Sega Genesis Music - A tribute to Gunstar Heroes

My obsession into vintage video game music carries on.

The 8-Bit Nintendo NES music was pretty simple. Only a total of 4 tracks which made it super limited.

This past week, I decided to take things further and learn how the Sega Genesis audio system worked.

In my research I stumbled upon a the RYM2612 from Inphonik.

This is a plug-in that emulates the Sega Genesis soundcard. It’s super well done and extremely accurate to the original system.

So the plug-in is cool, but it would still be possible to layer up this plug-in and do a ton of things that aren’t possible in the original Sega.

For example, if I started adding all sorts of automation, reverbs, or distortion FX… those would not have been prat of the original Sega System.

So to keep this accurate, I followed InPhonik’s guidelines on limitations of Sega.

At any given moment, do not exceed a total of 6 voices. This means that each instance of the plug-in can play one note at a time.
The Sega also has a built in PCM sampler which means you can route kick and drum samples through it. The InPhonik plug-in has a great setup for how to do this. BUT, this means your drum samples can only play one sample at a time, and take up one of your available 6 tracks.
Panning is Center, 100% left, or 100% right on every track.

Enjoy the track.