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Hidden sounds of Pokey: A demo tune (2-tone-filter)


analmux

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Hello all.

 

Last few weeks I was investigating some feature of Pokey that was unknown to me, and possibly unknown to most people here. Bryan pointed it out a few months ago.

 

My first reaction was like "wow, It sounds a bit like there's another soundchip inside".

 

I tried to analyze it, and wanted to know if it is usable in pokey tracks.

 

 

A week ago I tried to use the feature in a demo-tune, which I included in an .atr

 

The demo can be found below, which is in .atr format:

 

You should run the file on a real atari 8 bit. Emulation doesn't support the 2-tone feature (yet :) )

 

(this is the file that can also be found on Fandal's site http://atari.fandal.cz under the name "Delta Remix"....thanks to Fandal for putting it available there ;) )

 

The tune is based on an already existing RMT tune, which I slightly hacked, to enable the so called '2-tone mode' of Pokey, used for cassette IO. So, it's still an early demo version of what should really be possible with the 2-tone-filter. First of all (since Fox asked) I wanted to show that the 2-tone-filter is suited for music.

 

 

More technical background can be found here, in this AA thread:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...118448&st=0

 

Enjoy the listen.

Edited by Analogue Multiplexer
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Sounds a bit distorted...

 

Distorted in what way?

 

It's far from perfect off coarse. There's all kinds of things that aren't clean....tune could be far optimized further for sure.

 

Yea, I think he's referring to the out of tune sound in places (as even I noticed) but it's just a demo... plus there's a lot of stuff people try to do on the pokey that will never sound right or in-tune imo.

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Distorted in what way?

 

Voices are not clean, sometimes voices are completely out of tune. The conversion of Delta theme done by Raster just sounds better. Don't take it personal, please.

 

I see. Yes, the original tune of Raster had also some vibratos e.a. ...I removed them indeed to simplify the tune. They can be put back in. The same thing applies to the envelope tables.

 

I simplified the tune a bit to minimize the factors that must be tweaked, as I had to correct some parameters (mainly transpose factors) by trial and error:

-compose

-export to XEX

-hack one byte with hex-editor

-export to ATR

-upload via sio2pc

-listen on real thing

-and over and over, until I was satisfied.

 

 

Distortions can be cancelled much much easier when there's a Pokey tracker that supports the 2-tone-filter :)

 

My aim of this little demonstration is to inspire Fox e.a. to include 2-tone-filter support in emulator and to pokey trackers.

Edited by Analogue Multiplexer
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  • 12 years later...

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