A2600 Music

[iesposta]

"Many games probably don't have enough free time during each scan line to allow for updating the volume even once per scan line..."

 

Woah. Stop. Don't think like that!

Games are here and coming with music (Chetiry) and speech (Frantic) during gameplay. (Sample speech, not AtariVox+ speech). Hold on to your seats.

Not arguing, just saying different way of making music.

Here is using bB and Built-in notes:

musicTrill.bas.bin

[enthusi]

Some demo-tune-player may in fact use sampling. But you can do pretty decent stuff using the different polynomial counters by themselves and changing them frame-to-frame.

Check i.e. tunes created for the player linked above.

Those special poly sounds are pretty far from saw-tooth or sinus curves.

But Im no musician in particular not for the 2600

I would still bet that the vast majority of music on 2600 updates once per frame.

But Im here to learn.

[Der Luchs]

~takes 3D Glasses and popcorn~

[SeaGtGruff]

"Many games probably don't have enough free time during each scan line to allow for updating the volume even once per scan line..."

 

Woah. Stop. Don't think like that!

Games are here and coming with music (Chetiry) and speech (Frantic) during gameplay. (Sample speech, not AtariVox+ speech). Hold on to your seats.

Not arguing, just saying different way of making music.

Here is using bB and Built-in notes:

It's like anything else-- if you really want it in your game, you'll do whatever it takes to squeeze it into the scan lines loop of your kernel.

 

I just meant that it's fairly common in a game for the programmer to run out of cycles and end up having to look for ways to shave off a cycle here or there wherever possible to make things fit, including unrolling the loop if necessary.

 

I should probably point out that I'm referring mainly to non-DPC+ games that don't have the benefit of data queues and computations that get performed in the background by the ARM co-processor-- you know, "classic-style" Atari 2600 games. In cases like that, the sounds and music would most likely be updated only once per frame, definitely not once or more per line.

 

But if you're using the Harmony and DPC+, you can squeeze more things into the scan lines anyway, so of course you'll probably have plenty of time to update one of the volume registers at least once on each line-- and then likely update the other volume register once per frame for the percussion or noises that use the TIA's built-in sounds.

 

As for sampled speech-- enthusi already pointed out that it can be done using once-per-frame updating.

[SeaGtGruff]

But you can do pretty decent stuff using the different polynomial counters by themselves and changing them frame-to-frame.

If you mean changing the control registers (waveforms) from one frame to the next, I haven't tried alternating between different waveforms yet-- just alternating between different frequencies to try to get "better" notes (i.e., more in tune as judged by equal temperament). I'll have to try "flickering" the waveforms, too.

 

I would still bet that the vast majority of music on 2600 updates once per frame.

Oh, no doubt about it! The Harmony and DPC+ is a definite game-changer, but it will take many, many years and many, many homebrew programmers churning out hundreds of new DPC+ games before once-per-line music comes anywhere close to matching the numbers of once-per-frame music on the 2600.

[enthusi]

As for sampled speech-- enthusi already pointed out that it can be done using once-per-frame updating.

 

You mean CANT? Than Im totally fine

Personally I dont consider DPC+/ARM Atari 2600 anymore (depending on what it does for you, that is).

That's just my personal opinion

 

I'd like to summarize: you can do quite some amazing things using plain once-per-frame writes to the AUDxx registers

Edited April 10, 2013 by enthusi

[Der Luchs]

Back to Topic, some Music ^^

Here's the last "Song" I've added as Rom,

have fun

Der_Luchs_-_Tonstoerung_A2600.bin

[Der Luchs]

For all who cares, final melody:

Der_Luchs_-_Thrash.bin

[SeaGtGruff]

You mean CANT? Than Im totally fine

Oh, you're right-- I misread what you'd written! Sorry, and thanks for the correction.

[iesposta]

Here is a music example using DPC+ with three voices coming out of one sound channel.

Run the demo press select to go to the music. The left joystick and the left joystick fire button can be used to hear each of the three channels and the right joystick can be used to select sine(up), triangle(down), or square(left) waves.

00-DPCWeWish.bin

[SeaGtGruff]

Here is a music example using DPC+ with three voices coming out of one sound channel.

Thank you for posting that! I think I like the square waves' sound the best.

[iesposta]

You are welcome. The square has that distinctive video game sound, and it is loud.

Supercat was really taking this far with vibrato / tremolo, but had to stop for real life.

I have even heard shapes that sound like strings and wood winds, not just beepy screechy notes.

I would really like to hear an organ chord sound like arcade Wizard of Wor - it has that wavering quality.

[LS_Dracon]

For all who cares, final melody:

 

This is a good one for a bonus screen.

[Der Luchs]

Now we only need a Game

Coders step forward

[Der Luchs]

[Der Luchs]

BEL.bin

[Der Luchs]

Hi Folks,

if someone is making a Scrolling Shooter at the moment,

here's your Theme ^^

I really like this one, what do you think?

Der Luchs - Scrolling Shooter Theme.bin

[iesposta]

I like! It seems as if there is more than two channels.

For in-game, since it is short, I would try 2X 4x 8x each measure to stretch it out, or maybe a measure for each wave?

[Der Luchs]

Too short??? If I'm listening to my A2600 Games, the Tunes are much shorter ^^

I don't know how much space I got for music in a game...

"Scrolling Shooter Theme" is 1078 bytes of Data. Is there really more space left for music?

That would be great then I don't need to limit a Tune like I did all the time before

[Der Luchs]

Ok, if I would do the Tune as I like, I need to make 4 Roms... So I think it's already too long for a Game

[iesposta]

You misunderstand. I did not say add to the song.

You asked what I thought. I said I liked it. I suggested that if I were to use it I would try looping the segments 'measures' so instead of segment 1, 2, 3, 4 I would try 1,1,1,1, 2,2,2,2, 3,3,3,3, 4,4,4,4 or I would try looping piece 1 for a wave if the wave is short then loop part 2 for the next wave.

[Der Luchs]

But how can I loop without adding it?

[Der Luchs]

BTW: Everyone who knows the answer is welcome to post it

[Der Luchs]

No one knows how to loop?

[Tjoppen]

Add some LSRs in strategic places in the player so it reuses each pattern four times?