[HN Gopher] The Sound of 1-bit: Musical Creativity on the 48k Si...
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       The Sound of 1-bit: Musical Creativity on the 48k Sinclair ZX
       Spectrum (2017)
        
       Author : beagle3
       Score  : 61 points
       Date   : 2021-03-25 23:33 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.gamejournal.it)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.gamejournal.it)
        
       | hansjorg wrote:
       | Some examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtSRhIM4oaQ
       | 
       | Pretty impressive given the limitations, but not very pleasant
       | compared to e.g. the C64 SID.
        
       | _def wrote:
       | Some years ago I actually owned a ZX Spectrum and I managed to
       | run some demos on it loaded via my PC audio out. I'm still
       | searching for that one great track it played.
       | 
       | It sounded similar to this tune:
       | https://youtu.be/QZnOd_f9YjQ?t=371
        
       | l33tman wrote:
       | It's a very interesting article but yes, they need to lead with
       | at least some youtube links to actual examples of what they're
       | explaining otherwise you might as well just put up the PDF and
       | nothing else.
        
       | ctdonath wrote:
       | In high school, I built a 1-bit sound board for the Sinclair
       | ZX-80, programmed in machine code to play musically tuned delay
       | loops for notes. This was inspired by noticing AM radio
       | interference as sounds corresponding to program execution.
       | Highlight was getting it to play "Yankee Doodle" for a science
       | fair. Think I still have it in a box somewhere, will look.
        
       | elevaet wrote:
       | The nice thing about 1-bit music is that you automatically win
       | the loudness war
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | odipar wrote:
       | I always was a Sinclair guy, even developed some cracking (tape
       | copier) software back in `80s (youth crime, I know).
       | 
       | I also had friends who owned a C64. Someday, a friend let me
       | listen to another 1 bit sound that was produced by ..... the C64
       | diskdrive!
       | 
       | I was really flabbergasted by that hack!
        
       | zserge wrote:
       | Glad to see this topic getting attention on HN! I just finished a
       | post about 1-bit music a few days ago:
       | https://zserge.com/posts/1-bit-music/
        
       | Zenst wrote:
       | I managed to get 8 octaves of tones out of a ZX-81 in my youth
       | without any extra hardware. Bit banging the cassette port audio
       | out and running that output into line in worked. Wasn't amazing
       | and boring organ tone at best and would use a fair chunk of the
       | CPU. But like most thinks was a case of fellow school friends
       | boasting about their zx-spectrum with audio, one just don't take
       | that sitting down.
        
       | maverick74 wrote:
       | aaaaahhhhhhhh the GOOOOD OLD TIMES!!!
       | 
       | how i miss them!!!
       | 
       | No cellphones, no internet...
       | 
       | Hey Hey 16K
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d8UfQn3BEg
        
       | devcamcar wrote:
       | Love the idea of this ... Please lead with the music and then
       | explain it. You lost me after the 7th paragraph.
        
       | rob74 wrote:
       | It's not only the cheapo Sinclair Spectrum that had to make do
       | with this "1-bit" sound, the much more expensive IBM PC didn't
       | have better sound hardware "out of the box" either:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_speaker
        
         | aricz wrote:
         | High quality PC-speaker music https://youtu.be/Xqjs1SPF9KY
        
         | amiga-workbench wrote:
         | I don't remember it being widely used for music, but some games
         | did a pretty good job with it.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSvj3Hjxiic
         | 
         | The 8088MPH demo also sounds surprisingly good.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRO7lno_DM
        
       | incanus77 wrote:
       | This is great, but man, it could really have benefitted from some
       | inline audio.
        
       | tobyhinloopen wrote:
       | TLDR where is the music
        
         | egypturnash wrote:
         | it's in a new tab when you type something like "sinclair agent
         | x music" into duck duck google
        
         | maverick74 wrote:
         | That's exactly what i was also looking for :)
        
       | Koshkin wrote:
       | I have never understood why having a 1-bit DAC in a CD player was
       | something to brag about.
        
         | mrob wrote:
         | Because controlling timing of signals is easier than
         | controlling level. You can take advantage of the fast and low-
         | jitter clocks already made for digital electronics.
         | 
         | If you have a multi-bit DAC, it's difficult to made it linear.
         | With a 1-bit DAC, it's much easier, because you only have two
         | possible output values. And if you run it fast enough, you can
         | apply a simple analog low-pass filter to the output and convert
         | speed to bit-depth.
        
       | 2a0c40 wrote:
       | Here's a classic by Tim Follin
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/u-D24A_N4d4
        
         | Flow wrote:
         | Here's a SID cover by Linus:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shj1_T68SBo
        
         | 112233 wrote:
         | For me technically the most impressive was the title screen of
         | Dark Fusion:
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/gXe51IsT2xs
         | 
         | They even scroll stars in the playback routine
        
       | JudasGoat wrote:
       | In the 1990's I serviced computer printers and monitors. Juki
       | made a daisy wheel printer called the 6100. It was unique in that
       | it used mag-lev to suspend the print head. It came to mind
       | regarding this story because someone had written software to
       | convert the Juki 6100 to a graphics printer, using the Period Key
       | Only. It printed at 18 characters per second, try to imagine how
       | slow that is.
        
         | dcminter wrote:
         | I hope you had a printer hood! Those things were deafening!
        
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