PCE Chip Music

[TurboXray]

 I'm looking for some PCE chips tunes. Tunes that have a unique or impressive instrument sound or just kicks ass. This is for some PCE music engine research.

 So far I have (all track #'s of the HES files correspond to mednafen playback, other players might reorder the track #'s):

 AfterBurner, Outrun, ThunderBlade: seem to use the most of the same instrument and sound engine. Besides sounding really great (AB comes to mind) they have some unique instruments/sounds. Also has some nice bass on one of the songs.

 Batman: Very interesting sound engine. It uses two of the channels for PCM(wave) samples. The bass guitar is actually scaled in frequency up and down like in a MOD engine (think SNES if you don't know what MOD is). The "Super R-type" sample was noticeably cool, although not frequency scaled.

 Bomberman 93 and 94: Some great tunes and unique sound/instruments. Some impressive "noise channel" drum kits - nice and clean. Bomberman 94 has two great techno-ish tracks with nice drum track - track 128 being one of them 

 Blood Gear: Very synth-y sounding(some tracks sound FM-ish in style). Lots of frequency sliding on chorus notes.

 Bloody Wolf: One of my favorites and really complex sound engine. Very unique sounds/instruments and great variety of music. I wish they had used this sound engine for other games as well. Very impressive.

 Devil's Crush: With it's famous track - love the instruments and composition.

 Fiend Hunter: Of the two tracks that I've heard - really nice samples used in conjuction with PCE audio. When I first heard it, I thought it was a CD track until I noticed some of the PCE instruments. Threw me off

 Parodius: Pretty impressive conversion to PCE audio system

 SF2: same as parodius. Though they both owe more to the composers than the sound engines used. SF2 sounds better than the arcade version imo.

 Solder Blade: Uses the same instruments as a lot of other PCE games (Aldynes, Neutopia 2, etc) and nothing unique. So it shouldn't be on this list - but I'm a fan of the compositions. There are a few covers for other synth formats of this game. I heard a cool OPL2 version and a twin SMS PSG version. There's also that NES cover using extra sound hardware It sounds pretty good though you can tell the instruments lack the timbre and fidelity of the PCE version.
 
 
 R-Type: A great conversion of the original. Has a synth-y sound too (though not FM).
 
 AeroBlasters: Another great conversion. It breaks from some of the more common instruments used in PCE games, in some of the tracks. Though it's still PCE recognizable in parts..

 De-ja: Track 3- nothing special but I like it - not a typical game music,11 -love this track.

 Gomola: Track 62 - nice track

 Metal Stoker: Except for a couple of tracks having a pretty common instrument or common PCE composition, most tracks have a strong bass-synth  and unique composition to them.

[Zeon]

I believe fiend hunter sounds "like a cd" because it is one of the few pc-engine games to use ADPCM. Dragon Slayer and Star Parodia are a few others that used this. There was also a bonus game hidden in a pce-cd game that had chip music that did this as well. The name of the hidden game is Cychorider if that helps.

Add Kyuukyoku Tiger and Dungeon Explorer to that list too. Lady Sword had music similar to Dungeon Explorer that sounds pretty cool.
Oh and Dragon Slayer 8 - Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu and Dragon Slayer 8 - Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu II have a ton of awesome chip music.

[Joe Redifer]

In my awesome opinion, R-Type sounds much better than the arcade version.  The arcade sounds like ass.  The PCE rendition is much more interesting and aurally pleasing.  Nobody can argue with this assessment.

[nat]

There are a couple tracks that stand out to me as having really, really good bass, possibly the best non-redbook bass on the system:

Dragon Spirit level 2, the "bass guitar string slapping" sound is really nice. If you have your game systems hooked up through an amp to a sound system w/woofer like I do, the shit actually thumps.

Legend of Xanadu, there are so fucking many chip tunes in this game, and the game is so huge it's hard to describe where to find this one. All I can say is that it first appears around the halfway point, maybe a little further, in an underground area. Has another really good bass "thump" although it's of a different kind than the Dragon Spirit, hard to explain.

Other tunes that just kick ass:

The soundtrack in Sinistron and Cybercore, obviously composed and coded by the same person/group of people, are really really good and use at least one instrument that sounds like FM.

Air Zonk, level 2.

Gunhed, level 2 (what is it with all the level 2s? DS, AZ, Gunhed, etc....)

Dungeon Explorer, level 2.... Just kidding. All the songs here are fantastic, but there are a select few that stand above even the "great." I'm not sure if they technically use any instruments not used in many other Turbo games, but the compositions are fantastic.

[TurboXray]

 Nat: Yeah - Legend of Xanadu has a lot of PSG music tracks. I love the main town theme (track 10). I need to build a bass boost circuit for my SGX and PCE Though mednafen is pretty accurate for PCE audio emulation (more than the other emu's) - piped straight to the amp.

 Zeon: You mean for drum kits? Fiend Hunter uses it just for the drums and clap samples. I read that DS:LOH used ADPCM for some instrument in the PSG tracks. I didn't know Star Parodia uses ADPCM for music sampes on the PSG tracks though.

 Joe: I agree 

[Zeon]

Nat: Yeah - Legend of Xanadu has a lot of PSG music tracks. I love the main town theme (track 10). I need to build a bass boost circuit for my SGX and PCE Though mednafen is pretty accurate for PCE audio emulation (more than the other emu's) - piped straight to the amp.

 Zeon: You mean for drum kits? Fiend Hunter uses it just for the drums and clap samples. I read that DS:LOH used ADPCM for some instrument in the PSG tracks. I didn't know Star Parodia uses ADPCM for music sampes on the PSG tracks though.

 Joe: I agree 

Oh sorry, I misunderstood. I just meant those games use ADPCM in general not the specifics of what the ADPCM was used for.

[Alt-Nintega]

PCE Salamander music with speakers and woofer plugged it to a black Duo is a real treat to my ears!   

[SuperDeadite]

Coryoon has some really nice drum samples in its music.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Shockman, incredible sound kit IMHO.  Also, I really gotta point out Legend of Xanadu 2 over the first game.  Just alot of great tunes, & even some sampled drums.  Also, look into Impossamole.  I know it has that "wavy" sound that some people hate, but, the soundtrack sounds really full, like there's more instruments going on, that are even possible on the PCE.  That's all I can think of right now, that hasn't been mentioned.  Oh, Legendary Axe 2 & ...Monster Pro Wrestling(IIRC), along with the DE 1 are great.

[runinruder]

Cyber Knight
Spiral Wave
Psychosis/Paranoia
Ninja Spirit
Tenshi no Uta II (battle music)

[Digi.k]

There are some good drum samples in SF2 but ultimately I find it too weak and it sounds like the really old pc sound cards with the AD-LIB sound..

Parodius is great but I find that its too quiet..

Salamander is pretty awesome you should check that out but on emulation its not quite perfect..

Heres another game which I'm starting to like very much.. Its jigoku Meguri which is really underlooked by a lot..    I Particularly enjoy the tracks for stage 2 and 3 because of the really gentle japanese percussion samples.

its in WMA format tho..
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BB6M2H5R

Also populous has a pretty cool intro as well.. The original was done by Rob Hubbard and Hudson did a great conversion of it!

[MurderDate]

very cool thread -  wish I had something to add as I LOVE a lot of this music.

[Ceti Alpha]

Stage 2 of Aero Blasters will always be a favourite of mine. It kicks the hammer pants off of the original arcade track.

[Digi.k]

also I really love the sampled drums in Dragon Saber!

Taito's other shmups that have (imo) great music are; Tatsujin, Hana Tahka Daka!?! and as Zeon said; Kyukyoto Tiger

I use ootake for sound playback

[Ninja Spirit]

Metal Stoker - most of the tunes were composed so well that they are really difficult for someone else to replay by ear, so many complex chord progressions. Stage 2-1 BGM in particular though, the Square 1 channel (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not too keen on the PCE's sound channel names) has a Famicom-like ring to it. Stage 3 BGM is my favorite, when I first heard it, I left my Duo-R on pause for almost an entire hour listening to that

I also gotta give mention to Salamander, Gradius, and Detana! Twinbee, mainly for Konami's usage of those knocking synth drums. I don't see why they scrapped it in Parodius

As a matter fact, how about some fan-made Contra and Gyruss music remixed in PC Engine?

  Batman: Very interesting sound engine. It uses two of the channels for PCM(wave) samples. The bass guitar is actually scaled in frequency up and down like in a MOD engine (think SNES if you don't know what MOD is). The "Super R-type" sample was noticeably cool, although not frequency scaled.

Are you referring to the "orchestra hit" sample in the title screen BGM?

I also thought that was more of a Konami thing. Those samples do show up in A-JAX, Trigon/Lightning Fighters, TMNT, and Sunset Riders

[SignOfZeta]

I don't know if there is anything technically unique about it (I don't think there is) but I still like the stage 2 music in Aeroblasters.

[nat]

That tune has a really nice beat to it which is really put on display if your home sound system has good bass response... It doesn't thump like the track in Dragon Spirit, but it has a nice "oomph" to it.

[Ceti Alpha]

That tune has a really nice beat to it which is really put on display if your home sound system has good bass response... It doesn't thump like the track in Dragon Spirit, but it has a nice "oomph" to it.

hehe. It has a funky beat and you can bug out to it. 

[TurboXray]

Time Cruise 2 - had a change to listen to that recently. I like. Nothing really stands out, but some of the compositions nice. It's got quite a bit of tracks. I wonder if all of them are used in game. Some tracks have a nice bass-synth which I'm a sucker for when done right - whether pronounced like slap/pluck or soft and synth-y.

[Keranu]

I recommend any games made by FACE. I always point out how unique and awesome their games sound. Time Cruise, Metal Stoker, whatever other games I can't think of at the moment...

[ParanoiaDragon]

Actually, Kyukyoto Tiger IIRC was done by the same guy that did Legendary Axe 2, Dungeon Explorer, etc.

And, I just remembered another one, Fighting Run, lot's of different sampled stuff, kind of SNES'ish.

[nat]

I thought we determined a while back LA2 and DE were actually done by two different people?

[ParanoiaDragon]

I thought we determined a while back LA2 and DE were actually done by two different people?

Really?  I don't recall that.  They sound like they're carbon copies of eachother.  Plus, I think we established something about alot of those guys using different nicknames in the credits, atleast, back then they did.

[nat]

Yeah it was on this forum a year or so ago. Damn if I can remember the thread though. Maybe I'm remembering wrong...

[TurboXray]

Yeah it was on this forum a year or so ago. Damn if I can remember the thread though. Maybe I'm remembering wrong...

I vaguely remember something about it too.

[runinruder]

You guys might be thinking of this thread:

http://forums.magicengine.com/en/viewtopic.php?t=1565&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[spenoza]

So, Bonknuts, what is this you are collecting music for? You have some kind of project in mind? Please, do share with us.

[nat]

You guys might be thinking of this thread:

http://forums.magicengine.com/en/viewtopic.php?t=1565&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Thank you, runin, that was it, exactly. Guess it was over on MagicEngine, not here.

So, yeah, DE was done entirely by one guy (same guy that did Bonk's Adventure, Ultimate Tiger, etc), and LA II was entirely by a different guy (or guys).

Makes sense, since the "DE guy" was an Atlus employee and development of Dungeon Explorer and Bonk's Adventure was farmed out by Hudson Soft to Atlus. I don't think Atlus had any hand in LA II.

[CrackTiger]

I don't know why so many people think that LAII and DE sound exactly the same. LAII doesn't have much variety in sound, especially compared to DE. The kind of sound it does have isn't used much in DE. However, one part of one track does sound like part of a track in DE.

I'd do an audio comparison video, but there wouldn't be much to line up in similar sounding tracks.

[esteban]

I don't know why so many people think that LAII and DE sound exactly the same. LAII doesn't have much variety in sound, especially compared to DE. The kind of sound it does have isn't used much in DE. However, one part of one track does sound like part of a track in DE.

I'd do an audio comparison video, but there wouldn't be much to line up in similar sounding tracks.

Hey, you could still do the video, if only to point out how different they are .

Another idea: I thought it would be neat to do an Avenger-Valis comparison, or simply compare a bunch of Telenet games, to hear some of the similarities in the music (instruments, tunes, blah, blah)

[TurboXray]

So, Bonknuts, what is this you are collecting music for? You have some kind of project in mind? Please, do share with us.

Yeah- working on a tracker for PCE with all kinds of support and new effects normally not done. Besides listening to great PCE music, I'm trying to see what other composers have done to get unique instruments and combinations.

[Joe Redifer]

CrackTiger, if you do any more comparison videos for Youtube, be sure to make them in stereo as Youtube can do that now.  Also gone is the 100MB upload limit.

[Alt-Nintega]

Guys have you heard these? The is some Japanese dude named Otobeya that remixed a few music from NES games with the PCE chip set. 

Super C

_{► /oto/H-SCONTRAHTH.mp3}

Castlevania II

_{► /oto/H-DAYLIGHT.mp3}

Gyruss

_{► /oto/H-GYRUSS.mp3}

Hector '87 (Starship Hector)

_{► /oto/H-HECTOR87H2.mp3}

[CrackTiger]

Black Tiger, if you do any more comparison videos for Youtube, be sure to make them in stereo as Youtube can do that now.  Also gone is the 100MB upload limit.

That's good to know for some of my other videos. But with the audio comparisons I just upload the full quality video that I host on my site and link to each YouTube page and let YouTube decide how to wreck it. I don't think that the 100MB limit has been an issue for me, but thats also a major improvement.

[Joe Redifer]

CrackTiger, if you do any more comparison videos for Youtube, be sure to make them in stereo as Youtube can do that now.  Also gone is the 100MB upload limit.

That's good to know for some of my other videos. But with the audio comparisons I just upload the full quality video that I host on my site and link to each YouTube page and let YouTube decide how to wreck it. I don't think that the 100MB limit has been an issue for me, but thats also a major improvement.

If you add &fmt=18 at the end of a Youtube URL, you should be able to watch a higher quality stereo version, depending on how high of quality the original upload was.  You can also change your Youtube prefs to play high quality automatically, if available.

[CrackTiger]

If you add &fmt=18 at the end of a Youtube URL, you should be able to watch a higher quality stereo version, depending on how high of quality the original upload was.  You can also change your Youtube prefs to play high quality automatically, if available.

Thanks for the tips. I just tried out the higher quality url trick and it made a huge differece with my own videos.

I then changed my preference to high quality videos, but it isn't working yet.

[Joe Redifer]

If you add &fmt=18 at the end of a Youtube URL, you should be able to watch a higher quality stereo version, depending on how high of quality the original upload was.  You can also change your Youtube prefs to play high quality automatically, if available.

Thanks for the tips. I just tried out the higher quality url trick and it made a huge differece with my own videos. I then changed my preference to high quality videos, but it isn't working yet.

Yeah, I don't have too much luck with the preferences.  It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I do like the LA2 ost more then DE1, but, then again, I suppose that's more do to composition.  But, still, all of those games, atleast to me, sound the same soundwise.

[Zeon]

I just discovered a game that has some pretty cool music, lots of samples too: Cyber Dodge.

[Ninja Spirit]

Jackie Chan and Final Soldier sound alike too.

[TurboXray]

Jackie Chan and Final Soldier sound alike too.

Jackie Chan, Super Star Soldier, Soldier Blade, Aldynes, Final Solder, Neutopia 2 and some others all seem to have the same instrument suite.

 From what I've noticed, a popular setup uses 3 channels for a chorus or chord, 1 for bass synth, and 1 for drum kit. 4 channels for chorus effect is popular too (for that part of a song). That gives you around 3 instruments at any one time. The games that seem to stand out are the ones that sound like they have more instruments at a time. Though instrument sound also have a lot to do with it.

 Splatter House: Very good PCE music. I really like the instruments and the composition sounds more complex than your average PCE game - or at least technically.






 The technical side(for the curious, otherwise just skip it):

 On the PCE, you have simple tones made from custom waveforms. The timbre of the instrument sound comes from the waveform you define (usually basing it on sine, triangle, square, pulse, saw thooth, etc). A very rare occasion games like Bloody Wolf swap out the waveform during the instruments note duration. An instrument note duration might have 3 to 6 swaps of the waveform. This is probably emulating some other effect done on a different type of audio hardware.

If you want to add any other sort of characteristic to the instrument sound, you have to do it with software with (AM) Amplitude modulation, (LFO) low frequency oscillation, frequency slides/bends, and ADSR envelopes. All the games I've looked at do these very things, but at low cycle rates like 60hz or below. Some games don't even do this, but instead just chorus simple tones together with decay(rapid or slow rate of fade).

Some instrument sounds need 2,3, or even 4 channels to make or replicate a more complex instrument sound. Though that lowers the number of instrument sounds at a single moment in time. You'll notice some songs will drop into a part of the song that uses this more complex instruments sound during a break, solo, or slow down and then switch bank to the other instruments (I'm not sure what this is called in the music composing). world).

 Making unique or even just decent instruments for PCE isn't easy. Other than using some one else' library of sounds, you really need to know what you're doing on the PCE audio wise. It's amazing that audio composers back in the day used stuff like MML to make their music.

 Some things that weren't really taken advantage of.

 PCM samples. The PCE can do them with ease and at different sample rates. Unless you're really clever, you were limited up to 7khz. Still, that's quite enough sample rate for decent sample types. Just look at SF2 voices and voices are much more *unforgiving* to sample rate and bit depth than instruments and other sounds. Not only that, but you have up to 6 channels you can output on. Listen to Batman. The bass guitar sounds pretty good. It also uses two channels for samples instead of one like other games.

 10bit vs 5bit. It takes two channels to make a single 10bit audio channel. Sounds a bit wasteful until you realize that you can software mix two 9bit samples on a single pseudo 10bit channel. Is channel mixing hard or complex or require a lot of resource? No. It's really easy to do; you just add sample 1 to sample 2 on a per 9bit fetch. One simple add. You can take this even further by adding four 8bit samples to make a final 10bit output. That gives you 8 audio channels: 4 PCMPSG and 4 8bit PCM channels.

 But wait a minute.. don't samples take a lot of memory. Yes and no. Some instruments have a unique part, then a repeating part with a slow fade. Look at a bass synth. You have the "attack" but the decay is the same pattern over and over. You can exploit this by storing just the attack and pattern part, and loop the pattern part while fading it. Many synth sounds have such properties. Even if you didn't take advantage of this, you can reuse the same samples in other songs in the rom/game. At 8bit resolution, it takes 7k to store 1 second of audio. That's really not that bad at all. Setting aside 64k or 128k (1 megabit) just for samples is pretty reasonable especially if it's a rom.

 ADPCM: It's been used in a handful of games. Fiend Hunter and Cyber City OEDO 808 come to mind. Another channel and no cpu resource for playback with its own sample memory and compression? What's not to like? Apparently is was too good for most PCMPSG composers I guess. If you've filtered (prep'd) the audio before ADPCM conversion or have a really high resolution source, then it sounds great. The really great thing about ADPCM unit is that you can easily do beat loops and multiple of them in sample ram for easy access too. And yet no game has even done this. Pitty. Oh and I forgot to mention that ADPCM is available to hucards. It's definitely possible to have the hucard/rom detect the ADPCM unit and use it if found.

 FM and other synth processing: Is FM even possible on the PCE? Yes, but a little bit more... limiting. There is an actual FM setup for channel 1/0. It's label as LFO, but it can operate in the FM range (human audible frequency range) instead of low frequency like 60hz. But what I'm referring to is a software method. FM works by having two waveforms, like sine wave for instance. One of them is a carrier - or the output. Since it's a plain jane sinus tone, it lacks any characteristic or timbre. It's just a tone. The second waveform (lots of early or low end FM chips only used sine wave) changes the frequency of the tone - rapidly up and down like a swing. This gives the tone timbre. There are ratios that the two waveforms must run at, otherwise they out out of tune or give you artifacts (beyond the scope of this post). The volume of the frequency modulation carrier effects the brightness of the timbre of the carrier. That famous "bleeoouuaaarrrrrwwwww" sound from bewildered FM composers comes from sliding the volume of the modulation wave from one end to the other. This is basic FM. Add in an ADSR envelope that controls the "volume" of a modulating waveform and you get a nice synth-y sound. It gets more complicated on more complicated synths (duh). You can have multiple modulators (yamaha calls them "operators") chained and/or linked in series and some feeding back into themselves.

 So how does all this relate to the PCE? Well, the PCE has a TIMER. It can be set to a number of frequencies, but what we're interested in is the highest setting - 7khz. If we modulate the frequency of a PCE channel at 7khz, then we have frequency modulation. We use multiple 8bit/8bit fixed point math counters to get multiple fine resolution timers just that one timer setting of 7khz. So what are some of the limits? The PCE's audio frequency system is one. It uses a period system instead of frequency system. These period values are converted to frequency rates which is what you want (that's how we get note accurate tones). The problem lies in that fact that the higher in octave you go, the less in between frequencies are programmable between notes because of this period system. This means you don't have a fine control over the frequency swing. There are clever ways around this (also beyond the scope of this post), but it means you need to give up a little fidelity of a waveform. Still, this technique yields *much* more variation and possibilities for PCE instruments. Also, this doesn't come cheap in the CPU resource department. And so it's not really a good idea to try and do this for more than 4 channels and still have enough resource left for something like a shooter. For RPGs and puzzle games, you can go to town and add multiple pseudo operators You can even generate entirely new channels all in software and out put them mixed as PCM. Crazy stuff

 Another thing related to the high frequency software timers. You can do high frequency amplitude(volume) modulation. And "sync" - where you restart the channels waveform playback pointer set to a fine resolution timer. It makes for some interesting effects and sounds. Combined both for a low-pass filter effect.


 The PCE audio system wasn't pushed to its limit, though some fantastic audio was composed for it. IMO - working with the PCE audio is much more complicated than your standard FM sequencer. Quality of the instruments depended on the driver written for it.

 An observation of the PCE CD addon: It's clear that NEC handled the design of the CD base unit. It uses NEC MCU (custom processor) to control the CD drive and ADPCM unit. The detachable CD unit is the same unit for the NEC computers. FM was fairly popular inside of japan and NEC used FM chips inside in there line of PCs. Even the MSX was given FM upgrades (and the SMS too). I'm really surprised NEC didn't include a low cost FM chip in the CD base unit.

[spenoza]

I wonder if NEC/Hudson's CD-ROM push killed much of the incentive to really push the PCE's audio chips. If you REALLY wanted that truly badass audio you should just move to CD-ROM and then you can output whatever your composer wants, even if he's just using a bank of keyboards attached via MIDI. I suppose the effort and quality toward sound also was highly dependent upon what programming libraries NEC and Hudson made available. Few game companies really want to do lots of low-level coding if they don't have to.

[nat]

Thanks for the fascinating technical explanations Bonknuts, you know I always enjoy reading them. Very informative.

[geepee16]

stage one of magical chase is one of the best imo. 

you should also check out gulliver boy which has LOTS of good tunes though the one that sticks out in my mind is the one with the pirates.

[Digi.k]

stage one of magical chase is one of the best imo. 

you should also check out gulliver boy which has LOTS of good tunes though the one that sticks out in my mind is the one with the pirates.

I much prefer stages 5 & 6 of Magical chase.  The main harmony does sound a bit "bright" but there are some great basslines to it

[ParanoiaDragon]

Question, kind of off topic, do you know anything about the X68000?  I've been listening to the ost for Castlevania for it, & the music, sounds kind of like a mix between the Turbo & Genesis.  I mean, it sounds like the BAWWWWOOW sound of the Genny, but, easier on the ears like the Turbo...kind of.  I'm diggin' what little I've heard so far.

[GohanX]

Reading through this thread just made me realize that I haven't had a hucard played through a stereo in a very long time.  The Duo is pretty much for CD games and the Express is for the hucard games these days. 

The post about R Type reminded me of something funny in the early days of my playing.  I bought a Duo with some CD games first, and it wasn't until a few months later that I bought my first Hucard, R-Type.  Being a big fan of the series, naturally it was awesome. However it made the next few hucards I bought sound like total trash.

Personal favorites:
R-Type
Parodius (note-I have played the SNES/SFC version and although it has "superior" sound quality, I like the PCE versions of most of the tunes better)
Salamander
Pac Land - no, really.  It only has one song, but I like it.  With the music and the in game sounds playing, it sounds like a whole lot is going on, and it reminds me of an old arcade with all the machines turned up too loud.

[TurboXray]

Question, kind of off topic, do you know anything about the X68000?  I've been listening to the ost for Castlevania for it, & the music, sounds kind of like a mix between the Turbo & Genesis.  I mean, it sounds like the BAWWWWOOW sound of the Genny, but, easier on the ears like the Turbo...kind of.  I'm diggin' what little I've heard so far.

The x68000 used a Yamaha 2151 FM chip. It's similar to the 2612 used in the Genesis, but with more features and more channels. It has more feedback options on operators(2612 has one feedback on op 1), multiple selectable waveforms (2612 only has one waveform - sine wave). The selectable waveforms makes a big difference between the chips (IMO) because they are also used for the operators. This means you can create more complex sounds then the 2612, but you can also create the same sounds as the 2612 if desired.

The 2612 also suffers from having only one DAC (unlike the PCE that has 6 DACs and other FM chips). It outputs each channel in sequence from 1 to 6 at 120khz intervals to a single DAC in rapid succession. There's a filter used to soften the effect to help mix the channels. There's also a small gap between each channel output which can cause problems with the PCM DAC output on sensitive samples at higher frequencies. The 2151 has no PCM channel so the x68000 has a separate dedicated PCM chip. The 2612 also lacks stereo panning.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Cool, verrry interesting!  Thanks for the info Tom/Mal!

[spenoza]

Bonknuts, you should create a demo ROM that shows us how a lot of these effects you've discussed sound in, say, Mednafen