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Chipmusic • SN76489 • software

SN76489 beta VST now available

backgroundThe Sn76489 VST mentioned the other day is now available for download on the benanderson89 blog. Also this tasty preview of a potential Sega Genesis VST:

You’re all probables thinking “I have VOPM/TFM, why do I need YM-EMU?”. Well for a start VOPM emulates the YM2151 chip used in Sega arcade machines, not the mega drive and TFM doesn’t support PCM playback. My lovely VST will have the following features making it one of the most ambitious chip VST ever!

  • 6 Independent, monophonic FM channels each controlled via a separate MIDI channel (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 respectively)
  • Each channel will have it’s own programmer section
  • Each channel will be able to change instrument at any time via MIDI! (Now I’m just spoiling you)
  • The 6th channel will support PCM playback! No decimators too! I’m going to use an 8-bit shift register like the real chip (which means I’ll have to daisy chain 25 10-step analogue shift registers to achieve the desired result)
Chipmusic • SN76489 • software

SN76489A emulator Appears

waveformEnglish chip artist benanderson89 has made a SN76489a vsti. I normally don’t cover vsti type stuff, but it looks like he aiming for something pretty accurate he writes:

The internal workings of this VST are based off of the actual data-sheets for the real SN76489, mimicking the internal circuitry and flow logic as close as possible. More specifically, this chip emulates the SN76489A (which used a 16-step register) as used in the Sega Master System and Game Gear.

The VST is pure hardware emulation, no decimators, bit-crushers and samples are used at all.

The VST sports the following specs (some are still very buggy);

Tone channel: 15 different vibrato levels, 4 different vibrato speeds and 4 different vibrato delay times and an ADSR envelope with an overall volume level. True 4-bit quantization on all data inputs (except pitch frequency) and final volume output, frequency limited to that of the real chip, velocity sensitivity.

Noise channel: 3 different noise frequencies, true pseudo random noise generated by a 16 step shift register with an XOR feedback loop, the same ADSR functions and quantized output as the tone channels, velocity sensitivity.

No downloads yet, but we will keep you posted.

via Forums | 8bc.org – Online Chiptune Media Sharing.

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Mods • SN76489

Little-Scales fatter SN76489 bass

via 8bc

Big Bass:
Normally with the SN76489 (on the Sega, for example) there isn’t much bass at all (ie. the chip can’t go very deep in pitch), which is why I thought I would underclock a discrete SN76489 and see what it sounds like.

Read more with audio examples.

Let’s Change The Duty Cycle:
Some further experimentation with the under clocked SN76489 revealed that it is possible to change the duty cycle of the sound output without too much effort.

Read more with audio examples.

Timbral Droner:
A hypnotic droning sound, due to phase differences and duty cycle changes.

Read more with audio examples.”