Questions About the Sound Capability of the Atari 2600

[+Pat Brady]

10 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

AFAIK Kylearan's TIATracker handles both channels separately.

TIATracker supports separate per-channel tempos and song lengths, but not AFAIK playing independently-started "songs" on each channel. IOW the two-channel output is deterministic. I would like to be wrong.

[+Random Terrain]

Has anyone posted a link to this page yet?

 

https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-music-and-sound.html

 

 

Semi-related page:

 

https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-music-toy.html

[Thomas Jentzsch]

40 minutes ago, Pat Brady said:

TIATracker supports separate per-channel tempos and song lengths, but not AFAIK playing independently-started "songs" on each channel. IOW the two-channel output is deterministic. I would like to be wrong.

Not sure if I get you, but you could always add a random, silent, pause sequence that the beginning of one song.

[+Pat Brady]

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Not sure if I get you, but you could always add a random, silent, pause sequence that the beginning of one song.

Consider Moon Patrol. One channel plays the background music constantly. The other channel plays sound effects at arbitrary times when various things happen in the game (such as: the player shoots or jumps). Clearly that's possible on the 2600 — Moon Patrol is proof — but AFAIK neither TIATracker nor Music Kit can do it. They both feed both channels deterministically from whatever song is playing. Again, I hope I'm wrong.