How would I go about ripping instruments from the BIOS? I've dug around the web for awhile and I can't really figure out a way, I dunno if the method that works on the Sega Genesis roms will work, is it the same or does it work differently? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I really just want the instruments from Chaotix,CD, and Kolibri.
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Alabama
The Sega CD operates in a variety of modes alongside the Megadrive's Z80 and YM2612. There are 2 main modes, one of which (popularly used Mode 2) is mainly the WAV files playing alongside the executable game files (for instance, each level of Sonic CD is its own unique file, each having the core graphics, engine, etc). All of these files are on the disc, and it is the only storage medium used to read files from.
The problem with this is that the Megadrive has 10 channels natively, and the Sega CD adds an additional 10 (8 PCM, 2 CD digital audio). Most of the music for games was entirely WAV files, as whole songs (not like tracker samples, interestingly enough). So games like Sonic CD, you cannot find FM patches for because they were only for things like some sound effects, if anything at all.
Chaotix was for the 32x which introduced (I believe) another 4-6 PCM channels. These sounds are possible to extract and port to the Genesis.
As for BIOS sounds, they are bin files that as far as I know are each their own unique beasts. Since most feature simple background loops and simple instrumentation, it can be inferred that the music was hard-coded rather than played through a preset "player." The audio is PCM for all of them, if I recall, and it should be possible to copy the instrument parameters from the registers for the PCM channels.
It has been a few years since I dabbled hard in the Sega world, but this is what I know for a fact.
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Thanks for the awnser! I'm glad to have some closure although, it wasn't the awnser I had been hoping for.