X68000

The YM2612 was made by Yamaha and is found most prominently inside the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. It is also known as the OPN2 and is the follow-up to the YM2203.

A very similar chip, the YM3438 (OPN2C), was used inside lots of Arcade Machines. Maybe they changed the name to differentiate between Arcade and Home usage.

Technical Specifications

• Channels: 6
• Channel 1-6: FM-Sound synthesis with 4 Operators
• Channel 6: FM could be disabled on this channel to replay an 8-bit PCM Waveform.
• Stereo: Yes (Channels can be assigned to hard left, hard right & center)
• DAC: Internal
• 1x(?) LFO
• No Volume Control

Used in

Videogame Consoles

• Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
• Sega Wondermega

Handhelds

• Sega Nomad

Homecomputers

• Fujitsu FM Towns

Special Applications

• Fujitsu FM Towns | Uses the YM2612 together with an RF5C68
• Sega Mega Drive | Uses the YM2612 together with an SN76489, which allowed PSG and FM at once.
• Sega Nomad | Same as Mega Drive
• Sega Wondermega | Same as Mega Drive

Variants

• YM3438 | The two chips are mostly identical.

Emulation

The VGM Format

• The VGM Format is a logable Format for YM2612 Music that can easily be replayed on modern Computers. Rips are known to exist for the Mega Drive with a large Music Archive being Project2612.

Others

• GYM | Obsolete way of logging the YM2612. A small collection of files can be obtained from the Modland FTP (Link). These days VGM should be used.

Music Creation

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