Tatung Computer Forum

I'm looking for info about the Einstein capabilities regarding the 1-bit sound generation.

I mean, machines capable of that are simply toggling the value of a port that makes a speaker emit a basic "beep", varying the toggling speed you can modulate the sound being emitted. A well-known example is the ZX Spetrum and its typical "beeper" sound.

Talking about the Einstein, I was behind this feature thinking in the XBASIC "BEEP" command; but seems that it's the PSG which is used to generate the sound through channel 1. Searching over the available ports or devices I can't find anything remotely related to other ways of emitting sounds.

So, does anyone know if is it possible?

SirMorris has a PT3 player that works with .PT3 Vortex tracker files.

I am looking for a .AY or .YM to .PT3 convertor as there are many tune files avaialble that I would love to hear Albert play.

Did look at the 1bit sound library and its use with the Z88DK C compiler, but it looks a bit complicated.

I too would be interested in anything music related for the Einstein where chip tunes are concerned.

Mike.

I have been looking more into sound generation on the Einstein quite a bt recently.

Started off using the PT3 player by sirmorris, which is written in z80 assembler and requires BRASS on the PC to compile. This works well, but z80 ASM is not something I am looking to get into so I began investigating into other avenues.

This is where Z88dk comes in. The newest nightly build contains a fully functional Vortex Tracker library, PSG library and 1 bit library. For the moment, 1 bit sound isn't catered for on the EInstein, but Vortex Tracker and PSG are so that was my target.

Now I have a fully funtional Vortex Tracker player running properly (iwithout any timing issues) written in C, compiled with Z88DK and written to disk using EDIP

I have attached the .DSK image here for you to try. I have run it in both MAME and on my real machine and it is consistant in both environments.
usage: VTPLAY <.PT3 music file>

There are a few .PT3 files included on the disc.


To Do:
Work out how to clear the console screen before running the program - This is proving more tricky than first thought.
Fix the whole thing so you dont have to reboot after each tune is played.
Display the notes being played, like a proper tracker on the ZX Spectrum or MSX or add some VU meters (ultimate goal!).