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[s_l_m]

Not sure if any of you have seen this, I just thought it was interesting enough to share
http://www.1up.com/features/the-magic-of-fm-synth

[GavinHarrisonSounds]

Great article, thanks for posting!

[albinoechidna]

This was a great article.  Although, I think that Chrono Trigger (for me anyways) was probably the apex of FM synth game music.

[s_l_m]

Yeah, Chrono is up there for me too in the list of great FM

[MoritzPGKatz]

You guys... Chrono Trigger's music is not FM music.

Funny enough, the reason you consider it good FM music is probably just that.

The article is pretty misleading in that way. Why the author wouldn't clearly state that the SNES does not use FM is beyond me.

Chrono Trigger's audio - like all SNES audio - works with a very minimalistic form of sampling involving very short and highly bit-reduced samples due to small RAM size. Google for details.
The only synth stuff going on in there is some white noise for effects etc. - that's the only oscillator the S-SMP's DSP has.

Cheers,
Moritz

[albinoechidna]

Not direct FM synthesis through the console right?  That would be asking a lot from the machine.  Are the samples still derived from outside sources of FM Synthesis? That would explain the wide range of timbres that they were allowed.  Because it definitely doesn't sound like additive, subtractive, or granular. 

[MoritzPGKatz]

Well, the sources of the samples can surely be debated.

Much of the music does not sound like pure FM synthesis, though - it is much more probable many samples were derived from very short edited samples of actual instruments.

Sounds like bells and some guitar sounds may have FM synth sources, but I would not consider the Chrono Trigger music as "FM synth game music" at all. I'd actually define FM synth game music as music that makes direct use of an FM synth during gameplay - with all the possibilites of synthesis like ADSR and pitch envelopes - instead of using sampled material.

It's a whole different sound aesthetic, really - Genesis games can be associated with it (though the Genesis had phase modulation synthesis and very limited capabilities of sampling too), but also many DOS games of the early '90s, like Apogee's "Commander Keen" series.

If you listen to those a while and then compare to the music the SNES has to offer, you'll hear the difference immediately. There is a certain harshness/brilliance to the FM sound that was also very present in '80s pop music. (dat Yamaha FM7 Rhodes... although, strictly speaking, that's phase modulation synthesis again)

[albinoechidna]

Ok, I asked because the sounds of Chrono Trigger (to me anyways) sound like those I could create in SuperCollider or MaxMSP and their FM synthesis capabilities.  I definitely will be looking into the history of sampling though.  You've got more interested in it.

[Chef Boyardee]

I 100% guarantee you, and if I'm wrong I will send you my nipple in the mail, that Chrono Trigger did not use FM synth.

[MoritzPGKatz]

I 100% guarantee you, and if I'm wrong I will send you my nipple in the mail, that Chrono Trigger did not use FM synth.

Like I said, the bells do sound like they were sampled from FM synths.
It's quite hard to tell though because the SNES doesn't use any multi-sampling and the samples are very short. And while Chrono Trigger doesn't have a great FM soundtrack, it is a very awesome example of a game using the full potential of the whopping 64 kB RAM the SNES' audio chip has.

Imagine having to cram all those sounds in there - and having very limited polyphony too. Madness!