Real Atari 8-Bit Impressions

[macgoo]

C64 sounds like Arpet/Minimoog/MS-10. NES just sounds like cheap non-MIDI synths under $99 from home shopping catalogues ergo rubbish IMO. Depends what kind of music you prefer....cheesy Japanese FM synthpop or early 80s pioneering experimental analogue synth music that lead the world for a decade

 

 

SID has it's musically qualities. But, I wonder why people put so much into a sound device that has more flaws than goods ... for a synthesizer....

The huge selling amount of C64s doesn't mean SID would lead the world, as in that time people prefered to listen to real music, when playing games on the computer. It's a huge fanbase, that still lives , and possibly held alive due to the SID tunes. POKEY tunes alone really wouldn't....

 

btw... you like experimental music?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00fCjpdF69g

 

And yet people pay $1000s of dollars for early analogue synths today because they release what a load of rubbish and limiting artistically the FM digital synths were. It's not the SID that people loved in the grand scheme of things, it's the sound of analogue synths which people like Matt Grey and Martin Galways squeezed out of the little SID. They share the same disadvantages in terms of repeatable identical setup/sound on two of the same make/model of synth units but at the same time I think the world over people would agree the sound of analogue synths is just better than all that Rick Astley type rubbish.

 

Something like the Ensoniq 32 oscillator sound chip designed by the designer of SID is much more desirable to me than say an 8 channel sample playback chip with no effects processing of the Acorn RISC computers. The only reason I own a Ninbendo DS is to play around with the DS10 cartridge

 

And yes those sounds in that video are quite bizarre but good! There was a C64 tune for a game with Ghosts in it and I think those sounds would go better in that tune (forget the name at the moment).

Edited August 28, 2012 by macgoo

[emkay]

Something in stereo ...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvvMYBQE8J0

[+Philsan]

Is it possible to have the xex of that very nice tune for my collection?

[emkay]

Is it possible to have the xex of that very nice tune for my collection?

 

Interesting, isn't it

Imagine... it's 1979, you plug in a Cartridge, plug it to the stereo and you get such music and graphics in a game...

 

I wonder, what could be the best way to get the "Goat Tracker" files converted to the RMT. Some tunes yell for being converted to the A8

Edited August 29, 2012 by emkay

[sack-c0s]

Is it possible to have the xex of that very nice tune for my collection?

 

Interesting, isn't it

Imagine... it's 1979, you plug in a Cartridge, plug it to the stereo and you get such music and graphics in a game...

 

I wonder, what could be the best way to get the "Goat Tracker" files converted to the RMT. Some tunes yell for being converted to the A8

 

Put goattracker at one side of the screen, RMT at the other and port it across pattern-by-pattern, fixing up as you go. Due to the tuning issues with Pokey an automated process doesn't always sound that good so this really does end up being the least painful way of getting a good result.

[sack-c0s]

One of those days waiting for automates processes to run for an absolute age.. got bored. knocked this together.

 

Not the greatest thing in the world but it did stop me being bored for a bit at least

 

this comes under my usual DWTFYLWI licence

 

 

sack_whereismymind.zip

Edited August 31, 2012 by sack-c0s

[emkay]

One of those days waiting for automates processes to run for an absolute age.. got bored. knocked this together.

 

Not the greatest thing in the world but it did stop me being bored for a bit at least

 

this comes under my usual DWTFYLWI licence

 

 

sack_whereismymind.zip

 

Not my kind of "yeah I like that music", but it's so predefined for putting it into some workaround...

 

 

(media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzjZPmrJbQI[/media]

 

This is how "SAP" is playing it. I should add a video using RMT directly, so you could compare....

[Creature XL]

This is how "SAP" is playing it. I should add a video using RMT directly, so you could compare....

 

How about a XEX (as Sack did) so we can hear how it sounds on the Atari?

[emkay]

 

 

How about a XEX (as Sack did) so we can hear how it sounds on the Atari?

 

The problem is still the finetuning. 1st I made a setting for RMT itself, then I adjusted it to SAP. The version here is how it was "optimized" for SAP in RMT. ...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8P9jJDmZ5A

 

compare it...

 

 

 

 

[emkay]

To make it clear. SAP is closer to the real thing. The RMT libraries still have problems with the "overlay" of the voices.

[emkay]

This one is more adjusted to RMT .... to the viewer might get clear where 16 bit features were urgend , and where 16 Bit (not supported) solves some problems... and where it isn't needed

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd5Jov3MvGY

Edited September 1, 2012 by emkay

[emkay]

5 Instruments later...

 

... and some more of the "morse sound" effect turning into a melodic flow....

The main melody is build upon some portamentos. You should hear the difference, where it belongs to ...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhziRrWHk3Y

Edited September 2, 2012 by emkay

[Xuel]

5 Instruments later...

 

... and some more of the "morse sound" effect turning into a melodic flow....

The main melody is build upon some portamentos. You should hear the difference, where it belongs to ...

 

This one reminds me of

.

[emkay]

5 Instruments later...

 

... and some more of the "morse sound" effect turning into a melodic flow....

The main melody is build upon some portamentos. You should hear the difference, where it belongs to ...

 

This one reminds me of

.

 

Hm.... No Idea why

 

But here is another version.... had some spare time

It's using some 16 bit ... here and there... and some updates

 

The name explains something...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klbw4ztr-kQ

[emkay]

Here a SAP optimized version.... Well, the library is more stable and it sounds more original....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20gka6dB6s0

Edited September 3, 2012 by emkay

[emkay]

RMT version of "Cybernoid"

 

Missing 16 bit support

Missing direct filter control, thus many sound gaps.

Also different base frequencies in the emulations...

 

But, all in all, recognizable...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dCzSSSLUY4

[emkay]

The SAP player has a problem with some pokey settings, as it seems. Depending on the used pitch combination, the emulation turns the pitch down. That's why the sound sometimes wow and flutters (check WIMM SAP recording).

Keeping the typical POKEY soundmix, it gets reduced ....

 

This one keeps the pitch stable... in RMT and the SAP ...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGEZDAFSp84

[sack-c0s]

can you glide between notes using those instruments?

[Creature XL]

In another thread, some one said that Galway doesn't want the lead to be a guitar.

At least Reyn thinks different:

 

[emkay]

can you glide between notes using those instruments?

 

could you get a bit more precise with your question?

[emkay]

POKEY FX.... sometimes "high adjusted" sometimes "low adjusted".

 

And there is a nifty "flip" in the melody on the right position

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hAVuX77AZI

[sack-c0s]

could you get a bit more precise with your question?

 

It's just in the original some of the notes are more subtle and it glides between them without restarting the instrument. Not having that in this version creates a bit of a jarring effect and I was wondering if it was possible to fix that with this insturment set, because apart from that one thing it sounds pretty good.

 

That said throwing a bag of cats off the top of a skyscraper would sound better than the Atari/amiga version of the music so you didn't have to go so far to beat that

[emkay]

 

 

It's just in the original some of the notes are more subtle and it glides between them without restarting the instrument.

 

 

The "restart" of the instruments has to do with the correction. If using such portamentos, some corrections would be needed, to keep the "face of the instrument".

So, you'd better ask me this question , after a working Tracker has arrived, that allows the corrections independent of the musical flow.

Ofcourse, I could set the values to have it sounding better in the RMT, but there are still the additional timing issues that makes it useless to create such a time consuming finetuning.

 

Not having that in this version creates a bit of a jarring effect and I was wondering if it was possible to fix that with this insturment set, because apart from that one thing it sounds pretty good.

 

That said throwing a bag of cats off the top of a skyscraper would sound better than the Atari/amiga version of the music so you didn't have to go so far to beat that

 

Come on. In the 80s you wouldn't even have bothered with that type of sounding in a tune

[emkay]

OK. This one uses only one "base instrument" at the 2nd filter channel.

Some instruments change through the octaves...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh-jZpRBQXA

 

 

[emkay]

This one doesn't take use of special corrections on the main voice. It's just using the "standard" modulations there.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOMEyN9KCvs