Sega Saturn
 Sega Saturn
| |
|---|---|
The grey Saturn, the first ever Saturn model produced.
| |
| Manufacturer(s) |  Sega
|
| Release Date(s) |  1994-11-28
|
| CPU(s) | 2xHitachi SH-2, Motorola 68EC000 (sound) |
| Sound chip(s) | Saturn Custom Sound Processor (SCSP, also known as Yamaha YMF292), CD-DA |
| Music section | N / A |
The 
Sega Saturn (ja:セガサターン, also known on South Korea as Samsung Saturn, ko:삼성 새턴) is a 32-bit video game console made by Sega. It was released in 1994 in Japan and 1995 in the rest of the world, competing against Sony's Playstation and, later, the Nintendo 64 as part of the fifth generation of video game consoles. Although the Saturn became Sega's best selling console in Japan, a combination of poor marketing, limited game libraries (75% of the system's titles never left Japan) and the Playstation's strong international support put the kibosh on the system's hopes of worldwide success, and is mostly known in the West as 'the console with Sonic R'.
Launch Titles 
- Mahjong Goku Tenjiku
- Myst
- Tama: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth
- Virtua Fighter
- WanChai Connection
Launch Titles 
/
- Clockwork Knight
- Daytona USA
- Panzer Dragoon ( only)
- Pebble Golf Beach Links ( only)
- Virtua Fighter
- Worldwide Soccer: Sega International Victory Goal Edition
Sound
The Saturn's audio is provided courtesy of the Sega Custom Sound Processor, a combination of Yamaha's YMF292 and FH1 audio chips.
Looking to combine their expertise with FM synthesis from their Mega Drive and arcade works with the pivot to sampled audio established by the SNES and Playstation, the YMF292 features 32 channels of sample-based audio, along with the ability for each channel to have its output modulated by up to two additional channels' data. Although the SNES and Playstation both allowed for sample-based FM on a limited scale, the YMF292 was the first (and, thus far, only) sampler chip to treat FM as a core part of its functionality. The FH1, on the other hand, is a multi-step DSP chip that can process up to all 32 of the YMF292 channels' output audio to apply programmable delay, mixing, filtering, and other effects.
The Saturn, like its predecessor, has a separate processor dedicated to controlling the SCSP, a Motorola 68EC000 with 512 KiB of addressable audio RAM responsible for holding samples, sound data and playback code. Although the SCSP has no native support for compressed audio, many games later in the system's life would store sound effects and even music in the compressed ADX format, using the 68EC000 to decompress and play the audio in real time. Being a CD-based console, the SCSP also supports CD-DA audio, as seen in titles like Sonic R.
Very few games would use any of the SCSP's more advanced features, generally preferring to play music using simple sequenced files or by streaming audio from the CD (which was the style at the time). Less than 100 Saturn titles would include FM in any capacity, and most DSP effects in games would simply be the default ones included with Sega's development tools. Even more underutilized was the SCSP's support for receiving MIDI commands, which only ever appeared in the short-lived, Japan-exclusive Saturn Music School series.
VGM Scene
You can log sequenced Sega Saturn music into VGM in MESS (or MAME in newer versions), the only Saturn emulator capable of this, although MAME's SCSP emulation is still quite buggy.
Another, older, music format for the Saturn based on the PlayStation Sound Format (PSF) is the Saturn Sound Format (SSF) (not to be confused with the emulator of the same name). It shares many characteristics with the PSF, but is also limited to just storing sequenced music.
There are no VGM players for the Saturn, but you can use dedicated VGM players for consoles which already have emulators for Saturn, such as SMS VGM Player.
External links
saturn- Sega Saturn at Sega Hard Encyclopedia
- Sega Saturn at Sega Hard Encyclopedia (old)
- Official SCSP Documentation]