276 Reply by AtariTufty

(135 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Hi utz

I wondered how long it would be before you were itching to write another engine smile

Here are some ideas I have had, if any are of any use or spark debate.

I like the Qchan type engines but if more bass or better drums were possible this would be great. The best part of Qchan (for me) are the volume envelopes as I think this opens the door for interesting synth effects.

I would like to see an engine where different types are selectable from within the tune itself. A sort of multi-engine that can swap between (for example) a phaser sound to a basic rom beep sound to maybe a PFM sound in the middle of a tune. I think this would enable tunes to have sections in different styles and make them more interesting.

A useful feature would be for a tune to quit back to basic at predetermined points in the music (to maybe allow text to be displayed) and then the user could jump back into the tune at the point it left off.

OK, wacky idea. How about a drum and bass engine with basically mega bass and a selection of drums/hihats etc.  Maybe 2 mega bass channels or even just one with digi-drums ????

Just a thought.

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277 Reply by AtariTufty

(113 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Got a reply to my 2nd email submission this morning smile

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278 Reply by AtariTufty

(113 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Yeah I would have thought it would still be received.

You've got me worried now though smile  I emailed my submission at 1pm and have had no email reply yet. My email address sometimes gets filtered out as SPAM so I've just sent it again using my gmail address to make sure !

I've never entered this compo before so don't know how quickly the organisers get back to you about compo entries.

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279 Reply by AtariTufty

(7 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Qchan sounding very nice smile

Will be interesting to hear how it copes with more bassy engines, as you say smile

I've just finished recording my entry for DiHalt Lite 2016 from my trusty 48K Spectrum.
There is still something about the sound when listening to the music directly from real hardware (using headphones connected to the mic socket) that can't be truly replicated though imo.

I agree, the real spectrum sound is somehow warmer.

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280 Reply by AtariTufty

(113 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Hi guys

Think today is the last day to submit entries for DiHalt Lite 2016 (unless you are attending).

Hey hey, four ZX Beeper entries so far (I've just uploaded mine) smile
http://dihalt.org.ru/register_eng.php

Some nice new Beeper tracks on BOTB last night too. Very nice one from MovieMovies1.
http://battleofthebits.org/arena/OHC/2853/

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281 Reply by AtariTufty

(7 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Sounds like a great piece of kit.

Garvalf - would be very interesting to hear a MiST recording of a Mechanistic track. I've still got the raw speccy recordings (without EQ applied) for comparison if you're interested. I've been meaning to record something directly from the Vega for a while but not had chance yet.

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282 Reply by AtariTufty

(6 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Haha

Thanks utz smile

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283 Reply by AtariTufty

(6 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Cheers Garvalf. Yes maybe a bit Daft Punk sounding too. I like making covers but I'm really trying to compose some original Beeper tracks atm.

The sound was actually just from the .wav export option on Beepola. I put it though the usual EQ and Bass settings I always use on Open MTP. When I get around to recording it from my 48K Speccy I expect the output to have a bit more bass.

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284 Reply by AtariTufty

(7 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Looks good.

Are you getting one of the new versions?

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285 Reply by AtariTufty

(6 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Cheers Garvalf  smile

I wasn't sure if people would have heard the original as I don't think Robbie is very well known outside the UK.

I made this version over 12 months ago and have been using some of the Beepola techniques I learnt (pitch slides / synth FX) in some of my own Qchan tunes since.

Thanks a lot for your comments smile

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286 Reply by AtariTufty

(10 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Cheers kokkiklhs.

Now you mention it, it does sound a bit like the Axel Foley theme smile

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287 Topic by AtariTufty

(6 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Happy Christmas Everyone.


Here is a version of the Robbie Williams synth-pop track taken down to 1-bit.

As usual I've used the Qchan sound engine and Beepola, I'm still not totally happy with the drums so may continue to work on it a little and I also haven't had time to record it from real hardware yet.

The original has quite a heavy chiptune feel to it so I thought it was fun to make a Speccy version.

Here is the link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/112 … liams).mp3


I hope you like it smile

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288 Reply by AtariTufty

(3 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Hi kokkiklhs

I think it would in theory be possible to play short beeps as the speccy is loading due to the fact there are short gaps in the loading process. I'm not sure if it is possible to turn off the actual loading noise itself on a 48K speccy though??

I remember seeing a demo where graphics are displayed during the loading process by atebit, it's here:

Demo while loading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ01EDhL0VM


I found these too:

Screen$ music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScKKkVtB2lc

Loading noise tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLWEy59lUhc

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289 Reply by AtariTufty

(10 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Thanks a lot for the info Introspec.

I wonder which Odin tunes use this technique.

So, they could potentially sound different on different hardware ?

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290 Reply by AtariTufty

(10 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Cheers Garvalf.

The Beeper sound on the Vega seems very accurate compared to a real Speccy, maybe a bit more 'rough' for the lack of a technical description.

I made the 'Vega-mix' purely to post on the Vega forum as I hoped a few Vega users might like to create some Beeper tunes.

After I posted it on that forum I got this reply from one of the Vega users:

" I'm listening to it, although I'm not currently using the Vega. I'd like to ask if these 1-bit music engines use the dual level output of the speaker (you know the Speccy beeper outputs different levels depending on the combination of MIC and SPK bits from port #FE, working as a rudimentary, non linear 2-bit DAC)"

Is this correct?

When recording from my Speccy 48K there are large differences in sound quality/volume when recording from either the mic or ear sockets. In fact if recording from the mic socket and plugging a lead into ear socket I also get a different sound (particularly noticeable with Qchan) as it is slightly more Bassy and missing some of the very high frequencies.

Any comments guys?

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291 Reply by AtariTufty

(10 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Hi utz


The speech synth is TAVZX (I think). Mister Beep posted the link to the file ages ago. It's a Spanish one so it can be difficult to get the sounds I want, quite often ends up sounding Scottish smile

After further experimentation it appears that sounds can be selected at three pitches e.g  o- o o+  so potentially the speccy can sing a little smile

OK, the bass line is actually based on Paranoimia by the art of noise smile

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292 Topic by AtariTufty

(10 replies, posted in Sinclair)

I've made a little sound demo to try on my ZX Spectrum Vega which is basically a slightly different version of my '1-bit Mechanistic' tune with a few new bits of Speech.

There is also a little intro tune (press 1 when the .z80 file is loaded)  - an unfinished tune from about a year ago.

Can anyone guess which 80s synthpop tune the bassline is based on ????????

smile


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/112 … c_Vega.zip

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293 Reply by AtariTufty

(113 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Thanks lvd.

I'll also try to write something for the compo smile

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294 Reply by AtariTufty

(5 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Welcome aboard, great to see you here smile

Love your Full Throttle 2 tune. There's a very good recording of included in the ZX music bank.
I played it recently in the retro section in one of my 1-bit radio broadcasts on the wonky FM radio station.

The spectrum related stuff you uploaded to soundcloud is great too smile

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295 Reply by AtariTufty

(65 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Cheers utz  smile

I'll give it a try when I've got some time.

Btw, does this convertor work with .xm files created with Open MTP or does it have to be milkytracker?

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296 Topic by AtariTufty

(4 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Found this yesterday.

Some very nice Qchan music by Moviemovies1 in the video smile


http://www.zexemplar.com/

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297 Reply by AtariTufty

(11 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Yeah, the wonkyfm site does seem a little strange in that sometimes I also get a blank screen at first  (using IE on WIN8 or Safari on IOS), refreshing the page 2 or 3 times seems to work !

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298 Reply by AtariTufty

(6 replies, posted in Sinclair)

WOW !

Very impressive. Thanks a lot introspec smile

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299 Reply by AtariTufty

(11 replies, posted in Sinclair)

Playlist being repeated again now smile

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300 Topic by AtariTufty

(11 replies, posted in Sinclair)

It's Back To The Future Day smile

Wednesday 21 Oct 2015


Here's an hour of old and new (but mainly new) ZX Spectrum Beeper music to mark the occasion.


http://wonkyfm.wix.com/wonkyfm

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