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Appendix A: Sound

FM instrument patch presets

# Instrument Name # Instrument Name
0 Acoustic Grand Piano 64 Soprano Sax †
1 Bright Acoustic Piano 65 Alto Sax †
2 Electric Grand Piano 66 Tenor Sax †
3 Honky-tonk Piano 67 Baritone Sax
4 Electric Piano 1 68 Oboe †
5 Electric Piano 2 69 English Horn †
6 Harpsichord 70 Bassoon
7 Clavinet 71 Clarinet †
8 Celesta 72 Piccolo
9 Glockenspiel 73 Flute †
10 Music Box 74 Recorder
11 Vibraphone † 75 Pan Flute
12 Marimba 76 Blown Bottle
13 Xylophone 77 Shakuhachi
14 Tubular Bells 78 Whistle †
15 Dulcimer 79 Ocarina
16 Drawbar Organ † 80 Lead 1 (Square) †
17 Percussive Organ † 81 Lead 2 (Sawtooth) †
18 Rock Organ † 82 Lead 3 (Triangle) †
19 Church Organ 83 Lead 4 (Chiff+Sine) †
20 Reed Organ 84 Lead 5 (Charang) †
21 Accordion 85 Lead 6 (Voice) †
22 Harmonica 86 Lead 7 (Fifths) †
23 Bandoneon 87 Lead 8 (Solo) †
24 Acoustic Guitar (Nylon) 88 Pad 1 (Fantasia) †
25 Acoustic Guitar (Steel) 89 Pad 2 (Warm) †
26 Electric Guitar (Jazz) 90 Pad 3 (Polysynth) †
27 Electric Guitar (Clean) 91 Pad 4 (Choir) †
28 Electric Guitar (Muted) 92 Pad 5 (Bowed)
29 Electric Guitar (Overdriven) 93 Pad 6 (Metallic)
30 Electric Guitar (Distortion) 94 Pad 7 (Halo) †
31 Electric Guitar (Harmonics) 95 Pad 8 (Sweep) †
32 Acoustic Bass 96 FX 1 (Raindrop)
33 Electric Bass (finger) 97 FX 2 (Soundtrack) †
34 Electric Bass (picked) 98 FX 3 (Crystal)
35 Fretless Bass 99 FX 4 (Atmosphere) †
36 Slap Bass 1 100 FX 5 (Brightness) †
37 Slap Bass 2 101 FX 6 (Goblin)
38 Synth Bass 1 102 FX 7 (Echo)
39 Synth Bass 2 103 FX 8 (Sci-Fi) †
40 Violin † 104 Sitar
41 Viola † 105 Banjo
42 Cello † 106 Shamisen
43 Contrabass † 107 Koto
44 Tremolo Strings † 108 Kalimba
45 Pizzicato Strings 109 Bagpipe
46 Orchestral Harp 110 Fiddle †
47 Timpani 111 Shanai †
48 String Ensemble 1 † 112 Tinkle Bell
49 String Ensemble 2 † 113 Agogo
50 Synth Strings 1 † 114 Steel Drum
51 Synth Strings 2 † 115 Woodblock
52 Choir Aahs † 116 Taiko Drum
53 Voice Doos 117 Melodic Tom
54 Synth Voice † 118 Synth Drum
55 Orchestra Hit 119 Reverse Cymbal
56 Trumpet † 120 Fret Noise
57 Trombone 121 Breath Noise
58 Tuba 122 Seashore †
59 Muted Trumpet † 123 Bird Tweet
60 French Horn 124 Telephone Ring
61 Brass Section 125 Helicopter
62 Synth Brass 1 126 Applause †
63 Synth Brass 2 127 Gunshot

† Instrument is affected by the LFO, giving it a vibrato or tremolo effect.

FM extended instrument patch presets

These presets exist mainly to support playback of drum sounds, and many of them only work correctly or sound musical at certain pitches or within a small range of pitches.

# Instrument Name # Instrument Name
128 Silent 146 Vibraslap
129 Snare Roll 147 Bongo
130 Snap 148 Maracas
131 High Q 149 Short Whistle
132 Scratch 150 Long Whistle
133 Square Click 151 Short Guiro
134 Kick 152 Long Guiro
135 Rim 153 Mute Cuica
136 Snare 154 Open Cuica
137 Clap 155 Mute Triangle
138 Tom 156 Open Triangle
139 Closed Hi-Hat 157 Jingle Bell
140 Pedal Hi-Hat 158 Bell Tree
141 Open Hi-Hat 159 Mute Surdo
142 Crash 160 Pure Sine
143 Ride Cymbal 161 Timbale
144 Splash Cymbal 162 Open Surdo
145 Tambourine

Drum presets

These are the percussion instrument mappings for the drum number argument of the ym_playdrum and ym_setdrum API calls, and the FMDRUM BASIC command.

# Instrument Name # Instrument Name
56 Cowbell
25 Snare Roll 57 Crash Cymbal 2
26 Finger Snap 58 Vibraslap
27 High Q 59 Ride Cymbal 2
28 Slap 60 High Bongo
29 Scratch Pull 61 Low Bongo
30 Scratch Push 62 Mute High Conga
31 Sticks 63 Open High Conga
32 Square Click 64 Low Conga
33 Metronome Bell 65 High Timbale
34 Metronome Click 66 Low Timbale
35 Acoustic Bass Drum 67 High Agogo
36 Electric Bass Drum 68 Low Agogo
37 Side Stick 69 Cabasa
38 Acoustic Snare 70 Maracas
39 Hand Clap 71 Short Whistle
40 Electric Snare 72 Long Whistle
41 Low Floor Tom 73 Short Guiro
42 Closed Hi-Hat 74 Long Guiro
43 High Floor Tom 75 Claves
44 Pedal Hi-Hat 76 High Woodblock
45 Low Tom 77 Low Woodblock
46 Open Hi-Hat 78 Mute Cuica
47 Low-Mid Tom 79 Open Cuica
48 High-Mid Tom 80 Mute Triangle
49 Crash Cymbal 1 81 Open Triangle
50 High Tom 82 Shaker
51 Ride Cymbal 1 83 Jingle Bell
52 Chinese Cymbal 84 Belltree
53 Ride Bell 85 Castanets
54 Tambourine 86 Mute Surdo
55 Splash Cymbal 87 Open Surdo

BASIC FMPLAY and PSGPLAY string macros

Overview

The play commands use a string of tokens to define sequences of notes to be played on a single voice of the corresponding sound chip. Tokens cause various effects to happen, such as triggering notes, changing the playback speed, etc. In order to minimize the amount of text required to specify a sequence of sound, the player maintains an internal state for most note parameters.

Stateful Player Behavior:

Playback parameters such as tempo, octave, volume, note duration, etc do not need to be specified for each note. These states are global between all voices of both the FM and PSG sound chips. The player maintains parameter state during and after playback. For instance, setting the octave to 5 in an FMPLAY command will result in subsequent FMPLAY and PSGPLAY statements beginning with the octave set to 5.

The player state is reset to default values whenever FMINIT or PSGINIT are used.

Parameter Default Equivalent Token
Tempo 120 T120
Octave 4 O4
Length 4 L4
Note Spacing 1 S1
Using Tokens:

The valid tokens are: A-G,I,K,L,O,P,R,S,T,V,<,>.

Each token may be followed by optional modifiers such as numbers or symbols. Options to a token must be given in the order they are expected, and must have no spacing between them. Tokens may have spaces between them as desired. Any unknown characters are ignored.

Example:

FMPLAY 0,"L4"      : REM DEFAULT LENGTH = QUARTER NOTE
FMPLAY 0,"A2. C+." : REM VALID
FMPLAY 0,"A.2 C.+" : REM INVALID

The valid command plays A as a dotted half, followed by C♯ as a dotted quarter.

The invalid example would play A as a dotted quarter (not half) because length must come before dots. Next, it would ignore the 2 as garbage. Then it would play natural C (not sharp) as a dotted quarter. Finally, it would ignore the + as garbage, because sharp/flat must precede length and dot.

Token definitions:

Musical notes

Example:

FMPLAY 0,"A+2A4C.G-8."

On the YM2151 using channel 0, plays in the current octave an A♯ half note? followed by an A quarter note?, followed by C dotted quarter note, followed by G♭ dotted eighth note?.

Lengths and dots after the note name or rest set the length just for the current note or rest. To set the default length for subsequent notes and rests, use the L macro.

Rests

Example:

PSGPLAY 0,"CR2DRE"

On the VERA PSG using voice 0, plays in the current octave a C quarter note, followed by a half rest (silence), followed by a quarter D, followed by a quarter rest (silence), and finally a quarter E.

The numeral 2 in R2 sets the length for the R itself but does not alter the default note length (assumed as 4 - quarter notes in this example).

Note Length

Example values:

Example program:

10 FMPLAY 0,"L4"
20 FOR I=1 TO 2
30 FMPLAY 0,"CDECL8"
40 NEXT

On the YM2151 using channel 0, this program, when RUN, plays in the current octave the sequence C D E C first as quarter notes, then as eighth notes the second time around.

Articulation

S0 indicates legato. For FMPLAY, this also means that notes after the first in a phrase don't implicitly retrigger.

S1 is the default value, which plays a note for 7/8 of the duration of the note, and releases the note for the remaining 1/8 of the note's duration.

You can think of S is, out of 8, how much space is put between the notes.

Example:

FMPLAY 0,"L4S1CDES0CDES4CDE"

On the YM2151 using channel 0, plays in the current octave the sequence C D E three times, first with normal articulation, next with legato (notes all run together and without retriggering), and finally with a moderate staccato.

Explicit retrigger

Example:

FMPLAY 0,"S0CDEKFGA"

On the YM2151 using channel 0, plays in the current octave the sequence C D E using legato, only triggering on the first note, then the sequence F G A the same way. The note F is triggered without needing to release the previous note early.

Octave

Example:

PSGPLAY 0,"O4AO2AO6CDE"

On the VERA PSG using voice 0, changes to octave 4 and plays A (440Hz), then switches to octave 2, and plays A (110Hz), then switches to octave 6 and plays the sequence C D E

Octave Up

If the octave would go above 7, this macro has no effect.

Example:

PSGPLAY 0,"O4AB>C+DE"

On the VERA PSG using voice 0, changes to octave 4 and plays the first five notes of the A major scale by switching to octave 5 starting at the C♯

Octave Down

If the octave would go below 0, this macro has no effect. Example:

PSGPLAY 0,"O5GF+EDC<BAG"

On the VERA PSG using voice 0, changes to octave 5 and plays the G major scale from the top down by switching to octave 4 starting at the B

Tempo

High tempo values and short notes tend to have inaccurate lengths due to quantization error. Delays within a string do keep track of fractional frames so the overall playback length should be relatively consistent.

Low tempo values that cause delays (lengths) to exceed 255 frames will also end up being inaccurate. For very long notes, it may be better to use legato to string several together.

Example:

10 FMPLAY 0,"T120C4CGGAAGR"
20 FMPLAY 0,"T180C4CGGAAGR"

On the YM2151 using channel 0, plays in the current octave the first 7 notes of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, first at 120 beats per minute, then again 1.5 times as fast at 180 beats per minute.

Volume

This macro mirrors the PSGVOL and FMVOL BASIC commands for setting a channel or voice's volume. 0 is silent, 63 is maximum volume.

Example:

FMPLAY 0,"V40ECV45ECV50ECV55ECV60ECV63EC"

On the YM2151 using channel 0, starting at a moderate volume, plays the sequence E C, repeatedly, increasing the volume steadily each time.

Panning

1 = Left
2 = Right
3 = Both

Example:

10 FOR I=1 TO 4
20 PSGPLAY 0,"P1CP2B+"
30 NEXT I
40 PSGPLAY 0,"P3C"

On the VERA PSG using voice 0, in the current octave, repeatedly plays a C out of the left speaker, then a B♯ (effectively a C one octave higher) out of the right speaker. After 4 such loops, it plays a C out of both speakers.

Instrument change

Note: This macro is available starting in ROM version R43.

Example:

10 FMINIT
20 FMVIB 200,15
30 FMCHORD 0,"I11CI11EI11G"

This program sets up appropriate vibrato/tremolo and plays a C major chord with the vibraphone patch across FM channels 0, 1, and 2.