Your favorite Soundchips in Gaming

[Creamhoven]

Hello dear enjoyer of exquisite sound,

 

please share your favorite soundchips in gaming. Examples are greatly appreachiated.

 

I am going to start with the gameboy soundchip. It has 2 pulse wave generators, 1 PCM 4-bit wave sample (64 4-bit samples played in 1×64 bank or 2×32 bank) channel, 1 noise generator, and one audio input from the cartridge. The unit has only one speaker, however the headphone port outputs stereo sound.

 

It sounds very sweet to me, one of the best, despite being such an old handheld system.

 

 

[DeathAdderSF]

YM3812 and MOS SID FTW. I think the SID needs no introduction, owing to the countless amazing C=64 game & demoscene tunes. But for the YM3812, I have a website which shares high-quality game soundtrack recordings I've made directly from the Ad Lib sound card using special hardware:

 

Ad Lib music archive

 

I recommend listening to any (or all!) of the following sets first: Gobliins 2, Goblins 3, KGB, Olmang Jolmang Paradise, Princess Maker 2, Risky Woods.

 

The KGB soundtrack in particular is one of my all-time favorites. If you're too lazy to visit my website, check out this video and skip to the 4:36 mark to hear my favorite track. And / or, skip to the 9:04 mark to hear my second favorite, in which the brilliant composer was able to make the FM synthesis seem like it was speaking the name Gorbachev!

 

I agree with you about the Game Boy, BTW: When musicians brought their A-game, that machine could really sing! The Game Boy rendition of the boss music in Parasol Stars (itself plagiarized from "Lambada") is especially rockin'.

Edited March 30, 2023 by DeathAdderSF

[Tanooki]

I can think of four that stand out by far to me, three are Nintendo, the other NEC.

 

SNES, Game Boy(including Color), and the original NES.  Then NEC would obviously be the PC ENgine(TG16.)

 

SNES stands out for me because it was just earth shattering amazing back in 1991 what quality the music could be from a simple cartridge game on a system that didn't use the classic chiptune style sound generation but instead sampled audio.  The kicker was while Super Mario World really stood out in quality and clarity of the music, it was just a taste.  What really did it was specifically the first two games I got next saving hard and grabbing up both Act Raiser(since it looked amazing) and Gradius III because I had the first and still enjoyed it.  Gradius, Konami audio people, enough said, won't go into it.  But Act Raiser opening with the horns, then the pipe organ in the sky palace that really was stunning.  The one that truly truly nailed it were the first of two pieces of classical music, such as the discovery of music in Kasanadora, that's a famous piece of classical music and the samples used by Yuzo Koshiro sounded like I had symphony music on a CD playing given the system runs at 33khz and clean samples were used.

 

I could go into the 8bit stuff, but it's a road overly well traveled and anyone can pop a video from YT and go *THIS!* and it really does work from a basic thing like Mario to something insane like Castlevania III in not just the NES format but that VRC6 epicness the Famicom release had.

 

And then the PCE was on a level at times that felt like it nearly matched the SNES, and it roundly just crushed the Genesis audio both in quality of generation but also for not sounding commonly like a tinny metallic mess that commonly happened.  The PSG on that thing is something special, it was more in tune (pun/overlap intended) with what I'd expect from arcade games which Sega commonly sucked at since they went too cheap in scaling back that hardware for their budget.  The PCE came in with this great 6 channel wave table and also 5-10bit stereo PCM audio too.  It was clean, varied, and sounded fantastic.  It was right in there pretty tight with SNES audio.  You could easily come across some games with overlap (kind of like the childish battles over Dracula X vs Dracula XX(double X) on SNES...some of the sfx on the PCE game are better, some on SNES are.  Same can be said with specific sound tracks on various stages too which is in either way a real compliment.

 

Just writing that makes me miss owning a PCE but sharky investor antics priced me out of keeping up with the attempt, thanks to emulation and the PCE mini I can still enjoy it without getting a second mortgage or selling a spare kidney.

[SlidellMan]

@Tanooki The PCE/TG-16's Soundchip was also used in the Virtual Boy, and it had some excellent tunes.

 

One example:

 

In addition to the Super NES, NES, SID, Amiga Paula, and YM2612, here's mine:

-The Nintendo 64:

-The Sega Master System's FM Unit (YM 2143):

-The Namco WSG:

-The MSM 5232:

-The MSM 5205:

 

[Creamhoven]

7 hours ago, DeathAdderSF said:

YM3812 and MOS SID FTW. I think the SID needs no introduction, owing to the countless amazing C=64 game & demoscene tunes. But for the YM3812, I have a website which shares high-quality game soundtrack recordings I've made directly from the Ad Lib sound card using special hardware:

 

Ad Lib music archive

That's nice. Im going to check it out later.

7 hours ago, DeathAdderSF said:

I recommend listening to any (or all!) of the following sets first: Gobliins 2, Goblins 3, KGB, Olmang Jolmang Paradise, Princess Maker 2, Risky Woods.

Okay.

7 hours ago, DeathAdderSF said:

The KGB soundtrack in particular is one of my all-time favorites. If you're too lazy to visit my website, check out this video and skip to the 4:36 mark to hear my favorite track. And / or, skip to the 9:04 mark to hear my second favorite, in which the brilliant composer was able to make the FM synthesis seem like it was speaking the name Gorbachev!

The drums sound very clean and detailed. Great built up.

7 hours ago, DeathAdderSF said:

I agree with you about the Game Boy, BTW: When musicians brought their A-game, that machine could really sing! The Game Boy rendition of the boss music in Parasol Stars (itself plagiarized from "Lambada") is especially rockin'.

 

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I can think of four that stand out by far to me, three are Nintendo, the other NEC.

 

SNES, Game Boy(including Color), and the original NES.  Then NEC would obviously be the PC ENgine(TG16.)

 

SNES stands out for me because it was just earth shattering amazing back in 1991 what quality the music could be from a simple cartridge game on a system that didn't use the classic chiptune style sound generation but instead sampled audio.  The kicker was while Super Mario World really stood out in quality and clarity of the music, it was just a taste.  What really did it was specifically the first two games I got next saving hard and grabbing up both Act Raiser(since it looked amazing) and Gradius III because I had the first and still enjoyed it.  Gradius, Konami audio people, enough said, won't go into it.  But Act Raiser opening with the horns, then the pipe organ in the sky palace that really was stunning.  The one that truly truly nailed it were the first of two pieces of classical music, such as the discovery of music in Kasanadora, that's a famous piece of classical music and the samples used by Yuzo Koshiro sounded like I had symphony music on a CD playing given the system runs at 33khz and clean samples were used.

Couldnt find the Kasanadora track.

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

 

I could go into the 8bit stuff, but it's a road overly well traveled and anyone can pop a video from YT and go *THIS!* and it really does work from a basic thing like Mario to something insane like Castlevania III in not just the NES format but that VRC6 epicness the Famicom release had.

 

And then the PCE was on a level at times that felt like it nearly matched the SNES, and it roundly just crushed the Genesis audio both in quality of generation but also for not sounding commonly like a tinny metallic mess that commonly happened.  The PSG on that thing is something special, it was more in tune (pun/overlap intended) with what I'd expect from arcade games which Sega commonly sucked at since they went too cheap in scaling back that hardware for their budget.  The PCE came in with this great 6 channel wave table and also 5-10bit stereo PCM audio too.  It was clean, varied, and sounded fantastic.  It was right in there pretty tight with SNES audio.  You could easily come across some games with overlap (kind of like the childish battles over Dracula X vs Dracula XX(double X) on SNES...some of the sfx on the PCE game are better, some on SNES are.  Same can be said with specific sound tracks on various stages too which is in either way a real compliment.

 

Just writing that makes me miss owning a PCE but sharky investor antics priced me out of keeping up with the attempt, thanks to emulation and the PCE mini I can still enjoy it without getting a second mortgage or selling a spare kidney.

Im sorry to hear that. Please let me know if you do plan on selling a spare kidney.

 

3 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

@Tanooki The PCE/TG-16's Soundchip was also used in the Virtual Boy, and it had some excellent tunes.

 

One example:

 

In addition to the Super NES, NES, SID, Amiga Paula, and YM2612, here's mine:

-The Nintendo 64:

-The Sega Master System's FM Unit (YM 2143):

-The Namco WSG:

-The MSM 5232:

-The MSM 5205:

 

Dont forget:

 

[Tanooki]

This is Kasandora (discovery of music), if you go back to the previous piece it's the other symphony music called birth of the people in the game at least.

 

[zzip]

Back in the day I would have said SID or some arcade sound chips that I don't know the identity of offhand, but liked the way the games sounded.

 

I didn't own a C64,  but I'd hear my friends C64s play sounds that I'd never hear from my Atari and I was a bit jealous of it.

 

By the late 80s/early 90s PCM audio started to show up everywhere and any sound was possible.   So when I got to PC I was no longer impressed by Adlib/OPL3 quality music, I quickly upgraded to wavetable and never looked back.

 

Nowadays I don't really care for the "chiptune" sound,  not even from a SID.   The "scene" ruined it with all these tunes that played lots of notes in rapid succession but no discernible melody

[Tanooki]

@SlidellMan  Very good point.  I've got the total US library of those games and some of the music on the VB is just fantastic, Hudson's work on Vertical Force (aka incognito Star Soldier sequel) and even Panic Bomber too.

 

Jack Bros is quite the stand out as well.  You know what really kind of rocks it?  Homebrew, the one utterly amazing homebrew that came out some years ago, Hyper Fighting.  This was a slick piece of conversion masterpiece by the author and I was lucky enough to get in on this where I could get a legit copy a few years back.

 

I got a nice overboard clip here, check out the audio and sound effects, voices too.  Various characters, stages, musical scores and the rest.  It's a good showpiece of what the hardware could do you didn't pick up on usually sadly.

 

[SlidellMan]

I thought I would show you two more good examples of N64 music:

I'm particularly fond of how Rare's audio driver that allowed for dynamic music.

[Tanooki]

I mean other than the iconic music of the franchise, there's just so many nice small pieces of ambient, symphony, and atmospheric tunes in the game, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine on 64 needs a real call out.  And going back into the wheelhouse of tried and true developers.  Mystical Ninja 64 has some amazing tracks throughout that stand above the usual.

 

Here's Indy, scroll it up maybe 30sec to get the title theme, a bit more for transition, and within 2min you'll hear the quality spoken samples as this game is very very CD level chatty, and it's clean, not over compressed and tinny like some stuff was a victim of.  Factor 5 had one of if not the most advanced and fantastic audio system packages made for the N64 and you really can hear it.  Star Wars Rogue Squadron was graced with it as well.  MusyX was the name of it.

 

Here's Mystical Ninja, enjoy the deep Japanese singing jams for the title/intro. Hah   This game is a riot in a lot of places, the soundtrack is just clean and fun.

 

 

 

I'd also recommend Castlevania Legacy of Darkness, lots of high quality castlevania jams there too.

[Creamhoven]

7 hours ago, Tanooki said:

, the soundtrack is just clean and fun.

 

 

 

Thats what I like!

 

This remaster of the bomberman hero soundtrack is also nice:

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Creamhoven

[Cynicaster]

Never had one myself growing up, but the C64 always sounded super cool to me.  

 

Agreed on Game Boy.  I liked Lynx, too - although it's hard to directly compare to Game Boy due to the large discrepancy in number of examples on one side vs. the other. 

 

I love the character of the sound in late '80s and early '90s Sega arcade games like Altered Beast, Alien Syndrome, and Golden Axe.

 

Similarly, early/mid 80s Namco arcade games have a sort of signature sound to them that I like - Mappy, Sky Kid, Libble Rabble, many more.  

  

 

 

[Creamhoven]

Why did no one mention the PS1 soundchip:

 

[Tanooki]

Because people were thinking chip generated music/waveforms not just a CD audio player.

[newtmonkey]

A lot of PSX music is actually chip-generated, and the system definitely deserves a spot here.  It generates music similar to the SNES/SFC and Amiga, broadly speaking, but sounds so good because there's plenty of space to use high quality samples.

 

One of my favorite tracks from Final Fantasy Tactics:

(Tension 1)

 

The entire soundtrack for FFT is chip-generated, and takes up less than 1MB when extracted from the game into minipsf format.

 

Zophar's Domain has a great selection of extracted PSX soundtracks for download:

https://www.zophar.net/music/playstation-psf

It's pretty shocking, really, how many PSX games have chiptune soundtracks.

Edited April 1, 2023 by newtmonkey

[SlidellMan]

Speaking of 32-Bit chiptunes, Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn:

It, Mega Man 8, Mega Man X4, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and NiGHTs into Dreams make excellent use of it.

[KidGameR186496]

I gotta highlight what it's probably one of the most unknown and underrated soundchips: the one used by Alpha Denshi (ADK) prior to their Neo Geo days

 

 

[Creamhoven]

6 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

A lot of PSX music is actually chip-generated, and the system definitely deserves a spot here.  It generates music similar to the SNES/SFC and Amiga, broadly speaking, but sounds so good because there's plenty of space to use high quality samples.

 

One of my favorite tracks from Final Fantasy Tactics:

(Tension 1)

 

The entire soundtrack for FFT is chip-generated, and takes up less than 1MB when extracted from the game into minipsf format.

 

Zophar's Domain has a great selection of extracted PSX soundtracks for download:

https://www.zophar.net/music/playstation-psf

It's pretty shocking, really, how many PSX games have chiptune soundtracks.

 

4 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

Speaking of 32-Bit chiptunes, Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn:

It, Mega Man 8, Mega Man X4, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and NiGHTs into Dreams make excellent use of it.

Nice! Is there list of all the PSx and Saturn games that use soundchip music? What is the most advanced soundchip in gaming is it the N64 one?

 

3 hours ago, KidGameR186496 said:

I gotta highlight what it's probably one of the most unknown and underrated soundchips: the one used by Alpha Denshi (ADK) prior to their Neo Geo days

 

 

Very sweet!

[newtmonkey]

@Creamhoven

The N64 basically does not have a sound chip.  The CPU does everything, including music.  It can sound good, but it ends up being a balancing act because any resources you set aside for music means the CPU has less to do for everything else.  That's my undertanding, anyway.

 

As for the PSX, if you check that link above to Zophar's Domain, you'll see dozens if not a hundred or more games.  All of those all games have chiptune soundtracks.  The PSX has some seriously impressive music hardware, though the Saturn's music hardware is even better.

 

It's a shame so few Saturn games actually used the music hardware, because it is basically the PSX music hardware on steroids; twice the channels, plus Yamaha FM synth on top of it, and from what I read, any given channel could be sample based or FM synth.  It also could apply more effects to each channel, not just reverb but delay and EQ.  The few Saturn games that actually use the hardware, rather than just redbook audio or a digitial audio stream, sound absolutely amazing.  @SlidellMan mentioned a few above, but another is the Saturn port of Tactics Ogre.  IMO it's the definitive port, it is basically the SFC version taken to 11 in every way.

Edited April 1, 2023 by newtmonkey

[SlidellMan]

@KidGameR186496 Glad that I'm not the only one who loves the MSM 5232 chip.

[dendawg]

40 minutes ago, newtmonkey said:

@Creamhoven

The N64 basically does not have a sound chip.  The CPU does everything, including music.  It can sound good, but it ends up being a balancing act because any resources you set aside for music means the CPU has less to do for everything else.  That's my undertanding, anyway.

What I've heard is that every sound channel consumed 1% of CPU power.  This is just anecdotal and have nothing to back it up.

[KidGameR186496]

1 hour ago, newtmonkey said:

@Creamhoven

The N64 basically does not have a sound chip.  The CPU does everything, including music.  It can sound good, but it ends up being a balancing act because any resources you set aside for music means the CPU has less to do for everything else.  That's my undertanding, anyway.

 

As for the PSX, if you check that link above to Zophar's Domain, you'll see dozens if not a hundred or more games.  All of those all games have chiptune soundtracks.  The PSX has some seriously impressive music hardware, though the Saturn's music hardware is even better.

 

It's a shame so few Saturn games actually used the music hardware, because it is basically the PSX music hardware on steroids; twice the channels, plus Yamaha FM synth on top of it, and from what I read, any given channel could be sample based or FM synth.  It also could apply more effects to each channel, not just reverb but delay and EQ.  The few Saturn games that actually use the hardware, rather than just redbook audio or a digitial audio stream, sound absolutely amazing.  @SlidellMan mentioned a few above, but another is the Saturn port of Tactics Ogre.  IMO it's the definitive port, it is basically the SFC version taken to 11 in every way.

Well, in essense, both he PS1 and Saturn soundchips are pretty much strengthened version of the ones seen in the SNES and Genesis respectively, but with a lot more memory.

[Lostdragon]

53 minutes ago, dendawg said:

What I've heard is that every sound channel consumed 1% of CPU power.  This is just anecdotal and have nothing to back it up.

I'm sure I read that claim in Gamestm magazine, many years ago as well 🤔

[Keatah]

I have a number of favorites:

 

1- TIA from the Atari 2600. Love its signature iconic tonal qualities and its simplicity. Played so so many many games on it in the 70's and 80's. And it's nice to see that modern ARM-Enhanced games of today continue to utilize this chip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Interface_Adaptor

 

2- Pokey. Don't think I need to expand upon this too much, used in many arcade games and the world-renowned 8-bit lineup to great fanfare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POKEY

 

3- AY-3-8910. Love this one because it was used in Gyruss. And we all love the multi-timbre music of that game. I don't know much about the chip's inner workings however. The Intellivision console also used it. I remember it mostly by it's hissy characteristics (as used in INTY). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910

 

4- Yamaha YMF262 (OPL-3 FM synthesis chip). This was THE defining audio chip of early PC soundcards and the DOS gaming revolution. This chip (on SB16 soundcards) was the definitive standard of gaming starting in the early/mid 1990's. Combined with regular DAC-style audio it made for many memorable titles. And then of course there were Doom, Tyrian, Raptor, Descent, each making heavy use of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_OPL

 

5- The 74LS138 IC, 74LS74 IC, and MPSA13 Transistor in the Apple II. These are discrete generic logic parts and a transistor that work together to click the speaker. And that's all an Apple II can do, click the speaker. All that's happening here is decoding an address via the 138 (3-8 demuxer), toggling the position of the cone with the 74 (flip-flop). The MPSA13 is there because the flip-flop can't really drive a speaker on its own. The level of complexity is equivalent to an AM/FM pocket radio or LED flasher circuit. Along the lines of something you'd construct with a vintage RadioShack Electronic Project Kit. Those springloaded pegboard-like boxes that could make anywhere from 10 to 200 different projects.

 

 

 

[Keatah]

On 3/30/2023 at 10:03 AM, zzip said:

Back in the day I would have said SID or some arcade sound chips that I don't know the identity of offhand, but liked the way the games sounded.

 

I didn't own a C64,  but I'd hear my friends C64s play sounds that I'd never hear from my Atari and I was a bit jealous of it.

I bought a C64 on the much-talked-about merits of its soundchip. I found it interesting. But it was ultimately too hard to use from BASIC, especially compared to the Atari 400/800 - which was super easy.

 

I was more than satisfied what the Atari could do and therefore made that system secondary to my Apple II. As a gaming supplement more or less.

 

The one killer app (to me) for sound was C64 Gyruss. I was impressed how well the SID compared against 5x AY-3-8910.

 

On 3/30/2023 at 10:03 AM, zzip said:

By the late 80s/early 90s PCM audio started to show up everywhere and any sound was possible.   So when I got to PC I was no longer impressed by Adlib/OPL3 quality music, I quickly upgraded to wavetable and never looked back.

I was utterly impressed with OPL3 FM. Games could be so moody and powerful. I never heard such grand sweeping arrangements before on a computer. Oh there was the Amiga and stuff, but it was all trackers and samples. Samples are boring to me.

 

When I moved up to wavetable via the Waveblaster add-on daughtercard for the SB16, I wasn't sure what to expect. I liked it. It was different. But it also felt too sophisticated for DOS games. There was a cognitive dissonance about it. Meh at best. It was getting too far away from computer game sound. Into the realm of sampled musical instruments. And part of the reason for getting the add-on was "MIDI". And "MIDI" projected an aura of next-gen'ness about it.

 

Nevertheless I always play Doom with OPL3, and Doom II with Wavetable. To this day. First impressions have staying power.

 

On 3/30/2023 at 10:03 AM, zzip said:

Nowadays I don't really care for the "chiptune" sound,  not even from a SID.   The "scene" ruined it with all these tunes that played lots of notes in rapid succession but no discernible melody

And boy oh boy did it ever! I can't stand demo music. BITD I thought it clever and all that. I liked it. I made a couple of mixtapes even. But it failed to become anything more. All the same shit over and over again. No arrangement. No depth. No nothing.

 

Warbly infantile noisemaking. Chiptune stuff needs to stay in the era from which it originated.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Keatah