FMDRIVE is not another YM2612 emulator, it is a Windows VST instrument with live control in mind. Using a new modeled core with extended features, FMDRIVE adds the full FM power underneath the original concept...
fmdrive 2612 vsti
Download Zip: https://jinyurl.com/2vEDsg
You may think, the YM2612 chip is basically another 4 Operator Yamaha FM synth but there is more... DAC, SSG Envelopes and Special operating modes like CSM speech synthesis. On top of that the Sega had a distinctive distorted sound, more or less present, depending on revision models.
The Genesis FM sound chip (YM2612) that is fully emulated here is different than the one VOPM is based on (YM2151) and this is a common mistake I have made over the years as someone using VOPM for Genesis emulated FM sound source. Of course it is the same technology under the hood but the YM2612 has many different features, most of them are really useful.
Don't be put off by the "Made with SynthEdit" badge, as Aly James has gone above and beyond SynthEdit's base offerings to faithfully recreate the FM sound of the Yamaha YM2612 that can be found in the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive in some regions) of old.
Using the official documentation collected and translated by the folks at SpritesMind Forums and verified with hardware tests, the FMDRIVE is not only the most accurate sounding YM2612/YM3438 virtual instrument on the market today, it also has a very nifty looking interface that should properly evoke the nostalgia one would expect from seeing a Model 1 Sega Genesis. There are also some (literally) under-the-hood features for controlling the sound of the FMDRIVE, including choosing a "high-quality mode" that should work with any given sample rate in a DAW and some "circuit-bending" that applies some "interesting" effects that may or may not be possible on a real YM2612.
Aly James has also added the ability to import YM2612 presets dumped directly from game music to quickly recreate the classic sounds made legendary by the Sega Genesis such as Sonic's ring sound effect and the slappingest synth bass this side of a DX7, and has graciously provided for free download a collection of over 30,000 of them from various games! Even Yuzo Koshiro himself loves the FMDRIVE.
I'm a YM2612 fanatic and have been studying the chip since 2005. I also have a small bit of programming experience and have tried and so far failed at making a YM2612 virtual instrument that even comes close to the sound quality and user-friendliness that the FMDRIVE offers. Compare the sound of the FMDRIVE and an actual Genesis side by side (Aly also provides YouTube videos doing just that) and tell me if a virtual instrument comes closer to the sound of the original console than FMDRIVE. 10 Euros (I forget the actual conversion to USD, Paypal handled that) is a small price to pay for professional quality Sega Genesis sound excellence and I'm glad I paid.
The YM2612 is a six-channel FM synthesizer. It was used in several game and computer systems, most notably in Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis video game console[2] as well as Fujitsu's FM Towns computer series.[3]
The YM2612's FM synthesis block is an extended version of the FM block featured in the YM2203, adding three FM channels and integrating a stereo output DAC.[1] The YM2612 removes the SSG component (although retaining its envelope generators) and I/O ports found in the YM2203, YM2608 and YM2610.[1] It was also available in CMOS form as the YM3438, a.k.a. OPN2C.[1]
Whereas the high-end OPN chips such as the YM2608 have dedicated ADPCM channels for playing sampled audio, the YM2612 does not. However, its sixth channel can act as a basic PCM channel by means of the 'DAC Enable' register, disabling FM output for that channel but allowing it to play 8-bit pulse-code modulation sound samples.[1] Unlike the other OPNs with ADPCM, the YM2612 does not provide any timing or buffering of samples, so all frequency control and buffering must be done in software by the host processor.[2]
Unlike most Yamaha FM chips which require an external floating-point DAC, the YM2612 features a built-in 9-bit DAC, which uses time-division multiplexing to play one sample of each channel in sequence, similar to the YM2413.[citation needed] Due to an error with the amplitude voltage in the original chip design, a peculiar form of crossover distortion is introduced in the output. Additionally, because of the reduced dynamic range of the built-in DAC, additional distortion may be generated when playing sounds with a very high volume.[1]
The YM3438,[1] a.k.a. OPN2C, is a modified CMOS version of the YM2612. This version has an improved built-in DAC that reduced the peculiar crossover distortions caused by the amplitude voltage errors present in the YM2612. It is not a direct, drop-in replacement for the YM2612 however, as the sound outputs have higher impedance.
The YMF276,[5] a.k.a. OPN2L, is a low-power version of the YM3438, used in the Fujitsu FM Towns II. It came in a smaller 24-pin SOP package. Unlike the YM2612 and YM3438, the YMF276 requires an external DAC chip. For this reason, the YM3433 was designed specifically for this version.
Used in conjunction with the Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG as the main sound generators of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console, the YM2612 was prominently utilized by numerous prolific video game music composers, such as Yuzo Koshiro.[4][7]
A VST, AU and AAX and Reason Studios Rack Extension plugin called RYM2612 was made by Inphonik. This includes cycle accurate envelopes and quirks of the original chip.[9] They also offer a free sample and bitrate reduction plugin, the PCM2612, that emulates the timbre of the original chip playing a sample through the DAC channel.[10]
When using FM Drive to replicate the Thunderforce IV instruments for the life of me I cannot get the same tone ( intro to Metal squad for example) on FM drive it sounds like square wave with white noise - it sounds much closer on YM2612 & Genny but they are crazy buggy and don't respond to Midi CC's (mod wheel)
Second off, yes, it could have something to do with the limitation of emulation and just the basic simple problem of recreation from synth alone. Emulated synthesizers often only sound like the real thing at the forefront - most of us who aren't pros are satisfied with it, but people with great listening talent find they don't compare up. I'm not personally familiar with FM Drive or Genny (I do have YM2612 though), but even hardcore professional synth emulations like Arturia don't always match up to the real things they are emulating.
Third off, FM synthesis is famously hard to program and it doesn't surprise me at all that you're having trouble recreating it. I'm not an FM synth guru so I don't know if YM2612 programming is as hard as that holds up to, but I think that's the summary and the real cause of your problem here. 2ff7e9595c
Comments