Tandy 1000 and 3-channel PC speaker

[@Bisqwit]

@Bisqwit The 3th and noise channels of the Tandy can however be used in conjunction to produce different kinds of signals. There is the "white noise", but there is also some kind of "periodic noise". DOSBox's periodic noise looks like this. (Seed 0xF35, Feedback 0x8000) |¯|_|¯|__|¯¯|____|¯¯¯|_|¯|_|¯|__|¯¯|____|¯¯¯|_ However, DOSBox source code seems to suggest that it might be emulating it wrong. If I had an oscilloscope, I would measure it from the real thing... I did not use it in this video.

[@ozzie_goat]

When you hear the buzzer, stare at the art.

[@AiOinc1]

2:37 What most of us came here for. Excellent rendition!

[@Bisqwit]

@8bitbubsy Thanks! It could be even better if I could have used vibrato, but that would require a PIT routine to vary the pitch smoothly, which cannot be done with GW-BASIC. I simulated the frailness conveyed by vibrato in one part of the song with square tremolo, i.e. chopping the note on/off in fast manner.

[@Bisqwit]

@PushJWC Oh, the use of the word "happify" was completely intentional. I like to create neologisms by applying the accepted rules of grammar in unconventional situations. Besides, Google confirms the word "happify" has already been used by others. Thanks for the offer!

[@Bisqwit]

Please read the video description before posting! Chances are your questions are answered there. Now, did you? Are they?

[@CaptainSouthbird]

I really like this, very nice performance. I own a couple Tandys and have always wanted to try to do some music programming on them.

[@Bisqwit]

@JosephCollins The PC speaker "PCM" music hack (PWM to be exact) still fascinates me. But as for true PC speaker music the kind of what you mentioned, I would be interested to hear some samples.

[@josemaria2094]

You are amazing Bis, wow!

[@Ruinah]

I dunno how I haven't seen this video sooner, it's amazing! I loved the Tandy 1000EX, my family's first computer.

[@Bisqwit]

@Joddy12 I am a programmer by hobby. By trade, I am... I don't know exactly. I do PHP. It is programming, but not the kind of programming that is my hobby. Thank you for the feedback!

[@8bitbubsy]

That's very cool! I had no idea Tandy 1000 could sound like this, I thought it was simple beeps only. Not only was it cool, it also sounded good. Thumbs up, this was a cool video. :)

[@Bisqwit]

@PushJWC Not so, I already made a few unintentional errors in the comments on this page, such as in "3th". I strive to produce proper language at all times (intentionally stretched grammar aside), but everyone makes genuine mistakes sometimes. "Suuronnettomuus" = catastrophe, literally grand calamity :) That said-- ooh, Freeman's Mind episode 37. Watching->

[@Wockes]

Every time I hear Finnish I get really sleepy

[@3DMegadoodoo]

A BASIC interpreter is one of the most pragmatic IDEs. Nice.

[@Bisqwit]

@PushJWC The NES can produce three distinct square waveforms: _|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|_|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|_|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|_|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| __|¯¯¯¯¯¯|__|¯¯¯¯¯¯|__|¯¯¯¯¯¯|__|¯¯¯¯¯¯| ____|¯¯¯¯|____|¯¯¯¯|____|¯¯¯¯|____|¯¯¯¯| (And a fourth which is inverted version of #2). The PC speaker can produce just this one kind of square wave: ____|¯¯¯¯|____|¯¯¯¯|____|¯¯¯¯|____|¯¯¯¯| Which, incidentally, is exactly the same as #3. This is why it sounds identical to the game at that point (but not all points). Re: English, did I typo somewhere?

[@MNGoldenEagle]

Yes, sorry about that. I glanced through the description before but completely missed it somehow.

[@Bisqwit]

@chieffrankus Yeah, I considered the music as well. Though in my opinion it's mildly uplifting: In a way, I would rather describe it as "pleasant morning wake-up" music than "settling down and going sleeping" type music. For me, it is inspiring music. Though it originally comes from a bar scene in a game, which (without having played the game) I presume is more like evening business rather than morning business.

[@talby2537]

Great video. Great music too, I like the reverb effect, probably uses two channels with the one voice with one of them delayed. I LOVE vintage computer music, I compose on commodore 64, but I'd like to mae some Tandy music too. Thanks again!

[@Bisqwit]

-The reverb effect is just the volume envelope of the individual voice. I.e. when the voice keys off, it does not instantly become silent, but just drops a few units in volume.- Or at least, that’s what I thought is happening here, but it’s not that. I seem to have added some reverb in post-process instead. The song is the classic Wily theme from Mega Man 2 on the NES. Surprised you haven’t heard it before. I chose it for this video because it sounds cool, and it does not have pitch slides which would be tricky to do in BASIC, and it has a trivial percussion pattern, and it works very well even with the lack of different dutycycles for the square waves, and because it sounds cool. Wait, I already said that. And because I was already very familiar with it and knew what to expect when porting it into BASIC PLAY statements.

[@talby2537]

Oh I've heard it, for many hours, just never on Tandy sound (of which I am a big fan). I was curious about the reverb effect because whenever it is present, there's only one square and one noise active in the background, which is why I was wondering if the echo effect was taking place on a second voice. Great video

[@intel386DX]

I love this!!!!

[@erikhicks07]

I miss my Tandy 1000 EX. Imagine what I could do with it knowing what I know now... Your videos are great :-) nice coding skill

[@BalancedSpirit79]

This is awesome. I had a Tandy 1000 HX back in the 80s as my first PC and I loved Mega Man on the NES. Thank you for this song cover. Just a suggestion, a Tandy 3-Voice rendition of Bad Apple would be amazing. I don't think that's been done yet. :)

[@Bisqwit]

What is that song?

[@BalancedSpirit79]

@@Bisqwit Just do a YT search for "Bad Apple on NES" or "Bad Apple on Genesis" and you'll see what I mean. ;)

[@silpheedTandy]

his voice is so soothing! or maybe it's the Finnish?

[@Bisqwit]

@WockesZero Finnish in general, or just me?

[@JoLiKMC]

Ah, if only the IBM-Clone hardware had a 3-channel PC speaker and noise channel... The awesomeness that could have been done! Then again, a lot of the PC Speaker music I've heard from really old games -- Moraff's Revenge, DuckTales: The Search for Gold, Might and Magic I and II, to name a few -- were pretty darn good even with the limitation of a single channel to work with.

[@Darksoulmaster]

if you change to 144p you lose massive amounts of bitrate, and pixels With that i could see the colors emerge and see the "real" colors. Btw this is awesome. I'd wish i could grow to be a man like you. But i dont have the skill, brain and efforts to become a strong programmer.

[@abderrahim8042]

PC Speaker Talented Melody

[@DigitalViscosity]

Did you hear the hack with Linewars for pc speaker? It was very amazing

[@Joddy12]

You're a programmer or it is just a hobby? Becouse you know your stuff !

[@bas777ien]

What were the specifics of the Linux machine for this video (Distribution, Window manager...) ? Because the dithered background and the aterm window has quite a nostalgic feeling to it EDIT : I had posted the comment on the wrong video

[@adam7868]

so i general you wrote a 8 bit processer song

[@cattysplat]

I became a fish now I am Finnish.

[@MNGoldenEagle]

I need to try this on the Tandy 1000 SX I've got in my closet somewhere. Is the source for this available?

[@tomyyoung2624]

Yes only was it cool, it also sounded good.

[@Wockes]

@Bisqwit Both I guess :P

[@jacobthesitton9142]

Why am I not subscribed to you?

[@overTheGFW]

Such hardcore

[@DigitalViscosity]

Finnish in general :) but it is beautiful