::|CONTENTS
- Tools
- Accepted file format
- Playback (for voting)
- See Also
The Sega Genesis, also known as the Megadrive over in Europe and Japan, was a very popular 16-bit console, designed to compete with Nintendo. It has two primary sound chips: the Yamaha YM2612 and the Texas Instruments SN76489.
The YM2612 has 6 channels: 5 FM channels and 1 FM/DAC channel (channel 6). Channel 3 has a register-controlled setting allowing for an extended mode, which allows four independent operator frequencies to be set independently on that channel, making dissonant harmonics possible. The YM2612 chip uses hardpanned stereo.
The SN76489 has 4 channels: 3 square channels and 1 noise channel.
It is worth noting that the
Sega Master System also had the TI SN76489. It was used in the Genesis for backwards compatibility with the SMS, and it can be used in conjunction with the YM2612.
Tools
*
Shiru's Stuff home of
VGM Music Maker, a Windows-based tracker for composing .VGM files.
*
DefleMask Tracker, a tracker that handles several chip formats, including Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.
*
Furnace Tracker, another multi-chip tracker with more robust Genesis support, including FM macros.
It should be noted that there is a special driver that was co-developed to be usable alongside the bleeding-edge of Furnace. It's called Fractal Sound Driver. But the driver itself is also still in heavy development, but it's featureset should not be underestimated as it has support for the DualPCM driver alongside the Composite Sinusoidal Modulation (CSM) on the Extended Channel 3 mode of the YM2612/OPN2. The format of Fractal Driver songs are typically .gen. The submission with the .gen format will be rare, especially the ones that used Fractal Driver as the converter's not fully functional yet and the person who has the converter is quite hard to contact. (If you're not in Discord.)
If you want to see the development progress, you can go check out the
GitLab repository.
*
Genny VST, a plugin for your DAW of choice that can log to .VGM similarly to
C700 VST for SNES. Great option for those who don't want to touch a tracker. Notably, Genny has a special FL Studio version that can utilize slide notes and other FL-specific functions, just like FL's native plugins can. Here is a full lyceum guide on using Genny:
Genny VST
*
vgmtools, a set of tools for VGM files. It includes a VGM compressor, which acts similarly to munch.py and is useful for entries made with the Genny VST.
Accepted file format
Both this entry format and the
SMS entry format share the .VGM file format.
Playback (for voting)
in_vgm - a winamp plugin for playback
vgmplay
* chipsynth MD - [paid] VST by Plogue which contains a player for .vgm files, though it cannot create them.
For playback on actual hardware, there are
VGM_PLAY from DeadFish Shitware as well as the XGM Player in
SGDK.
See Also
VGM Players - a list on vgmrips!
