How to Play a Simple Note with Atari BASIC

[ColecoFan1981]

Hi,

 

How does one go about playing just one note in Atari BASIC?

 

On the TI-99/4A's BASIC, the command to play a single note is:

 

CALL SOUND(1000,440,2)

 

where...

"1000" indicates the duration of the note in milliseconds (from 1 to 4.25 seconds)

"440" is the tone level in Hz, and

"2" is the volume of the tone.

 

I also have to realize that on the Atari 8-bit machines the sounds and tones are in descending numbers rather than ascending. So, what would I enter to play a 60 Hz tone (mains hum)?

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

Ben

[Bryan]

This should help:

 

http://www.atariarchives.org/basic/showpage.php?page=298

 

http://www.atariarchives.org/dere/chapt07.php

 

http://www.atariarchives.org/creativeatari/An_Atari_Library_of_Sound.php

[ColecoFan1981]

This should help:

 

http://www.atariarch...ge.php?page=298

 

http://www.atariarch...ere/chapt07.php

 

http://www.atariarch...ry_of_Sound.php

I also want to know if the kind of tone I want to generate would involve the use of PEEK and POKE. The tone numbers from lowest to highest are given as 0-255 in descending order (255 being lowest and 0 being highest).

 

So, again, here is a list of sounds I would like to generate on Atari BASIC:

*Lawn mower - gasoline

*Lawn mower - electric

 

Thank you again,

 

 

 

Ben

[miker]

For first try: SOUND 0,255,12,6

 

for second: SOUND 0,132,12,2

 

and turn it off by SOUND 0,0,0,0.

[ColecoFan1981]

For first try: SOUND 0,255,12,6

 

for second: SOUND 0,132,12,2

 

and turn it off by SOUND 0,0,0,0.

Thank you!

[+Stephen]

For first try: SOUND 0,255,12,6

 

for second: SOUND 0,132,12,2

 

and turn it off by SOUND 0,0,0,0.

Thank you!

Quick explanation - 1st # is voice (0-3 is acceptable), 2nd is frequency (0-255), 3rd is distortion/noise (0-15 is range, IIRC 8 and 12 are pure but it has been a few years), 4th is volume (0-15 range).

[ColecoFan1981]

For first try: SOUND 0,255,12,6

 

for second: SOUND 0,132,12,2

 

and turn it off by SOUND 0,0,0,0.

Thank you!

Quick explanation - 1st # is voice (0-3 is acceptable), 2nd is frequency (0-255), 3rd is distortion/noise (0-15 is range, IIRC 8 and 12 are pure but it has been a few years), 4th is volume (0-15 range).

The sound can also be turned off by typing END when you're done running the program. And SOUND can also be abbreviated to "SO."

 

~Ben

[Synthpopalooza]

For first try: SOUND 0,255,12,6

 

for second: SOUND 0,132,12,2

 

and turn it off by SOUND 0,0,0,0.

 

Sometimes I have noticed the sound doesn't cut cleanly off when you do SOUND 0,0,0,0, there's like a snippet of white noise that lasts a fraction of a second ... so you should do this:

 

When you use SOUND 0,132,12,2 .... cut off the sound by using SOUND 0,132,12,0 thereby keeping your frequency and timbre values the same.