Which cartridge based console has the best music?

[Kaneda]

Much as I love the Neo Geo AES it should be pointed out (apart from the awkward spoken English) why could the sound team not invest in a pop shield to go with any of their mics? Two titles come to mind- Top Players golf and Ninja Combat. I know they're early titles but this rant is long overdue! C'mon SNK- $10 will get you a pop shield and cure all those irritating clipped transients!

[arcadifvid]

in order of preference
in terms of sound,

0. vita tv
1. neo geo
2. n64
3. genesis/md
4. nes
5. tg16/pce
6. sfc/snes
7. sms

in terms of compositions:

1. nes
2. snes/sfc
3. neo geo
4. genesis
5. tg16/pce
6. vita tv
7. n64
8. sms


i think i shouldnt be inlcuding vita tv...

[Anapan]

IMO FM synthesis samples just have this incredible ability to sound warm and euphoric or cold and mechanical better than any other medium in electronic music (until subtractive synthesis came along, but that's OT). Samples are all well and good, some clip of a real singer's voice can be made expressive, but given the limitations of that media vs the possible expressiveness being compressed in a few bytes: Simple mathematical equations - Sine Cosine Tangent and similar with an ADSR envelope - Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release - with 8+ channels of harmony & melody and fully capable of a full percussive set using the same few bits of data - samples are wasteful in cartridge based music. FM synth is superior in it's compression capabilities. Still, I'd definitely put some bytes towards a sampled orchestra hit faked through PCM manipulation if I were composing a game soundtrack...

I guess that puts my votes into the Sega 8 bit systems (SMS FM=^!), some Konami carts, PC Engine, PC-compatible, and the Genesis.

A topic here about a SMS port of Secret of Mana had me itching to break out the chiptune VST plugins and render a proper arpeggio'd version of "Into the Thick of It" using authentic patches and limitations. It'd sound so good! I wish I was able to devote more time to play with this stuff.

The question is so opened ended that I can't actually give one best example, tho I believe that's the point (We need some post count here or we will lose favor with Google).
Because some later consoles were sample based, and my favorite sound teams and composers were still using their Yamaha patches, several songs remained FM based even after they were sampled - as mentioned, that was their fingerprint...

Some of the most memorable tunes I still have in my playlist were composed by three competing companies' composers using FM synthesis chips:

Nihon Falcom - Listen to what they did with Gauntlet (Colab with Hitoshi Sakimoto)!

Konami actually forcibly introduced FM synthesis to Nintendo by embedding a chip into the cartridge of their games to force better music out of a system that categorically was not capable of supporting such a powerful audio chip. Their composers took full advantage, and of course their games' soundtracks still stick out as some of the best for the system. Later games continued the trend and I still mostly play through the Snatcher series for the incredible soundtrack - I love that the same composers turned upbeat catchy jazz songs from Snatcher into some sad songs in Silent Hill games.

Looking for Sonic Sound Team, I found that it's huge and lots more people than others. Masato Nakamura made the songs that hooked me, but those songs aren't all that impressive anymore (not bad, just not impressive like later composers made). The Sega games that have some impressive exploitation of the chip were hand picked for the games they made famous and they are famous because of that...

Well, I will try to jump back into this topic, and I should probably read through it completely.

The last half of this post was interrupted several times and not finished. Meh.

[J T]

Great post Anapan.

I thought subtractive synthesis came before FM? Am I wrong? Isn't a PSG, like on the NES, just using subtractive synths? Like on the NES, there are two pulse/square wave channels, a triangle wave channel, and a noise channel. I thought these were essentially subtractive synths, but with very limited options. Am I wrong?

[TSTR]

u right FM came later

[J T]

u right FM came later

I think I'm wrong about the NES using subtractive synthesis though. I looked a little more into it and there aren't any cutoff filters. I usually classify synths as using frequency modulation (FM), subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis, or wavetable synthesis. The NES seems closer to wavetable synthesis, but I'm not sure you would even call it that. Basically it just generates a pulse wave and you mess around with what happens when that note is struck using envelopes. It is super limited.


I downloaded the Famitracker software to get a better sense for it. If you are on one of the pulse wave channels, you can enter a bar graph diagram to determine the envelopes for volume, pitch, and high pitch. These envelopes are not limited to Attack Decay Sustain Release, rather you draw out the ups and downs of each pattern that will cycle through whenever a note is struck. There are also parameters to control the duty cycles of the pulse wave, which are limited to just a few preset ratios, and there is an arpeggio setting to always have a note be followed by an arpeggiated sequence of notes when struck.

If anyone else is curious to play around with NES sounds, here is the link to download Famitracker:
http://www.famitracker.com/

[marurun]

PSG audio like that on the Famicom and PC Engine is technically a kind of waveform synthesis. The Famicom uses channels with dedicated waveform types to which you apply an envelope. PSG generation like you see in the PC Engine and early Japanese PCs (PC-88, etc...) is more of the kind where you have x number of bits to define a custom waveform and x number of bits to define the envelope for that waveform, and that interaction between waveform and envelope is what creates the resulting sound.

[TSTR]

yall are blowing my mind rn

[Anapan]

Huh, you're right. NES does classify as subtractive synth. I was thinking of 6+ oscillator VST instruments I've played around with, but absolutely correct in that NES and earlier are the same tech. Also, I was completely wasted when I wrote that, so I didn't do too much checking up on what I was typing.

[marurun]

Darnit, I had no idea what subtractive synthesis is so I had to go read up on it. Turns out PSG in general (not just the NES) is largely subtractive synth. Had no idea.