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But there is really no stereo AY output in the original models, it is a feature of DIY Russian clones that is totally inconsistent between all of them (different channel layouts, different mixing ratios). And even if one wants stereo, two RCAs is a good option. At least you can easily connect such device to a modern TV, without adapters, they still have composite and stereo in. With Jack you forced either to phones, or a number of cable adapters, as either TVs or standalone amplifiers normally don't accept 3.5 jack.

Well, it is understandable why they went 3.5, the board space and connectors price. Cutting corners indeed.

You can take a look at my recent engine BuzzKick (available in 1tracker) - it is basically a Special FX replica (the same sound generation loop), but without interrupts and with sampled drums.

I personally would like to get an x86 portable device such as Portfolio, to make a tracker or something. Unfortunately, didn't see them around since early 2000, like some HP portable with WinCE.

Vega is a software emulator on ARM SoC, though.

Implemented block list and names. Press Space to split the song into blocks, press Ctrl+F inside a block to edit its name. All blocks listed on the right, along with their names. There is the old navigation with Home/End keys that allows to jump between blocks, thus inside the list, so there is no separate keys for this.

The issues I mentioned in the post above were fixed too.

1tracker updated to v0.22. Changed the markers (set by the Space button) into blocks, just like SNESGSS, where it proved to work much better. Ctrl+L (select channel) and Ctrl+A (select all channels) now alternate between the whole song and current block on each press, which is really convinient. Font and color scheme is tweaked to (hopefully) more pleasant experience.

The UI changes is just different font.bmp file, it allows to customize the looks (along with the .cfg file). Tried to do something more comfortable to work with on my PC. Tracker code itself had no changes yet, although yes, I want to eventually add some things from SNESGSS interface, that also had pattern-less approach.

Sound generation loop from this engine, that closely matches SpecialFX:

soundLoop

    ld a,3                ;7 - this part is just 62t delay, to align the (empty) loop to 168t, allowing to have lowest E note
    dec a                ;4
    jr nz,$-1            ;7/12=50t
    jr $+2            ;12

    dec d                ;4 - channel 1 8-bit counter
    jp nz,.ch2            ;10

.ch1freq=$+1
    ld d,0            ;7 - reload counter

.ch1delay1=$+1
    ld a,0                ;7 - first variable delay, that is like bottom of a pin, it gets changed by the decay envelope
    dec a                ;4
    jr nz,$-1            ;7/12

.ch1out=$+1
    ld a,0                ;7  - output a set bit (or reset, if the channel is muted)
    out (#fe),a            ;11

.ch1delay2=$+1
    ld a,0                ;7 - second variable delay, that is top of a pin
    dec a                ;4
    jr nz,$-1            ;7/12

    out (#fe),a            ;11 - reset output, pin is ended

.ch2

    ld a,3                ;7 - the same for the second channel
    dec a                ;4
    jr nz,$-1            ;7/12=50t
    jr $+2            ;12

    dec e                ;4
    jp nz,.loop            ;10

.ch2freq=$+1
    ld e,0                ;7

.ch2delay1=$+1
    ld a,0                ;7
    dec a                ;4
    jr nz,$-1            ;7/12

.ch2out=$+1
    ld a,0                ;7
    out (#fe),a            ;11

.ch2delay2=$+1
    ld a,0                ;7
    dec a                ;4
    jr nz,$-1            ;7/12

    out (#fe),a            ;11

.loop

    dec b                ;4
    jr nz,soundLoop        ;7/12=168t

The weird part of PFM engines of this kind, with separate pins (not combined like QChan or Octode), that I don't really understand, is that they output both 0 and 1 parts of a pin with corresponding delay, not just 1. If you omit the 0 part with its delay, cross-detune gets just horrible, even with two channels.

Not really next gen, but something that I think hasn't been tried yet: mix a FuzzClick-like PFM engine with Music Box-like engine.

FuzzClick has two 50t delays between channels, so there is quite a lot of time to add extra channels, but adding the same PFM channels adds serious cross-detune. However, adding a Wham-like channel (xor'ing an output at counter overflow) won't introduce detune, as it is fixed-time code that could be added instead these delays.

How to add it is the question. I experimented with it, and it seems this will give interesting result:

sound loop

first counter and pulse on overflow (as in FuzzClick)
50-t delay (as in FuzzClick)
second counter and pulse on overflow (as in FuzzClick)

third counter and the extra chnanel output flip on overflow
output third channel to #fe
short delay (affects the volume, to make proper volume balance)
output 0 to #fe

This gives quite clean square tone and still-recognizeable timbre of FuzzClick-like engine for the other two channels.

Unfortunately I can't provide example code at the moment, it is complete mess, but here is what it sounds like. Of course it is not something as impressive as latest utz's wavetable engines, but still, interesting mix of two kinds of the 1-bit sound.

http://shiru.untergrund.net/temp1/pfm_square.wav

I think there were more than one Oleg Origin beeper engine, maybe versions of it. This one has sampled drums: http://zxart.ee/eng/authors/o/oleg-orig … gine-test/

Maybe I missed something, but isn't it is easier to just use MSB of the 16-bit accumulator as LSB of the sample pointer? Did that before.

I mean,

add hl,de
ld c,h
ld b,MSB (all samples aligned to 256 bytes)
ld a,(bc)

The routine reads keyboard and one of common joystick port to check if there is a key has been pressed, to stop the player. That's common situation in games, music plays until it ends, or a key is pressed.

That's totally impressive. Honestly, I didn't expect that from this engine. Well, just like usual, the same was with Octode, QChan, Tritone. Creative guys never cease to amaze me with that they're pulling out of my stuff.

Finally, made my own demo track for the bundle: https://soundcloud.com/shiru8bit/overawire