Questions tagged [digital-audio]

For questions about digital audio hardware and software

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Is sound generation on the Nintendo DS always clipped to 10 bits?

The Nintendo DS hardware has 16 audio channels that support 16-bit audio (PCM16) at a sample rate of 32,768 Hz. However, the mixer limits the output to 10 bits (-200h to 1FFh). From GBATEK: When ...
forest's user avatar
  • 1,999
1 vote
3 answers
894 views

How to wrap 32 bits drivers on 64 bits based Windows or even vxd?

Current state : There are more and more computers like mine which are 64 bits uefi only and thus unable to boot 32 bits based Windows. And as Windows 11 is 64 bits only this means in a few years (ends ...
user2284570's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
555 views

What bit depth and sampling frequency could the BBC micro play back sampled sounds?

I have an archive of sample recordings with a sample playback program, the date and author in the BBC BASIC loader for the program is "(C) 1985 by DAVID J. HOSKINS" There are are about 10 ...
therobyouknow's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
641 views

Does the Sound Blaster Live! Value had hardware support for Adlib/OPL3?

As I m buying a computer without an onboard sound card, I m thinking about using my old Creative Sound card from 21 years ago and buying a pcie riser adapter instead of a modern sound card (I m ...
user2284570's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
39 views

Where can I find EVOC20 package for Emagic Logic 2.5?

I know the vocoder was firstly developed by the company Emagic, which then bought by Apple. Now it is part of Logic Pro X and impossible to find the original version, that can work in Windows. Does ...
Elnur Hajiyev's user avatar
48 votes
6 answers
7k views

How did musicians acquire samples for tracker music (MOD, S3M, XM and the like)?

Many songs in the so called "tracker" format quite popular in the early 90s (think .MOD, .S3M, .XM, .IT and the like) seemingly used sound samples from real synthesizers. This sometimes ...
DmytroL's user avatar
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7 votes
4 answers
563 views

ES688 AudioDrive 4-bit proprietary codec: Any way to decode?

I have files, which I recorded back in 90s with ESS ES688 AudioDrive card, 4-bit voice optimized codec. Nowadays I do not possess the card any more and proprietary codec is no longer supported or I ...
Roman Susi's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

ZX Spectrum: What is the "T" state value, with reference to sound?

I have that awesome book - Zx Spectrum ROM Disassembled (correct the title if I got it wrong), where the author wrote about the audio code in the ROM and referring to "T" state, "... T200... T5000, ...
Fandango68's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
304 views

How to write directly to the Commodore 64 (or similar) DAC [duplicate]

I read some related information in a SAM question but I want to know exactly how to write amplitudes directly to the DAC, sample by sample, like in a bytebeat formula. I understand it is possible on ...
Gabriel Vinazza's user avatar
24 votes
4 answers
5k views

Why does MP3 audio decoding overwhelm retro CPU's?

Many retrocomputers from the late 80s and early 90s had audio DAC hardware support. This includes the Amiga, Classic Macintosh, and PC's with SoundBlaster add-on cards. Despite the fact that the MP3 ...
Brian H's user avatar
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39 votes
5 answers
6k views

Why do programmable sound generators like SID include a noise generator?

In layman's terms, please explain the reason that all the popular PSG's used in 1980s computers and game consoles provided an additional channel to generate programmable "noise". How was this "noise" ...
Brian H's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is it possible to use a TI-99/4A cassette cable with Digital Audio devices?

I would like to save and load BASIC programs with my TI-99/4A. The TI-99/4A can be connected to a cassette recorder for this purpose. Buying a cassette recorder and cassette tapes seems unnecessary ...
Liveunderwater's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
2k views

How was polyphony achieved on systems with only one audio channel?

Systems like the ZX Spectrum have simple audio hardware with just one channel. But apparently it was possible to do polyphony on these systems. How was that achieved? The amazing thing with these ...
rcntxtlztn's user avatar
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23 votes
4 answers
5k views

How was digital sound playback achieved on the Commodore 64?

The Commodore 64 did not have any hardware dedicated to digital audio playback, so how were some games and songs able to achieve this on an unmodified and unextended Commodore 64? Did these ...
rcntxtlztn's user avatar
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