The Sound Capabilities of the Sega Genesis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
- Let's take a look at exactly what sounds the Sega Genesis can make!
NOTE: 3:44 Is wrong!
see here: • A Correction about the...
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Songs used:
0:00 Elevator Beats (Toejam & Earl)
• Tooejam & Earl - Eleva...
0:13 Bar (Streets of Rage 2, Sega Master System)
• Streets of Rage 2 Soun...
1:24 Sound Code 89 (Nikkan Sports Pro Yakyuu VAN)
• Video
2:14 Intro / Menu Theme (Global Gladiators)
• Video
2:26 Tokugawa's Theme (Nobunaga’s Ambition 3 - Rising Sun, Mega CD version)
• Nobunaga's Ambition - ...
2:57 Stardust Speedway Past (Sonic CD, all versions)
• Video
3:13 Final Boss Part 2 Intro (Mega Bomberman)
• Video
3:18 Downtown Performance (Tempo)
• Tempo (32x) - Downtown...
3:55 Intro (Tempo)
• Video
4:35 Password Menu (Tiny Toon Adventures: ACME All-Stars)
• Video
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1:22 this footage is actually from Sonic Adventure 7, a bootleg game for the GBC.
• Video
1:35 footage from • Sega MegaDrive / Genes...
1:58 By request, you can download this chord as a VGZ file here: mega.nz/file/fo9TEQRJ#3Paoayg...
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"The only exceptions were Tempo and Toughman Contest"
And Knuckles' Chaotix! I haven't heard Toughman Contest but Knuckles Chaotix is possibly the best use of 32X soft-mixed stereo drums.
You're completely right! I only realized this well after I had finished the final editing pass on this video, whoops.
The general point still stands though. The SH-2 was only used for drums, even though the chip could support multichannel mixing and resampling, similar to the GBA.
Oh nonononowait Kolibri too! I just remembered there's some strings in there. I'd have to listen to it again, but I seem to remember some drums being mixed in?
Yeah, giving this a second listen, there's definitely a few tonal PCM parts being softmixed in Kolibri. Couldn't say if it's through 32X PWM or through the YM2612 DAC though!
oh nooo!
I just ripped some audio and gave it a quick look, and it's 100% using the SH-2! softmixed and resampled just like a GBA tune. I can't believe I missed that!
I wonder, is the 32x slightly more powerful than the gba? Because it seems that way according to the specs and how fast doom runs on both systems.
3:59 dang that animation is smooth
So smooth it scares me a little
I think this character is from Tempo for Sega 32X
@@bobsaturday5840 Damn that's crazy
@@bobsaturday5840you know... you might be right
@@bobsaturday5840 Wow, who knew?
People really need to stop fighting over which consoles (SNES or Genesis) had a better sound chip. The two chips simple aren't comparable. The Genesis is a synthesize: essentially an instrument-the SNES is a sampler, it just plays audio files in a sequence. It's like comparing a CD to a piano. They simply function differently.
when people still have arguments over which console has it better over 2 decades after.
SNES is not a CD. Just a sample mixer... You can play around with samples: alter pitch, volume and the like effects...
Sega does have a CD player...
@ben owen its the other way around for me... i STILL have both systems from back in the days, but the SNES is the one System I keep coming back to. It just has this awesome library of games and - for its time - outstanding hardware capabilities. Still like my Mega Drive very much, too, but nothing can touch the SNES in my retro ambitions.
AMIGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
It bugs me when people say "when it was properly used it was ok, or had a good composer" because that goes for a penny whistle. It bugs me when people say the SNES chip was more advanced or sounded better because on the whole the Genesis generated for more engaging and exciting music which was every bit as advanced and did not have to be twangy. Composers just liked that sound. It was cool and edgy and kind of a stock musical style of the time. The other musical style that was very en vogue was techno. So in the SMD you had a pretty decent synthesiser you can craft any driver you like for and create bizarre and wonderful synthesised effects. The SNES had far too little memory to handle 8 channel 16 bit sound and the effects and music on the SNES are very unclear, not exciting, and send you to sleep. The SNES has a dreadful sound chip. The Sonic 3 track sampled in this video is miles better than any music ever generated on the SNES. Mostly due to the SNES sound chip not having direct access to the cartridge, unlike the Mega Drive . Which is why the Amiga 500, a machine 6 years older than the SNES far outshines it in audio capabilities, with it's 512KB main RAM to the SNES's 64KB audio ram. The Mega CD, for reference has 64KB pcm ram.
I would say the Mega CD hardware combined with the Mega Drive is more powerful than a NeoGeo MVS.
Tempo looks so fucking adorable.
Though I grew up with the SNES, I always found there was a certain charm with Genesis music. The instruments felt like an in-between point between the NES's chip-tuney sound and the SNES's more sample-liked sound. This, along with some really awesome compositions, made Genesis music really special.
With the Genesis' twang is just... So good.
Think it's fair to call it a synth-tune?
1:59 That should've been the Genesis Intro (If there was a real bios like the Master System).
Ahmad Moemen no it should've been this 2:12 like if you agree.
CalebGaming no.
Ahmad Moemen it really should've.
@@brookegross8974 I'm not liking your dumb comment.
@@brookegross8974 and no.
Master System was very popular here in Brazil!
I played a lot on my childhood!! :)
I heard people still sell games for it over there.
I was Brazil was a successful empire.
This is fantastic, would love to see more videos similar to this!
That was cool.
As an avid researcher, this is such an awesome video I keep coming back to.
I’ve also been sharing it with my friends, and they LOVE IT!
You’re definitely really passionate about how much hard work you put into all of this extensive research.
I deeply respect that.
Fun Fact:
The word “Genesis” can mean “new beginning.”
I knew from your first video I watched that I would be utterly hooked on your channel. As a music producer, electronic musician and synth player, lifelong gamer, and video game soundtrack lover - who's first system was the Sega Genesis his dad got him at Toys R Us with Sonic, 32X and Virtua Racing. well basically nothing could make me happier than these videos. thank you
I LOVE this! Great work bud!
But can we all agree that the Ecco the Dolphin CD music was absolutely beautiful?
Yes we can. YES WE CAN!
You, my bro, earned yourself a subscriber!
Thanks for such a nice video on how the SMS, SMD, and others' sound chips worked!
1:58 sound of the gods and angels.
lol
Ah... more of this please; really interested in behind the scenes of creating Genesis/Megadrive music. (In particular, that guitar sound used on the first Road Rash game that sustains into a cool vibrato + feedback effect.)
Man that was good. Really a nice job and a very enjoyable and informative video.
The more I watch that Tempo intro, the more I love it
Two words:
*TIME*
*TRAX*
Captain Darian Lambert!!! And his creditcard computer Selma!
you mean gauntlet IV?
dogen, both most definitely plus Devilish.
Mostly Gauntlet IV tho ;)
Two more words
Deez nuts
This was pretty cool! Thanks (:
AAAWESOME VIDEO, loved it
Good stuff. You could follow this up and talk about more subtle things like SSG-EG and LFO, FM algorithms, the ladder effect or multiple sample channels on YM2612 (the SN76489 could also play samples, as heard in After Burner 2), though it might not be as interesting to the casual viewer.
The next video I have planned is just going to talk about GEMS. I'm not sure how interesting I could make the details you listed since they don't have a story behind them in the same way that these chipsets are intertwined with the history of the console, you know?
I suppose it could be something along the lines of explod2a03's NES audio series if you're interested in that, but it's more like a tutorial/niche interest thing. Looking forward to the GEMS vid.
lovely stuff
Interesting vid, though as a newcomer to your channel, i was kind of hoping it had more examples and samples of the differences between each gen of hardware
Yeah... all I really heard was the number of channels used and the fact that they were either called PSG, FM or CD audio.
I love the sound of the RF5C. It sounds so pure and clean.
seriously under-rated content
When you beat the game in Virtua Racing Deluxe the Sega logo pops up after the credits with a nice lil guitar sample for the jingle. The Genesis alone could never do that with such clarity.
Nice, another channel to fight against the utter ignorance of this great console, against the tides of Watchmojo and AVGN Snes fanboyism that utterly dominate the retro internet atmosphere.
Absolutely love the Gen sound chips, the YM 2612 and the 8-bit PSG, in capable hands, its sound provides rich, clear CD quality audio overall. Even some orchestral stuff is amazing like Sortie from Gauntlet IV, the Devilish and Monster World IV soundtracks, truly an underappreciated system, but still I can't stress enough how much I enjoy both consoles. My kudos to the channel!
Not to completely disparage the SNES, but this entire channel was basically started because I was surprised at the gems on the Genesis that nobody seemed to talk about! Glad to see it getting some traction.
Yeah man, it's bad, like...really bad lol. The level of ignorance regarding the 16-bit consoles (particularly the Gen) is quite pathetic actually when a little research, an open mind and playing the games is all it takes.
Some folks actually think the Snes runs Starfox on vanilla hardware...and Sonic is the only game on Genesis worth playing...you know, stupidity like that lol. I love both consoles alot but it's obvious which one needs more love and attention to detail. I look forward to your material!
Even on its own, the Genesis has superior sound quality over the SNES; it's sound *versatility* that the SNES wins at, barring the added capabilities provided by the Sega CD and 32X (particularly the Sega CD, given its compatibility with Redbook audio).
As for the whole _Star Fox_ thing, the Genesis actually is capable of native 3D rendering, but it's slow as shit, even compared to _Star Fox_. No matter which of the two 16-bit consoles you look at, you'll need some extra chips if you wanna get playable 3D games (the Genesis's SVP chip is actually way better than the Super FX chips, but was just never used outside of _Virtua Racing_ because it was too damn expensive).
It's *very* refreshing to see someone understand that. The sound versatility vs sound quality thing just goes wayy over everybody's heads.
The Snes has a much wider range of instrumentation, but the raw and clear Fm sound throughput, is undefeated on a Model 1 Gen. Titles like Midnight Resistance, Vapor Trail and Comix Zone make this abundantly obvious.
And yeah I'm aware of that, but it's still cool that the Gen can render polygons natively, to see it done in a practical manner check out F1 Grand Prix Championship, Red Zone or Adventures of Batman &R. Also Sonic 2's special stage tubes are composed using some fancy 3d trickery, pretty cool stuff.
In general, the Genesis and the Super Nintendo both have their own ups and downs that more or less balance each other out. The one thing that matters to me is that they both have plenty of worthwhile resources to take advantage of and that they both have a strong library of games that do just that.
Also, I didn't know the special stages in _Sonic 2_ were rendered with polygons; I always assumed it used something similar to _Rad Racer_ on the NES; that's pretty cool!
2 words:
thunder force
Savaged Regime
What about Chiptuned Raijin?
that's 7 words
I always felt that the synthy sound of the Megadrive aged better than the samples of the Amiga/SNES, they kinda sound janky today
The Sega Genesis is a very capable machine for its time. Anyone with doubts as to what the Genesis can do should listen to the first two Streets of Rage titles, Thunder Force IV, and the fan fix of Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition.
what I love about this is that the author is clearly having fun doing these videos
Great video. Subscribed!
Very nice video!
That Sonic Adventure 7 clip cracks me up.
So cool. Subscribed. I was hoping to see more about what kinds of sounds could be generated. Or were they fixed? Chips like the SID (Commodre 64) and the OPL2 (Adlib, MS-DOS!) you could adjust the settings on each instrument to get different sounds...
Except for the SN76489, all of the chips had fully customizable sounds. (The SN76's limitations were discussed in the video.)
Also, a number of SEGA CD games used the YM2612 for sound effects.
Fantastic. Also, some advanced sound programmers used software sample mixing on the YM2612 DAC. Flashback: The Quest for Identity used the GEMS driver and it had 4-sample playback for sound effects (the majority are samples and you can rarely notice them interrupting each other), and Kevin Pickell's Electronic Arts driver did great with the Fifa and Fifa 95 soundtracks.
That was the Zilog Z80 doing the sample mixing, not the YM.
I think you’re taking about Toy Story with the 4 channel sample playback at the title theme.
i love this channel
someone made "the only thing they fear is you" in this thing
All about that video game music. Great channel and looking forward to anything else you produce \m/>.
The Genesis got a bad rap on sound due to lazy composition with the terriblr GEMS library, and Sega making terrible board revisions with awful pre-amps that distort the sound. Not to mentiom the initial genesis output was mono unless you bought stereo cables to put in the headphone jack...which most people didn't.
It's why soundtracks can be AMAZING or insane garbage.
*cough, Sonic Eraser...
i want to see someone compose music for all of those channels
Let's not forget the YM2413 used as an FM soundchip for not just the MARK III/Master System, but MSX2 PC and even some late 80s ADK arcades like Sky Adventure, Sky Soldiers, Time Soldiers (precursor to Ninja Commando) and Gang Wars (precursor to Ninja Combat).
But perhaps the first arcade to use FM sound was the international version of Terra Cresta by Nichibutsu in 1985. It used the YM3526.
Actually the first arcade to use FM sound is Marble Madness by Atari in 1984, using the YM2151.
I'm still getting over that two channel samples from Ristar
2:59 thats some nice metroplan city music right there lol. also hi kaze's quest fans.
Nice! But here: 1:36 isn't the Mega Drive derived from the Sega System 16 arcade board (M68000 + Z80 combo, later reused by Capcom or SNK) and also uses some Mark III/Master System components for backwards compatibility purpose?
Anyway, in the end, an awesome console with indeed great sound capabilities. The YM2612 or YM3438 + Sega PSG SN76496 is a fantastic sound chips combination and when I think about this, Tecno Soft often springs to mind, I mean, just listen to Elemental Master or Thunder Force IV soundtracks!
Looks like Sega used to love reusing hardware
@@zalternative1 I know it's probably a joke but I mean sound chips are both music instruments and hardware components.
Cheeky video. Very cool.
Someone should to do an Sega Genesis CD 32x to take advantage of all the soundchips!
hi man, excellent content from your channel! I am writing to you from Argentina, and I have a great project with a Russian sega umk3 rom hacker, there is a scenario that for the sega version never had the right music as it happens in arcade, would it be possible that you could try to recreate that track with the gem engine ?
2:16 gold digguh
quality content
So much 90s "chicka-wocka chicka-wocka" here.
4:21
You forgot the DualPCM, so 23 channels.
That tempo character was grooving
1:58-2:03 sounds kinda like a logo or something
Never liked the SN76489 by itself in the Master System. Always felt it had a very weak and thin sound. It's works out much better as the higher range accompaniment to the YM2612 in the Genesis.
Two problems:
1. Terrible bass range - the lowest musical not is an A2 at 110Hz unless the mode this video calls "linked" is used to create a thin-sounding bassline with the noise channel
2. The noise channel - every time the pitch setting is altered the noise generator resets to its initial state, which give it a trademark "crackly attack" when the sound starts.
I've tried to make splashier sounding music with it before th-cam.com/video/f-ooB-1h9zw/w-d-xo.html
It feels like a cheap ay-3-8910 clone
The SN76489 was originally the sound chip in the TI/99 computer. The chip had a different name bax
Ck then. After TI got out of the computer making business, they sold the chips individually.
THATS why the past themes in Sonic cd couldn't be changed from Jpn to us!
Thanks a lot for making this video! It was extremely informative to me and many others! Also, can you or anyone else please explain what the "Linked" Pitch ( 0:58 ) actually is? Thanks in advance!
basically, the noise channel only has three available pitches.
once you activate linked pitch, you lose one of your three square wave channels, but you gain the ability to change the noise channel to any pitch. this can be used for a sweeping static sound or a pulse wave sound.
does that explanation help?
@@GSTChannelVEVO Thanks a lot for the explanation!
I've been looking for the notes to the SMS Phantasy Star theme and you seem like the type of guy who'd know that kind of thing. Any idea on where I could find them?
vgmusic.com perhaps? that's usually my first stop when looking for that sort of thing.
www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sega/master/#Phantasy_Star
Someone should make a sound driver that can abuse all of those features and bring them together to make complicated ochestras of music! Would probably be a pain in the ass to work with, but the resulting sound could be worth it :Y
Yea
Kid named fractal driver:
@@ssg-eggunner The wiki suggests that it only supports the standard Sega Genesis/Mega Drive hardware. Still a really hecking cool project; natsumi is amazing at this kind of thing! But I don't see 32X or sega CD support mentioned anywhere.
@@Pacca64 oh now i see what you meant
I've heard that someone coded a XM Player (16ch) for the 32x (i forgot the name of it)
Tempo game uses Megadrive's pcm,theres somewhere a video showing playing this track on a plain MD (through Everdrive).
japanese master system also had Yamaha 2413 which have FM unit
Basically a cut down DX7 Chip. Listen to the bass instrument in Gen/Mega games and think of songs like "Papa don't preach" by Madonna. For me it was and still is beautiful. I had an Amiga that was similar to the Snes Sampled sounds. But mates had this console and there was something, special about that FM (proper Synth) sound.
I personally refer to the Genesis as a poor mans Sharp X68000 because thats what it was.
In short, when it came to sound, Sega took a Yamaha YM2151 and got a similar, but cheaper Yamaha sound chip in the YM2612 for the Genesis.
The question was simple for developing the Sega Genesis "How do you turn a $3000 computer into a $249 console??"
2:43 what song?
So the Sega CD has a basically 8-channel tracker-friendly chip? I wonder how it was interfaced; like the SNES chip the tunes were basically software that ran independently. Is the Sega chip more like just an 8-channel D/A converter / mixer like Amiga / PC sound?
Cool
Sega genesis 3 what
Sound chip is it using
How do the square waves create sound? Is there more detail on the transformation between these signals and some audio output?
It's literally just a few registers! You basically send two numbers: one of them becomes the pitch, the other becomes the volume. (Repeat this for each channel, of course.) The SN76489 takes care of actually producing the sound.
Right, so volume = amplitude and pitch = frequency. That's clear. Now I need to investigate how the shape of the wave-function will make it sound different to if it was a clean sinusoid, how more detailed approximations of the wave itself will sound, etc... though I'm sure people have already thought about these things and solved them decades ago lol.
also, thanks a lot for explaining it!
@1:21 Was this an earlier version of Sonic or a never-before-seen demo or something?
Nope: The video was taken from a bootleg rom hack (called Sonic Adventure 7), and the audio was just a quick example I wrote to demonstrate the detuning.
You should do the Super Famicom capabilities next.
EDIT: He did.
No mention of the Zilog Z80? 😟
pretty sure i heard it before, but still, what's the music in the cd portion (aside from the pcm showcase)?
Probably "Tokugawa's Theme"? The songs used (and timestamps for when they appeared) are in the description.
oh, thanks. coulda sworn i checked, but now i'm certain..!
I believe Star Wars on the 32x used the 32Xs sound chip also
1:59 I always come back here just for this chord🤌
With OPN2 and SN76489 on my hand, I SUMMON YOU! SEGA GENESIS! ( I love the SSG-EG envelopes )
3:34 That middle chip ID (name) looks as if it spells hedgehog...
Toasty it does lol
:3
SoNiC tHe hEdGheHoG cOnFiRmeD!
@@Octo4533 Sanic
0:41 Why does this remind me of the Specimen 4 song from the game Spooky's house of jumpscares?
Hermoso vídeo informativo, hermosas bandas sonoras como Devlish salieron de la 16 bit de Sega.
Saludos compañero.
Devilish? Querrás decir Bad Omen.
What my childhood sounded like
And yet the explosions still sound like flatulence.
sure if the composer was bad! remember the arcade that all gamers wanted to have? they used nearly the same hardware as genesis.
Yeah, that tends to happen when you make an explosion sound using FM Synth and not something recorded lol
YHUAN01 Actually some of my favorite sound effects on the genesis aren't even sampled. You've probably played revenge of shinobi, but if you've never paid attention to the sound effects you should. The explosions are all synthesized and pretty decent, but others like the door sounds are impressively realistic.
I love a lot of the non sampled sfx as well. Especially the explosions in Shinobi. Sonic has had some good ones as well in some games. Sonic Spinball has some oddly satisfying explosion sounds that are honestly just a weird as hell bass.
I've also heard a really good FM wind blowing sfx in a game. Can't remember what game it was though.
Having a Genesis is similar to a Mark III with the FM sound unit in sound terms?
I'm not very familiar with the Mark III's FM sound unit, so I can't really say for sure. It appears to be closer to a 2-op adlib sound with several extra limitations. One of the Mark III's YM2413 channels can match the Genesis's FM sound if you only use 2 operators on the Genesis (and if you only use the regular sine waveforms on the YM2413), but otherwise I'd say they're fairly dissimilar overall.
Idk why but when the 32X gets inserted to the mega drive a notification popped up censoring it
Those dates for the EU launch of the 32X are wrong (well for the UK at least) i got mine for Xmas 1994, think it was released end of Nov or start of Dec 1994 in the UK!
Wow great video. Hey does anyone know that song in the end 4:35?
that'd be "Password Menu" from Tiny Toon Adventures: ACME All-Stars!
Tempo is a very underrated game
Is there a way of getting a .vgm file of the channel demonstration shown at 1:58?
I rendered it out for you, check the description!
@@GSTChannelVEVO Oh man thanks a lot!!!! I've always loved the Genesis sound and this cord will be my new message ringtone. Thanks again!! This has been my first interaction with a TH-cam video and I appreciate your dedication and fine courtesy of doing this. Simply Thank You!!!!
@@Kutuztuk My channel is big enough to get new comments every day, but small enough that I can read all of them. I love hearing peoples thoughts and answering questions where I can. Thanks for watching
YEAH
Subbed, Worth It ;) Keep dat shit up ;)
Ok makes some mixes and originals using capabilities of all hardware at once!
OCT 2021 CHECK IN
Cool video 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Song at 1:24?
What about the soundtrack for the Mega Drive demo Overdrive 2? Needs to be mentioned I think 🙂
This video was uploaded one day after Overdrive 2 was shown at Revision, so there's no way it could have made it into the script.
though even then, I'm not sure what I could have added other than a mention. it's good, but still bound to the stuff I mentioned in the video!
mentioned in the comments is good enough then - funny timing btw 😄
1:59 why does this sound similar to the all chaos emerald sound from sonic 3
one question. What does "streamed audio" and "stream" mean in this context?
It means that the audio was recorded onto disc using some arbitrary equipment and then played back (streamed from disc) with no additional synthesis involved.
@@GSTChannelVEVO Sampled audio is sampled from a mic or line in from a instrument then stored digitally like an Mp3. In the SNES case the samples had to fit into 64kb of memory so were very low quality.
22 channels of which you can reproduce only 6 at the same time, what a shame
the genesis was so fucking good
How would i go about making music with different soundfonts like these?
There are probably soundfonts available, but the best way to work with this sound palette is to use a tracker built around the soundchip(s).
I think your options are limited to deflemask (which has a free version) or TFM Maker (which i think hasnt been updated in a while).
there are some VSTs that support this sound, such as GENNY, VOPM, RYM2612, and chipsynth MD. (though only the first two are free)
hope this helps!
@@GSTChannelVEVO thanks man
What waveforms did the Mega Drive's FM chip have?
only sine.
you could kind of get a saw wave if you set the feedback high enough on operator 1 though!
Well the YM 3812 sound chip on the Adlib sound card had a pseudo-sawtooth waveform as well as half-sine and semi-inverted sine waves.