Difference between revisions of "YM"

Revision as of 02:12, 25 September 2015

YM2149 Music
Developer:	Unknown
Header:	Custom
Content:	Log
Instruments:	Combined
Target Output
Released:	19??-??-??
Extensions	*.ym

Not to be confused with GYM.

YM (YM2149 Music) is a logging format for the YM2149 audio chip. The format logs all of the instructions sent to the chip. This allows the music to be played again by simply sending the contents of the file to another YM2149 chip. Because the format merely logs the instructions to the chip, it doesn't preserve the original content of the music format. The format is similar to VGM, DRO and GYM formats in this respect. In particular, the format is used to record logged music from the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms.

The format also has partial support for the YM2149F used in Atari ST.

You can learn how to log YM files (mostly music from Amstrad CPC games) here.

Players

• AYEmul - Windows 32.
• DeliPlayer - Windows 32 (both compressed and uncompressed variants).
• ST-Sound - XMPlay.
• YM Decoder - foobar2000.

Converters

YM to ?

• AYEmul - Windows 32 - WAV
• YM Decoder - foobar2000 - WAV

? to YM

Games

Released	Title	Sample
1985-??-??	The Rocky Horror Show (CPC)
1986-??-??	Highlander (CPC)

Technical

Basically all YM files are compressed LHA archives, which contain one generic file inside. It can be extracted with 7-Zip, for example (use right click on file, 7-Zip context menu, and then choose "Open archive"). The extracted file has custom header which is relatively simple, and the format "ym5".

All YM files contain the words like "file.bin" or "file.ym" at the beginning (in the last case - if the file was logged using this guide), because of LHA archive format.

Links

• genesis8bit.fr/frontend/music.php - The large archive and utilities for Amstrad CPC YM files.
• www.cpc-power.com/ - An archive of Amstrad CPC ripped music (files are placed in inset "Music" under the titles of the most games you search, for example