Hi KiddCabbage,

There is an emulation of the SNES sound chip in there, yes, but the sample data comes from the game cartridges, so
just the emulator's code would be like getting a sampler with no samples to play.

Previously you mentioned only the synthesis --- or at least this is what I understood.  Now you're saying that you want all of the sound data of all the cartridges also?  Or are they all the same?  If they are all different, then I don't see any way of getting them than to obtain all of them unless they are all collected somewhere, which seems (legally) unlikely if they are customized per cartridge. 

It also seems to me that they would have copyright protection if they are not just basic waveforms,  giving you other problems.  Out of curiosity: Have you checked to see if the SNES audio system is patented?   For personal use, this would not be of any concern, but commercial usage could potentially be a problem, depending on exactly what it is that you do.

Regards,
Dave Clark
 

Yeah, like I mentioned before, calling it a PCM synth was a misnomer, and a bad habit of mine to call any electronic thing that makes noise a synth.

In my pursuit of an SNES "sound," I am finding myself way over my head in old computer hardware terms. I talked on IRC a little while ago with one of the main coders of ZSNES, the biggest SNES emulator out there, but the conversation wasn't very fruitful in getting me the sound I'm looking for. What I have learned is that the SNES sound chip is just a microprocessor that runs programs given by the games.

So, under that type of thinking, I'm thinking that the chip itself didn't have much to do with the tone of the SNES games themselves. I can try to assume, then, that the tone comes from the way the samples were compressed and encoded in the games...

This type of thinking has led me to wondering if I can encode samples in a similar way to the SNES and get a similar tone.

From the Wiki, this seems most relevant:
[/link]

The SPC700 runs programs (uploaded using the boot ROM program) to accept instructions and data from the CPU and to manipulate the DSP registers to generate the appropriate music and sound effects. The DSP generates a 16-bit waveform at 32 [link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilohertz]kHz by mixing input from 8 independent voices and an 8-tap FIR filter typically used for reverberation. Each voice can play its PCM sample at a variable rate, with Gaussian interpolation, stereo panning, and ADSR, linear, non-linear, or direct volume envelope adjustment. The voice and FIR filter outputs are mixed both for direct output and for future input into the FIR filter. All audio samples are ADPCM compressed using Bit Rate Reduction.

So, it seems like if I took a sound sample, and compressed it using BRR (that part I'm not sure about) to a 16-bit, 32k ADPCM wav file, then load that wav into a sampler, I might have something similar. What do you think of this line of thinking?

Hi KiddCabbage,

So, under that type of thinking, I'm thinking that the chip itself didn't have much to do with the tone of the SNES games themselves. I can try to assume, then, that the tone comes from the way the samples were compressed and encoded in the games...

I would *not* assume that.  From the coder's perspective, the hardware audio system is indeed just something to emulate in software, operation by operation, but you should not interpret this as that said hardware is not important to the sound.  If you liked all of the sounds from many or all of the games, then there probably is something about the hardware, the way it's used, or the way the samples interact with it that you need to replicate somehow.

I also do not think that the method you described would result in a similar sound --- not by a long shot.  It's not impossible, but there is so much else going on that it is very unlikely that this mere encoding is the key.  I would guess that it's more likely that 8 voices with variable playback rates, filtering (including recursion or feedback?  not clear what is meant), and non-linear envelopes would have a lot more to do with the sound that you liked.

Your best shot, IMO, is still to get ahold of the actual hardware, an emulation of it, or something that operates very similar to it, then get ahold of some of the samples or something like them and try the whole thing out.  You may find that you can use other samples.  As far as just trying out synths ("something that operates very similar to it" as I said), the description of the hardware you posted leaves too much up in the air about possible acceptable architectures --- in my mind, anyway --- and says little about how it was used.   A lot more detail about the actual implementation is needed.

Regards,
Dave Clark
 

Now lets not get bogged down in semantics, PCM is indeed a very unique form of synthesis or a sample based synthesis which creates a distinctive sound somewhere between a sampled instrument and a synthesised instrument. You know for example "is that a pan pipe? Im not really sure" kinda vibe. Theres a ton of software samplers out there that do their best to replicate the real thing but if your looking for something a little different maybe try the KORG M1 vst as this is basically the don of PCM and is used on a phenomenal amount of tracks through the 80's, 90's up until the present day. Its having a bit of a resurgence at the moment in the down tempo deep house scene and for bloody good reason too! In fact it probably never really went away to be honest. Just read the post again thats not really what your after is it yeah as mentioned above you want to get plogue chipsounds i reckon.

I'm sure they found a solution since this was almost 5 years ago...

Im sure they did find a solution as five years is a long time. But it doesn't really matter how old the thread is as other people will read it and might find it useful. I know one thing for sure though and that is that they didn't find the solution they were looking for by people posting comments like the one above. Constructive comments only please.

i was wondering if someone could help me, i have a few sampled "synths" that are aparently pcm synths, the yamaha sy22, sy85/tg500, korg m1, and also a hardware tg33, i have read that the tg33 combines fm with pcm samples creating its own hybrid sound, but im not sure if the others do this, also what are the other synth/keyboards out there with the same functionality as the sy22, 85 and m1? and if there are sampled librarys of these? im basically interested in the sound of mixing pcm with something else in a kind of hybrid way, cus it doesnt seem very popular and mainstream and then to me it sounds different and new, i also own uvi's digital synsations (which has the m1) but is has 3 others that i dont really like, but im aware they all have similar functionallity, oh btw if your having a similar problem to the guy who started this post id recommend getting a very old gaming computer like the amiga 500, commodor 64, and buy a music making program for it (floppy disk) you can get all these on ebay, and they all sound very similar: 8 bit pcm samples sequenced, iv never tried it myself but have seen videos on youtube, i think that will get the sound your after, there is actually one for the snes i think, i just it on youtube

Did you look at Phospher from Audio Damage?
http://www.audiodamage.com/instruments/product.php?pid=AD027
Nigel