The GXSCC uses ripped sample audio from recordings of the Konami SCC chip which was an add-on to the MSX computer.
I'm not really in the know of how it works, but apparently it utilized a wave table for generating its sound rather than straight synthesis.
MIDI is often cited as "wavetable synthesis", so the SCC chip likely had a variety of VERY TINY sound files with which it generated music from. The MSX was an 8-bit computer, so by association the SCC is "8-bit".
8-bit music does not need to be PSG synthesizers, either. The Japanese only Famicom game Lagrange Point made use of Konami's VRC7 chip. The VRC7 utilizes a Yamaha YM2608 chip, and you can make sounds similar to, but not quite as complex as, sounds you'd often hear on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive. (The 2608 used two operators, whereas the MD used a 2612 chip with 4 operators.)
8-bit music could also be sample-based like the SNES, as shown here. This is a game from the Amiga computer system which is, itself, an 8-bit computer.
Truth is, you probably shouldn't use the term "#-bit" to describe any sort of music, because the definition of, say, 8-bit in terms of music spectrum is varied enough that it doesn't make sense. The Gameboy Advance is a 16-bit system, but it also houses the same sound chip the classic gameboy had. Would playing a gameboy game on a gameboy, and playing a gameboy game on a gameboy advance change the fact that it still uses PSG sounds? Is it 16-bit music if the game is played on the GBA, but 8-bit if the game is played on a classic GB?
Just some food for thought, and I know no one's going to stop calling it 8-bit music.
And now I'm arguing for the sake of arguing. Whoops.
Good post.
This is Wiki's article on wavetable synthesis.
http://en.wikipedia....table_synthesis
A good example of wavetable synthesis in 8 bit devices is the Gameboy's third channel, which is a wavetable with 32 programmable steps which you can adjust to a 4-bit (16 step) bitdepth. It's kind of like the NES' triangle channel, but imagine you can make different shapes other than a triangle.
It's like this, but imagine 32 "pixels" wide:
Wavetable basically means a drawable small waveform. It's still synthesis via math, but it's kinda like pseudo-sampling. There have been times when the gameboy actually used this channel for playing samples by basically converting a sample to 4-bit, splicing the sample into 32-step(sample per samplerate) parts and making each part play next after the 32'd step synchronized. A good example is gauntlet 2 for the gameboy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5mqL6j9CFI
Also, the GBA is a 32 bit system, not 16.
Edited by Lemmy Koopa, 21 August 2014 - 03:42 PM.