Best sound chip in a console?

It can be anything. From the NES's Ricoh 2A03's classic sound to the SNES's Sony SPC700 with its orchestra-like sound to even the Xbox MCPX. To me, it's either the SPC700 or maybe some of the things the N64 RSP produces.

 

Now I would say for pure synth it has to be the Yamaha chip in the Mega Drive when used well and only the Japanese knew how to really use it well. The Super Famicom Spc is also great but I'd go with yet another Yamaha chip that's in the Sega Saturn. Man, that can pull of CD quality audio when used right. An amazing sound chip, far better than what the PlayStation had although you'll never hear anyone say that because they just don't know.

 

Interesting choice! I like the YM2612 but not as much as the SPC700 IMO. The SCSP really was a great sound chip. 32 PCM and FM channels, a 128 step DSP, and 7 premade effects? Sign me up for that!

 

I've always loved the TurboGrafx16's sounds. There's something I like about those thin leads, buuuut the YM2612 probably would be what I consider the "Best". So many soundtracks I can listen to on their own.

 

Why was the first PlayStation 1001 released good for audiophiles? Someone on these forums has a thread but it was never said why.

What's a good game to judge the mega drives synth capabilities? I always thought the SNES had superior sound to the Genesis. But that's bias because of Link to the Past and Secret of Mana. All Gens had was sonic as far as music I enjoyed.

 

I also think the YM2612 in the Genesis is my favorite sound chip. It's not as technically impressive as the SNES' chip, but its sound has a certain appeal to it. Part of this is nostalgia, I guess. It sounds like a lot of the synthesizers that were used in pop music and stuff at the time. The SCSP in the Saturn is pretty good too, although I think most music on the Saturn was just PCM streamed from the CD. The SCSP was used not just on the Saturn, but also on the ST-V, Model 2, and Model 3. I also think the N64 is interesting as far as sound, since it mostly didn't stream PCM music like the Saturn and PS1. Although later in the system's life they were able to fit recorded music on the carts in the form of MP3. Conker, for example, was able to fit a ton of speech and music on the 64MB cart.

I don't think that's true. For example, both Vectorman and Earthworm Jim 2 had great music, and those were both developed by American companies (though the former was published by Sega). Jon Holland (who did the music for Vectorman) told me they used the GEMS driver for the sound on Vectorman. I still think that game has some of the best music ever in a videogame.

 

It's not a console, but C64 and SID.

 

A matter of taste I guess. I think everything made with the GEMS sound engine is awful including vectorman. I much prefer the pitch bending skills of Japanese sound designers such as those in Technosoft or the multi channel masters such as Yuzo Koshiro with Bare Knuckle 2. The Data East sound engine is also pretty nice when used in Midnight Resistance and also used in Verytex although that had nothing to do with Data East. Same sound engine though.

 

This is too subjective for an intelligent discussion. All sound-generator type synths are extremely limited in the sounds they can create. If the RSP qualifies as a "sound chip", it's easily "the best", since it's a DSP coupled with a PCM buffer--a "universal" sound synthesizing device, limited only by memory and processing-time constraints.

 

When it comes to synthesized sound, you can't top the Super Nintendo. We went from bleeps and bloops on the NES to a system that was capable of producing audio that almost sounded like it was pre-recorded. Just listen to anything Square did back in the day:

 

The Super Nintendo chip is pretty bad (a lot of wave forms were compressed, deformed and sounded like they were muffled, something that isn't supposed to happen on any console or sound chip), I still don't know how people keeps thinking that it's a kind of god (developers had a lot of problems with it, having to create tricks to make the sound better).

I have to say, the SID 6581 and 8580 have the most crisp sounds that I've heard on computers/consoles.

 

Well if it had 128kb or even 256kb of PSRAM, then the tricks may not of happened and it would be even better!

 

Also a lot of interesting results! I have to agree with some of you, especially the RSP example. IIRC, it can do 100 PCM channels, at least if its main purpose is to be a sound chip. Most N64 games used 16-24 I think (maybe more)

 

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I've read so many people comparing the SNES audio chip having "warmth" compared to the Mega Drive's clarity and punch, though for me the ultimate sound processor can be found in the Saturn. I'm still amazed by some of the games that only used sparing amounts of Red Book such as Clockwork Knight, Panzer Dragoon Zwei and NiGHTS into dreams... if only more developers had bothered to try pushing the hardware rather than wasting disc space on CDDA!

 

I would have to agree! Though to be fair, half of Night's music is sequenced (Stages, Clear screen) the other is CD-DA in Q-sound (maybe the sequences too?) (Bosses, Menu music).

 

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How should I know? It is subjective. All I can say is that the Genesis does music great but horrible with sound, and the SNES is a jack of all trades master of none. Of course, one can say the best sounding system is the 1st model PS1s, considering they are treasured by audiophiles.

 

Yea. If it only had a meg of RAM, then the problems may be solved.

I meant in your opinion I have a 1001 myself as my main PS1 but with a KSM-440ACM drive instead of the more fragile KSM-440AAM drives.

 

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