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I dig the hi-fi retro gaming scene that's been blooming, but this does feel a little misguided. I want to really be shown a demonstration that old game console

I dig the hi-fi retro gaming scene that's been blooming, but this does feel a little misguided. I want to really be shown a demonstration that old game console audio output couldn't produce the simple waveforms that they were designed to when not loaded down. Is the error perceptible? It's common knowledge that the video DACs had issues, but audio is comparatively much lower bandwidth.

diydsp 6y ago
i don't know the chips well in the two newer consoles this initial version comes with, but certainly the infamous SID/MOS 6581 has numerous variations. People have been slowly collecting recordings of and characterizing them. There are 2-3 main revs of the chip, plus variations within a batch, from batch-to-batch, and also the two filter capacitors on peoples' motherboards vary. Remember that note only was MOS/Commodore innovating in the logic and multimedia design of the chips, but they also invented the PMOS process IIRC and were steadily developing it. Note only does that result in variations in cutoff/center frequency of filters, but when the caps overlap in value, for example, a tighter resonance is achieved. Many SID tunes are known to have been overfitted to the composer's machines, and some people even evince the characteristics of the composers' machines and configure their emulators to sound like the composer's computer.
wk_end 6y ago
I can't speak for the PC Engine, but as for the Sega Genesis: it's not just producing simple waveforms. At that point in history we're talking full 4-operator FM synthesis and PCM audio. Different revisions of the system had different implementations of the YM2612 (some as discrete components, some integrated into SoCs) and they produced dramatically different output. Comparison videos are available on YouTube: [1], [2], [3], [4] and elsewhere. The differences can be very obvious, even with YT compression through low-quality speakers and without an audiophile's ear. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjCOlnGpi1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjCOlnGpi1g [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-KsaGBUVz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-KsaGBUVz4 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtXGk8EGHR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtXGk8EGHR4 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiu8wDLV_9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiu8wDLV_9g

diydsp 6y ago

i don't know the chips well in the two newer consoles this initial version comes with, but certainly the infamous SID/MOS 6581 has numerous variations. People have been slowly collecting recordings of and characterizing them. There are 2-3 main revs of the chip, plus variations within a batch, from batch-to-batch, and also the two filter capacitors on peoples' motherboards vary. Remember that note only was MOS/Commodore innovating in the logic and multimedia design of the chips, but they also invented the PMOS process IIRC and were steadily developing it. Note only does that result in variations in cutoff/center frequency of filters, but when the caps overlap in value, for example, a tighter resonance is achieved. Many SID tunes are known to have been overfitted to the composer's machines, and some people even evince the characteristics of the composers' machines and configure their emulators to sound like the composer's computer.

wk_end 6y ago

I can't speak for the PC Engine, but as for the Sega Genesis: it's not just producing simple waveforms. At that point in history we're talking full 4-operator FM synthesis and PCM audio. Different revisions of the system had different implementations of the YM2612 (some as discrete components, some integrated into SoCs) and they produced dramatically different output. Comparison videos are available on YouTube: [1], [2], [3], [4] and elsewhere. The differences can be very obvious, even with YT compression through low-quality speakers and without an audiophile's ear. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjCOlnGpi1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjCOlnGpi1g [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-KsaGBUVz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-KsaGBUVz4 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtXGk8EGHR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtXGk8EGHR4 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiu8wDLV_9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiu8wDLV_9g