New week, New Poll : Best Retro Sound Chip

[CMcK]

I have to vote for the SID chip. That Thalamus shooter with the brilliant recreation of Blue Monday took some beating.

And props to the chip in the Mega-CD. I know it wasn't used often but the music in the 'Past' levels in Sonic CD was chip generated and sounded every bit as good as the redbook stuff streamed from the CD.

[DCharlie]

SID chip for me - has such a distinctive sound and some of the tracks on C64 games were just stunning.

[Leon Retro]

Gotta be the Super Famicom, the music in Contra Spirits should convince anyone of that!

Yeah, if anyone can play through Contra Spirits, and then not declare the Super Famicom soundchip as the greatest, they must be deaf

[Silanda]

Yeah, if anyone can play through Contra Spirits, and then not declare the Super Famicom soundchip as the greatest, they must be deaf

The Super Famicom soundchip is not the greatest. A pretty good DSP for the time and it did produce some excellent soundtracks, but could it generate any sound without samples?

Got to give the win to the SID, it was awesome for its time.

[Leon Retro]

The Super Famicom soundchip is not the greatest. A pretty good DSP for the time and it did produce some excellent soundtracks, but could it generate any sound without samples?

Got to give the win to the SID, it was awesome for its time.

The SID can produce some stunning sound, but it all seems a bit samey to my ears.

The SFC chip produced a far broader and richer range of music.

I can understand why people choose the SID, because for an 8bit machine, the sound was fantastic, but to say it competes with the SFC chip is pushing things a bit far.

If someone really likes the SID the most though, I won't try and change their mind.

[Team Andromeda]

I think for its time the Amiga sound chip was way out in front, much like the Neo Geo. But I’ve always had a soft spot for the Mega Drive sound chip , this music score to the likes of Battle Squadron, Revenge Of Shinobi, Street of Rage series , Sonic (the original) , Ghost N Ghouls (thought it was way better than the Snes ver music wise) and Elementary Master remain my fav 16 bit tunes , though for quality the Snes kicked into touch (but a llot the Snes music sounded the same imo)

Overall though is has to be the Saturn , The chip music score to NiGHTS, Souky , RSG, Panzer Dragoon Saga , Astal, Grandia are with out equal imo

[eastyy]

i thought sonically wasent the atari st supposed to be slightly better then the amiga ?

[kernow]

it had hardware midi timing, but not better sound

edit: anyone not voting for the SID inside the c64 is crazzyyy

[Silanda]

I can understand why people choose the SID, because for an 8bit machine, the sound was fantastic, but to say it competes with the SFC chip is pushing things a bit far.

I went for the sid not because it sounded best out of the lot but because it had a very unique sound, and that sound is completely generated by the chip and the talent of the musicians that used it.

The SFC by comparison produced better sounding music, but those sounds are not its own or IMHO very unique. It is entirely reliant on the samples fed into it. That's not to take anything away from it though, it produced some great scores, but to me I just find synth generated music more impressive than sample based.

Different strokes and all that.

[Yakumo]

Ah, now that the Saturn is included in this debate I'm going with that. NOTHING can out do the Saturn's sound processor But then again comparing the Amiga to the Saturn is a bit unfair really.

Yakumo

[samanosuke]

Which was the computer that didn't have a sound chip and instead used the motor of the tape drive for sound effects? Was it the TI-99? Or Dragon 32? Or maybe even the Oric Atmos? It was some obscure beast.

[Rebelli0n]

A subject close to my heart.

If we're talking pure synthesis, it has to be the C64 for the unique warmth of the SID. The soundchip in that was so far ahead of anything else at the time, with it's analog parts, low/high/band pass filters and ring modulators, it was one of the first proper synthesizers in a computer. The SID is still being used today in professional musical/midi equipment like the sidstation. I have to admit i'm still a big fan of the sound, beyond the usual nostalgia

The Atari Pokey chip deserves a mention for being the earliest capable soundchip in a computer (atari400/800), 4 channels and reasonably decent sounding in it's own right, certainly on par with the AY chip in the ST, but in a computer from the 70's.


The Amiga and SNES are both more reliant on samples, so it's more about processing/effects. The snes hardware is better on paper, but I have to say i actually still prefer the Amiga, because in a lot of cases the snes sounds like it's using a very restrictive set of samples, or actually using tiny slices of them for wavetable synthesis. The snes does come into it's own for Orchestral/Epic styles of music though, where the number of channels and DSP effects make a big difference.
I'm not saying the snes can't do what the amiga can, I'm just saying that it often didn't use it's full potential.

I am a big fan of the great megadrive work, but the megadrive, and FM synth music in general often suffers from really lazy sound design, or trying to mimic the sounds of real instruments (western musicians are more guilty of this) rather than really crafting the sound to the strengths of the FM Chip, as in Thunderforce/SOR which are really deft examples of FM synth stuff. The problem is with the MD, is that for every TF or SOR, theres 10 games with squelchy, slightly dirty PHALOWWOWWWWWWhahhfsssssskhhhhphf sounds.

Finally Yakamo beat me too it, I was going to mention how the saturn and PS1 soundchips are often overlooked mainly i guess down to the systems having CD drives. It's hard to know whats CD, whats streaming compressed audio and whats actually natively synthesized.

[Leon Retro]

The Mega Drive has a tinny sound. It certainly produces a sort of metallic dirty type of audio. In the best compositions though, you hardly notice, or it can seem like a benefit ( Biohazard Battle for example )

With the Super Famicom, the range of music in games, can vary from amazingly good, to drab mediocre rubbish. In fact, the gap between the best music and the average stuff is extremely wide. If you listen to the best stuff, you realise the chip is pretty astonishing, and can produce a wide variety of styles. It's only the lazy devs who created tunes that let the side down.

The Amiga seemed like a game musicians dream. The amount of games with stirring tunes is immense. I think the chip must have been a joy to use, because the wealth of enthusiasm and creativity found in many Amiga tunes is pretty astonishing.

Obviously, any machine can produce catchy or interesting tunes given the right talent. I prefer catchy tunes over technical ones, but when the two come together ( Contra Spirits ) .. it's a beautiful moment.

[Montario]

I used to sit for hours on end listening to megadrive music, SOR2 was awesome ofcos, but the Gunstar Heroes music had me emitting fluids. More consoles should've had headphone sockets!

[SuperBeatBoy]

Im going with the SID. It was the 2nd bit of kit i ever owned and some of the tunes on that were fantastic.

did the x68000 have a good sound chip? hearing the original castlevania soundtrack from it lately. really sounds impressive.