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SNES Classic sound emulation: how does it hold up?

S

samred

Member
I didn't see a thread on this specific topic, and I know gaffers have very informed opinions about sound on emulators (and issues w/ the NES Classic's noise channel), so I was curious if anybody had watched videos that have already gone live showing off a ton of direct-feed capture.

I think this 14-min video is the best, from Nintendo Life, at just letting games play out uninterrupted with tons of examples of sound effects and music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A8g-xEA1xM

I thought the F-Zero snippet's music sounded a bit off. I also was very impressed with how spot-on FFVI appears to sound. I otherwise am struggling to notice any particularly faulty or worrisome sounds, but this is a limited selection so far. Any thoughts from AudioGAF?
 
I'm no audio genius, but the games I'm most familiar with in that video (SMW, Zelda, Contra III, Star Fox, SF2, MMX) all sound pretty dead on to me.
 
I haven't hooked my SNES back up side by side, but I just finished world 6 in SMW, and the music is definitely off.

The post-goal noise is clearly off. Seems like some times not all music channels are being played.
 
I think you're gonna have to wait for My Life In Gaming and Digital Foudry's eventual videos on the SNES classic for a definitive answer, they're pretty much the experts in this.
 
Straight connected to tv and through a surround system and no issues. I was told a few games have slightly different sounding samples as well, but I can't notice them.

Meanwhile, I've been in emulation since the late 90's and I can remember how awful emulators used to be at FF3 and so far it sounds great.

What differences are there seem only really noticeable side by side and that's more than good enough for me.
 
Some of those Castlevania IV sound effects have a pretty specific sound to them and sound really funky in most emulators (but not the Wii Virtual Console). That might be worth a comparison with real hardware.
 
I’ve only played SMW so far and it sounds a bit tinny.

- currently using a sonos playbar, sub and two rear play 1s.
 
Would be very interested to hear this. From my uninformed opinion I assume it would be more difficult to emulate the Genesis sound chip since it relied on FM synthesis, basically it's own little synthesizer, as opposed to the SNES chip which is sample based afaik?
 
Jeremy Parish in his review did some comparisons to demonstrate there was a difference, but it was still pretty good overall.

I’d like to see a three way comparison between the mini, actual hardware and Wii u vc.
 
People's issues with soundbars with the SNES classic is making me concerned. I've already disabled all the virtual surround & volume leveling on my soundbar, but there's nothing I can do about the auto-shutoff during silence that might cause skips in audio.
 
I find it completely embarrasing that Nintendo don't provide cycle accurate enulation when they charge this much money for the thing while we have higan out there.
 
The overworld music in smw skips every few seconds on mine. It's starting to bug me. It doesn't happen in any other games I play.
 
I've got most of the games already downloaded via the virtual console on my Wii U. Is there any incentive to buying the system in terms of visual performance?
 
I have a Vizio soundbar so I and was having problems. Had to plug in an RCA to aux cable and hold the source button for 8 seconds. Was using just optical out before, so this is an analog solution. Now it sounds perfect. Before I could really hear the problem on the Super Mario World overworld theme.
 
crackhead_bob said:
I've got most of the games already downloaded via the virtual console on my Wii U. Is there any incentive to buying the system in terms of visual performance?
Click to expand...

The main attraction rendering-wise is a "pixel perfect" rendering mode (as opposed to simple 4:3) and being able to set various backgrounds around the active screen (I think on the Wii U you just get black bars or something, right?). There's also a CRT filter mode if you're into that sort of thing.
 
I've played a bunch of games, and haven't noticed a single difference on the set that I have. Now I do have to say I don't have the highest of sound sets, so that doesn't help.
 
Dental Plan said:
The overworld music in smw skips every few seconds on mine. It's starting to bug me. It doesn't happen in any other games I play.
Click to expand...
Try different speakers, or a different HDMI cable. It's perfect in mine and should just be a hardware or cable problem if your unit isn't faulty.
 
Mine was acting up but that was because the TV defaulted to a different sound setting.

I have noticed some visual differences in EarthBound though, beyond the flash effect-dimming that was in the Wii U VC release. When someone gets a smaaaash attack, the screen goes a little blurry when it shakes. This wasn't in the VC release or the original.
 
Earthbound has some glitchy pops/crackles on occasion. Sound is definitely not perfect in that one. It also runs at a somewhat choppy framerate, which is another bummer.

The other games I've played have been fine, though.
 
jonjonaug said:
The main attraction rendering-wise is a "pixel perfect" rendering mode (as opposed to simple 4:3) and being able to set various backgrounds around the active screen (I think on the Wii U you just get black bars or something, right?). There's also a CRT filter mode if you're into that sort of thing.
Click to expand...

No. I just want vibrant and presentable. However, are the SNES and NES Classics worth it for those who need to economize space? And can they be modded to include games that are missing? Why DKC2 and Final Fantasy II were left out is beyond me. Also, I'd rather have gotten a Final Fantasy V instead of Earthbound. I never understood the appeal of that game. It was such a step down from Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger if you ask me.
 
crackhead_bob said:
No. I just want vibrant and presentable. However, are the SNES and NES Classics worth it for those who need to economize space? And can they be modded to include games that are missing? Why DKC2 and Final Fantasy II were left out is beyond me. Also, I'd rather have gotten a Final Fantasy V instead of Earthbound. I never understood the appeal of that game. It was such a step down from Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger if you ask me.
Click to expand...

If you're looking to start a fight, this is how you start one.

If you don't want EarthBound, get the Super Famicom Classic. Mother 2 isn't on that one. EarthBound was never originally released in Europe so finally getting to play it on a PAL 'SNES' is great.
 
Skeletron said:
Would be very interested to hear this. From my uninformed opinion I assume it would be more difficult to emulate the Genesis sound chip since it relied on FM synthesis, basically it's own little synthesizer, as opposed to the SNES chip which is sample based afaik?
Click to expand...

SNES also has a DSP chip and a non-standard sample rate, so there are some aspects that aren't all that simple to emulate.
 
TyrantGuardian said:
I find it completely embarrasing that Nintendo don't provide cycle accurate enulation when they charge this much money for the thing while we have higan out there.
Click to expand...
Its a toy for the masses. Use bsnes or a real snes rgbmod + crt.

It took me 1 try of super mario world to notice lag.
But all of my friends love it.
Don't be that guy :(
 
We are playing SNES games on TVs, Sound Bars, and Surround Sound systems with way way better quality speakers than the crappy TV speakers I had in the early to mid 90s.
 
Tookay said:
I can't speak for him, but I use a soundbar and there are some issues.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are defo issues with how soundbars deal with some of the instruments. I remember a similar issue with the nes mini. Think it had to be set to analog output.

TyrantGuardian said:
I find it completely embarrasing that Nintendo don't provide cycle accurate enulation when they charge this much money for the thing while we have higan out there.
Click to expand...

I'm more embarrassed by your post.

It's £70, for which you get 21 games, two controllers and good emulation.

Just on games alone that's approx. £3.33 each, which is fantastic value considering there is not a bad game in the lot, many are classic, and some are "greatest of all time" contenders.

The snes mini is fantastic value for money. To get Higan level accuracy you'd need a much better SOC inside the thing, for which the price would have to be raised. And this is for the masses, not people who use emulation. And even then, for the longest time even many people who emulate were satisfied with zsnes. ZSNES. I firmly believe if it was still being developed there would be plenty of people ardently considering it number one, even if was light years away from Higan. Because they sure were in 2010.

That said, I'm glad accuracy is so much more of a focus in the scene then it was back then, and byuu has a lot to do with that.
 
crackhead_bob said:
Also, I'd rather have gotten a Final Fantasy V instead of Earthbound. I never understood the appeal of that game. It was such a step down from Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger if you ask me.
Click to expand...

Persona 5 was such a step down from Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts II.8.

What a bizarre post. Earthbound isn't Squaresoft. Not to mention the fact that Earthbound is a unique masterpiece.
 
Doesn't matter if you get 21 games or 100. It's still embarrasing how Nintendo can't offer perfect emulation for their own system and there are homebrew emulators that do a better job.
 
TyrantGuardian said:
I find it completely embarrasing that Nintendo don't provide cycle accurate enulation when they charge this much money for the thing while we have higan out there.
Click to expand...

cycle accurate emulation requires a relatively modern desktop cpu at roughly 3ghz, such a thing was NEVER going to be possible on this hardware. it being official emulation makes absolutely no difference, the system is too weak.
 
nkarafo said:
Doesn't matter if you get 21 games or 100. It's still embarrasing how Nintendo can't offer perfect emulation for their own system and there are homebrew emulators that do a better job.
Click to expand...

Compare the hardware you need to run those emulators that provide perfect emulation and the specs of the SoC the SNESc uses. Because you must be out of your mind if you think that perfect emulation is "cheap".
 
Joey Ravn said:
Compare the hardware you need to run those emulators that provide perfect emulation and the specs of the SoC the SNESc uses. Because you must be out of your mind if you think that perfect emulation is "cheap".
Click to expand...
One question. Since we are talking about sound, does SNES mini perform as good as SNES9x at least?
 
Dental Plan said:
The overworld music in smw skips every few seconds on mine. It's starting to bug me. It doesn't happen in any other games I play.
Click to expand...

That must be because your soundbar auto-shuts-off whenever it detects silence, and then takes some time to wake up when sound resumes. The SMW overworld theme has a lot of silences in it, which would explain why it happens.

So don’t use a soundbar or use a non-shitty one or use one on which the Eco setting can be turned off or use analog RCA connection instead of optical.
 
nkarafo said:
Then hardware limitations should not be an excuse. SNES9x runs full speed on my 15 year old pentium 4 with power to spare. Even cheap phones have more power than that today.
Click to expand...

snes9x isn't close to being cycle accurate though...

the sound issues are not ideal but even if they were fine it would still be miles off "perfect" emulation.
 
tomwhite2004 said:
snes9x isn't close to being cycle accurate though...

the sound issues are not ideal but even if they were fine it would still be miles off "perfect" emulation.
Click to expand...
Not saying its cycle accurate. But it does provide decent sound emulation. At least I dont remember having any issues with sound. So if a non accurate snes emulator can do that on a 15 year okd system i dont see why snes mini has sound issues.
 
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