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General Category => Other retro => Topic started by: ralferoo on 16:09, 07 December 14

Title: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: ralferoo on 16:09, 07 December 14
Presented yesterday in Oxford by gasman:

Mahler's first symphony, as played by 12 networked Sinclair ZX Spectrums (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiFEicJ6grM#)
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: EgoTrip on 20:03, 07 December 14
I don't want to be that person who has to put a downer on it. But, that sounds awful. I'd like to say it was impressive, and maybe back in the 80's/90's it would have been. But so much more has been done so much better than this. Thats not to say I don't appreciate the effort gone into it, but yeah, it sounded horrible and I'm not gonna lie about it.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: Bryce on 20:53, 07 December 14
I'm with Egotrip on this one. Although if the first 7 minutes of self-praising waffle had been cut out I may have found it slightly better.

Bryce.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: CraigsBar on 20:55, 07 December 14
Quote from: ralferoo on 16:09, 07 December 14
Presented yesterday in Oxford by gasman:

Mahler's first symphony, as played by 12 networked Sinclair ZX Spectrums (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiFEicJ6grM#)
Yep sounds appalling. I am sure a single CPC 464 and a playcity would play this better.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: McKlain on 21:55, 07 December 14
That video made me remember this piece from Falwty Towers:


Brahm's 3rd Racket.mpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfg-9_k-flo#)
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: villain on 22:16, 07 December 14
The audience also seems quite excited...  :o


Back to listening to "Fates Warning"...
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: Bryce on 22:20, 07 December 14
Maybe you had to be there to appreciate it. On the other hand, how did they manage to get that many people into a room to listen to a Spectrum demo in the first place?? Were they offering free beer?

Bryce.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: MacDeath on 22:34, 07 December 14
Thumbs up because most of those speccies are Amstrad's.
:laugh:

But it would have worked quite better with a few CPC and PCWs connected together, with perhaps a few extra AY cards (be it PlayCyTy or the AY expension for PCW) or even a few PLUS'.

Hell even a few Oric ATMOS could have done as well.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: TFM on 00:52, 08 December 14
Quote from: EgoTrip on 20:03, 07 December 14
I don't want to be that person who has to put a downer on it. But, that sounds awful. I'd like to say it was impressive, and maybe back in the 80's/90's it would have been. But so much more has been done so much better than this. Thats not to say I don't appreciate the effort gone into it, but yeah, it sounded horrible and I'm not gonna lie about it.


First time I agree with you, dear Dramaqueen.  ;) :) :) :) :)  Really sounds terrible.  :o :o :o :o :o
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: McKlain on 10:21, 08 December 14
I think that they are just using the beeper and not the AY, right?
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: villain on 11:16, 08 December 14
Quote from: McKlain on 10:21, 08 December 14
I think that they are just using the beeper and not the AY, right?

Yep, sounds like that...
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: McKlain on 11:43, 08 December 14
12 channels of plain square waves.  :'(
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: Carnivius on 13:08, 08 December 14
So is it's showing off how that many Speccy's can work all linked together?  Is that what this is?   Cos it sure ain't music.  One Spectrum is enough to play the awesome music of Glider Rider.  I don't know what this is.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: villain on 15:20, 08 December 14
Quote from: Carnivac on 13:08, 08 December 14
I don't know what this is.

In German it´s called "Kakophonie". The roots of the word are greek.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: TFM on 18:17, 08 December 14
That come from cacao and phonic the hedge dog.  ;)


Ok, what we got here is actually.... Specnet - the first sound network for the spectrum.  :)
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: MacDeath on 19:00, 08 December 14
Not my favourite Cacophony indeed...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM17rAWKbIM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM17rAWKbIM#)
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: TFM on 19:22, 08 December 14
Well, that sounds way better.  8)
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: andycadley on 19:39, 08 December 14
It's not entirely clear from the video, but if they did that from BASIC with the actual BEEP command it's still reasonably impressive. It's not actually a very flexible way of generating sound, even given the hideous limitations of the original speccy beeper.

I'd agree though, it doesn't really seem a particularly worthwhile way of going about it, the end result certainly didn't sound particularly good even for a spectrum.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: McKlain on 17:51, 09 December 14

Are you keeping up with the commodore?

Axel F (Beverly Hills Cop theme song) performed by two Commodore 64 computers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHAEuMBr1js#)
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: Gryzor on 18:36, 17 December 14
I'm a bit torn on this one.

On one hand, by itself it doesn't sound that bad, though I would be expecting much, much better results from 12 machines. This sounds like those poor attempts at classical tunes in early 80's games...

On the other hand, as someone who loves Mahler's First.... BLEARGGGGGH!!!

Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: ASiC on 22:32, 30 July 18
Just stumbled upon this one:
http://z80.i-demo.pl/MovieMovies1-Tritona_v2.mp3

Goddamn this sounds amazing...

Will it be possible to play such a tune on the cpc?
I know that the last ninja emulates the beeper but this one uses a much more complicated engine.
Title: Re: Polyphony, 48K spectrum style
Post by: Gryzor on 11:13, 22 August 18
That sounds lovely indeed. Perhaps a bit dirtier at low freqs than it should, but impressive nonetheless.
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