AY Sound design tool

[sirmorris]

Pfft. Seeing as no-one else was going to do it. Here you go. instructions on-screen.



C

** EDIT 10th Nov 2011 - updated to version 1.11
+ much improved keyboard handling
+ ZXpand joystick compatibility
+ 'live' preview mode

[Moggy]

OOO Yer little Bugger this looks good

Moggy

[sirmorris]

sst.PNG (11.58 KiB) Viewed 31505 times

** NEEDS RAM AT 8K, WRX CAPABILITY **

For each channel you can change the frequency, volume and mixing. The three letters to the right are the mixer controls.
N is for noise, T is for tone, and E is for envelope. A minus indicates the feature is off. A plus, it's on.

N+ .. Noise is mixed into the channel.
T+ .. Tone is mixed into the channel.
E+ .. The channel's volume is controlled by the envelope generator. E- it's controlled by the volume parameter.

The pitch of the noise (can noise have a pitch?) may be controlled.
The envelope frequency controls the rate at which the envelope repeats.

The noise and envelope controls affect all channels in the same way if selected.

I have to admit I've only run this in an emulator - I sent all my AY boards to Rich

I have a plan for a couple of improvements - the input is very twitchy and perhaps a little awkward. I'm going to improve the input handling, and I'll be adding joystick control. This was always the idea, hence the funky editing scheme I'll also remove the requirement for RAM at 8K.

Comments and requests, as always, invited.

C

[siggi]

Hi Charlie,
a nice program. And runs also with my non-zxpand-AY card

IMHO the key repeat rate is too high (at least for me), so it is difficult to set the volume.
And perhaps you could use the cursor keys to edit and SHIFT+cursor to move (to avoid to toggle with key 0).

Siggi

[Moggy]

Nice one Charlie

Works just fine on the real thing, and yes noise, being a superimposition of many sound waves with defined pitch , can have pitch though it's very subjective and usually takes a spectrum analyser to sort it out.(EH?)

The only awkward thing I can find on the input is that volume control is a bit hit and miss (too fast).

Whilst it's a cracking little piece of software in itself ,Charlie, I don't see it's purpose apart from playing around with sound, is it a case of working out a sample with this then going onto, say , Vortex tracker with Your samples already worked out thus saving time?
Or will there eventually be some way of saving samples?

Not meant as a criticism in any way Charlie but You asked for comments.

Your humble beta tester as always.

Moggy

[sirmorris]

@siggi - yes the input is a problem. It will be addressed in the next release. I think I can probably sort out the shift key thing, but one decision is to make it drivable by joystick. I'll see if I can have both modes.

@moggy - it's just a toy, really. There is nothing like this out there - vortex tracker may be able to do the same kind of thing but it's a little hardcore for me This is pretty much simply to work out sounds for FX in games or whatever.

C

[Moggy]

Totally understood Charlie I get it now.

You're right about trackers a massive amount of input required for so little output, and so time consuming, I think that's why a lot of tracks are a bit repetitive a few 4-8 bar loops cobbled together to make up 3-4 minutes worth of song, ok for those with a lot of time on their hands I suppose.
It's not a discipline that comes easy to Me.
Anyhow another sterling effort Charlie and a nice collection of software building up for Xpand/AY.

Regards
Moggy

[siggi]

@siggi - yes the input is a problem. It will be addressed in the next release. I think I can probably sort out the shift key thing, but one decision is to make it drivable by joystick. I'll see if I can have both modes.

Perhaps you could use UP/DOWN for big increment/decrement steps and LEFT/RIGHT for small steps?

Siggi

[sirmorris]

Rather than left/right for big steps and up/down for small as it is now? You can't really tell on the smaller input fields but the envelope frequency really needs this

C

[siggi]

Rather than left/right for big steps and up/down for small as it is now?

Upps, I didn't know that (used only UP/DOWN)

Siggi