Little-Scale sent a link to his table of most of the sync options available for Gameboys running LSDJ or Nanoloop. Handy and informative.
For new users its sometimes difficult to wade through everything just to get a simple answer, so this is quick and entertaining read.
b00DaW writes in with his new sequencer project:
“The Fairchild Channel F (VES) was the first programmable ROM console geared toward
the consumer market. It was also originally designed with the ability to output three very out-of-tune tones on a single channel through its internal speaker. Sound obviously wasn’t a major priority; versus cost and playability. Saying this, people still generally had a good opinion of the games for the Fairchild Channel F.
Unfortunately, with the invention and introduction of the Atari 2600 (VCS), the Channel F was utterly destroyed and kicked out of the market due to the superiority of the Atari VCS’s sound, colors, and games. I’m not going to compare the VES to the VCS because truly the VES is at a total loss compared to the VCS. In 1979, Fairchild sold the rights to the Channel F to Zircon. Thinking they’d get a piece of the market, they took the same console, fixed some of the sound architecture, and replaced the internal speaker with a jack-out to a television.
This was deemed the Channel F System II; which also failed in the US of A. However, Europe seemed to
take off pretty well with its many licensed versions of the System II VES consoles.
The System II is the focus of the discussion.
With a little bit of internet-aided archaeology, I was able to discover this console and also a pretty well-documented wiki focused on VES development. By disassembling and reverse-engineering the proprietary F8 assembly code for the game Pro Football, hackers were able to steal and optimize an effectively brilliant way to output all sorts of tones from the original three by essentially modulating one at different duty cycles. This is where my sequencer comes in.
Currently, I am able to output a few octaves of notes with the little-modified Pro Football PlaySong routine. (I have other duty cycles and other effects in the making, but essentially am learning as I go.) Baron Knoxburry, Battle of the Bits father and brother, was able to create a very awesome tune using the first release of the sequencer.
baron_knoxburry_-_fninja_channelf
As you can see, the notes are in tune and even crude percussion is able to be
produced by different tone modulation and placement.
Where is it now?
The state of the sequencer:
So, what’s so cool about this single-channel sequencer for a 1976/1979 failed console? Well, you’re making it do something that it wasn’t originally designed to do for one. Also, this really helps in the aid of sound design. Every millisecond counts since you only have one channel to work with. It’s an intense challenge to
produce quality music from a single channel, limited piece of hardware. This could practically aid in the design for new-age audio to any other chip you decide to “tune.”
Pushing the boundaries of the chip definition, Bondage Fairires are a 2 piece Pixies style c64 weirdo flameout. They are following up their “What you didn’t know when you hired me” with the 7″ inch release “Garbage Indiebands”.
You can order the record worldwide, or you can preview the title track on their Myspace.
I always loved how new items where displayed on VORC, so I’ll ape that for a bit.
hard plAYer- is an 8 bit tunes hardware player, which allows you to listen to the same melodies you could listen to in some of the 80’s home computers and videogame consoles. In next versions It will also work as MIDI synthesizer. It’s audio sound generator porcessor is the General Instruments AY-3891X the same one that was used in vintage computers like the Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Spectrum ZX, MSX, Oric, or Colour Genie, and consoles like the Intellivision or Vectrex. The YM-2149 was a Yamaha’s licensed version of this processor.
I am really looking forward to the next update when it will support midi in. As it currently stands, you can play tracks off sd cards. In the meantime check out a overview of the player or this video of the interface.
Philly Visual Artist NO CARRIER is giving a lecture at Indy Hall. He writes:
“Their time in the spotlight may be over, but many have found uses for forgotten video game consoles and computer hardware. Although 8-bit games are a thing of the past, there is a vibrant art scene with retrocomputing at its core. The hardware of the Game Boy, Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Commodore 64 are repurposed and software reprogrammed to turn these aging machines into synthesizers, sequencers, visualizers, and much more.
Don Miller, or NO CARRIER, is an educator, programmer, and live visualist living in Philadelphia. Part of the 8bitpeoples artist collective, he writes new software for nearly obsolete videogame and computer hardware, for use at live music events and installations. He performs regularly in Philly and NYC, and has recently taken his visuals worldwide. Catch him again this year at the Blip Festival, December 4th-7th 2008, in NYC.”
RSVP Here