Adding the Sonic 3 DAC samples to MegaPCM

This isn't much of a guide, more of something for convenience if you so desire to use the S3 DAC samples in your hacks. You might want these if you are porting songs from S3K/S3D to your hack, or if you simply like the sound of them. Either way, this is what you'll need if you want them in your hack. Remember, this is for MegaPCM; you can take the same samples and pitch numbers for other drivers, but you'll need to manage banks and/or sizes yourself.

First of all, in MegaPCM.asm, copy this into your DAC Samples table:



; ---------------------------------------------------------------

; Sonic 3 Sample definitions

; ---------------------------------------------------------------

    DAC_Entry   $04+2, D81,     dpcm ; 81 - Kick

    DAC_Entry   $0E+2, D8285,   dpcm ; 82 - High-Tom

    DAC_Entry   $14+2, D8285,   dpcm ; 83 - Mid-Tom

    DAC_Entry   $1A+2, D8285,   dpcm ; 84 - Low-Tom

    DAC_Entry   $20+2, D8285,   dpcm ; 85 - Floor Tom

    DAC_Entry   $04+2, D86,     dpcm ; 86 - Kick

    DAC_Entry   $04+2, D87,     dpcm ; 87 - Kick + Snare

    DAC_Entry   $06+2, D88,     dpcm ; 88 - Crash Cymbal

    DAC_Entry   $0A+2, D89,     dpcm ; 89 - Ride Cymbal

    DAC_Entry   $14+2, D8A8B,   dpcm ; 8A - Low Metal Hit

    DAC_Entry   $1B+2, D8A8B,   dpcm ; 8B - Metal Hit

    DAC_Entry   $08+2, D8C,     dpcm ; 8C - High Metal Hit

    DAC_Entry   $0B+2, D8D8E,   dpcm ; 8D - Higher Metal Hit

    DAC_Entry   $11+2, D8D8E,   dpcm ; 8E - Low Metal Hit

    DAC_Entry   $08+2, D8F,     dpcm ; 8F - Clap

    DAC_Entry   $03+2, D9093,   dpcm ; 90 - Electric High-Tom

    DAC_Entry   $07+2, D9093,   dpcm ; 91 - Electric Mid-Tom

    DAC_Entry   $0A+2, D9093,   dpcm ; 92 - Electric Low-Tom

    DAC_Entry   $0E+2, D9093,   dpcm ; 93 - Electric Floor Tom

    DAC_Entry   $06+2, D9497,   dpcm ; 94 - Tight Snare

    DAC_Entry   $0A+2, D9497,   dpcm ; 95 - Mid-pitch snare

    DAC_Entry   $0D+2, D9497,   dpcm ; 96 - Loose Snare

    DAC_Entry   $12+2, D9497,   dpcm ; 97 - Looser Snare

    DAC_Entry   $0B+2, D989A,   dpcm ; 98 - Hi-Timpani

    DAC_Entry   $13+2, D989A,   dpcm ; 99 - Low-Timpani

    DAC_Entry   $16+2, D989A,   dpcm ; 9A - Mid-Timpani

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, D9B,     dpcm ; 9B - Quick Loose Snare

    DAC_Entry   $0A+2, D9C,     dpcm ; 9C - Click

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, D9D,     dpcm ; 9D - Power Kick

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, D9E,     dpcm ; 9E - Quick Glass Crash

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, D9F,     dpcm ; 9F - Glass Crash with Snare

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DA0,     dpcm ; A0 - Glass Crash

    DAC_Entry   $0A+2, DA1,     dpcm ; A1 - Glass Crash with Kick

    DAC_Entry   $0A+2, DA2,     dpcm ; A2 - Quiet Glass Crash

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DA3,     dpcm ; A3 - Odd Snare with Kick

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DA4,     dpcm ; A4 - Kick with extra bass

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DA5,     dpcm ; A5 - "Come on!"

    DAC_Entry   $09+2, DA6,     dpcm ; A6 - Dance Snare

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DA7,     dpcm ; A7 - Loose Kick

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DA8,     dpcm ; A8 - Moderately Loose Kick

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DA9,     dpcm ; A9 - "Woo!"

    DAC_Entry   $0A+2, DAA,     dpcm ; AA - "Go!"

    DAC_Entry   $0D+2, DAB,     dpcm ; AB - Snare with voice going "Go!"

    DAC_Entry   $06+2, DAC,     dpcm ; AC - Power Tom

    DAC_Entry   $10+2, DADAE,   dpcm ; AD - Hi-Wood Block

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DADAE,   dpcm ; AE - Low-Wood Block

    DAC_Entry   $09+2, DAFB0,   dpcm ; AF - Hi-Hit Drum

    DAC_Entry   $12+2, DAFB0,   dpcm ; B0 - Low-Hit Drum

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DB1,     dpcm ; B1 - Metal Crash Hit

    DAC_Entry   $16+2, DB2B3,   dpcm ; B2 - Echoed Clap Hit

    DAC_Entry   $20+2, DB2B3,   dpcm ; B3 - Lower Echoed Clap Hit

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DB4C1C4, dpcm ; B4 - Hip-Hop style hit with a kick

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DB5,     dpcm ; B5 - Hip-Hop style hit with a Power Kick

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DB6,     dpcm ; B6 - Som Bass with a voice going "Hey!"

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DB7,     dpcm ; B7 - Dance Style Kick

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DB8B9,   dpcm ; B8 - Hip-Hop hit with a kick

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DB8B9,   dpcm ; B9 - Hip-Hop hit with a kick

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DBA,     dpcm ; BA - Reverse Fading Wind Sound

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DBB,     dpcm ; BB - Scratch

    DAC_Entry   $18+2, DBC,     dpcm ; BC - Loose Snare with noise

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DBD,     dpcm ; BD - Power Kick

    DAC_Entry   $0C+2, DBE,     dpcm ; BE - Crashing noise with voice going "Woo!"

    DAC_Entry   $1C+2, DBF,     dpcm ; BF - Quick hit

    DAC_Entry   $0B+2, DC0,     dpcm ; C0 - Kick with a voice going "Hey!"

    DAC_Entry   $0F+2, DB4C1C4, dpcm ; C1 - Power Kick with hit

    DAC_Entry   $11+2, DB4C1C4, dpcm ; C2 - Low Power Kick with hit

    DAC_Entry   $12+2, DB4C1C4, dpcm ; C3 - Lower Power Kick with hit

    DAC_Entry   $0B+2, DB4C1C4, dpcm ; C4 - Lowest Power Kick with hit



I would heavily recommend having this starting from $81, as I think the main reason you'd want the entire library of samples if you aren't insane is to have ports that will sound reasonably the same as the original in your hack. These pitches are taken from the Sonic 3 disassembly and have had two added to them. The samples play faster than what they would in Sonic 3 if you leave them as the original pitch, so this puts them to the same if not in the right ballpark that the original samples are.

Next, we need to put the sample definitions in. Still in MegaPCM.asm, put this where your DAC sample files are, this should be right after the table.



    IncludeDAC  D81, bin

    IncludeDAC  D8285, bin

    IncludeDAC  D86, bin

    IncludeDAC  D87, bin

    IncludeDAC  D88, bin

    IncludeDAC  D89, bin

    IncludeDAC  D8A8B, bin

    IncludeDAC  D8C, bin

    IncludeDAC  D8D8E, bin

    IncludeDAC  D8F, bin

    IncludeDAC  D9093, bin

    IncludeDAC  D9497, bin

    IncludeDAC  D989A, bin

    IncludeDAC  D9B, bin

    IncludeDAC  D9C, bin

    IncludeDAC  D9D, bin

    IncludeDAC  D9E, bin

    IncludeDAC  D9F, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA0, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA1, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA2, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA3, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA4, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA5, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA6, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA7, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA8, bin

    IncludeDAC  DA9, bin

    IncludeDAC  DAA, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DAB, bin

    IncludeDAC  DAC, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DADAE, bin

    IncludeDAC  DAFB0, bin

    IncludeDAC  DB1, bin

    IncludeDAC  DB2B3, bin  

    IncludeDAC  DB4C1C4, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DB5, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DB6, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DB7, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DB8B9, bin      

    IncludeDAC  DBA, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DBB, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DBC, bin

    IncludeDAC  DBD, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DBE, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DBF, bin    

    IncludeDAC  DC0, bin    



After this, you should have the entire library of Sonic 3 DAC samples! There are a few more samples unique to Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic 3D, but you can locate these from flamewing's smps2asm. All you'd need to do is add the samples, find the pitch definition and add +2 to it.

The last things that need mentioning is after porting songs from Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic 3D is that the PSG needs to be lowered an octave to be at the same pitch as the original. You can do this by looking at the SMPS header of the song, finding the PSG1 and PSG2 headers and subtracting $C from them. For example, $00 would become $F4, $F4 would become $E8 and so on. This is easier if you are using s1smps2asm/smps2asm in your hack, where you'd just need to convert it to asm and add -12 after the original PSG number. Lastly, if you want your ports to be really accurate I'd recommend porting over the PSG flutters from S3K or S3D; this will add more PSG volume envelopes to your hack and most crucially songs that are using flutters not found in Sonic 1 will play correctly (the S3K Invincible theme is notorious for not being fixed properly in hacks).

Oh, and before I finish, you can download the DAC samples I used here.

 

There's one tiny thing you also need to know about the PSG notes: There aren't just 12 more notes at the beginning, but there are actually two more at the end. (an additional frequency $10 and a redundant $0 that could also be padding)
So in order to correctly convert songs from S3K, you need to subtract 1 or 2 from the last few PSG notes. (I think the last version of SMPSConv I released didn't take care of that either, although I fixed that meanwhile.)
Here is the conversion for the notes, if the transpose (key displacement) value is set to 0 in S3K:


D2 -> D1 (PSG freq. $10 -> $11)
D3 -> D2 (PSG freq. $0)
D4 -> D2 (PSG freq. $0)
If you don't do that conversion, it will read from the code section, although you can be lucky and it still sounds fine. (something that xm4smps conversions prove, btw)

 

Bumping this since a very certain *REMOVED UPON REQUEST* decided to attack my host with false claims. Naturally, this meant the link died, so I apologise for that. That being said, I've reuploaded them here with thanks to temp hosting by Spanner.

 

It's a lot better like that.