A new generation of Z80 sound
Z80-only sound driver for your Mega Drive games
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This is an early version of Sona and as such some important features are still missing, and documentation is sparse. Please bear that into mind before moving forwards with using it in your projects.
Sona is released under the zlib license.
Main features
- Runs entirely on the Z80
- Play music and up to 3 sound effects
- FM3 special mode and SSG-EG support
- Use PSG3 and PSG4 separately or combined
- Mix up to 2 PCM channels at 10650Hz
- Released under zlib license
Extra features
- Speed stays the same in both NTSC and PAL
- 120Hz update rate for more accurate tempo control
- Can write to YM2612 registers directly for finer control or to change things like timer speed
- Up to 128 bytes worth of variables for communicating between the 68000 and the track
- Variables can be used to affect things like pitch, volume, which instrument to use, etc.
Missing features
Since this is an early version of Sona, some important features are still missing:
- No ability to pause music yet
- No ability to adjust music volume (or do fading)
- Only assembly API (C API not available for now)
- Better tools and bundled instruments would be nice to have too
- Sound effect channel allocation is currently fixed channels only
- Can't key each operator separately yet (which limits the usefulness of FM3 special mode)
