I am curious to know if it is possible to make plugin to use Furnace on a DAW like FL Studio. I am not a tracker user but I am really interested on using these especially the various Yamaha FM chips

https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace/tree/master

 

Yes, it is absolutely possible. VST trackers exist: https://revisit.nash.audio/default.asp
But it requires some programming. Big amount or small amount, I don't know. It depends on many details.

 

Having a tracker as VST sounds like a great idea actually.
I was never satisfied with third party sequencers (currently using Reason Rack Redrum), this might be the solution

 

I kinda meant taking the instrument side of things like FTPlug which imports Famitracker's 20A3 and VCR6 chips as a VSTi, but I do remember this "Retroplug" project that allows you to run a gameboy emulator to play with LSDJ rom

https://github.com/tommitytom/RetroPlug

I just checked around Twitter/X and someone did make a VST Wrapper to load Furnace into a daw and use it as an instrument but they have not shared the plugin

It could be an interesting free alternative to Chipsounds and Chipsynth especially with the FM side

 

Looking at https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace/tree/master/extern it appears they're using mostly third party projects as the basis for their synth engine.

You could go through them one by one and Google for the original project name and "plugin" / "vst".

A couple quick / user friendly options:

RYM2612 claims cycle accurate emulation of the YM2612, came free with a recent issue of Computer Music or Beat Magazine. Sounds good to me.

Dexed does DX7. Banks from cheaper Yamaha chips can be converted to the DX7 format. IOW, you can get the entire Sega Genesis / Mega Drive library converted to Dexed.

https://github.com/jpcima/ADLplug Does a bunch of Yamaha chips.

Anyway, the market for chiptune plugins is pretty large, so the world's your oyster.

 

I think what you are looking for are some kind of ReWire support in the Furnace-tracker.

If Furnace has ReWire support (I haven't read the documentation yet), it would act as a ReWire slave, syncing to FL Studio's transport controls. FL Studio could then handle the mixing, automation, and additional effects, while Furnace would focus on sequencing and sound generation. The audio from Furnace could be routed into FL Studio’s mixer for further processing and arrangement.

Alternatively, you could use a Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) if the goal is just to get audio from Furnace into FL Studio. Tools like VB-Audio's Voicemeeter or Virtual Audio Cable can route the audio output from Furnace into FL Studio, allowing you to record and process the sound directly in the DAW.

Or, if you're mainly interested in the tracker or chip aspect, you could use VSTi chip emulators along with something like Redux from Renoise, for example.

 

There's Reaper's Hackey-Trackey..
https://github.com/JoepVanlier/Hackey-Trackey
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=202382

Another route will be trying to adapt Furnace code to work as a plugin in Reaper, be it js/other..
or make a Wrapper script that runs Furnace from Reaper... not the easiest problem/solution

 

Last edited: Sep 14, 2024

Best "VST Tracker" out there is Redux. Unfortunately it lacks Midi out.

 

I could never figure out from the info on the site, is that the FULL tracker inside, or is just a single channel?? I missed out on trackers in the 90s (386 went away in 94 and I never got another PC until 99 when Cubase was already full blown audio), but man Renoise rules hah.

 

Oh yeah, it supports multiple tracks, it's similar to Renoise but it works with phrases instead of patterns, so it's a bit different and lack some of the functionality present in Renoise. There would be absolutely no competition if it supported Midi out, but it's still the best option I've found.

 

So researching a bit more, someone made a vst version here

https://github.com/agrecascino/furnacevst

Although it's a bit messy because unless you can sandbox each instance (EX. using FL Studio's Bridged mode) you can only one instance open, and it's not very ideal, because you straight up load the entire program as a plugin, but still, it's nice to be able to run the chips as a daw instrument in some capacity

Wish it was easier to make a plugin just with the "instrument" and "wavetable" section of the program leaving it like Magical8BitPlugin 2 but eh, this can be worked with

 

I've wondered a similar thing myself since trying furnace.

 

No Multi Ins/Outs as routing option? But you have to load the entire tracker in the plugin slot? That's indeed some suboptimal programming, but I wonder if the synthesizer engine really has something to offer that Plogue plugins don't already offer?

 

Well, Plogue has yet to release the Chipsynth FC with the supposed extra famicom chips (VCR6 and VCR7 for example) that they have been teasing for years... and, much more, for free. Besides, the CPU usage of the plogue plugins has been increasing with each release/update compared to other smaller vsts like Magical8bitPlug, FTPlug and using waveforms on a plugin like Serum

Taking from the github, furnace has these chips https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace

• Yamaha FM chips:
  • YM2151 (OPM)
  • YM2203 (OPN)
  • YM2413 (OPLL)
  • YM2414 (OPZ) used in Yamaha TX81Z
  • YM2608 (OPNA) used in PC-98
  • YM2610 (OPNB) used in Neo Geo
  • YM2610B (OPNB2)
  • YM2612 (OPN2) used in Sega Genesis and FM Towns
  • YM3526 (OPL) used in C64 Sound Expander
  • YM3812 (OPL2)
  • YMF262 (OPL3) with full 4-op support!
  • Y8950 (OPL with ADPCM)
• ESS ESFM (like OPL3 but with more features)
• square wave chips:
  • AY-3-8910/YM2149(F) used in several computers and game consoles
  • Commodore VIC used in the VIC-20
  • Microchip AY8930
  • TI SN76489 used in Sega Master System and BBC Micro
  • PC Speaker
  • Philips SAA1099 used in SAM Coupé
  • OKI MSM5232 used in some arcade boards
• sample chips:
  • SNES
  • Amiga
  • SegaPCM - all 16 channels
  • Capcom QSound
  • Yamaha YMZ280B (PCMD8)
  • Ricoh RF5C68 used in Sega CD and FM Towns
  • OKI MSM6258 and MSM6295
  • Konami K007232
  • Konami K053260
  • Irem GA20
  • Ensoniq ES5506
  • Namco C140
  • Namco C219
• wavetable chips:
  • HuC6280 used in PC Engine
  • Konami Bubble System WSG
  • Konami SCC/SCC+
  • Namco arcade chips (WSG/C15/C30)
  • WonderSwan
  • Seta/Allumer X1-010
  • Sharp SM8521 used in Tiger Game.com
• NES (Ricoh 2A03/2A07), with additional expansion sound support:
  • Konami VRC6
  • Konami VRC7
  • MMC5
  • Famicom Disk System
  • Sunsoft 5B
  • Namco 163
  • Family Noraebang (OPLL)
• SID (6581/8580) used in Commodore 64
• Mikey used in Atari Lynx
• ZX Spectrum beeper
  • SFX-like engine
  • QuadTone engine
• Pokémon Mini
• Commodore PET
• TED used in Commodore Plus/4
• Casio PV-1000
• TIA used in Atari 2600
  • including software tuning engine (TIunA)
• POKEY used in Atari 8-bit computers
• Game Boy
  • including SOFTWARE ENVELOPES (zombie mode)
• Virtual Boy
• Game Boy Advance
  • DMA (direct memory access) two channel mode
  • MinMod software driver by Natt Akuma
• Nintendo DS
• modern/fantasy:
  • Commander X16 VERA
  • tildearrow Sound Unit
  • PowerNoise
  • Bifurcator
  • SID2
  • Generic PCM DAC

 

Hey, thanks for all the information
I am not that much into chiptune music or the tracker scene, I use Plogues chipsounds for anything related to that, and I also thought 8bitplug was inferior to it. FTPlug looks interesting too but apparently there is no x64 version...
Now you made me curious what those other chips sound like heh