You can use any samples on SNES, as long as they are fit the requirements.

Genesis uses FM synthesis instead of samples, although samples sometimes used for drums. There are few cross trackers for Genesis, i.e. they runs on a PC and create data that could be played on the Genesis.

I have a few question that's somewhat relevant to this thread and that I don't think warrants a new thread.

First, I understand that SNES uses SPC. I understand that if you want to write 16-bit SNES chips you have to track it out in Impulse Tracker following very specific limitations and then throw it on a powerpak cart and re-record the SNES playing it. My question is, if the SNES is playing samples, can't I just make my own samples or alter the SNES samples using modern effects and such, convert to .wav and then re-convert it to the necessary SNES file? (or atleast re-import it into IT)

To ask the question in another way:

If the only pre-requisite to having the samples play on a SNES are:
-Notes can not exceed 128Khz playback rate!!
-The 64 or less samples must fit within 58K of memory. This is AFTER   |
| "BRR" compression. 8-bit samples will be reduced to 9/16 size. 16-bit |
| samples will be reduced to 9/32 size.

Then can I alter the samples in a soundfont pack or even make my own samples that fit the specific requirements and have it play back on the SNES?

My second question is a lazy question:
Does the Genesis run off samples too or are there dedicated trackers with sound synthesis and such?

But I agree with you!  The message I intended was more that there seems to be a general attitude of an .SPC tracker being redundant.  However I DO think there would be merit in such a tracker.

Good times...

Tried to embed a video but I had flashbacks to the last time I tried and I gave up out of frustration....

I think the SNES sound or "tone" can largely be attributed to the sort of faux-wavetable synth way of handling samples. The memory would severly limit your sound budget, so you needed to be very economical with your samples. Most sounds that aren't overly complex, such as pianos would have a short transient and then a very short loop point, with volume envelopes taking care of the decay. Same thing for cymbals and snares with slightly longer loops,

Japanese SNES composers did use a lot of the same sounds. In particular the Miroslav strings, and a bassline I'm pretty sure is sampled from a DX7. I've also suspected they got the samples from some common library. And it almost seems to me like Nintendo provided tools for third parties in Japan but not for western developers.

I toyed around a bit with faking my own SNES samples last year. Although I have no insight on how the built-in echo/reverb worked so I just put a primitive reverb on the master channel.
http://tindeck.com/listen/tfbu

as far as i remember the wind in the intro to final fantasy 3 (6) was generated by the noise generator + filter as an example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … oA0#t=154s

Looping has resolution of 16 samples; samples are 16-bit but lossy compressed and decompressed on-fly - means specific distortions, forward-only looping, interpolation is applied, pitch range is limited. Plus hardware ADSR, panning/volume control with 8-bit resolution, and echo capabilities with configurable filter.

So the only difference is the looping on the snes is sloppy?

yeah sample looping would be easier with a proper tracker of some kind.   I spent ages back in the day getting those on the right boundaries.

If I didn't tell you which one is which and if there was no artifaction on sample looping on the SNES version, the two tunes are exactly the same.

In fact the SNES do have some synthesis capabilities, although I doubt they were used often (to my knowledge there are few rare cases). It capable to generate noise (one generator for all channels) and modulate pitch of one channel with output of other channel, and few channels can be stacked this way - a kind of FM synthesis.

SNES's own tone is not in the synthesis capabilities, though - it is in the (relatively unique) set of limitations imposed on the sample playing. Combination of these limitations create distinctive sound, you can distinguish a SNES music from an Amiga MOD, a XM module, or a sample-based music from low-spec systems (C64, ZX etc - 4-bit sound) just by listening, without much trouble. Of course, it is rather easy to imitate any of these kinds of sampled music with modern sound software.

But this is exactly the "problem", the SNES has no synthesis chip at all.

I'm assuming this was directed at me?

I'm not going to pretend I know too much about the technical side of this particular console. You could make this argument about any chip synth though - it's mostly just square waves, nothing that a laptop or a dedicated synth can't handle, but there are subtle reasons that many of us still work with original hardware having to do with waveform glitches, tone of output hardware, forced low fidelity due to technical limitations. The SNES may represent the transition out of waveform generation, but it still has those qualities as a sampler and to me it seems worth pursuing.

Also, this other thread about pursuing SGB's ability to draw on the SNES' hardware: http://chipmusic.org/forums/post/95099/

Now ThAT is something very interesting.