YANES is a clean-room, native Linux CLAP instrument for NES and other retro console, computer, and arcade sounds. It is designed for Bitwig Studio and other CLAP hosts.
YANES is a polyphonic multi-chip synthesizer. Its core oscillator set covers NES pulse, triangle, noise, and DPCM; VRC6, FDS, Namco 163, VRC7, and Sunsoft 5B expansions; Game Boy and Master System voices; Genesis PSG and YM2612 FM; AY-3-8910, POKEY, PC Engine, OPL2/OPL3, OPN/OPNA, OPM, SID, Konami SCC, Philips SAA1099, and Atari TIA. It also includes original morphing-wavetable, phase-distortion, additive, six-operator FM, and digital-partial synthesis modes, plus stack modes that map MIDI channels to multi-voice chip layouts.
The NES DPCM voice additionally supports a sixteen-slot bank: mono or stereo 16-bit WAV files are
converted to one-bit DPCM, while pre-encoded .ydmc data can be loaded directly. Slots map to
consecutive MIDI notes and can be looped, trimmed, and saved in CLAP project state.
The current instrument provides 12.5%, 25%, 50%, and 75% band-limited pulse waves, the NES 32-step triangle waveform, and the 2A03's 32,767-step and 93-step noise LFSRs with all 16 timer periods. It includes 16-voice polyphony, velocity, attack/release, tuning, portamento, automation, and project-state persistence.
Expansion-audio oscillator models include VRC6 pulse and saw, Famicom Disk System wavetable, Namco 163 wavetable, VRC7-style two-operator FM, and Sunsoft 5B tone. Their Shape, FM ratio, and FM index parameters are exposed for automation. These are compact musical models of each chip's characteristic synthesis method, not register- or cycle-perfect emulators.
The plug-in also provides NES DPCM kick/snare synthesis, Game Boy pulse/wave/noise, Master System tone/noise, Genesis PSG, and an eight-algorithm four-operator Genesis FM model. The console stack modes route MIDI channels to hardware-style channels:
- NES channels 1–5: pulse 1, pulse 2, triangle, noise, DPCM
- Game Boy channels 1–4: pulse 1, pulse 2, wave, noise
- SMS channels 1–4: tone 1, tone 2, tone 3, noise
- Genesis channels 1–6: FM; 7–9: PSG tone; 10: PSG noise
Genesis FM voices now use the pinned BSD-3-Clause ymfm YM2612 core through real chip-register
writes rather than YANES's earlier sine-network approximation. Pitch uses block/F-number
quantization, and instrument setup drives operator multiplier, total level, key scale, attack,
decay, sustain, release, AM, hardware LFO, algorithm, feedback, stereo, and key-on registers. The
core runs at its native rate and is converted to the host rate. OPL2 and OPL3 modes now use the
same register-driven path, including hardware frequency numbers, key-on, operator envelopes,
waveforms, key scaling, channel connection, feedback, and OPL3 output routing. YM2203 OPN,
YM2608 OPNA, and YM2151 OPM modes also use their corresponding ymfm devices and native clock
rates. A neutral LFO initialization avoids the invalid maximum-PM startup trace caught by the
non-silence regression test.
The FM operator section exposes attack, decay, sustain rate, sustain level, release, detune, key scaling, LFO rate, AM depth, and PM depth. Values are translated to each selected chip's actual register widths; unsupported combinations such as OPL detune are intentionally ignored rather than simulated outside the chip.
yanes-register-render renders timestamped hexadecimal register writes through ymfm at native
YM2612, YM2151, YM3812, or YMF262 rates. This provides a deterministic bridge for comparing YANES
against register logs and audio exported by Furnace without incorporating Furnace's GPL engine.
yanes-audio-compare checks two 16-bit PCM renders and reports normalized correlation and RMS
error. It resamples differing source rates and also reports 1024-frame energy-envelope correlation,
which is stable across different chip-core phase and resampling implementations. An optional
minimum envelope-correlation threshold is suitable for CI.
tools/compare_furnace.sh module.fur [minimum-correlation] performs the complete external-oracle
workflow: Furnace per-system WAV and VGM export, YM2612 register extraction, native ymfm replay,
and aligned audio comparison. It uses temporary files and does not copy Furnace modules or audio
into YANES. The bundled Furnace Equinox Intro demo produced 61,323 YM2612 writes and an envelope
correlation of 0.940756 in the development environment; this observation is deliberately not a
hardcoded universal threshold because Furnace core selection and module features can differ.
POKEY modes now clock distinct 4-, 5-, 9-, and 17-bit polynomial generators and provide eight AUDC-style tone/noise gating combinations. Fast clock selection and strict-mode 16-bit channel pairing expand the earlier single-LFSR model. SID modes now combine quantized 12-bit triangle, saw, pulse, and noise sources before filtering; the 6581 path adds reduced combined-waveform level, neighboring-bit bleed, a nonlinear cutoff curve, and stronger saturation, while the 8580 path is cleaner and more linear. These SID changes are clean-room approximations, not reSID integration.
Hardware controls include NTSC/PAL clocks, timer pitch quantization, a 15-step envelope, pitch sweep, and tracker-like arpeggio sequences. The optional console/TV section supplies adjustable sample-rate and bit-depth reduction, RF noise, 50/60 Hz hum, coupling/high-frequency filtering, speaker drive, and stereo width. Set Retro amount to zero for the clean chip output.
The Preset parameter supplies clean NES, chord lead, DPCM kit, Game Boy, SMS, Genesis FM, bedroom-CRT, and noisy-RF starting points without requiring a plugin-owned window.
The computer/arcade chip lab adds AY-3-8910/SSG tone and noise, Atari POKEY tone and 17-bit polynomial noise, PC Engine 32-sample/5-bit wavetable sound, OPL2 two-operator FM, OPL3 four-operator FM, OPN/OPNA, and OPM. Stack modes provide useful channel layouts for PC-88, PC-98, X68000, Atari, PC Engine, and Sound Blaster OPL3. These FM modes preserve operator count, algorithm routing, feedback, and coarse chip character while remaining playable synthesizer models; they do not execute original chip register streams.
The PC Engine stack routes channels 1–4 to wavetable voices and channels 5–6 to its 18-bit noise generator. PC-98 routes channels 1–6 to FM, 7–9 to SSG, 10–15 to rhythm, and 16 to ADPCM. X68000 routes channels 1–8 to OPM and channel 9 to ADPCM. Since MIDI has sixteen channels, the OPL3 stack exposes sixteen simultaneously addressable parts rather than all eighteen hardware channels.
Four additional families are included because they add synthesis methods not already covered:
- Commodore SID 6581/8580 combines saw/pulse synthesis with revision-dependent resonant nonlinear filtering. Chip cutoff and Chip resonance control that filter.
- Konami SCC supplies five channels of 32-sample, 8-bit wavetable sound.
- Philips SAA1099 supplies six tone channels, shared noise coloration, and the wide Game Blaster/SAM Coupé character.
- Atari TIA supplies two channels of deliberately coarse polynomial tones.
Five additional methods broaden the instrument without copying factory ROMs or commercial presets:
- Morphing wavetable moves continuously through sine-, triangle-, saw-, and pulse-derived tables. Table Position selects the region and Table Warp bends phase distribution.
- Phase distortion reshapes oscillator phase around a movable breakpoint for sharp brass, hollow reed, and resonant mid-1980s digital timbres.
- Harmonic additive sums twelve partials. Harmonic Tilt controls spectral rolloff and Table Position balances odd and even harmonics.
- Six-operator FM supplies a compact 32-routing family with modulation index and brightness. It follows the six-operator/32-algorithm concept without reproducing factory voices.
- Digital partial pair layers a generated transient with morphing-table and additive sustain components for late-1980s digital/analog-style patches.
Original presets include Vector Wavetable Pad, Phase-Distortion Brass, Additive Drawbars, Six-Operator Electric Piano, and Digital Partial Strings.
The Layer control can add an octave, fifth, sub-octave, stepped triangle, or noise component to any chip or synthesis mode. Layer Mix keeps the recipe usable as either subtle reinforcement or an obvious fake multi-channel stack. Vibrato supports direct automation, MIDI modulation wheel, and Bitwig modulation. MIDI pitch bend uses a two-semitone range, while CLAP note expressions provide sample-accurate per-note tuning, volume, brightness, and pressure. Bitwig transport tempo can sync the arpeggiator and echo. Eight programmable pitch steps support tracker-style riffs, and Strict Hardware mode chokes an existing voice when a hardware-stack channel is retriggered.
The internal effects rack contains soft drive, a feedback echo, and stereo modulated chorus. These run alongside the existing console/TV section, allowing a clean chip source, a tracker-like fake echo, a worn stereo digital effect, or the full RF/television treatment without extra devices.
Technique presets demonstrate common chiptune arrangements with original settings: Envelope Bass Trick, Hyper Arpeggio Lead, Duty-Cycle Lead, Fake Echo Lead, Octave Power Bass, and Worn Chorus Pad. They are inspired by general tracker and cartridge-era techniques and contain no game samples or extracted instrument data.
The embedded X11 editor opens at 1600 x 1050 under XWayland and can be freely resized down to 960 x 630. Its Xft-rendered 32-pixel default font scales continuously with the window (with a 22-pixel minimum), and its controls, visualizations, and mouse hit-testing scale with it. It presents five spacious pages: Chip, Hardware, Synth, Sequence, and FM/Bank. It includes a live wavetable preview, clickable eight-step pitch editor, FM routing display, and sixteen-slot DPCM occupancy map. Clicking a parameter rail updates the engine with a complete CLAP begin/value/end gesture. Controls support click-and-drag editing, mouse-wheel fine adjustment, and right-click reset; larger tabs, rails, value fields, and channel or bank targets make the editor easier to scan and operate. Host automation and native Bitwig parameter changes update the same atomic parameter state and trigger an editor redraw, so both views remain synchronized. Bitwig also renders every CLAP parameter in its native device panel, which remains a dependable fallback and provides its usual modulation and automation workflow.
Yes, sample import is implemented, but only for this bank. yanes-dpcm converts a mono or stereo
16-bit PCM WAV to the one-bit delta stream used by the NES DPCM modes:
build/yanes-dpcm input.wav sample.ydmc
YANES_DPCM_BANK="$PWD/kick.ydmc:$PWD/snare.ydmc:$PWD/tom.ydmc" bitwig-studioWAV input is mixed to mono and converted at 16,744 Hz, the fastest NTSC 2A03 DPCM rate. The plug-in
reads WAV or .ydmc bank entries during initialization, never on the audio thread.
You can also middle-click a slot on the FM/Bank page to choose a mono/stereo 16-bit PCM WAV or
.ydmc file, right-click it to clear it, and left-click it to toggle looping. Sample replacement
uses immutable snapshots, so a sounding voice safely finishes with its original sample while a new
voice receives the replacement. Once Bitwig saves the
project, all sixteen bank slots are included in CLAP state, so reopening that project does not
depend on the environment variable or original files. DPCM Base Key maps consecutive MIDI keys to
slots; each file is limited to 1 MiB. Empty slots retain the generated, copyright-free kick/snare
fallback. State versions 8 and 9 migrate their former single sample into slot one, while versions
10 through 12 retain all sixteen slots and receive defaults for newer mixer, loop, DAC, and trim
controls.
Each slot can loop independently through the DPCM Loop Mask, and DPCM Initial Level exposes the
2A03 DAC starting value used before the first delta bit. DPCM Trim Start and Trim End provide
normalized, non-destructive start/end boundaries shared by the bank; they are not per-sample loop
points or a waveform editor. The FM/Bank header shows loaded slots in amber and looping slots in
green. The graphical file chooser currently invokes zenity; the environment-variable workflow
does not require it.
The Hardware page includes a sixteen-channel stack mixer strip. Left-clicking a channel toggles mute and right-clicking toggles solo, with both masks exposed to Bitwig automation and stored in the project. MIDI sustain pedal, All Sound Off, and All Notes Off are handled for both generated and register-driven voices.
YANES requires CMake 3.20 or newer, a C++20 compiler, X11 development headers, Xft, and pkg-config. On Debian or Ubuntu, install the system dependencies with:
sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config libx11-dev libxft-devOn Arch Linux (or an Arch-based distribution), install the equivalent dependencies with:
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel cmake pkgconf libx11 libxft gitThen configure, build, and run the test suite:
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failureCMake downloads the small official CLAP headers. For an offline build, pass
-DCLAP_ROOT=/path/to/clap. It also fetches the pinned ymfm source used by the hardware FM
models, so the first online configuration requires Git and network access.
This repository includes a prebuilt Linux x86-64 CLAP binary at
build/YANES.clap. It is a convenience build from the current source tree;
copy it directly if your system provides the required X11/Xft runtime libraries:
mkdir -p ~/.clap
cp build/YANES.clap ~/.clap/For another architecture, a different distribution, or a source change, build the plug-in locally as described above. The locally built file has the same name and replaces the checked-in binary.
Restart Bitwig or rescan plug-ins, then add YANES as an instrument. Bitwig supports CLAP
directly; do not put this file in a VST2 or VST3 directory. Use
BITWIG_VALIDATION.md for the Wayland/XWayland and project-recall
acceptance pass.
This project implements published chip behavior using clean-room code. The built-in DPCM drums are generated at runtime and contain no samples from commercial games. Imported material remains the user's responsibility.