One-Bit Music - How is it Done?
2 messages · 2010-08-12 → 2010-08-13 · Yahoo Group era · View archive on archive.org
Participants: Adam Trionfo, cheveron
Preserved from the Timex/Sinclair 2068 Yahoo Group (2001–2019), which is no longer online. Text reproduced from the archive.org archive; email addresses masked.
Messages
1. One-Bit Music - How is it Done?
Adam Trionfo · Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:18
I'm curious how one-bit music is created. I'm not talking about sound effects or even "music" that has just one "voice" or "channel" playing. How is it that some one-bit music sounds like there is more than one "channel" playing or sometimes it can sound like a chord is played? Mr. Beep's music sounds really good and it is a good example of the type of music that I'm talking about. He has mentioned that he uses some Spectrum software to achieve this effect, and doesn't program it himself.
I'm hoping that someone can point me to an article(s) about how this is done. The article doesn't have to be computer/console specific either. I'm just wondering, in a general sense, how this affect is pulled off. However, if someone can point me to some assembly programming examples (for ANY CPU), then I'd be happy to check them out.
Thanks.
Adam
2. Re: One-Bit Music - How is it Done?
cheveron · Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:43
The beeper is a primitive DAC. As such it's actually not really true one bit, and by taking advantage of that fact you can do low-resolution multi-channel sound on it. I think the maximum channels achieved is about 7, but the more channels you have the lower the volume, so 2 channels is the most common. There is a rather nifty tool called Beepola (http://freestuff.grok.co.uk/beepola/) that lets you compose tunes using some of these routines without needing to understand how it's done.
--- In [email], Adam Trionfo <ballyalley@...> wrote:
>
>
> I'm curious how one-bit music is created. I'm not talking about sound effects or even "music" that has just one "voice" or "channel" playing. How is it that some one-bit music sounds like there is more than one "channel" playing or sometimes it can sound like a chord is played? Mr. Beep's music sounds really good and it is a good example of the type of music that I'm talking about. He has mentioned that he uses some Spectrum software to achieve this effect, and doesn't program it himself.
>
> I'm hoping that someone can point me to an article(s) about how this is done. The article doesn't have to be computer/console specific either. I'm just wondering, in a general sense, how this affect is pulled off. However, if someone can point me to some assembly programming examples (for ANY CPU), then I'd be happy to check them out.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Adam
>