These 2 videos describe the NES's audio:
(a) https://youtu.be/q_3d1x2VPxk
(b) https://youtu.be/la3coK5pq5w (This video also goes on to talk about the C64, which has a sawtooth waveform. If a pulse/square wave is for the melody, a triangle wave is for drums, and noise for snares, what is the sawtooth wave for?)
To summarize, there are 5 voices: 2 pulses/squares, 1 triangle, 1 noise, and one sample.
But, some games sound different (better!) on the famicom:
(a) https://youtu.be/dgoIJs1PbJw (Zelda)
(b) https://youtu.be/ptgaCJSF7j8 (Castlevania)
Apparently the Famicom has an extra 6th channel that sounds like bells? Why did this get removed from the NES ?
I read on Wikipedia ( https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Nintendo_S-SMP#/DSP ) that the SNES has 8 voices, instead of 5. But the page doesn't explain any deeper. What waveforms are allowed? Is each voice's waveform fixed like the NES, or customizeable like the C64 ?
During the NES era, some games would briefly pause the background music when a jingle for some action (jump, attack, etc) played. I assume this was because the NES had a limited amount of voices, most of which were already taken up by the background music, so the music had to be paused so the jingle could be played? This kind of thing didn't happen during the SNES era, because there was more voices available, and 1 or 2 could be reserved for jingles to play at any time, right?
And finally, what are the parameters for NES and SNES sounds if one wanted to define and use them in a MIDI file?
(a) https://youtu.be/q_3d1x2VPxk
(b) https://youtu.be/la3coK5pq5w (This video also goes on to talk about the C64, which has a sawtooth waveform. If a pulse/square wave is for the melody, a triangle wave is for drums, and noise for snares, what is the sawtooth wave for?)
To summarize, there are 5 voices: 2 pulses/squares, 1 triangle, 1 noise, and one sample.
But, some games sound different (better!) on the famicom:
(a) https://youtu.be/dgoIJs1PbJw (Zelda)
(b) https://youtu.be/ptgaCJSF7j8 (Castlevania)
Apparently the Famicom has an extra 6th channel that sounds like bells? Why did this get removed from the NES ?
I read on Wikipedia ( https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Nintendo_S-SMP#/DSP ) that the SNES has 8 voices, instead of 5. But the page doesn't explain any deeper. What waveforms are allowed? Is each voice's waveform fixed like the NES, or customizeable like the C64 ?
During the NES era, some games would briefly pause the background music when a jingle for some action (jump, attack, etc) played. I assume this was because the NES had a limited amount of voices, most of which were already taken up by the background music, so the music had to be paused so the jingle could be played? This kind of thing didn't happen during the SNES era, because there was more voices available, and 1 or 2 could be reserved for jingles to play at any time, right?
And finally, what are the parameters for NES and SNES sounds if one wanted to define and use them in a MIDI file?