Skip to main content
Retrocomputing

Questions tagged [sound]

Ask Question

Questions regarding the generation of sound in retrocomputers.

66 questions
Newest Active Bountied Unanswered
7 votes
1 answer
532 views

I'm going to be adding infoboxes to some of the classic stand-alone chips on the Wiki. I'm starting with sound chips. I could not find a transistor count for the AY8910. Can anyone find one? Normally ...
Maury Markowitz's user avatar
  • 22.4k
19 votes
0 answers
392 views

The SID chip (originally the MOS Technology 6581) was the sound chip used in the original Commodore 64, and is widely credited with helping make that machine one of the best-selling home computers of ...
Psychonaut's user avatar
  • 8,502
33 votes
3 answers
6k views

Many arcade games throughout the 1980s (and beyond) had an independent CPU, for handling sound and music. Some games had the CPU more-or-less directly driving a DAC (e.g. Defender, Qix), and in this ...
Meatwad's user avatar
  • 715
17 votes
7 answers
4k views

The method I am referring to is visible in videos such as these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu5zd5fCaPA https://youtu.be/fWDxdoRTZPc?si=cqPRdGtLAR_uAfK7&t=509 The PC speaker from what I ...
Hash's user avatar
  • 1,067
2 votes
1 answer
388 views

Asking this question because I want to implement performant sound handling on weaker systems. Yes, while I am aware that whatever methods used are well out of date, I also want to implement them as a ...
Hash's user avatar
  • 1,067
1 vote
1 answer
245 views

I am well aware of the SID's wide filtering capabilities. Ranging from a low, to high, to even a bandpass filter along with added resonance manipulation support, you could bring it insanely close to ...
Hash's user avatar
  • 1,067
7 votes
2 answers
3k views

The NES Ricoh RP2A03 has a noise channel amongst its 5 sound channels. My sources include the NesDEV wiki: https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/APU_Noise To quote the wiki directly, The shift register is 15 ...
Hash's user avatar
  • 1,067
14 votes
7 answers
5k views

The sound of a floppy drive is iconic. It is burned into the memory of all people in a certain age group. Some smarter ones even made music with them. But was there ever any effort to quiet them down? ...
Vilx-'s user avatar
  • 1,883
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Two of the more famous and highly regarded sound chips in the 8-bit era were the Commodore 64's SID and the Nintendo APU. Which of the two was overall better, seems to be a matter on which there is a ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 65.4k
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

I'm looking for a reference for a command which used letters for musical notes, and would play very simple tunes with square waves. It ran on an IBM AT, circa 1984, which was running a version of IBM/...
jonathanjo's user avatar
  • 792
16 votes
5 answers
4k views

The original version of Shadowgate for the Macintosh is an eerie experience after you have played the NES version, with its amazing soundtrack. The Mac version is entirely mute, save for some random ...
user27284's user avatar
  • 161
7 votes
1 answer
376 views

I have been looking in the files of this 90s Mac game MacSki, made by D. Cook. Using Infinite Mac emulator, I've been able to open it and make it work quite well (some keyboard issue, well). We obtain ...
Luc's user avatar
  • 241
5 votes
0 answers
278 views

Until today, you can download soundbanks for the Java Sound API from Oracle here. What surprises me is, that they are not hidden on an old subpage -- you find them freely accessible on their website ...
hefe's user avatar
  • 679
4 votes
1 answer
260 views

I've seen reference to a TDYSPKR (.EXE or .COM?) tool that sets audio output options on the early Tandy 1000 series of computers (1000, 1000A, 1000SX, 1000TX, maybe others). Apparently it can toggle ...
craig65535's user avatar
  • 178
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Drew asks: … what was the latest terminal produced which rang a physical bell rather than beeping through a speaker?
scruss's user avatar
  • 22.8k

15 30 50 per page
1
2 3 4 5