SNES Chiptune Guide (v2)

HELLO AND WELCOME to HVB's SNES chiptune guide – this documentation covers how to create music for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as the Super Famicom in Japan. This guide aims to familiarize any reader with what the SNES can do musically, and how to do it, with as little jargon as possible. Whether you're new to making SNES music or just want to dig deeper into its features, this will be the guide for you!

I wrote this guide because all the existing documentation on the SNES soundchip I could find was highly technical in nature – geared primarily towards homebrew game developers. My goal was to create accessible documentation for musicians and hobbyists alike, regardless of their level of experience.

About the SNES Soundchip

The SNES's soundchip, SPC700, supports 8 channels of sampled sound, meaning a maximum of 8 sounds can play at once. In games, this includes sound effects, and game composers frequently reserve a channel or two exclusively for sound effects so that no musical parts will be interrupted.

Its exclusive use of samples – which are stored clips of sound data, like a note on an instrument or a drum loop – stands apart from a lot of other soundchips that rely primarily on generating soundwaves like a synthesizer.

The SPC700 chip has a built-in echo delay system, offering a reverb-like effect.

The entire audio output is run through a filter called a "Gaussian filter" or "Gaussian interpolation". This dulls some of the highest-pitched frequencies of its sound and covers up some of the noise created by its compressed sample file format, .brr (Bit Rate Reduction). Compression was necessary in this era due to limited memory capacities.

These features together give the SNES its distinct characteristic sound.

Layout of the Guide

We will be taking a deep dive into two possible methods of creating hardware authentic SNES chiptunes (meaning playable on a real console) and going over the SPC700 chip's features along the way. Each of these options has its own perks and downsides, which we will cover. However, they are currently the most fully-featured methods of working with the SNES soundchip in music-making software.

After learning about both methods (C700 and SNESMOD), we will cover in detail how to handle SNES samples – both how to rip samples from .spc files (including all your favorite soundtracks) and how to prepare non-SNES samples for use on the SNES with as few hiccups as possible. There is also a living repository of ripped samples from games!