YM2151 - Beethoven's 7th Symphony

[kane26248]

Fuck the orchestra, give me FM lol

[mansouraoun1]

7th symphony, 7 minutes, 77 likes and 7 dislikes

(i didn't press like just to keep the numbers)

[Yubera2K10]

Not ninth symphony, shit.

[flyboy21141]

Epic, man. In the comments, you say you tore the Yamaha synth chip off of the board of something else? And you got it to work, and even generate recognizable sounds? And then you multi-tracked individual voices into Beethoven's 7th?? Respect, man. You've earned it.

[Minecraftgamer]

I need to find my old 80's computer in the garage,

[GordonMorrice]

I love sound. Musical sound is better. Why? Makes body/brain better! Fuck you otherwise!

[sparkster7744]

I love this masterpiece!!

[Xaja50]

Ooooooooh! Oh my. Magic...  How on earth does one manage that! No need to explain. I'm just utterly surprised, delighted and amazed.

[jedihunter176]

I imagine this fitting in with Castlevania...or something..

[betterwatchit]

This song would fit with quite a few games!

[xan1242]

There is an Ym2151 emulator called fmmidi.

[TheMovieCreator]

Nice! I have curently gotten myself a MIDI synth using the YM2164, which is basically an enhanced version of the YM2151 (except that channel 8 don't have a noise mode anymore). Since the two chips are almost feature-compatible, it's quite easy to port a tune from one to the other. I therefore has some questions:

Do you use more than 8 voices at the same time at any time in the preformance?

Do you have any links to where I can find the MIDI data of this preformance?

[256byteram]

@TheMovieCreator First, these are multitracked recordings. I recorded them one instrument at a time. I don't have any links handy, but there are many MIDI files out there. Try Google. There is a Japanese website which has a heap of instrument patches though. I'll message you the link as YouTube will block the URL.

[Divinemetal]

This is one of my favourite pieces, and it sounds great on this heavy synth. I prefer acoustic instruments myself, but I have an appreciation for everything. What, precisely, is this synth? It seems a significant one to quite a few of the viewers, so I want to know more if someone will explain. Thanks.

[256byteram]

@Divinemetal The synth is a Yamaha YM2151 chip I pulled off an old arcade board and wired up to a small processor with a MIDI interface. It was used in many arcade games and a few game consoles.

[Divinemetal]

@256byteram So, I have gathered from some comments that it was also used in Genesis.  Is that correct? Did the Genesis have more than one? I only hear one synth voice on this piece, and I am fairly sure that I remember more on the Genesis. Thanks for the information; it is rather fascinating.

[porcorosso81]

@Divinemetal

No the Genesis uses an YM2612, which has the same sound architecture, but only six channels and an internal DAC which is of lower quality than the YM3012.

[Divinemetal]

@porcorosso81 Thanks a lot. I thought that no one would actually answer that.

[porcorosso81]

@Divinemetal

No problem. Yamaha created lots of FM-soundchips with different specs. The YM2151 is probably one of the most famous since it was used in a lot of arcade games from 1984-1992. You can use the instrument data of this chip without problems on the YM2612 Genesis sound chip and vice versa. In fact, some Genesis games actually use Yamaha instrument patches found in their synthesizer line.

[MysticArksRevenge]

@porcorosso81 I love TECMO's games that use this chip as well as the YM-2203- Ninja Gaiden, Raiga Strato Fighter, RIOT( An unreleased arcade title from NMK), Final Star Force and Tecmo Knight.

[FishGush]

may beethoven had one of these things in his head,.. purely gifted. :)

[exactspace]

I can't find this chip to buy anywhere!!! help me plz

[256byteram]

@exactspace I found mine on an old arcade game board. You might have more luck looking at arcade oriented places.

[exactspace]

Thank you. I've been really searching hard. The only other places I found were companies that want you to buy in huge bulks that I could never afford!

[ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

WOAH! no onder it's a good sounding sound card YAMAHA makes it!!!!

[dtoma555]

5 stars for Beethoven's being amused that his music is being shared in crazy ways in the future

[doodlehh]

Eugh--maybe if I was into synthesizers.

[sheatheman]

man this is what i was looking for exactly, i think i want to make this but put some spare beats behind it.

[1846tt]

Thank you soo much for making this!

[linuxlove4004]

talking about DOOM, episode one, level seven.

[Teraforce88]

Not bad, but they could have used a wider variety of "instruments" on the chip (different tones, I mean).

[vitralizer]

the beginning sounds like e1m7

[handofstand]

Wow, they sure used that first instrument a lot for Shadow of the Beast, because that is all this is making me think of.

[HobbyistX]

Could be, but Shadow of the Beast's music was all soundtracker modules, and they can use pretty much any instrument they want for those!

[4hodmt]

This sounds good, but FM synthesis is wasted on classical music. You could play this on an old subtractive synth and it would sound just as good.

[costellopianist]

hahaha

[linuxlove4004]

you obviously like todays 13-milion voice synthesizers instead of simple 8 voice chips.

[SgtThom]

@linuxlove4004

I don't think it's possible to support that many channels .Also it's not voice chips.Just voices or sound channels.There is nothing wrong with preferring more sound channels for more instruments and sound effects.

[danielign9]

im sorry to say and no offense, but only the real nerds out there will listen to the whole thing. it is cool, but still id prob. listen to nail screeching on glass then this.

[YouCanBumAnyone]

excellent- thks for posting this:)

[dhobbs001]

I feel bad saying this, I apparently don't know the significance of how this was generated.

The sound is so terrible it makes my ears hurt. I don't understand why any one would waste time making some thing like that. Even the worst orchestra sounds better than that. I don't know how any one can even listen to the recording straight through. Wow!

[Blurredman]

i like it.

[Axlzero451]

If you have fond memories of playing sega genesis/megadrive games, you will think it's the best thing ever

[rodstartube]

max poliphony on this chip are 3? i remember using "music shop" on a commodore64, then in a 128

[256byteram]

This IC has eight polyphony. I cheated with this though and recorded each instrument individually and mixed them with Audacity. If I wanted to do it properly I'd need two 2151's.

I've used Music Shop too. It's a great bit of software!

[deckman92]

i absolutely love the sound of the genesis, and i think it's brilliant that you did a cover with that chip

the flute and violin are so realistic

[ajantred]

sweet use of FM, reminds me of columns on the megadrive/genesis console. :)

[linuxlove4004]

that's becuase the megadrive/genisis had one of these sound CPU's in them

[ajantred]

yeah, the 2612 chip was in them, the 2151 was in the arcade machines. I think FM is like the best sounding synthesis coz its so rich in harmony.

[tombofrog]

niceeee

[thesnake383]

I assume you probably know about the Genesis too. Do you know how to extract synth patches from the Genesis games themselves or Sega's old Arcade games themselves?

[256byteram]

I'm afraid I don't.

[1846tt]

both you and your yamaha chip totally rock. can't wait for you to post some more pieces.

[rbairos1]

Very nice presentation!