do the super famicom being a very "safe" console for the most part, and not having much in the way of completely nutso action games on it like the Mega Drive and Neo Geo - both of which had more in the way of rave and techno music influences.
msx
2015-09-14 15:06:44 +0000 UTCOn the why it hasn't been experimented with in this sort of genre, looking at wikipedia for Famicon sales, Japan: 17.17 million, North & South America: 23.35 million, Other: 8.58 million, so even if all the famicons in other were sold to Europe, it's still pretty diminished by comparison. Thinking back to the time period, video games weren't at the epitome of the social hierarchy, and I have my doubts someone who would be into going to parties/clubs would be a huge game enthusiast. Without the nostalgia of the games/sounds, I think it would only really be seen for it's limitations compared to other mediums, or just getting dismissed as a toy. I thought about this too much.
sequenceofnumbers
2015-09-14 07:03:13 +0000 UTC
