(Note: This is kinda Sonic-related, but more on the general emulation research side of things, so it may belong in here rather than Everything Else)


I've just gone through some of the special effects used in Sonic 1 and 2, and noticed that many of them sound quite different than they do in emulators. Not that their pitch is any different, but there's just some stuff that doesn't happen in any emu I've tried.

Here's the two "recording sessions" I did:
Sonic 1 sounds
Sonic 2 sounds (with sound bug, see edit)

All of them are being played from the sound test, more than once in case they didn't register correctly. I've noticed that some of them wouldn't sound exactly the same each time they're played, and most have small high-pitched beeps at the end or inbetween (always in the same exact places) which go unnoticed when there's some music playing in the background. Also, emulators usually cut many of these sounds earlier than they should, for some reason (check Sonic 2's sound #59 at 0:47, for comparison).

These were recorded from a PAL, first model Mega Drive 1 (with the modem expansion port in the back). I was wondering if other people could please record some sounds directly from their model 1 systems (NTSC or PAL), for comparison. If you don't have a system with the modem port, please specify what kind of hardware you're using. This could hopefully help when improving audio emulation in any emus that are being worked on.



By the way, my sound recording device starts muffling the audio after some time, for some reason. Sorry if that's reflected in any of the files above. :(


EDIT: Those Sonic 2 sounds had been played after the Emerald jingle, and are showing a sound bug. Here's the clean sound effects.

I remember this, it happened even with my Model 2 ntsc machine... I used to go through the sound test really fast and play each number in rapid succession, the sounds would kinda stumble over themselves and shit.

Not to be confused with other progressive sounds (in s 3 & k in this instance) which evolved as you continues to press the button over and over.

After listening to your two recordings now, it almost sounds like the chip might be getting/producing weird frequencies from interference or something

That's strange... It's been sounding like that since the original release. The sound's being captured from the phone jack, and it played exactly the same through the TV's euroconnector. The Genesis 2 is said to play the sound differently than the first model, though, so it might be the reason why you remember it being different.

I'll try with a different system as soon as I can anyway, but my other Mega Drive doesn't have the modem port, so it might sound different by design.

Just tried with another Mega Drive 1, this time without the modem port, and... All those sounds play exactly the same, BUT...

EDIT: I've just noticed that the strange beeps only happen if you've played song #1D first (I guess the silence that's been played interferes with the sounds, somehow).

EDIT 2: Here's the same sounds, without having played the Emerald sound before them. They sound much cleaner, indeed, but some of them still seem to play for a bit longer than in emulators.