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SNES Audio Unit As Stand-Alone Player
An anonymous reader writes "Raphael Assénat successfully turned the SNES' audio processing unit into a stand alone unit which can be controlled through a parallel port, allowing people to play SNES music separate from games and the SNES' main unit. Elsewhere there is also a tutorial about adding S/PDIF digital sound output to the SNES."
awesome!
I'm torn though - do I want to listen to Shitty Beep Concerto, or Tinny Licensed Song in G minor
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In the first 10 posts, the poor SNES/Spdif page is slashdotted... Maybe hosting on his dreamcast might've been a better idea?
I love SNES music.. I've got a few OSTs (original soundtracks) dumped to mp3, but they just don't sound the same as the original. Zophar.net has a good archive of SPCs and links to plugins for winamp, etc. Very cool stuff. Also, Skytopia has a lot of interesting and relevant info. Axelay will always be my favorite!
I SO don't need this.
I got SNES tunes playing in my head since I'm young, and can't seem to stop. Damn you, Final Fantasy!
(For the curious, I do have voices in my head too, and they're telling me to do nasty stuff. To hurt curious persons. That would be you.)
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Just goto Futureshop and buy a $70 dollar MP3 player, download the MP3's off Kazaa and enjoy. A SNES shouldn't be modified - it should be left intact so it can be used to play Final Fantasy 3, in my opinion the best SNES game out there.
Some of the old stuff was very good, made all the more remarkable by the limitations imposed. I remember back in the days of the C64, one Rob Hubbard, his music was fantastic. Thouugh I'll admit it hasn't really stood the test of time.
My favorite though, was Bomb the Bass' tune for the classic Bitmap Brother's game Xenon II
I'm sure some people know about listening to old videogame software without out this hardware hack. You won't be as leet as this guy, but you can still enjoy the music.
You can find a player at http://www.zophar.net/utilities/music.html, a huge archive for just about every platform.
After you get a player for your choosen platform, you can click through to a song database. For example, here are the SNES songs available: http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/
Have fun.
There's group out there called Minibosses which use your favourite 8-bit video game tunes to make music:
http://minibosses.com
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Any music of any SNES game has been available for many years with the .spc file format. The audio files sound exactly as the music would sound on the SNES console. .spc database can be found here: http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/#so
A really large
i think that's very cool. i love to see new efforts being drawn on retro hardware.
but i do wonder why one would bother building a parallel port unit to play the music when there are software emulators doing that work for us already?
if it were truly *standalone*, then it would be a fun, useful way to incorporate it into music projects or just have fun - but as it's tied to the computer already, why not just use the software?
What the hell are you talking about? C64 and Amiga games had some of the best music ever.
Yeah, I know why bother? But most of the time when new gaming hardware comes out it is only used to a fraction of its full potential before the next generation arrives. So part of me really thinks it's cool to squeeze out some of that perhaps untapped potential like this. Maybe Tree Wave will play something with this.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
For things like the commodore audio chip you can't get exactly the same sounds without the real hardware. But for SNES I think that zsnes + roms + alsa does a pretty faithful rendition of the sound. And if I fiddle with the sound options you could argue that however unfaithful the sound becomes, it is actually superior in quality to that of just an SNES.
That's one thing the SNES did have over the Genesis. The sound quality was vastly superior. I remember the "echoy" cave noises in super mario world, that was something else.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Server seems to be getting slower, here is link to mirror: http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/cbe721b01c7832be3 7d0c41898de0ba1/index.html
geek-with-too-much-time
geek-breadline
will-hack-snes-for-food
give-me-an-avacado-snorkle-and-piece-of-tinfoil
my-mom-says-i'm-cool
What could possibly go wrong?
...like the SidStation based on the legendary MOS 6581 (aka. SID) chip from the Commodore 64.
The SidStation is essentially a MIDI synth expander that uses the SID chip as it's main sound source. It'd be interesting to do the same kind of thing with a SNES sound source, although from memory, it wasn't a sound chip worthy of any merit.
Here are some other places to listen to videogame music in nontradional ways.
First there are the minibosses http://minibosses.com/ They are a cover band of videogame music that preform live shows. They even have a few MP3s on their site.
Then there is djpretzel's remix.overclocked.org http://remix.overclocked.org/ Here you can find tons of songs set to a beat. For the true emulation nerd, check out the original overclocked.org http://www.overclocked.org/ comic strips. They are well dated, but still bring a smile to my face.
**cues Zozo music from FF3** Hahaha, you shall never escape from this insanely catchy beat!
Hold out for the same hack for the NES.
You know you want to listen to music and effects of Duck Hunt while you play Excitebike.
If you think
I think this is a great idea, I can't RTFA because its Slashdotted, but from the blurb it sounds really cool.
It would be great to have some device with the C64/NES/SNES and whatever other chips all in one using a computer and a MIDI keyboard as the controller.
Minibosses surely like. They have a (very good) band that only plays video game classics. Check out their demos!
Thanks for Ars Technica for the info, from the Ars holiday gift guide
because it's innovative, techy and causes other techs to laugh. It's a "because it's there" kinda thing.
All fans of video game music remixes should also know of Overclocked Remix and VGMix.com. There's some really great talent floating around these sites, combined with all those nifty tunes you've been humming for the last 20 years.
Coming next from this company is a tiny module that lets you get the blindness and headaches of an Nintendo Virtual Boy without actually having to lug the unit around.
Even though playing audio using a Snes APU is not all that interesting, the same hacking techniques could be used to for example unlock dish receivers.
Another application could be for college Computer Engineers to do something similar for their senior design projects, instead of the old writing characters to a terminal using a MC68000 chip
#include "a_life.h"Shameless plug of my website:
An alternative to SPC files are MIDI file recreations of the music. Its interesting to see how close they can get to the real sound.
Some old nes music has been remixed by a few talented people. For game music in general, and a fair amount of nes remixes in specific, take a quick trip to http://www.ocremix.org/
Why would you download ~3-4mb lossy mp3's when you can get 64kb files containing the original songs with full fidelity? All you gotta do is goto zophar's domain and check out the SPC collection. You can then download a player application to listen to them.
Some old nes music has been remixed by a few talented people. For game music in general, and a fair amount of nes remixes in specific, take a quick trip to http://www.ocremix.org/
Tonights forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning
... System Of A Down, The Legend of Zelda.
For things like the commodore audio chip you can't get exactly the same sounds without the real hardware. But for SNES I think that zsnes + roms + alsa does a pretty faithful rendition of the sound. And if I fiddle with the sound options you could argue that however unfaithful the sound becomes, it is actually superior in quality to that of just an SNES.
That's one thing the SNES did have over the Genesis. The sound quality was vastly superior. I remember the "echoy" cave noises in super mario world, that was something else.
I agree on all counts. I have a soft spot for the SNES's defining sound (Actraiser in stereo really cemented it for me), but the Commodore's SID is just on a whole other level. Occasionally a piece of hardware--be it audio, film, video, or whatever--is released that has such a unique character and artistic potential that it outlives its generation. Personally, I think the SidStation is the quintessence of reborn game audio hardware.
But in the world of synths every piece of gear has its nuances, and even the dookie sound chip in the MD/Genesis could be refabbed with an interface that liberates it and affords it a special niche all its own.
Now I can play the wonderful tunes of Nobuo Uematsu without actually having to play the game! Let the inspirational 8-bit sound inspire all!
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
Hehehehhehehehehe... Maybe he should've hosted it on your douche-mobile instead?
Man, no sound quality is ever poor enough for /. audiophiles.
"I've been slashdotted, please come back in a few days."
Gotta give the guy a bone for this message. The e-locust swarm strikes again.
I'm off to dust the SNES of now....
"Thouugh I'll admit it hasn't really stood the test of time."
You mean, YOU no longer thing it is as good. I assure you that it sounds the same now as it did before.
The SPC-800 (SNES sound chip) was capable of some incredible stuff, especially for the time. The Playstation can't even begin to match it. It had full 8-channel sound, it stored the samples in the file (plus it also had its own sample set in the hardware). The best way to describe it is a combo MIDI/MOD player, all done in hardware. Listen to the soundtrack from Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 6 sometime, there is some VERY good music in there...worlds away from beeps and blips. Incidentally, the SPC-800 was designed by Sony...and yet they can't make a decent sound chip for their own systems. Go figure.
The one thing I really wish ZSNES/Snes9X had is the ability to isolate individual sound channels during sound playback. I remember that Nesticle used to have the ability to turn off and on the various NES sound channels (i.e., triangle wave, square wave, etc.). That was really useful for sampling e.g., just the bass line of a particular song. Is there an SNES emulator that does this? Or better yet, is there an SPC player that does this?
I guess you've never heard of the SidStation.... Many electronic artists like the sound chips from consoles, they are unique in many ways....
What, no mention of attempting to host it on a C64? ;) Or even a Synchronet BBS?
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
I don't know if it was a typo, but that is a PERFECT word for the people I see around here.
OC Remix
There is a lot of game music out there that's amazingly good, especially from the PSX era onwards.
A lot of the Squaresoft RPGs on the SNES had awesome music as well. RPGs in general tend to have pretty good soundtracks, in fact.
You are not witty or clever or witty and clever, you will not have scores of young virgins queuing up to suck your dick if you successfully manage to start up a new meme on Slashdot, except possibly your local troll faggot acquaintances who will probably remain virgins until they die, soviet russia is lame, *BSD is dying is lame, underpants gnomes is lame, so let us nip this particular circle jerk in the bud because rest assured IT IS ALSO FUCKING LAME
Huh?
;)
Searching seems to indicate:
Sound chip = 8-bit Sony SPC700
Victory!
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dan dan da-dan, dah dan dan da-dan!
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
*ahem* SPC-700, and there is no sample set stored in rom. Every game must provide it's own. Not to step on your comment you're right in that the snes had incredible sound capabilities for its time. However keep in mind even with it's multi channel 16 bit 44kHz capabilities, it used a very nasty and incredibly lossy compression format. Very vaguely put it divides a sound into small blocks and compresses it into 4 bits with a scaling value. Every block can have it's own scaling value, and as you can hear it works. However it is very crude.
The Playstation can't even begin to match it.
Say what? Mod this troll down! The PSX SPU is the superset of the SNES APU (and it's an SPC-700). It has 24 hw voices, 512K of ram, 3:1 to 4:1 ADPCM compression. It is *way* superior, and it seems like you haven't heard stuff on PSX like Wild Arms where back in the day you could swear it was the cd playing instead of the internal chip!
To learn the story about the Zelda cover misattributed to SOAD, Google this.
I wouldn't bother with real hardware to play them, though, as i already have the spc files for the soundtracks i cared and regularly play them with some software emulator. Yes, there are software emulators for sound chips, you insensitive clod!
Most of them are available as input plugins for popular sound players.
I don't feel like it...
Are there any Linux .spc players available?
Did you try Google? First result links to a page on zophar.net with two players for GNU/Linux: one an XMMS plug-in and one a command-line program.
Interplay created their own custom sound system for the SNES. I had an issue of Nintendo Power where they talked about it, in relation to the Clay Fighter game.
Anyone have some back issues and want to scan the article?
Innovative, yes. Practical, I doubt it. Personally I would love to see a Commodore 64 hooked up through MIDI to control the SID chip from your host program like FL Studio, Cakewalk, Pro Tools, etc.. Some of the best synths I have heard came from that one chip.
Kevin Horton's done a couple of kickass players like this. He's got a NES player and several SID players. And while yr at it, there are a bunch of other awesome projects worth checking out on his homepage.
Anyone else cringe when someone tears up good old classic gaming hardware?
Computer/game hardware preservation is well worth backing.
"Cow orker" is the usual way to spell co-worker among the technonerd-set.
It's even in the Jargon file: http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/C/cow-orker.html
Quote from the Jargon File:
cow orker: n.
[Usenet] n. fortuitous typo for co-worker, widely used in Usenet, with perhaps a hint that orking cows is illegal. This term was popularized by Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert) but already appears in the January 1996 version of the scary devil monastery FAQ, and has been traced back to a 1989 sig block. Compare hing, grilf, filk, newsfroup.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Why bother? Who on earth likes video game music that much anyhow?
Your comment lives up to the object of your screenname.
Chrono Trigger. I love the soundtrack to that game. Of course, the game itself is pretty incredible too.
Oh someone beat me to it. OC Remix is insane if not superior to anything out there.
If anything today's games don't have any original music. They just buy tracks from already existing artists. Which if I may add... mainstream is 70% hyped up over marketed garbage anyways. Good stuff is all in the underground.
I wasn't aware that your definition of humour was absolute. Is there some Humour Recommendation available that I have not seen, because I am all for conforming with your standard as long as it has been endorsed.
:)
Let others have their fun, it's not hurting you.
And besides, it's not unfunny until Netcraft confirms it to be so.
The Advantage play NES songs similar to
the Minibosses. They are really awesome.
Please wear safety goggles before visiting
website.
http://www.theadvantageband.com/
But does it play Ogg?
This isn't a sollution to them not being available. This is to make it possible to play them natively (ie. no emulation). ... Could turn any gamer into a nostalgic hearing those tunes as they sounded on the console.
The Snes-maniacs (me included) drool at this sort of stuff in the same way as audiophiles do at Tube-amps. It makes it sound more genuine and alive
Buy all your crazy japanese videogames from
At least the SNES one (which is the one I've concerned myself with). The Alpha-II player is really hard to tell from actual SNES hardware in when it's told to emulate it as accurately as possible. However also fun is it can get much better sound. The orignal SNES mixed at 32khz 16-bit with Gaussian sample interpolation, which leads to a fair amount of error, even with the low quality samples it used. The Alpha-II player can kick it up a notch and mix in 32-bit floating point at whatever sample rate your soundcard supports with cubic sample interpolation. Results in a much cleaner sound, and quite noticably different from a real SNES.
It's the first console I can recall that used sampling instead of FM or analogue synthesis for music. Older systems, like the NES generally just used analogue synthesis, they had a couple extra pins whacked on to the processor that controlled analogur wave generators. Other consoles of the day like the Genesis and Neo Geo had FM synthesizers of some kind or another, like what you found in PCs on Adlib/SoundBlaster cards.
The SNES was a sample based synthesizer, like the Amiga. It was fairly limited, given that the memory size for samples was tiny, even though they were compressed. Still, it had fairly good sound for the day and was more fleixble in terms of sound than FM synths potentially.
It's chip was actually the precursor to the sound chip in the Playstation believe it or not.
It's not notable like the SID was, but still fairly notable.
I am very fond of the SNES sound processor. The SPC-700 is an amazing little machine that still makes me smile even today. But there are actually some software engines that can enhance the original SPC code.
www.alpha-ii.com has a winamp plugin that can sample the sound up to 96Khz 32bit Stereo with Bicubic interpolation.
The SPC-700 by default runs a guassian interpolation @ 22khz 16 bit Stereo. Now sure we're not talking about SACD quality this software enhancement does take the original cassette resolution and enhance it beyond CD resolution. The Alpha-II (winamp plugin) engine can take the original code and actually make it's resolution as high as DVD-Audio.
If you listen, you can hear the added sharpness and the overall effect, and I can honestly say that some of this software can beat the SPC-700 at it's own game.
Play "Jigsaw Plains" from Kirby's Dream Course and you'll notice what I mean.
Emulators (last time i read) were not able to re-produce the sound of the snes because it had a funky analog controller/processor/output/or something.
I have a band concept that will be a reality soon. It's hard finding dedicated people though. You'd be suprised how many people play guitar, until you need a guitar player. Ugh.
That's right. All your base.
Do you have also a dwarf living in your head? Mine usually says something about "rrrrrrrrrrusty beeffffff" and "let's do some flesh fixing...".
Your head a splode
Who does it remind me of... Eric Serra? Jarre?
bundaegi is good for you
Practical, I doubt it.
Who the hell cares if it's practical or not? For fucks sake, Slashdot is supposed to be a Geek site. What are you doing here? Really? Go play on Plastic or something.
That's exactly what he said you fucking idiot. Posts like this are exactly why I wish the mod system was redone to include options like
-1 Fucking Idiot
-1 Joke not funny
and of course,
-1 Karma Whore
...Although I personally prefere the SNES, it should
necessary to mention, that Genesis throughout all of its history had a better sound chip... While it didn't save it form not having a game close to the FF6 (FF3 in the US) status. Therefore, for this paticular reason it was popular, not had never riched the SNES's established immortality...
P.S. They also had no Nobuo Uematsu, and _that_ really matters!
Megadriver is a brazilian heavy metal band devoted to videogame music.
Some of their best work are the renditions of SF2's Ryu stage music and the unbelievable Alex Kidd in Miracle World (SMS) theme.
You can download their work for free, but please be gentle with the /.'ing.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
whats up with the huge gap in the page???.
Besides Minibosses... there is these guys at http://nintendometal.com
... someone, please.