Bregalad wrote:
calima wrote:
Could be Deflemask allows you to do things the hw won't allow? You mention cheating, maybe it was that? (No, I don't understand what 4-op and 2-op mean)
I doubt. "Cheating" means abusing the chips to create 5th chords with a single channel, and I'm pretty sure the hardware allows that.
The principle behind FM, 4op FM in this case, is that one FM "voice" is actually made up out of 4 different sinewave voices that can be connected in a variety of algorithms. You can string together 4 in a row to create more complex sounds, or you can have them in pairs of 2 which sacrifices complexity of timbre in favor of either "baked" harmonies (similar to sampled chords), or detuned unison/chorus layering.
A few existing games do this to get around the 6 channel limit for harmony. Thunder Force IV uses a bunch of different instruments/patches with different intervals like fifths, fourths, major/minor thirds, etc. These are then combined to create those juicy 4 tone chords at the expense of only 2 channels.
Now, a much less used "cheaty" yet fully hardware supported trick is to sub-divide FM channel 3 and control each operator independantly, so you can effectively treat that as 2 separate 2op channels which is a lot more flexible than relying on static, pre-programmed intervals in different patches.