> Hi All,
>
> I know we already have the various QSound players but does anyone know if it is
> possible to use the emulated hardware as a synthesiser, to make it play new
> tunes?

In principle, yes, assuming you mean just QSound, QSound hardware is essentially an 8-bit sample player. The samples are PCM, and it should be fairly easy to grab the start/end/loop points and samplerates from an emulator.

> My reason for wanting to do this is that the Capcom arcade games feature
> a wide range of high-quality samples that I've yet to find on any conventional
> keyboard setups and would be ideal for producing CD-based backing tracks for my
> own games (when I finally get round to developing them).

Eh? It's just 8 bits, the hardware runs at 24KHz. The Fairlight samplers from the early 80s were already more advanced than that. Anyway, if you insist, add some printf() statements to an emulator, extract the samples you want, and import them in your PC sampler of choice. I'd have a really good look at the software synths and sample libraries available on PC before resorting to that, though, free or otherwise, samplers, too.

> My emulation skills are fairly poor at the moment (some basic Z80 stuff so far)
> so I would also like to find out if anybody has written any tutorials or could
> give any advice on how the CPS II boards output the music, how the
> sounds/samples are organised, etc.

See above.