My dog hates VIC music.

[JonBrawn]

I'm just doing some testing of Victor's sound support, and my dog has sat up and is now glaring at me. If I were to use a genuine 6561 instead of Victor, would she still glare at me, or is there something she's trying to tell me about my implementation?

[JonBrawn]

In other news, I'm nearly ready to assemble the build list to have one of those PCB companies build me a couple of Beta boards. If I haven't made too much of a mess with the new PCB layout I should be able to get some external beta testers involved.

[Mike]

I'm just doing some testing of Victor's sound support, and my dog has sat up and is now glaring at me. If I were to use a genuine 6561 instead of Victor, would she still glare at me, or is there something she's trying to tell me about my implementation?

If you are testing with a CRT, your dog is probably hearing the 15+ kHz of the flyback transformer.

[pixel]

There's GOT to be a low pass filter on the audio somehow or it'll make anybody with good hearing lick the tapestry off the wall. Some new VIC audio tricks are guaranteed to give you an ear piercing with the VICTOR at ~16kHz should it come out unfiltered.

[pixel]

This thing for example shouldn't play razor blades:

amenbrother.zip

(20.26 KiB) Downloaded 331 times

(+24K)

[JonBrawn]

This thing for example shouldn't play razor blades: amenbrother.zip (+24K)

What is that, and how does it do it? All I get is a black screen and a very short loop of what might be drum sounds (using vice)

[JonBrawn]

Here's a little popcorn - it improves as it goes along.

music.zip

(20.1 KiB) Downloaded 263 times

[mingle]

Would someone be able to post some of these to YouTube, as I don't have a Vic (or VICE) set up at the moment to try them out...

Looks interesting...

[pixel]

What is that, and how does it do it? All I get is a black screen and a very short loop of what might be drum sounds (using vice)

OK, that's bad hearing.

The program plays the legendary but badly cut AMEN BROTHER drum loop over the volume register. The alto and soprano channels play in sync, half a wave away from each other (at $fe/fd), to amplify everything. That's what will give you a horrible beep with no filter.

It's really not worth the effort of making a video. EDIT: And it would ruin the audio.

[pixel]

Here's a little popcorn - it improves as it goes along.

music.zip

I preferred BRIDGE TO YOUR HEART by W.A.X. back then. Your dog shouldn't be complaining anyway. Sounds pretty good.

[Mike]

That's what will give you a horrible beep with no filter.

We had the reasons for that worked out years ago, see here. That beep only incurs when the delay loop that starts the second voice is interrupted. With correct timing, all that can happen is a short blip of 4 µs every 1 ms. That gets filtered away by the built-in low pass and would only be barely noticable even with a removed filter.

Anyway, I consider that volume increasing technique a mere novelty. It gives an extra 2 dB volume, hardly worth the trouble.

[pixel]

Anyway, I consider that volume increasing technique a mere novelty. It gives an extra 2 dB volume, hardly worth the trouble.

Should we file a bug in VICE then?

[Mike]

Should we file a bug in VICE then?

I was specifically referring to the beep noise we encountered in those tests years ago, where we found out they occured due to a programming error, and which showed the same behaviour on both real hardware and in the then current version of VICE.

Whatever the constellation Jon uses to compare the audio output, VICE is not the reference, the original VIC-6560/1 is. Without comparing standard audio output loudness between the different systems, telling what might be the issue(?) with the AMEN BROTHER sample player is fishing in muddy waters and nothing that can qualify as bug report.

[pixel]

Should we file a bug in VICE then?

I was specifically referring to the beep noise we encountered in those tests years ago, where we found out they occured due to a programming error, and which showed the same behaviour on both real hardware and in the then current version of VICE.

Have mercy with the dog at least. I believe what you say, even that VICE is not the reference . If AMENBROTHER reveals no "bugs", the better... there're still some IQ tests the oscillators have to offer (plenty of weird stuff to do with them).

[JonBrawn]

Sorry, folks. For sound, it does the equivalent of what VICE does, with the option of turning on a 'no clip' mode, which adjusts the levels so that all channels run at full volume without any clipping. I can't make it behave "better" on my own—I have impaired hearing and tinnitus, so I can't hear the artefacts to fix 'em! When I can get a couple of Beta boards sent out to folks, if they can describe the issues well enough, I can have a go at fixing them.

Beta boards are pending me writing up a BOM for the PCB company to populate the board from.