Vytantus
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Melbourne, Australia

http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.ph … x_snes_apu

A midibox designed to use the SNES's APU (Audio Processing Unit)

But it was never finished.

Reading the entire page it doesn't really become clear what this person is trying to do with the APU, it sounds like they want to connect it up to a core module... and then im assuming developing some midi abilities? its pretty vague. No mention of the way the APU will be utilised, as a stand alone synth/sequencer? it mentions parallel connection to pc a few times, but thats already an existing option. The page was last edited in 2007 so im thinking its a dead project.

The only conection i've found to the person who may have started this is the name "napierzaza". Anyone know them?



EDIT: NOT A TRACKER. it converts module formats (eg. .xm)  to .spc

Found the link to it off that page too.

http://ekid.nintendev.com/xms/

Anyone used it?

Looks like dev stopped in 07.

Last edited by Vytantus (Jan 17, 2010 6:56 am)

ant1
Offline
uhajdafdfdfa

I used XMSNES once and it turned my song to white noise. It's also not a tracker (just converts xm to spc). tongue

SNESMOD by Mukunda is what I would recommend for making SNES music. smile

Last edited by ant1 (Jan 17, 2010 6:42 am)

Vytantus
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Melbourne, Australia

aw dog haha thanks man smile

bucky
Offline
philly

I know that composer Alberto Gonzalez used some sort of Midi interface on the SNES back in the day-
http://good-evil.net/features/interview … lez-part-1

B: It appears that you used Compact Editor for almost everything besides the SNES. What tools were used in the development of sequencing and programming the music for Asterix & Obelix? Being primarily sample based, do you recall the sources of the samples?

AG: For Asterix & Obelix I used Octamed, a well known Amiga 500 tracker, and I also used a very basic PC midi sequencer. Depending on the song I used one or the other. The SNES development kit had a MIDI input so it worked more or less like a synthesizer in real time. All the instrument samples were digitized from a Turtle Beach Maui PC sound card. For the effects, many were synthesized on the SNES using basic waveforms, and others were taken from many sources, but I don’t remember exactly which ones.

Should I inquire more about the snes dev kit? I find it interesting that there was stuff like that around 15 years ago but very little is known about it today...

Last edited by bucky (Jan 17, 2010 7:02 am)

Vytantus
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

yeah bucky definitely... it sounds strangely familiar. thanks for the link man smile

Last edited by Vytantus (Jan 17, 2010 7:03 am)

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City
Vytantus wrote:

No mention of the way the APU will be utilised, as a stand alone synth/sequencer?

But the SNES has no synthesizing capabilities...
I don't see a point in this thing, unless you want to make a low-fi sampling machine (with inbuilt cheesy reverb effct and sample interpolation tongue)

Theta_Frost
Offline
Milwaukee, WI

That Midibox project is dead yes.  I have looked at it a bit and the original intention was to turn it into a looping sample synth but if I ever pick up where he left off I'll make a full fledged sampler.

bucky
Offline
philly
akira^8GB wrote:

I don't see a point in this thing, unless you want to make a low-fi sampling machine (with inbuilt cheesy reverb effct and sample interpolation tongue)

The point would be to control the SNES in real-time. I mean I'm kind of with you on the sound, there's not much in it for me, but if someone wants to use it as a lo-fi sampler then all the more power to them! I haven't seen it done before, so it would at least be interesting. The cheesy reverb effects would actually sort of be its saving grace imo, since it is distinct. And you could look at it this way, why bother making Amiga music? ... wink

Also, saying that it has no synthesizing capabilities is incorrect. Granted, as far as I know there isn't a whole lot you can do with it, but I've heard people talk about generating sounds with it, however basic. (can someone with more knowledge on this chime in! I'd like to know more about it...). It also has a dedicated noise generator too.

Vytantus
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

Well the other distinctive thing was the way it stored/compressed samples wasn't it?

Tbo I love the SNES reverb... no I REALLY love it.

I mean its basically as capable as Impulse/Millky/Fast tracker isn't it? This is why it's usually shunned right? Using these trackers on pc is certainly easier.

This idea of controlling the APU through midi is great but it doesn't have any oscillators, just sample playback and a noise channel.

I think if something like this were to be midibox-erized it would be more suitable as a midi dependant sequencer.
But this is almost a complex way of doing something which could be done by a SNES tracker.

Anyone know of any? (and no i don't mean friking Mario Paint lol [i loved that as a kid])

arlen
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I've heard IT2SPC is a lot better than XM2SPC.

Also, a SNES Midibox really does seem like a pointless idea. No wonder it's a dead project.

ant1
Offline
uhajdafdfdfa
arlen wrote:

I've heard IT2SPC is a lot better than XM2SPC.

Indeed it is, I posted a link to it in the first reply (just in case anyone is thinking there is a difference, cause googling "IT2SPC" doesn't get much).

smile

alex_mauer
Offline
philly
bucky wrote:

Also, saying that it has no synthesizing capabilities is incorrect. Granted, as far as I know there isn't a whole lot you can do with it, but I've heard people talk about generating sounds with it, however basic. (can someone with more knowledge on this chime in! I'd like to know more about it...). It also has a dedicated noise generator too.

it does have a distinct noise generator, however there is not yet any DIY snes music method that utilizes the noise generator... also... it appears it has some sort of basic FM... seems like its only really for sound effects and not for music... because it creates non-tonal sounds - i only know this from using SPCTOOL... a program that imo is the best SPC player... it allows you to tweak some settings like the DSP and "FM" while a song is playing

also... people seem to forget to mention the SNES had flexible stereo panning compared to amiga or genesis

beyond this there may be more synth-capability... but this is all i know

bucky
Offline
philly

Thanks, very insightful post! smile

alex_mauer wrote:

[it does have a distinct noise generator, however there is not yet any DIY snes music method that utilizes the noise generator...

Ah, makes sense, given that the tools available are module / .it converters. That's why I was kind of bummed that super famitracker was scrapped, seemingly in favor of just using SNESmod. A tracker made specifically for the SNES could allow for a more detailed and intuitive control. The more synthy aspects of the SNES is something I am very curious to see explored for sure.

Last edited by bucky (Jan 20, 2010 10:19 am)

Vytantus
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

alex_mauer YES!

Its good to know some of the things the SNES is capable of, well, that arn't common knowledge.

If no one attempts to exploit the hardware then there maybe things the SNES is capable of which are truly unique to this platform.

It's unfair to say something is a pointless pursuit if it has untapped potential... perhaps the SNES is so

Last edited by Vytantus (Jan 20, 2010 12:19 pm)

Esopus-dragon
Offline
New York, New York

I am happy some others are taking interest in the sound capabilities, and Alex Mauer ducked in! I would like to make a track specifically with the hardware sound capabilities. I would even like to attempt to track with the samples of the games, if someone knows about taking them for composing tracks.

This topic is relevant to my interests.

ant1
Offline
uhajdafdfdfa

Esopus-Dragon, you can use Snessor 95 to get the wav files from SNES roms, and then use Schism Tracker, Chibitracker, Modplug Tracker, or Impulse Tracker to track with them, and SNESMOD that I linked to in the first reply to convert the song to spc format, and an SPC player to record your music back into wav or mp3 (or off a SNES flash cart if you've got one).