“The SEGA Genesis Soundchip is Horrible.”
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- čas přidán 12. 04. 2022
- “The SEGA Genesis always had a terrible sound chip.” My guy, that is a red flag you are holding right there.
Many people have been saying things like “Only Sonic games on Genesis have good music." or "The Soundchip is nothing but loud-ass metallic sounds for every game" or even "GEMS is a shitty sound driver with no good track of music.”
Well guess what, I’m here to explain everything.
First of all, GEMS: Many people may have some distaste for a majority of US games having a “same-y” sound design. This is all because the music used in it was SEGA of America’s Genesis Editor for Music and Sound Effects (GEMS). You may have heard this used in games like Earthworm Jim, Comix Zone, Sonic Spinball, and Aladdin.
The problem is that the GEMS was given a bad look by the many lazy and effortless composers who would make the most shit sounding music like in The Little Mermaid, Doom (32x), and even Batman Returns.
But it’s not exactly their faults for this. The GEMS was created because FM Synthesis within the Genesis was a thing that wasn’t understood nor mastered clearly by Americans in the 90s. So, They used GEMS because it was easier for musicians to use for the games made in America. However, Musicians didn’t like the sound driver.
This does not in any way mean that there would be no good music from The American Driver. For there was Howard Drossin who composed for Comix Zone, Tommy Tallarico who composed for both Earthworm Jim games, and even Jon Holland who composed for the Vectorman Games.
They would give out much effort and create better music outta the GEMS Driver than any of the other lazy composers would.
The SEGA Genesis’ (or respectively Mega Drive) was first built in Japan and the general sound chip was named the YM2612 along with the Master System’s 4 PSG Channels, SN76489.
The Japanese Composers would handle with the sound chip better, Having a variety of sound designs (or styles) in Mega Drive games first made in Japan. Either if it was used in SMPS or a game would have its own driver from their home company.
As they built the Mega Drive, they had a better understanding about FM Synthesis. This would be the main reason why you may have said “Sonic Games only have good music in the Genesis”.
The Genesis Soundchip has a big potential of making good music and a good set of instruments as long as someone knows how to handle with it right.
End of Story, Here’s some timestamps for every example used in the video.
Sonic Spinball - Toxic Caves: 00:08
Dynamite Headdy - South Town: 00:20
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 - Mystic Cave: 00:38
Rocket Knight Adventures - Boss: 00:53
World of Illusion - Level 1-1: 01:21
Panorama Cotton - The Way of The Clouds: 01:34
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 - Hydrocity Zone Act 2:
02:05
RKA2: Sparkster - Stage 1-1, 1-3: 02:29
Streets of Rage 2 - Dreamer: 02:57
Aladdin - Camel Jazz: 03:26
Ristar - Dancing Leaves: 03:54
Comix Zone - Episode 1, Page 2-2: 04:11
Sailor Moon - Giant Dessert: 04:36
Puyo Puyo Tsu - Area B: 05:14
Animaniacs - Studio 3, Part 1: 05:41
Sonic The Hedgehog - Spring Yard: 06:03
Landstalker - Seeking Treasure: 06:39
The Genesis sound chip was only bad in the hands of the lazy. When composers put even a little thought into how to use it, it was fantastic.
Don't forget about the inexperienced.
Don't forget that if you weren't lucky enough to have the first model and knew to use the headphone jack that most people experiencing a Genesis heard nothing like this.
Don't forget that there weren't many music drivers besides GEMS in the 90s.
People say the YM2612 is bad when the Streets of Rage trilogy exists.
Also, the _other_ games with good music on the system. Almost all of them.
Streets of rage only...?
Then you'd have After Burner 2, Shinobi series, OutRun, Golden Axe 3, Hard Corps, etc, many games made proper use of the YM2612.
I do believe the one that takes the cake is Hard Corps. Too much music AND sound effects going at once, I'm amazed the PSG and the YM2612 didn't blow up LOL
Pretty sure you put the SNes' SPC in the same amount of stress and it effing dies.
@@RetroArcadeGuy Well FIFA 95 I just learnt, uses a 2-channel, frequency adjustable pcm driver. That is the channel 6 pcm channel, split in two and used as two sampled instruments. In the menus at least.
@@iwanttocomplain I don't like soccer games (except the sports Tiny Toons or Kunio's Soccer game lol), but FIFA97's OST on the Genesis was fire too!
Thunder Force IV.
Enough. Fucking. Said.
It sounds better in real hardware or in accurate sound cores like Nuked-OPN2, where the composers used the "ladder effect" to their advantage.
Ecco the Dolphin, Vectorman, Dynamite Headdy, I wish I would hear somebody say the YM2612 soundchip is bad
The best music to come out of the Genesis came from the teams who took the time to program their own drivers, the quality of which was *magnificent*. Anything by Technosoft, Yuzo Koshiro, or by Hitoshi Sakimoto and crew. It was also best at mimicking anything that sounded like the YM-synth used in the Japanese arcade games of the late 1980s - a period that was pretty blah for American-produced arcade games following the 1984 crash, without nearly as much budget behind them to play with. If American devs were weak and lazy with the default Genesis sound drivers they were given, it's because they lacked this groundwork with the arcade YM-2203 and 2151 to get up to speed beforehand.
I strongly believe the Genesis audio is at its best when used for electronic club type music. Stuff like the elevator track from streets of rage 2 or the theme of the secret castlvania parody boss in Contra Hard Corps being sole of the greatest examples imo
That's precisely what I think. It can be really off-putting for some games.
the sailor moon and puyo puyo jumpscare. got damn.
thank you for including puyo puyo you will be spared
The exclusion of Gunstar Heroes is a crime against humanity
I have not played it at a point where I can put one there. 😅
Not to mention, FLYING BATTERY
Both the Genesis and SNES had their ups and downs but to call the YM2612 a bad soundchip is just flat out incorrect.
EDIT: I recommend listening to the Devilish soundtrack. It is pure FM goodness at its finest. Composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto. He also arranged the music for the Genesis version of Midnight Resistance which is also a great listen.
Prairie is a good one. :)
@@Charupopu I agree. That track has some pretty impressive sounding Choir patches. When I first heard the track it caught me off guard with how clean they sounded.
Put it in the hands of somebody like Matt Furniss, Yuzo Koshiro or anybody who puts in the time to make the Yamaha sound chip sing it's gonna sound amazing! Put it in the hands of someone who doesn't do the work, it's going to sound absolutely horrible! The Genesis and Mega Drive can sound awesome if the work is put into it!
The map screen in Landstalker is freaking beautiful and on par with stuff by Square on the SNES.
agreed phantasy star
Pretty good selection! I would've thrown a few other names in there.
- Tim Follin only got to do one game on the platform (Time Trax, unreleased), but Tim Follin was a god anywhere near an 8-bit or 16-bit system. Shame we didn't get more...
- Jesper Kyd did some amazing work - Adventures of Batman and Robin, Sub-Terrania, etc.
- Don't sleep on Hitoshi Sakimoto (Midnight Resistance, Devilish).
- Motoi Sakuraba and his amazing Wolfteam work - Granada, El Viento, etc.
- Some lesser-known gems: Nightmare Circus (iffy game, great soundtrack), Star Trek Deep Space Nine (has some real bangers in there)...
The music in Nightmare Circus I consider good as well, but despite its impressiveness, it's not THAT good.
Japanese electronic music company Sonicware released a groovebox called the Liven Mega Synthesis (get it?) based on the chip. It demonstrates that with an intuitive interface, the sound engine of Sega's little marvel is extremely flexible and powerful, while definitely having an immediately identifiable character
Not only I think the Sega Genesis sounds great but today I think the SNES is really bad. 90% of games has muffled same instuments all over it, is just bad. People tends to forget or simply don't know because they use emulators that clean up a lot.
The sega genesis has a huge variety and MOST of japanese games has great music. Not aways western games hit the mark but there are great ones as well.
Forgot Thunder Force IV.
This is a GEMS showcase I think.
this is to show how us made software is ok.
Anybody who says the 2612 is bad clearly has no idea what they're talking about.
If you listen to some US developed games for mega drive like US marble madness or doom 32x and its farts there is reason why it sounds awful to many, less people say the snes is bad soundwise, listen to captain novolin, ballz 3d, and the original 1991 version of the chessmaster (1995 version JP has extended music)
Loved the inclusion of panorama Cotton
Tbh i love how panorama Cotton overall is a huge middle finger for brainless snes fanboys, mainly the visuals and the music
Bless you for including Sparksters’ fantastic soundtrack. Often overlooked.
The dancehall track in Ranger X (Stage 2) was an absolute banger.
I love the thumbnail, and the look on Rini's face that says, "Please don't tell me that's the best that you can do".
Where is thunder force 4
I used to think the YM2612 was a horrible chip, but that was because of some "Genesis vs. SNES" comment I read in 2014 that favored the Genesis over the SNES. I used to hate-watch Genesis TASes at some point. Thankfully, hearing Tim Follin's work for Time Trax in 2016 completely changed my opinion on the YM2612, making me realize that, in the words of another user, it's not the tools, but it's one who uses them. By the end of 2016, I was starting to compose music for it, and was liking the chip much more than I did two years prior.
I used to hate Super Nintendo for the same reason as you, seeing nintendo fans spew trash about the genesis. But eventually I grew to love the system and appreciate more its library of games
I used to hate Super Nintendo for the same reason as you, seeing nintendo fans spew trash about the genesis. But eventually I grew to love the system and appreciate more its library of games
@Benjamin Jagun seems like hearing Tim Follin's work helped us to change our minds about the consoles we once hated.
Missing the BATMAN & ROBIN miracle sound....
Soliel (Crusader of Centy) has a fantastic soundtrack and almost nobody ever talks about it ever. It wasn't even rereleased until the Mega Drive mini 2
Mesmo sendo mais antigo ainda consegue superar aquela fábrica de 3scr3m3nt0 da máquina do encanador bigodudo
The genesis model 1 has a good sound chip, the Yamaha YM2612, but the model 2 & model 3 genesis consoles use a different sound chip, the Yamaha YM3438 which is greatly inferior. The main motherboard revisions also greatly change the sound because of noise filtering & similar things. When getting a genesis with the best sound, be on the lookout for a model 1 with a mother board revision of “VA3”. This revision is known to be the very best revision of them all.
Well, I do own a Model 1 and I think my revision is a VA6.
@@Charupopu Nice! My ears aren't too sensitive to the sound issues that I've heard others say, but my model 2 tower of power does have a bit of a fuzz to it.
@@maxrichards5925 a model 2 VA4 does not have this problem
@@sebastiann.8088 A VA4 model 2 has a YM2612?
Earthworm Jim 1&2 have banging music as well, for the Genesis.
Much more great examples could be mentioned: Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, Bad Omen, Gauntlet IV, Thunder Force IV, Contra Hard Corps, Castlevania Bloolines and so on... all of these makes even the best of GEMS sound like fart cacophony.
06:39 Motoaki Takenouchi is so underrated man... awesome composer.
And that's not even counting the new stuff. John Tay has been putting out phenomenal works and then you have music for demos like overdrive 2
Time Trax was a glaring omission
@@protocetid Time Trax isn't new though. It belongs on the list sure, but I'm referring to the new works.
@@Mentalbox52Sorry for the confusion, was directed at the person who created the video. John Tay is incredible, would it be inaccurate to call him the greatest modern Genesis/MD composer? Two additional notable talents I’ve come across are Savaged Regime and Jorge FM3.
Only exclusive videogames and some Third Party, can create good music with the Sega Genesis.
The chip is called Z-80 and another example is the OST from Daze Before Christmas.
Curiously, the SNes's max audio frequency was 35khz (and at best case scenario) while the Genesis' max audio frequency was 53khz (at any given time).
The Genesis version of Batman and Robin had absolute bangers that pushed the sound chip to it's limits.
Alien Soldier- yu yu hakusho makyo toitsusen all treasure.
This is so refreshing after watching a video that called the soundchip bad compared to the SNES. Also glad to see some obscure games here. :D
The Sparkster Soundtrack Is ONE Of The Best Game Soundtracks On The Sega Genesis Like They Perfected The Whole Heavy Metal Vibe.
Plus I Love The Sega Genesis Because Of The Soundchip Don't Worry And The Games To Its Just Something About The Soundchip Thats Better Then The Others
the FM sounds are useful on the Mega FM synth, dirty sounds or clean sounds are appreciated life would be boring if there was only clean sounds im i right?
Checkout music from Time Trax (prototype). And also few of us played in Donald in Maui Mallard, which also have great music.
No Road Rash 2? For shame.
Steel Empire (under rated game), Alien Soldier, The Revenge of Shinobi (a masterpiece by Yuzo Koshiro), Streets of Rage 1 (another masterpiece by Koshiro, even better than SoR 2 IMHO), Shinobi 3 Return of the ninja master, Granada, QuackShot, Splatterhouse 1-2-3, Hellfire, or the absolutely incredible Global Gladiators OST ... So many good OST made on the Genesis.
Absolutely love steel empire, very unique aesthetic wise
When it comes to soundtracks, there's more good ones than most people know of. Others are Bubba 'n' Stix, Sketeton Krew, Thunder Force IV, Bio-Hazard Battle, Musha, Contra: The Hard Corps, Dragon's Fury, Devilish, Gauntlet IV, Elemental Master, Toejam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, King Colossus, Vapor Trail, Skitchin', The Hybrid Front and more even. Usually it's the sound effects coming from the second chip that can drag the audio experience down sometimes.
Snes had a better soundchip, however Streets of Rage 1 and 2 plus Revenge of Shinobi have music better than every snes game.
In the right hands the megadrive soundchip is awesome.
I can understand someone would say that the SNES sound chip sounds better (Dancing Mad alone makes that obvious). But you can't tell me that the Genesis sounds bad when tracks like Go Straight or Ice Cap Zone exist on the thing.
IceCap prototype theme slaps hard as well :)
thank you for the great showcase of music~
really broadened my taste for the SEGA FM-Synth music
Streets of Rage trylogy, The adventures of Batman and Robin...
Definitely needed some shoot 'em up tunes. Some Gley Lancer would have been great.
This myth comes about due to how most emulators cant replicate the chip correctly
The best that I know of is the standalone music player RYMcast which seemed to finally emulate the "ladder effect" that most emulators had overlooked. But I don't know that this code was ever incorporated into other projects like Retroarch.
0:38 amazing example
you forgot gunstar heroes, shining force 1 & 2, time trax and toejam & earl
Shinobi III
Brilliant. But if I might add, Rocket Knight Adventures Stage 1-2.
Batman Returns - Shrecks Wonderland plus Red Triangle circus parts 1+2.
And most of Revenge of Shinobi.
you add Batman Returns of all things but not the original Batman on Genesis??
@@sebastiann.8088 never played the original. Enjoyed those from Returns. Is the original good as well?
@@SEIFER69 The original is infinitely better than the dumpster fire that is Returns.
@Nathan 64 I liked that you could basically do what batman did. Fight. Gadgets. Grapple. Swing. Glide. Had the weird setting. Eerie music. It was tough enough, but I kept playing. I've never finished it, though. "Batman Forever," on the other hand, was a lazy rehash of the Mortal Kombat engine that worked as well as described. And nobody yet knows how to use any of the "blueprint" gadgets you could collect. To me, you're mixing those 2 games up.
@@SEIFER69 I meant the Sunsoft developed game of the first movie.
where's Tim Follin??
"Which one?"
Devilish/Bad Omen. Thats all I want to say lol
Battle. Mania. Daiginjou.
You show’em this video and the faint
i think what most people mean by that is that the snes sound chip was able to produce way more varried sounds, while the genesis music almost always had the same vibes just like NES music, doesn't mean it's bad though but i understand why you could call it inferior... like comon the snes can have the chrono trigger ost which itself can count as sole proof to how verstaile the snes was in terms of music.
While technically you are somewhat correct, I've always thought that the genesis was never fully utilized to it's potential.
That is an interesting case study of how to fill the aram with fewer, more complex instruments and echo buffer for great effect.
The model one is better than other génesis versions
Good composers made great soundtracks on even more inferior sound sources (the NES' APU, comes to mind. The YM2612 has pretty decent specs. It's not too far off from what Yamaha was selling as budget four-operator polysynths around that time.
No Jesper Kyd or Matt Furniss music, huh? Even around here, 80s/90s European games have a bad reputation.
SEGA GENESIS COOL
all i hear are clanks and farts
I'm torn on it because in someways it was bad. It had a real hard time doing covers of songs but when you put the time in and built music for it. It could be top tier and so unique. I can see why people hate the chip but I can also understand why people love it.
You're overselling some of these soundtracks.
I mean it really boils down to how much you like sawtooth waves over square waves the genesis can be very buzzy and that can be good or bad makes for some good jams very few pristine sounding calm clear and beautiful vibes like in the snes.
Neither is better per say they are both good at different things enjoy both for what they are
Toejam & Earl has an awesome soundtrack and I think the Genesis soundchip holds up pretty well…
Also, although the metallic guitar sound like crap, Road Rash also has great music (but yeah maybe not a good fit for the soundchip, still good stuff in my opinion).
If only the chip could handle stuff like in DKC series, man…
It can lol literally already been done
Where Puggsy? No Genesis FM showcase should be without Puggsy :-/ But that's my preference anyways.
Not really.
Mesmo sendo mais antigo ainda consegue ser melhor do que aquela máquina de excrementos do console do encanador bigode
Honestly a great game to counter that is ALIEN SOLDIER, Definitely one of , if not the best sounding Mega drive game , Need I mention its also seriously impressive with how treasure where able to pull off the effects n such
GEMS >>>>> Sound Images
@doorgespoelde_pannenkoek Tinhead is an exception.
Add all "Mortal Kombat". SNES sounds like garbage.
dynamite head irrtating
snus 1990 and 1991 md or genesis on 1988 and 1989 😎
The chip was good. The way they got the sound the chip made to your ears was horrendous.
Really depends on the model and revision. It's a long story, but there were several revisions of both the model 1 and 2.
@@DancesRainyStreets I was mostly talking about the model 1 I had/have. It's no problem getting an adapter now, but when I was a kid if I wanted stereo sound from my Genesis I was sitting close to the TV with headphones.
it's horrible, the bass is obnoxious, and i'm a bassist!
You don't like Lately Bass?!
@@iwanttocomplain i dont like mega drive bass im afraid smh
Short answer: Yes
Meh selection.
To say the chip is bad is to mean by comparison to a contemporary. So the SNES. That is slander of the highest order.
It's not quite as good as the PCE sound to me, but it's arguably more sophisticard.
I'm sorry, but this video just confirmed that music on Genesis suck. I can not understand that there are so many who favor the Genesis sound chip over the Super Nintendo. Not all games have bad music on Genesis, because if done properly it can be quite good, but Genesis' best is far from a Super Nintendo.
I've heard most music from the SNES, and I've heard alot from the sega genesis, and the sega genesis's sound chip sounds better
You will understand the appeal of FM sound when you're older..
@@LezardDesu Funny you should say that because I would throw a wild guess that Im way older than you. I love FM music, especially from the Yamaha OPL2/3 chip found in the old soundcard Adlib or the Soundblaster for the PC. In my opinion Genesis failed miserable.
You could argue that the sound chip itself is great, but the composers/developers didnt utilized its full potential. Generally the music for Genesis games suck, my opinion.
@@baktus79 Fair enough, I will agree with that. The games with shit OST's far outweigh games with good ones in terms on quantity on Genesis.
As a snes fan, i have to say that the mega drive's soundchip is not bad. I like both orchestration/sampling and FM so this isn't a problem to me. Their soundchips aren't even comparable because of how different they are.
The Sega Genesis did a couple of things good. The SNES did everything better. Generally.
This is such a biased take and completely misses the whole point of this video.
everything is very specific though...
1st sounds like dirt
2nd is decent
3rd is kindaaa hmmmm it's good but at the same time it makes my ears bleed
You know what im not going to continue, the 3rd one is representative of the majority of problems with the genesis soundchip. It has great music until the ear bleeding inducing high pitch noise comes in and ruins it
It's still horrible.
It just sounds less crappy on those cherry picked clips.
Michael Jackosn's Moonwalker is one of very few games for that system with pretty good music.
That's the only console I'd play with RF cable due to it's horrible audio chip.
Mednafen (+front end ui) flattens it down almost entirely if that's your thing.
Nah, check both Overdrive demo's made by Titan for the original hardware. It's one example of many.