How to make Sega Genesis music (in 1994)

GEMS. The Genesis Editor for Music and Sound Effects. One of the most popular sound drivers for music on the Sega Genesis.

but how did it work? That's what we explore in this video!

a BIG THANK YOU to the following cool dudes for taking the time to answer my questions:
John Miller
Kurt Harland Larson
Mark Miller
Tommy Tallarico
somasis
r57shell
everyone in #vgmrips
everyone else I forgot to mention

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
0:00 Introduction
0:38 History
1:49 Hardware
4:10 For Musicians
5:18 Making Sounds
6:43 More Sounds
9:15 Making Song
10:39 Priority Mailboxes
14:36 Something new

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all of the songs used in this video used the GEMS driver!

here's the list of games and songs used:
0:04 Batman Returns (Final Act (No Loop))
0:39 Vectorman 2 (Bog Jam)
1:49 Earthworm Jim 2 (Lorenzen's Soil)
4:09 Tale Spin (Italy, Greece, India)
4:54 Comix Zone (Episode 1, Page 2-2)
5:18 Flashback (Diary)
7:14 Earthworm Jim 2 (Title)
7:33 Earthworm Jim (New Junk City)
9:15 Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel (Cliffs)
10:38 Sonic Spinball (Machine)
13:24 Cool Spot (Rave Dancetune)

and also a blast of games at 0:09, in this order:
Action 52 (Man At Arms (Even Levels))
Marko's Magic Football (Suburbia)
The Berenstain Bears' Camping Adventure (Honey Hunting)
Paperboy 2 (Menu)
Ariel The Little Mermaid (Character Select)
Sonic Spinball (Toxic Caves)

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some sources and notes:
https://books.google.com/books?id=9LN5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT79&lpg=PT79&dq=%22genesis+editor+for+music+and+sound+effects%22&source=bl&ots=0i87vznbKI&sig=nD7j0oPK2ZB38aIgZZpJoD8L7cw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_sdKKj9zUAhUG4CYKHYsDDmsQ6AEIQjAE#v=onepage&q=%22genesis%20editor%20for%20music%20and%20sound%20effects%22&f=false
http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=246
http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=24782#p24782
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCnaw07LaS0
https://vimeo.com/166472288

my notes on how to emulate GEMS: https://pastebin.com/50QbepCr
The song that appears at the end is a cover of a song that Laxity (of Vibrants, and Maniacs of Noise) wrote in 1997, titled "I'm a Dick"
the original is here:
https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=106534
or on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jCzXQ4Xgb0

or an Adlib cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLZ8NErLSrY

you can download my GEMS version of the song here: https://mega.nz/#!mxF23RqR!7UD1D2U_SG0wJ71NdcYJS1BurXNYTEHn-9v2A5grlQM

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a quick correction:
2:24 this is a parallel cable connection, not a serial cable. (specifically a 25-pin printer cable connection, to quote the manual.) thanks happyscrappy!
9:44 CC actually stands for "Control Change", not "Continuous Control". thanks KarjamP!

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Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed!

As this is not a mix, I'm not charging anyone on patreon for this video, but I appreciate your support!
https://www.patreon.com/gstdaisuki
http://gstdaisuki.tumblr.com/

Видео How to make Sega Genesis music (in 1994) канала GST Channel