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[velocirection]

I've always wondered how exactly the sound effects for magic and spells and stuff were generated in Final Fantasy games(like 6-9 hehe ;3 ;3 ;3 no but really the snes/ps1 ones in particular)

A lot of square soft games from back in the day seem to use the same method... which I theorize is sound chip magic?
https://youtu.be/x4k5gJh4JZk?t=148

Really you can jump around and hear what I mean. But clearly it's not digital audio, they're using the sound chip to actually make the sounds. Were they programmed like midi? What kind of software do you think they used(most likely some kind of internal program)

Like check out the sounds in Saga Frontier:




I can't find much on this topic... but it really fascinates me.

Like how did the geniuses at Square muster up sounds like this?




The ingenuity and imagination... to make something like the Lavos scream AND it's produced by the SNES's soundchip! They made something so cool with such a huge limitation. It's so alien. It just sounds like fierce beast rising from the ground that's been consuming the planet from the inside.

Anyone have any information on this topic? I'd love to read more about this type of stuff.

[ClaraBanks]

I wanted to know about it also. But the main aspect is connected to the following one here.

[velocirection]

Yeah like how the heck were these soinds created? All the magic sounds in ff8 were crazy but the summon ones(Shiva especially) are so crazy to me.

Is it just like old sound chip savvy that no one knows about? Everyone always talks about sound chips when it comes to making music. But you dont really hear about how sound effects wete made on sound chips.

Also it's really nice that they didn't touch the sound effects or music for the remaster. Those certainly do not need remastering!!!

[UnparalleledDev]

Look into Sound Fonts my friends.

What are soundfonts?

These are collections of WAV files with optional instructions, such as looping (sustain), oscilation (vibrato), and combinations (kits).

Can soundfonts create authentic SNES sound?

The instruments themselves are "authentic" sounds, but re-creating the DSP (reverb/echo) is what makes it sound truly authentic. Some games use heavier DSP than others, like Secret of Mana.

Cool, so how do I use them?

In order to use these, you'll need a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Fruity Loops, or LMMS.

What about commercial use?

In the US, you may have fair use protection, depending on the nature of the project, and how much the sound is altered. Consult an attorney before selling anything that uses these samples.

https://www.williamkage.com/snes_soundfonts/

[velocirection]

Hehe I'm well versed with soundfonts! I have several gigs of them I've downloaded over the years. Creating music in a SNES or other old console style has been discussed for ages. But what I'm talking about is sound effect generation. I'm assuming for SNES games(PS games?) all those crazy Final Fantasy sounds were generated using some kind of small WAV samples and a sound programmer manipulating them in some way. But I just can't wrap my head around how.





Just listen to some of these. A good hint though is that there is some kind of use of reverb/echo on these sounds in some case...  but damn. How were those cool ice magic sounds made? Like the magic casting sound... it's all windy/sparkly sounding. But I'm certain that's not a digital audio sample, it's being generated by the soundchip due to some sound person who's really clever at programming for it.

[UnparalleledDev]

  Ah now I see what you are saying. those are damn good. I forgot how crisp the sfx are in CC.


  Perhaps try reverse engineering by ripping the sounds into some kinda audacity program. Then start by turning random knobs like speed, pitch and tempo. maybe you can uncover something.

worse case maybe you can look up the creator and just ask them directly lol.

[Schoq]

Most of these sound like they could be approximated with am/fm synthesis without any sampled audio
have you tried messing around with in LabChirp? Studying the example sounds or even stuff that comes out of the randomizer should be helpful. http://labbed.net/software/labchirp/

this is extra pertinent I guess
https://twitter.com/LabbedNet/status/1210225945438752774