mega drive synthesis

[burnt toast]

does anyone know anything about the patches for the FM synth section of the mega drives audio? the wikipedia page gives a few interesting bits on it

basically its a four part FM synthesizer, which is the same as the DX-100 synth and apparently you can upload the patches. my dx100 does make some nice mega drive like sounds, but how freaking cool would it be to have some pads off streets of rage 2 or the sounds for the zero wing intro.

but then there is this other sound generator chip in it as well, some texas instruments thingy which im sure doesnt come in a nice synth module form.

i havent heard anything about extracting the synth patches from mega drive roms, does anyone know about it?

[GeckoYamori]

Aye, I actually had a program that could extract patches from ROM save states for use in common FM synthesizers such as Yamaha DX. I'm pretty certain it was written by Saxman.

However if I recall correctly it only worked for the Sonic games...

[ary incorparated]

megadrive sound sounds better than snes i think,It has more metal music in some games oke it couldnt handle as much chanels as snes and couldn make midis like snes,Snes couldn either becuase the memorie of a cartridge was to small,but the MD could generate more sounds thanx to Psg (programabel sound generator)and it has more sounds availleble like more kinds of guitar synth than snes.The only thing Was the lack of Drum synth,overall it has a darn good sound cart and its games have origanal and mind sticking tunes still the Z80 could pull some nice and memorable music never forget games like streets of rage 1,2 and Gunstar,Road rash 3,They made it because of the music and because of speed and the music was formed in good most of the time,it was going fast and riffy together with the game.BTW you can record the music simpel whit fusion 34 by loading wave or gym dump By pressing ctrl w and stop the tune with the same thing,Maybe i gott the story al wrong but that way gives you really get clean music sometimes,Oke depending on the ROM Thunderforce 4 sounds shit if you emulate it,than youre right and you have to download patches. :D

[GeckoYamori]

You have no idea what you're talking about about.
The SPC chip had 8 channels, while the MD had 10. Neither could 'make midis'. Midi is just information sent between different types of hardware/software (For instance, .mid files are just text documents that tell your soundcard to play sounds loaded from a wavetable). PSG was a leftover extra chip from the Master System, ie the 4 channel tone generator.

[j_factor]

X'Eye can make midis with the keyboard accessory, I think. :P

[ary incorparated]

You have no idea what you're talking about about.
The SPC chip had 8 channels, while the MD had 10. Neither could 'make midis'. Midi is just information sent between different types of hardware/software (For instance, .mid files are just text documents that tell your soundcard to play sounds loaded from a wavetable). PSG was a leftover extra chip from the Master System, ie the 4 channel tone generator.

Sorry then someone past me the wrong info,BTW i know what im talking about some thing are correct,Nut that i didnt know,Thats why im not sure about the situation here.I tought taht i could help,apperently not.but If i didnt know what i was talking about than you didnt have to post the reply right to set it straight.Thanx anyway for the info,Which game makes use of the 10 channels?.And a other qeustion is the Genesis also had a pulse wave modulator didnt it,Or something in that style.I just always tought the genesis had superior sound compared to snes,Hear the Diffrence between demo man on snes and MD you,le hear it the MD version owns that game,Also Dessert strike had better sound on MD but Rock and roll racing didnt.But still MD has fucking great sound in games like Skitching Lightning force Comix zone Contra HC. :D I just seem happyer to hear MD sound than snes aldo some people dont agree and say i have to listen to the RPG,s snes brings.I am more one of fast paced metal music that the MD fully supports.

[Elusive]

Many people point to the superior sound chip used by the SNES as an example of the 'superior' console. These same people fail to realise the SNES was released in Japan on November 21, 1990, whilst the Mega Drive was released in Japan in October 29, 1988. Two years' difference, in other words.

In my mind I viewed the Mega Drive as capable of more bass-heavy beats - take Streets of Rage and the Shinobi series as an example. The SNES focussed mainly on orchestral scores - sadly, this is now far too common in videogames, I want my hard-thumping beats damnit :(

[ary incorparated]

megadrive has em" the bass was better on MD than snes,Pulseman etc . one thing megadrive was missing a bit in most games was the drum,oke Md let you hear drum,but not every part of the drum like not much top Drum etc.Snes has final fight aggainst it who uses noice top drum etc but synth trompet sound or something,If MD used more of the drum snes had then it would be complete,Like comix zone The game has really nice guitar synth but not much nice drum,only regular drum plus bass drum.Without drum it sounds a little bit emptyer,So it recoments a OST cd automaticly,if you want great and complete music,Only if youre a real synth music freak you could do that.But then What does the 32x to produce the nice drum in the games like Knuckles ghaotix and afterburner,just currious.

[GeckoYamori]

The problem was that most people, including developers, viewed FM synthesis as a weakness instead of a strength. Most american developers used GEMS to create music, ending up with pretty weak-sounding patches and little to no use of the extra PSG channels.

One reason for why most people view the SPC chip as superior is because, as with most cases, they are ignorant and spoon-fed. The general (American, at any rate) conscience about the Mega Drive in general is that it has the Sonic franchise, MAYBE a few Phantasy Star titles, and the rest are just inferior ports of SNES titles. They have barely heard anything at all of what it is truely capable of.

I don't think anyone ever tapped into the maximum potential of the sound chip(s), but Jesper Kyd is the one who got really, really close. He had developed his own tracker which he used for Sub-Terrania and later tweaked for Red Zone and Batman & Robin. After that he had worked even further on it, adding supposedly excellent sample support which he planned to use for a 32x project, which ended up being canned.

[Melf]

The 32X game you're referring to is NitroWrecks. I really would like to have heard how Kyd would have handled the 32X. He probably could have gotten some great music out of it.

[ary incorparated]

I bet to melf,Sore that the 32x never saw the licht,Geckoyamory realy realy thanx for the info. ;)Ey but the z80 isnt pulling the sound of the genesis,The YM6100 does,The z80 is just a cpu for the sound,Z80 was the main processor in the master system.Like the toppic legacy of the Z80 then you can go back to the 70ths its just a cpu,like the steer on the boat and the Yamaha6100(dont know for shure) is the hart,supported by the psg channels. :D

[grasshopper]

it'd be really cool if there was an lsdj equivalent for genesis, or even something with a midi port so you can use a midi controller to use the genny as a synth. THAT'D BE SO RAD

[KitsuneNight]

holy necrothread
and i was wondering why i did not reconigse the names

[Drakon]

it'd be really cool if there was an lsdj equivalent for genesis, or even something with a midi port so you can use a midi controller to use the genny as a synth. THAT'D BE SO RAD

So instead of bumping old threads why not make one yourself?

[grasshopper]

So instead of bumping old threads why not make one yourself?

because then people bitch about seeing copies of the same old threads. i was surfing thru old threads looking for interesting topics.. whats the big deal?

[KitsuneNight]

cause its a 8 year old thread i doubt anybody woudl complain about a new thread thats the same as a thread that has been dead for 8 years

[xelement5x]

I appreciate you bumping the old thread. I don't mind new threads but sometimes there is very interesting stuff said in older threads that would otherwise be overlooked.

[Drakon]

because then people bitch about seeing copies of the same old threads. i was surfing thru old threads looking for interesting topics.. whats the big deal?

I don't think this forum is retarded like that. Which is why I post here.


it'd be really cool if there was an lsdj equivalent for genesis, or even something with a midi port so you can use a midi controller to use the genny as a synth. THAT'D BE SO RAD

What I meant was why not make a lsdj or midi thing yourself?

[Saturn Fan]

So instead of bumping old threads why not make one yourself?


because then people bitch about seeing copies of the same old threads. i was surfing thru old threads looking for interesting topics.. whats the big deal?


^^ THIS ^^

Exactly. On most forums, members/mods will bitch if you make a new thread when an existing one on the subject already exists.