Sega Genesis vs. SNES!?

[renardqueenston]

You can't just make excuses for the Genesis sound saying its lazy programing. As far as I have heard the Genesis was always easier to program the music for.

tell me what's easier, then: dropping in a wave-based sample as per pretty much any tracking application and making sure there's enough memory to play it back, or actually writing a 4-OP FM synth patch? we're talking basic tracking VS synth programming and tracking.

the issue with the genesis was that a lot of video game composers knew nothing about programming FM synths. those that did, though, truly demonstrated the YM2612 chip's power (see: Jesper Kyd's soundtrack to Adventures of Batman and Robin, or Howard Drossin's very cool synth-guitar work for Comix Zone and The Ooze, or anything put out by Treasure).

much like i enjoy the gritty, raw sound of the Genesis' FM chip, i also enjoy the gritty resizing of textures in PSX games. i wonder if people that prefer the SNES' sound chip prefer the way the 64 handled graphics? it'd be interesting to see if that were a trend :]

[GSZX1337]

Whenever I hear someone say Genesis is better at rock music I point out Rock n Roll Racing which sounds much better on SNES to me.

Here's a sample


Genesis Born To Be Wild


SNES Born To Be Wild

You know, I can actually manage to listen to that song when it's outputted by a 16-bit console.

[Jrecee]

Is "The ooze" a good game? I always saw it at the videostore as a kid and never rented it.

[Mr.White555]

Is "The ooze" a good game? I always saw it at the videostore as a kid and never rented it.

If you want an unique top down shooter that incorporates b-movie elements then go for it.

[renardqueenston]

Is "The ooze" a good game? I always saw it at the videostore as a kid and never rented it.

If you want an unique top down shooter that incorporates b-movie elements then go for it.

this, pretty much! it can be a little difficult to get used to the mechanics of the game, but the game itself takes this into account and gives you a decent amount of leeway when it comes to errors early on.

[3GenGames]

Yes, agreed. Good programmers and sound composers could get around the FM sounding bad and make it sound crisp, but very few did it. When you have a game and a deadline, you can't really do that. The FM can sound good, but most games sound like crap. And genesis doing better for techno? The hardware says WAY different.

[jeffro11]

Any chip can be made to sound great. The issue is skill required and time. The genesis in my opinion had a very nice sound, I loved the harsh sounds it could do and not have it muffled like the SNES. BRAAAAAAAPPPUGUGHUGUHGHU. Love that one.

My recent endeavor into the Music generation on the YM2612 has been fraught with issues left right and center. While TFM Music Maker makes it "easy" for making music these days, imagine back then when you had a MUCH less sophisticated tracker. Also realize each company had different trackers each with their own hacks to glitch out the chips to make them do weird things...

[3GenGames]

Haha, the trackers for some games were way better then other games and even ones today. I just read up on the genesis's sound chip, and why they didn't use the secondary sound chip more kills me because it'd sound a little better then a NES! But yeah some sounds/effects are pretty good, since it's hard to be bad with a DPCM, But still, so many games used the FM for standard music and such, but stuff like drums are okay on it, but the square waves IMO should have been used on top of that cappy FM. Music is supposed to be crisp, not like it's going through a washboard! Which is what most games sound. And the NES is NOTHING close to being anything close to as horridly bad as the Genesis's FM being washed out. The SNES's sound is more clean by far. And I am not sure about the SNES being a NES programmer, but NES has duty cycle. You can set the duty to sound washed out on genesis plus the normal 0% duty cycle. So if the SNES follows that at all, it could emulate that FM chip, but if it was so, why didn't games do it? Because it isn't pleasing. ^_^

[jeffro11]

I'll just leave this here...



I'd like your reply after you hear this. Tell me the genesis sounds bad. Do it. Really.

It's true this was sequenced in FLStudio. However the VOPM synth is nearly 1:1. I even used FL studio to layout my song then exported the midi to the tracker using the same settings and got the exact same sound... The Genesis in proper hands is very very good.

[renardqueenston]

So if the SNES follows that at all, it could emulate that FM chip, but if it was so, why didn't games do it? Because it isn't pleasing. ^_^

it can't emulate it is why it doesn't. the SNES does not have FM capability. none of the sound is synthesized on the fly, it's all sample-based. it doesn't generate the sound like the NES, PC Engine, Genesis, or anything. if it COULD emulate it (and had a bigger sound bank and less filtering) it'd sound like the Neo-Geo, which uses ADPCM and FM synthesis.

also, before you bash FM synthesis, i'd like you to know that some of the greatest, most expressive hardware synths in the world are FM-based.

there are no "duty cycles" on FM synthesis. it's operator-based.

the only thing worse than people that don't understand that all sound chips are great for different reasons and utilities is people that try to defend one soundchip by bashing the other with incorrect information :V