★ SOUND Manual ★ Sound Development Manual
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Sound Development Manual / 1. Overview

■ General procedure for sound development

1. Launch the tool

First, start the sound simulator. If necessary, it is convenient to start the tone editor, waveform editor, DSP linker, and sequencer at the same time.

2. Sound memory mapping

When doing sound development, first start the sound simulator, set the sound memory mapping, and transfer the 68000 sound driver program to the target board. It is convenient to create a sound area map in advance, but you can add or change it at any time as needed.

3. Production of tone bank data

Tone bank data is created with the tone editor. In addition, we plan to supply a tone library from Sega.
The tone bank data is a collection of four types of data: mixer, voice, layer, and waveform, and constitutes one independent tone (¢ Composition of tone bank data £ See page 7 of this manual). Since voices correspond to MIDI program changes, one bank can have up to 128 voices. Therefore, up to 128 types of musical instruments can be smoothed with one tone bank data.
Transfer the tone bank data to the sound simulator target board. At this stage, it will function as a multi-sound source that is produced by MIDI input. The key pronunciation method is DVA (first-come-first-served basis). You can edit tones, each tone level, pan, etc., and save multiple tone bank data.

4. Waveform editing

If you want to edit the waveform itself, which is the basis for editing the tone, start the waveform editor and sample and edit the waveform.

5. DSP effect program link

Link the DSP effect program. Select the effect you want to apply from the DSP library, set the connection method, and transfer the DSP program of the effect to the target board. Each parameter of the effect can be edited after transfer.
Note that modulation-type effects use slots as modulators, so the number of sounds from 1 to 4 sounds is reduced at the same time. For details, refer to the DSP linker manual.
Modules such as reverb, echo, and chorus are already in the library, so select the one you need and link to it. Satan's sound system allows you to use multiple effects at the same time, but the total cannot exceed 128 steps. For example, if the echo has 20 steps, the chorus has 22 steps, and the equalizer has 5 steps, these three will have 47 steps.
* Step is the number of commands for each effect.

6. Creation of sequence data

We will compose and arrange using the target board as a sound source. The target board has two MIDI INs, each supporting up to 32 sequence tracks, 16 channels each. For each sequence track, you can change the tone by arbitrarily selecting the VOICE number in the tone bank data by changing the MIDI program, so you can naturally set all 32 tracks to different tone settings.

7. Sequence data conversion

The created song is finally converted to MIDI standard file by sequencer software (PERFORMER, VISION, CUBASE, etc.), and then converted to Saturn format data for the target board by sound simulator.
There are two types of sequence data: song data created by a MIDI sequencer, and Saturn format sequence data that is compressed and loaded onto sound memory. However, this is basically exactly the same as the expanded MIDI data, only whether it is compressed or not.

SE is basically the same as how to create music. In this development system, there is no difference in the production process or setting parameters between music and SE.

8. Simulation (actual simulator function)

Transfer the sequence data in Saturn format (Sequence Bank Data Yes.) To the target board. The sound simulator simulates the state of being incorporated in the actual game, and the song and SE are played to check (described later). Unless there is a problem, the sound is exactly the same as when the target board is sounded with commercially available sequencer software. At this stage, make a final evaluation of the song, the connection and balance between SEs, and if there are any changes that need to be made, recreate each part with the tone editor, waveform editor, DSP linker, and sequencer software.

9. Installed in the actual game

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★ SOUND Manual ★ Sound Development Manual
Copyright SEGA ENTERPRISES, LTD., 1997