Sony · 1990 · 1990s · 8 voices
Sony's SPC700 gave the SNES eight channels of ADPCM sample-based synthesis running on a completely separate audio CPU, enabling composers to approach near-orchestral quality and producing some of the most beloved game music of any era.
The SNES audio system comprised two Sony chips: the SPC700 processor (a custom 8-bit CPU at 1.024 MHz) and the S-DSP digital signal processor that generated audio. The SPC700 ran its own program code, independently of the main SNES CPU, making SNES audio an effectively autonomous subsystem. The S-DSP provided eight simultaneous 16-bit ADPCM voices with per-channel volume, pitch, and ADSR envelope, plus a hardware echo effect with programmable delay length, feedback, and FIR filter — the echo was used to extraordinary effect in Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Super Metroid. The system had 64KB of dedicated audio RAM for samples and code; working within this constraint required careful sample design and memory management. Composers who mastered sample selection — Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, Kenji Ito — produced music that sounded genuinely orchestral on 1990 consumer hardware.