How to Make SNES Music (in 1995)

The SNES offered some amazing capabilities for the time it was released, but the tools required to use it were surprisingly, let’s say, not standardized. As much as I’d like to say “here’s The Tool and how to use it”, it’s just not that straightforward. So let’s dig around the information that IS available.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
0:00 Introduction
1:13 Hardware
2:53 SF-Box
4:41 Kankichi-kun
5:42 Case Study: Barry Leitch
7:10 Case Study: Alberto Gonzalez
8:55 Case Study: David Whittaker
9:51 Case Study: Imagitec and MEdit
10:55 Case Study: Slick/Audio
12:47 Ok but really how do you make SNES music in 1995?

Songs used:
0:02 Nobuo Uematsu - Fate in Haze (Final Fantasy V)
1:13 Kulor - SPC.spc (Sample Pack Contest VIII)
2:53 VA - Day Dream (Ongaku Tukuoolu Kanadeeru)
4:41 Chimeratio - Curse of the Zebra Shark Goddess (Soundchip Pastiche Collection Vol. 1)
5:42 Barry Leitch - Title (Top Gear)
7:10 Alberto Gonzalez - Countryside (Asterix & Obelix)
8:55 John Foxx, David Whittaker - The Temple (Gods)
9:51 Dean Evans - Password Screen (The Flintstones)
10:55 Rick Fox - Tunnels 1 (Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel)
12:47 Maxo - Exotic Estates (LEVEL MUSIC 8)

The songs used in the rapid-fire example list in the begining:
0:06 Title Theme (The Chessmaster)
0:09 Big Dukes (Super Off Road)
0:12 Town (Sonic Blastman)
0:14 Main Theme (PGA Tour Golf)
0:18 Optimistic Departure (Blazeon)
0:21 Level Music (Ka-blooey)
0:24 Departure for Space (Gradius 3)
0:26 Init (Aerobiz)
0:29 Fats (Combatribes)

Citations
[1] Superplay #19, page 26
[2] Nintendo Power 71, page 47

Image Sources

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[davidoli]

Fortunately now we can make music for the SNES with a tracker-like editor using Furnace. It basically made Deflemask obsolete, it supports so many chips and systems it's incredible.

[neilbiggin]

This is fantastic. i reckon about 99% of this is completely new to me and I wrote music and effects for SNES. The sax on the final piece is superb. What an educational resource this is.

[patrickmcloughlin]

Im most curious about how Earthbound did all that crazy pitchbending and other synth sounds where the waveforms cant be found in the sample data

[jorgenitales]

...you have to be one of the most underappreciated channels in all of youtube.
you are summoning salt tier.

[sonjaadamson]

Dean Evans and the Follin brothers have definitely got to be my most favourite SNES composers. TMNT 4's SNES soundtrack is a fucking banger as well.

[SignumImperativ]

Just stumbled upon this channel and my first impression is this:

A table of content, a time-stamped list of all songs used, citations and linked image sources?

Wow, this makes my researcher heart jump with joy.

This kind of stuff takes A LOT of work, so I strongly appreciate you going the extra mile with that.
You have my subscription and keep up the great work!

[graysonsolis]

Incredibly interesting stuff. I wish more people were into this stuff it's so cool and interesting and there really isn't anything quite like making music on limited hardware :)

[Dongled]

This is super interesting....It's such a shame that a lot of the things mentioned are just "lost to time." I guess we should be glad that people like Alberto and Barry have been able to discuss this with the public who are interested in this (mainly, us) so we can kind of uncover SOME of the details. This also explains why NA/PAL territories had so much difficulty trying to get the system to sing like the Japanese could...because a lot of times they weren't even given proper instructions in their language and had to reverse engineer in some cases. Wow. Great video! I need to go watch the Genesis one now.

[KungFuFurby]

If you're wondering how the heck those .abr files got identified and utilized in the song at the end... it wasn't through loading them into SLICK/Audio and replicating the hardware setup... instead, I personally reverse-engineered enough of the format for them to be convertible into the BRR file format more commonly used today (I didn't actually create the utility, though, and the sample data was already pre-converted for the most part, just represented in a different way header-wise... and sometimes not properly terminating the sample properly, as I eventually found out), and I even found the tuning info in these files!

[jlewwis]

Good news, the music tracker Furnace has (mostly) working SNES support now though no SPC export yet. Still it's a pretty big development imo

[tylerjones]

These type of videos are my favorite that you make. Great job!

[TECHNOJESTER]

This channel is easily one of the best on YouTube right now. Between yourself, Retro Gaming Explained, and I'm sure many others, this really is the golden age of accessible, well researched, and well presented information on antiquated hardware.

[CarloNassar]

Imagine how nice it would be to get a SNES music maker that is like FamiStudio but for the SNES.

[javirodriguez]

It took my time to find some video that REALLY explained how SNES music was made. This is by far the best one I found and I want to thank you for the gargantuan effort put into this to clarify a bit more the long and windy road 80's and 90's musicians had to struggle with in order to make music with so less information given by the companies about their hardware.

[VGMFanXX]

Great vid as always! Would love to see an Alberto Gonzalez artist feature video. His GB and SMS tracks always make me think "how did you write something that sounds so complex with such little room available."
My magic.

[cupriferouscatalyst]

1:03 is literally a screenshot of my screen a few minutes ago, except your video about crazy sample lengths was also there! I'm surprised it's so hard to learn about music making on the SNES, thank you for your videos

[Damian_]

"Samey"

I was expecting you to say *"Seinfeldy"*

[sabo-vfxj]

Regarding the bass sample issue, the Video Game Music Preservation Foundation wiki mentions that the infamous SYNBASS.ASM sample actually came from the Korg M1 "Slap Bass" patch, and that it was sampled by a Sony engineer, but there's no source on that last bit.
The sample seems to be the same from the Korg patch, tho.

[alfredtheamazing]

A very fascinating and interesting look at how SNES music is composed!
Kinda sad to hear that authentic SNES music composition seems to be a bit of a lost art though

[allenslucher]

We appreciate the time spent on making these videos! :) Thanks man!