The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis has once again proven its audio capabilities, this time with an impressive replication of classic Castlevania tunes. Modder and homebrew coder GabrielPyron, using the Yamaya YM2612 sound chip, showcased a faithful rendition of “Simon’s Theme” from Super Castlevania IV.
This achievement challenges the long-held belief that the Super Nintendo’s Sony SPC700 sound processor was superior in creating rich orchestral-style compositions. GabrielPyron emphasized, "The only way [the YM2612] could sound bad is in the hands of incompetent artists.”
This track is part of an unofficial project known as Mega Castlevania IV, a fan-made port of Super Castlevania IV to the Mega Drive/Genesis, which aims to reimagine both its gameplay and soundtrack. The project offers a fresh take on a classic title while showcasing the console’s untapped potential.
What are your thoughts on the Mega Drive/Genesis’s audio capabilities compared to other classic consoles?
This is cool but the title of this article could not be more wrong.
The Genesis SPU is not capable of recreating the output of the SNES APU. The Genesis SPU was a programmable FM synthesizer, which is a completely different technology that is significantly more limited than the programmable sampler-like SNES APU. It is impossible for the Genesis to “perfectly recreate” anything from the SNES, unless the SNES soundtrack used samples of an FM synthesizer, in which case the other way around would be more accurate: that the SNES is recreating the Genesis. This did happen in some multiplat games that were made for the Genesis first. Even if somehow one could program the Genesis SPU to use only samples, there is only one channel capable of sample playback on the Genesis, whereas on the SNES, ALL 8 channels were capable of sample playback.
While it does not sound bad, in comparison to the SNES, the Genesis will lose every time. Its like comparing the NES to the SNES, the capability of the SNES APU (which was actually only slightly modified and then used for the PlayStation 1 SPU, both chips were designed by the same person, fun fact) just vastly outshines it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love FM synthesizer music. Games from the PC98 just sound wrong to me when played through generic MIDI or the Roland SC-88 Pro. But to say that the Genesis is perfectly recreating the music from a SNES game is just incorrect.
While it does not sound bad, in comparison to the SNES, the Genesis will lose every time.
This is where you lost me.
Used to their fullest, both can sound great. Someone who knew how to make the Genesis sound amazing against someone who didn’t know how to use the SNES well would have the Genesis sounding better than the SNES.
And yeah, you might say that’s not a fair comparison, but I’m just saying that the SNES won’t win against the Genesis every time
Its obviously not a fair comparison, lol.
“If you connect a Nintendo Wii to a surround system and play a game that supports surround, it sounds way better than an Xbox Series X connected to a 1981 portable radio tv with a mono speaker.” Yeah, of course it will. But when considering the output capabilities of the audio systems of each, absolutely nobody is talking about this kind of scenario.
The comparison is assuming all things are equal, which includes the skill or knowledge of the sound programmer, speaker quality, etc. The Genesis can sound more crisp, but at the cost of being only capable of FM synthesizer music, which is extremely prone to sounding piercing or tinny. High pitch notes especially are susceptible to this. The Genesis is vastly easier to make it sound worse than the SNES, specifically because of the ability to have 8 channels of samples.
I am not sitting here saying that this sounds so much worse than this because its obvious. That is also not a fair comparison.
Again, don’t get me wrong. I love FM synthesizer music, Ryu Umemoto was a god on the PC98, not a single one of his entire composed library sounded bad. But in comparison to hardware capable of sample playback, that is already an unfair comparison right from the beginning.
You’re talking about sound system output in your analogy. I’m talking about the sound that can be produced by the consoles themselves.
Someone phoning it in on the N64 can produce music that sounds better than a skilled composer making music on the NES. Composition aside, of course. The N64’s sound capabilities are objectively superior to the NES’.
Between the Genesis and the SNES, it’s not so clear. Also, the sample track from the Genesis that you shared is infamously glitched. It’s not supposed to sound like that! Haha
My point was simply to illustrate how unfair of a comparison it was, not to comment on the hardware capabilities of those two systems.
The thing is, with FM sythesizers you always know it is an FM synthesizer. Nothing you can do will mask the sound of it. However, with a sampler it is significantly harder to know for sure a sampler is being used just from the sound.
Yes, I am aware. Again, I was merely illustrating that the comparison was not a fair one. But my point remains, FM synthesizer music is very prone to ear piercing shrieking, whereas the SNES tends to produce a softer, warmer sound. Yes, it can still shriek, but you really have to try with the correct note and sample combinations to do that. Even though the Genesis can output a better range of notes, it is easier for the notes to clash as well. Mostly you will find games from those times had the audio crunched into the midtones, and this is probably because CRT speakers werent very good and pushing the audio into the midtones produced a better sound.
