SPC2IT, or, A New Way To Corrupt SNES Video Game Music

Warning: technicl nerdyness ahead. Brace yourself…

I love music from older video games. I especially love music from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) which used a custom Sony designed sound chip that was really advenced for its day. bASICALLY, YOU CAN DEFINE A SET OF SAMPLES (A NOTE ON A PIANO, A DRUM HIT, A STRUM OF A CHORD) AND THEN MANIPULATE IT HOWEVER YOU SEE FIT (REVERB, PANNING, ATTACK/DECKAY, PITCH SHIFT) AND MAKE A SONG. iTS VERY SIMILAR TO TRACKER FORMATS WHICH BEGAN ON THE cOMMODORE aMIGA COMPUTER IN THE MID 1980S.

nOW ADAYS THERE’S A lINUX COMMAND LINE UTILITY CALLED spc2it WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO CONVERT snes MUSIC FILES (.spc) TO THE iMPULSEtRACKER (it) FORMAT. hOWEVER, THERE ARE SOME CAVIOTS TO THIS:

eFFECTS BETWEEN THE TWO FORMATS ARE VERY DIFFERENT, SO spc2it DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO REPLICATE EFFECTS, WHICH LOTS OF SONGS WOULD USE. tHE OTHER NOTABLE ISSUE IS THAT PITCH BENDS ARE DIFFERENT. tHE snes HAS VERY PRECISE PITCH BENDING MATH, WHILE iMPULSEtRACKER DOES NOT, AND IN SOME OF THE MORE COMPLEX SONGS WHICH USE MULTIPLE LAYERED PITCH SHIFTS, THE DIFFERENCES IN THE MATH ADD UP AND CAUSE THE NOTE TO BECOME TOO SHARP.

sO, THIS IS A HANDFUL OF snes TRACKS. fIRST YOU HEAR THE ORIGINAL VERSION, THEN you hear the version from SPC2IT.

Tracks largely ordered from least to most impacted.

Songs Used:
Plok – Title Screen
Sim City – Megalopolis
Turtles in Time – Alleycat Blues
Super Mario Kart – Rainbow Road
The Flintstones – Staff Role
Waterworld – Diving
The Flintstones – Password Screen

The last three songs were composed by Dean Evans, and his particular creation style is particularly impacted.