Sound hardware

Overview

The programmable sound generator found inside the NES and Famicom is located inside the CPU chip (called 2A03 for NTSC and 2A07 for PAL).

External sound hardware

The Famicom has the possibillity to mix "expansion audio" from cartridges. This was used by some games to add extra sound channels from integrated circuits in cartridges.
Six expansion audio ICs are supported by Dn-Famitracker and can be enabled from the module properties dialog. Multiple expansion chips can be enabled at the same time.

To create instruments for these channels, select the channel with the pattern cursor and then add a new instrument.

The following sections explains the hardware and instruments:

Note: External sound is not possible on the NES without significant modification, so any songs using expansion chips are considered "Famicom Sound" instead of "NES Sound". Additionally, all expansion chips are not supported in PAL mode.


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