Topic: new engine: Archie

May I present to you the latest abomination from Utz Beeper Engine Constructions. Archie is sort of the spiritual successor to Pytha (hence the name), but then again it isn't, really.

From the readme:

Archie is an experimental 1-bit sound engine for the ZX Spectrum Beeper. It
draws inspiration from other modern beeper engines such as Pytha, povver, and
Tritone Digi.

Archie uses the pulse interleaving technique to create 5 tone channels with
asynchronous volume. The first 4 channels are intended to be used in pairs with
controllable phase offset. This simple setup is useful for producing a range of
different, sometimes surprising effects. The 5th channel is a regular pulse wave
channel with duty cycle control and duty cycle sweep.

Channels 1a and 2a are playing at roughly 1/3rd of the volume of channel 1 and
2, respectively. The 5th channel plays at about 2/3rds of the volume of channel
1/2.

In addition to the tone channels, Archie features an interrupting click drum
channel with 3-bit volume control. Click drums are arbitrary PWM samples played
at 31250 Hz. The core synthesis runs at 15625 Hz (standard 224 cycle loop).

source

There's no XM converter, for obvious reasons. Short demo track is attached below. Couldn't be bothered to to make it any longer because composing for this thing in asm is a major p.i.t.a.

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archie-demo.tap 11.08 kb, 18 downloads since 2019-09-21 

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Re: new engine: Archie

Cheers utz

Great to see you writing new engines again smile

Nice sound on this one, good bass and the drums are a nice volume too.

Any chance of implementing into Bintracker?

Looks like it would be a good engine to experiment with !

Re: new engine: Archie

Yes, of course this will be in Bintracker eventually.

Yeah, I'm having too much fun with writing z80 asm again. Got two more engines almost ready, and I've got several ideas for more. But I definately need to focus on Bintracker. All those new engines will be pretty much useless without tracker support.

Re: new engine: Archie

Interesting warm sound...
You should release a new album!

Re: new engine: Archie

Got it supported in 1tracker. Sounds very clean and nice, indeed, which is pretty impressive for a 5 channel engine.

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