CVGM.net - Chiptune, Retro & Video Game Music

Engines used:
- OCTODE (9 channels)
- QCHAN (5 channels)
- TRITONE (4 channels)
- PHASER 1 (3 channels)
- LS (3 channels)
- Special_FX (3 channels)
- Huby (2 channels)

As a music instrument, Spectrum48 has limitless abilities, and every engine sounds different, which is unparalleled in comparison to other 8-bit computers.
That's because all the music is actually generated by Spectrum's CPU - Z80 chip - that produces all sounds and sends them into beeper and audio-out connector of ZX Spectrum (jack) through 1-bit transducer - ULA chip.
Sometimes it does it better, sometimes - worse. The "Noise" series songs for instance have been made on Huby engine, constructed especially for ZX-game designers (outcome file is very small and doesn't take too much of RAM) and this one makes - indeed - a lot of _noises_, which is audible on recordings.

Anyways. Most of these songs come actually from numerous games I made music for. Yes, yes - people still make many new ZX-games. You can also find my tunes in computer-scene demos.

This time I have two guests on my album.
"Firefly's Revenge" song has been composed by Factor6 (Czech) of AY-RIDERS band.
"What's dat fuzz" song has been composed by irrlicht project (Germany).

If you are interested in more 1-bit music from ZX Spectrum 48K, then visit these sites:
http://z80.i-demo.pl/
http://shiru.untergrund.net/1bit/
http://mister_beep.republika.pl/

Enjoy.
MISTER BEEP

Normally Spectrum48 has only one channel of square-wave 1-bit sound (no volume control at all).
But Z80 is also ZX SPECTRUM's Central Processing Unit (CPU) so due to its 3,5Mhz activity (software mixing) Spectrum 48Kb has finally:

- from 2 to 9 channels,
- various modulations and envelopes,
- drums & noises,
- digital sound,
- speech synthesis,
- volumes (it's impossible to make various volumes in 1-bit sound actually so even this is impressive)

etc... Still only 1 bit of course. We could say that everything mentioned above is theroretically impossible to make on this computer. But... it still works!

Z80 chip produces all sounds and sends them into BEEPER and AUDIO-OUT connector of ZX SPECTRUM (jack) through ULA chip - the 1-bit transducer.