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OK I’m currently working on game music + sound effects and have some questions about effects:
1. Does the Arkos player automatically mute and un-mute channels when a sound effect is playing in them?
2. Presumably, it’s not possible to have 2-channel sound effects? Both channels would need to be saved separately, and triggered separately within the game, is that correct?
3. Can sound effects use the envelope generator? If so, what happens when a music track and sound effect both contain an envelope and both play at once?
4. This is only a minor issue, but what happens if a music track and sound effect both contain noise and both play at once? (Which may sound bad.) Is it possible for the noise to be automatically muted on one of them?
(By the way, I’ve had to disable my WordPress/Gravatar avatar for now, as it was appearing all over the web, including on many sites where I don’t want to be identified!)
1) Yes, sound effects automatically have priority over the music.
2) No 2-channel sound effects are managed, but it is of course very easy to simulate, by triggering two sound effects on two different channels are the same time.
3) Sound effects are use all the possibility the instruments afford, so yes, this include hardware envelope.
4) If two channels use noise/hardware envelope, it does exactly the same as on the tracker itself: the last channel has priority and sets the value. This may be strange sounding, or all right depending on what is going on. In practice, but noise, this is not so problematic. Plus, if you intend on making sound effects, you usually compose your song accordingly. For example, drums may be on the same channels as the sound effects.Hi and thanks for your answers.
Plus, if you intend on making sound effects, you usually compose your song accordingly. For example, drums may be on the same channels as the sound effects.
Yes, that is generally true. If I’m using a sound effect that has a lot of noise, then I will play it on the music channel containing drums.
Also, I don’t really mind too much about sound effects playing noise over the music. It’s not a big deal.
However, I think the issue of envelopes is more of a concern, because the envelope can ONLY play one pitch, so if you have two different sounds playing at once which both use the envelope, then there will be a clash.
And I still don’t really understand your answer concerning this…
If two channels use noise/hardware envelope, it does exactly the same as on the tracker itself: the last channel has priority and sets the value.
By “the last channel”, do you mean that channel 3 has priority over channel 2, and 2 has priority over 1?
Oh and here’s another question:
Let’s suppose my music contains a long, continuous bassline note which uses the envelope. Then, I play a sound effect which uses the envelope on the first line, so that takes priority…
When will the envelope go back to playing the bassline in the music?
a) Immediately after the sound effect has stopped playing an envelope
b) When the sound effect has completely finished playing
c) Not until a new note is played in the music containing an envelope>And I still don’t really understand your answer concerning this…
There is only one hardware envelope, so just like noise, the last channel overwrites the previous channel values. So the latest channel wins. If you play a hardware bass on channel 1 and 3, the software periods of channel 1 and 3 will be fine, but the hardware period used is the one from channel 3, which will probably won’t sound right on channel 1.As for your last question, the right answer is A. Consider the sound effects as PSG register overrides, frame by frame. If a sound effect doesn’t use a hardware envelope on a specific frame, then the value from the music channels will be used instead, and so the hardware envelope of the music is used.
As for your last question, the right answer is A.
Perfect! Exactly what I was hoping! 🙂
If you play a hardware bass on channel 1 and 3, the software periods of channel 1 and 3 will be fine, but the hardware period used is the one from channel 3, which will probably won’t sound right on channel 1.
OK. I would never use an envelope in 2 different channels at once. But what if my sound effect contains an envelope and plays on the same frame as envelope in the music?
When this happens, shouldn’t the envelope in the music be muted on that frame?
>OK. I would never use an envelope in 2 different channels at once. But what if my sound effect contains an envelope and plays on the same frame as envelope in the music?
Then something strange will happen. But really, don’t bother too much with this, simply make the test and see if it sounds bothersome. There are limitations to the PSG, and in my opinion you have to be aware of this when composing.
I think you should simply trigger hardware-based sound effects on the same channel as the channel that use the hardware sound, and that’s it.
Because if the player would mute the envelope in the music, it will sound strange as well. Changing a modulated envelope to a raw square sound is certainly not what you want to hear.OK, good points. I suppose it’s a only minor issue.
I’ve just done some testing and the clash of two different envelopes at once doesn’t sound too bad. I have always avoided two envelopes at once before, but if it’s for a quick sound effect it doesn’t sound too bad.
Just a bit of info about how I use envelopes (in case you’re interested)…
I use envelopes a lot in my sound effects – I find them very useful. They can produce percussive noises that can’t be made with white noise. Though I generally only use the envelope for a couple of frames of a sound effect, not the entire sound effect.
When it comes to music, like most people, I generally only tend to use the envelope for bass. Therefore I would not direct sound effects to the same channel as the bass as I think having a strong bass line repeatedly muted would be distracting.
For games, I always compose my music with all the least important sounds in one special “sound effects” channel, the sounds you’re less likely to be notice being muted.
This was much easier on the Amiga with 4 channels (I used to do a lot of Amiga music :))
Quite the opposite! You could have more channels and people would enjoy it :). But you must also manage the bare hardware that only has 3 channels…
Please can you confirm… There is no way to have make music for a Spectrum game with more than 3 channels, correct?
Yes but (unless I am mistaken) you can’t play Turbosound on a normal Spectrum. You need to install a special sound card right?
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