Sound on the NES and Famicom (Listening to 8-Bit Music) | Simon Hutchinson

An overview of the sound capabilities of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and it's Japanese version, the "Famicom."
A hugely popular home console, the NES brought sound to the next level from its predecessors such as the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and Colecovision. The NES could produce five channels of audio, two pulse waves, a triangle wave, noise, and lo-fi samples, giving composers an expanded sound palette to explore.
While it wasn't possible on the North American NES, later in it's life-cycle companies released games for the Japanese Famicon that actually included their own sound chips, expanding on the sonic possibilities even further.
0:00 Intro
0:41 Famicom Microphone
1:00 Five Sound Channels
1:27 DPCM Samples
2:46 Sound Effects
3:06 Breaking Down the Channels
5:26 Expanding the sound of the Famicom
6:39 VRC6, Castlevania 3, NES vs. Famicom
8:07 N163, Namco
8:38 VRC7, Lagrange Point
9:09 So What?
More Listening to Videogames: • Listening to Videogame...
More Sound Synthesis Fundamentals: • Sound Synthesis and MI...
eBay affiliate links to games in this video:
Karate Champ: ebay.us/3yppUb
Super Mario Brothers 3: ebay.us/VSYF6a
Super Mario Brothers (1): ebay.us/Emvrxv
The Legend of Zelda: ebay.us/bIrvIZ
Castlevania 3: ebay.us/A2kOkm
Lagrange Point (JPN): ebay.us/5yvfAE
Megaman 3: ebay.us/1gWXa8
The Adventures of Link: ebay.us/rkOoB7
NES footage captured with Elgato Game Capture HD (amazon affiliate link): amzn.to/49uAqeu
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#gamesound #8bit #chiptune #listeningtovideogames #retrogaming

[@srleyvis]

Your content is pure gold my friend. Congrats!

[@reasonable78]

Awesome video! Never heard of that Lagrange Point game until now, but hearing full on FM synthesis coming from an 8-bit game is a totally surreal experience that sounds amazing.

[@SimonHutchinson]

Thanks! I know, right? I was totally blown away when I found out about Lagrange Point. If you poke around online you can find the soundtrack, and it's pretty phenomenal all round, especially considering it's an NES game.

[@emags2821]

Absolutely amazing. Thank you Simon, You are so underrated, i wish you success with your channel.

[@kiraburr6856]

You are fantastic at teaching this stuff. I write 8-bit music and want to have a deeper understanding of the sound chips. Thank you!!! Subscribed :)

[@SimonHutchinson]

Great to hear! Welcome!

[@michipeka9973]

You really deserve more views. Keep it up!

[@SimonHutchinson]

I appreciate that. Thanks!

[@johneygd]

I remember how shocked i was back in 2007 once i discovered this,because for years i tout i had seen and heard everything on the nes,but oh boy what was i wrong.

[@tied515]

Hi, awesome videos! I have one question : back in the days, could a musician program the LFOs/envelope notewise ? Or did you have to program it for the whole channel once and for all? Thanks :)

[@chrisrj9871]

Boy, am I glad that microphone never came to the States... What I read was that the NES debuted in New York in October 1985, then went nationwide in February 1986.

[@SimonHutchinson]

Ha! I don't know. I think I would have liked the microphone!

[@chrisrj9871]

@@SimonHutchinson - I think the parents of US kids might not approve, though.

[@SimonHutchinson]

😅

[@SimonHutchinson]

Oops. I just checked, and I guess the preferred transliteration of the Japanese system is "famicom" not "famicon" (which makes sense, since it's "family computer"). Hopefully this doesn't stress people out too much.

[@thesmilingman7576]

Would it be possible to make the nes play CD quality music like MP3 or OGG's

[@thesmilingman7576]

Or at least a Nes emulator

[@SimonHutchinson]

Not to my knowledge. You'd need to convert those audio files into the 1-bit adpcm files.