ZX SPECTRUM "RAW RECRUIT" beeper music

[blyadko]

Cool. Much better than modern video game soundtracks.

[GoodmansGhost]

The only ZX tune I can relax to. Everything else burns like fire (Even when I like it ;) )

[dugthefreshest]

I love me some tim follin (even though he didnt even try to make this sound different then chronos lol. )

[mootbooxle]

TIM IS THAT DUDE!!!!!!

[deftroniks]

Love the 7/8 section on this tune.. ZX spectrum tunes are always really phat!

[2Trololo]

1-bit music is wonderful

[robertjamesfrost]

i think this might be the same audio engine as used on the game "Agent X" which had very similar chip music :-)

[yerzmyey]

@robertjamesfrost : yes, it's the same engine or a bit developed (more channels, if I recall).

[Abrimaal]

@yerzmyey The most advanced composition is Agent X 2 with additional snare drum played by the AY chip, it is more than 5 minutes long. The drum was used also in Chronos. Pity that all the games with his music were so crappy.

[Minority119]

gotta admit, sounds like shit, but feels like the god damn God of War orchestra

plz dont kill me

[vavas386]

Is this how it sounds a ZX Spectrum 48Kb without any sound expansion?. I mean, I understand the sound comes from the Z80?... 3 channels of digitized sound, right?... I kinda like this sort of envelop... is that an effect achieved by hardware?... Uhhmmm I guess I know little about the ZX. Was a rare machine this side of the world.

[yerzmyey]

@vavas386 Yes, that's pure Z80 with ULA as an output. This is not digitalized sound in this case, this is synthetic sound (a chiptune). Also there are 5 channels, not 3. This is a music-engine written by Tim Follin himself. He was about 17 years old at that time. :)

[CartoonsKick]

@vavas386 The ZX Spectrum 48k was a 1 channel, no specific hardware sound wise other than a simple 8 octave beeper. Tim Follins coded first 5, then 6 (Agent X 2) channel sound from little more than a beeper (though in Agent X 2 graphics were turned off while the CPU did the music). IMO better than the SID chip rendition of the same tune. Possibly 'cos I had a Spectrum, and music of this high a level was unknown to Speccy owners!

[MiracleKD18]

Sounds awesome.

[Smitakus]

One of the best sounds. Still it to be pleasant to me "Ramparts"

[yerzmyey]

@Smitakus I agree, "Ramparts" rulez too.

[Abrimaal]

Czasem tak się zastanawiam, czy zespoły typu In Flames lub Dark Tranquillity (Swedish Melodic Metal) nie inspirowały się takim brzmieniem, szczególnie z utworów z gier Firefly czy Hyper Active.

[NotATube]

Very impressive. While it has a definite "grungy" feel, it still sounds like genuine multi-channel, and *way* more advanced than a single-channel output has the right to(!)

I remember hearing "Agent X" on a friend's +2, and thinking it was really cool, even compared to some stuff on my 4-channel Atari 800XL. Didn't discover till recently it was *single* channel!

Ironically the original speccy's internal beeper is probably too faint to do this justice; you need the TV amplification(!)

[yerzmyey]

Beeper is only for people who has no audio setup (like TV sound on 800XL). Spectrum has normal audio-output: "MIC" port. Regular 'jack'. (800XL has it in 'monitor' port, I have a special cable for it). I didn't know anybody who was listenning music from internal speaker. It's like on Atari Falcon. There is an internal speaker but everybody use audio-ouput.

Obviously.

[yerzmyey]

The same goes to 800XL: I was never listenning music from TV set. It's only an equivalent. I plug the cable in - and I have good quality of sound from every 8bit machine. Spectrum, XL, Commodore Plus/4... And so on. :)

[NotATube]

TV sound was good enough for most 8-bit home computers. I never understood why they included internal sound on most computers. (Wouldn't it have been cheaper and better to mux the speccy beeps to the TV output- in addition to mic- instead of having a separate beeper in the first place?)

[yerzmyey]

"TV sound was good enough for most 8-

"bit home computers" ----------- No it wasn't. Nothing more far from truth. Atari XL sounds like shit on old TV sound. And it sound beautiful on normal hi-fi. The same goes to Spectrum, Commodore and others. Of course considering You're a chiptune fan, not only a game player. Then probably some squicks from internal speaker are enough, while killing enemies. I woudn't know.

[compactVotive]

To me, this sounds vaguely similar to Sega Genesis music. Do they both use the z80 chip?

[yerzmyey]

Actually Sega uses different kinds of synthesis - FM (on Yamaha YM2612 chip) and PSG (on Texas Instruments SN76489 chip). But if they use also CPU while TI is playing, then maybe it would sound similar, I don't know actually. :)

[maiki60fps]

Sega has Z80 to control the music chips but you can do it on 68000 as well. BUT wha you are listening to now is nothing but custom program to generate music on a single 1-bit beeper... on Genesis probably nobody did this but it would be possible and Im sure far more advanced due to its HW capabilities... FM synthesis IMO was not a good choice as many sounds are simply ugly (as you may know from early PC soundcards)... luckily there is SN chip in Sega (just listen to Streets Of Rage for instance)

[johny8888888]

>on Genesis probably nobody did this

>but it would be possible and Im sure far

>more advanced due to its HW

>capabilities

^^^^^^^

Who cares, who gives a f*ck what WOULD be possible on Genesis or any other hardware. That counts only what IS, not what "could be". Would be also possible on PC but has never appeared so still PC beeper sucks big time and Spectrum's beeper is total master. That's the true, nuff' said.

[johny8888888]

"on Genesis probably nobody did this

but it would be possible and Im sure far

more advanced due to its HW

capabilities"

_______________

Who cares, who gives a f*ck what WOULD be possible on Genesis or any other hardware. That counts only what IS, not what "could be". Would be also possible on PC but has never appeared so still PC beeper sucks big time and Spectrum's beeper is total master. That's the true, nuff' said.

[JohnEpi1973]

F***** yieh ! Tim Follin used to rule the earth in case you didn't know it... what times !

Great music. I don't even remember the game after that. i was in shock !

[Kinguta]

I loaded this rom and was shocked when I heard this awesome song.

[yerzmyey]

I had the same feeling. :) And for real machine plugged into some loudspeakers it sounds better. :)

[mingepotato]

Being there when this exploded from your otherwise 'beeping' Spectrum just dropped your jaw and made you dance round the room in amazement!

[yerzmyey]

I'm not exactly sure what do You mean however we're happy to have in majority really good songs on beeper z80 . i-demo . pl (remove spaces).

[mingepotato]

I mean that when I heard my first Spectrum Tim Follin tune (Chronos), I could not believe how good it sounded and still think so today:) He is a genius.

[mariodivine]

To ja proszę o muzę z CHRONOS. Kiedy usłyszałem pierwszy raz to aż mnie zwaliło z nóg!

[yerzmyey]

Mialem to samo. :)

Ale wszystkie kawalki sa na stronie

z80 . i-demo . pl / music . html

(usun spacje). Jest tam rowniez Chronos. :)

Pozdrawiam!

[routelittlerock66]

RoyaL & ReaL six stars ******* do it

[luftwaffeverymadduk2]

very real ha ha haaaa ¡¡

[routelittlerock66]

RoyaLty

[luftwaffeverymadduk2]

god his a brutal tune no explanation mangn dope rude beast tune ha ha ha ¡ exist the right cause men ha ha ha ¡

[amigaknight]

very impressive indeed!

Does sound very unstable but it adds to it! :D

[m1omg]

If the Spectrum had a dedicated Z80 chip for beeper, it would be marvelous and it would have the best sound amongst 8 bits everywhere!

[yerzmyey]

I agree, it would be much better. We even thought about making additional sound-card for ZX, based on another Z80 chip. Eventually we haven't made it but who knows, maybe one day. ;)

Esspecially that GeneralSound card for ZX is based on Z80, although it's designed to play MOD files from Amiga/PC. But some people think it should be also capable to play music from Beeper too. Hm.

[luftwaffeverymadduk2]

MAGNUS RUDE DOPE SERIOUS TRUE

[line256]

Yes, surely the Z80 was the most powerfully programmed sound chip in 8bitters. It sounds incredible.

But I have to admit it's a pity it uses only 1bit Ula. It's interesting how it would sound with 4bit or 8bit transducer. It could sound even better then.

[m1omg]

this, on the other hand, sounds natural and you can create many interesting new sounds and songs with it, even if it is a bit noisy and chaotic or rough sometimes due to the 1-bit DAC

[maiki60fps]

what does that has to do with increasing to 4bits then? it would still sound natural etc. but with better quality

[ncaso]

Pamiętam - najlepsza muzyka na 48kb choć gierka kiepska. Do tej pory mam na pulpicie emulator ZXa i lubię czasem pograć. To najmilej wspominany okres mego życia okraszany na dodatek takimi gierkami :) Fajnie było obserwować początek komputeryzacji i będę te początki wspominał do końca. Ciebie yerzmyey też znam z zx sceny i zawsze Cię szanowałem za wierność Z80A. Pozdrawiam serdecznie!

[telemetry9]

it's really amazing what they did with these systems. But the spectrum beeper was only one channel, right?

[yerzmyey]

Yes, it is one channel. And these loads of channels are made by software mixing. Well, it's not surprising on PC but it surely is suprising on machne with 3,5Mhz CPU. :) More insfor are here z80. e-demo. pl :)

[zxspectrum128]

I remember my cousin had a cassete full one 48K tunes simila to this one, but I never knew the name of the games! Can you give a list of games that used this kind of music? I think Trantor was one of them.

What emulator did you use?

About your own tunes, please keep up the good work! :)