April 2nd, 2016
5th DMG Channel Discoverd
Umm, well, not really. This was just some high class trolling for April Fool’s Day. Nevertheless, I did code up a little something that will produce 5 voices on a standard Gameboy. This is achieved by mixing two voices on the Gameboy’s second pulse wave channel, using 1-bit pulse interleaving. Watch the video, or grab this ROM. Most emulators will either produce horrible noise or no sound at all, so make sure you check this on actual DMG hardware. mednafen and Gambatte (on highest resampler setting) will work as well.
March 17th, 2016
HoustonTracker 2 Nominated for A Meteoriks Award
Very pleased to announce that my TI calculator tracker has been nominated for a Meteoriks award. For those who aren’t in the know, the Meteoriks awards are pretty much the Oscars of the demoscene. The winners will be announced at the upcoming Revision demoparty. So until then, keep your fingers crossed for me, will ya?
March 3rd, 2016
New ZX Spectrum Beeper Engine: fluidcore
Expanding on the ideas from my recently released “wtfx” player, I’ve created another new 1-bit sound routine for the ZX Spectrum beeper. Fluidcore mixes 4 channels with a total of 17 volume levels, mixed at an incredible 23 KHz. The engine can also handle overdrive, like my “qaop” player. Also, unlike wtfx, the fluidcore does include an XM converter. Watch the demonstration video on youtube, listen to a hardware recording on soundcloud, view the source code on github, and most importantly download the package and converter. Last but not least, here’s the pouet entry.
February 29th, 2016
Got A New Camera!
The parents of my girlfriend were kind enough to give me their old camera. It’s a Praktica MTL-3, an analogue single-lens reflex camera made by well-known East German manufacturer Pentacon in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This one is in near-mint condition, and comes with several extra lenses and other auxilliary equipment. Some of you may know that my old camera got stolen in Sweden last year, so it goes without saying that I’m very happy to receive this gift. Looking forward to getting back into analogue photography as soon as possible.
February 19th, 2016
HoustonTracker 2.10 Released
The first major update for HoustonTracker 2 is here. Version 2.10 features a more powerful sound driver, and several new effects. Keyhandling is more streamlined, and a sizeable amount of bugs has been fixed. For a full list of updates, check the development thread on 1bitforum. I also made a quick demo tune with the new version. Last but not least, here’s a direct download link for the new version.
February 17th, 2016
Irrlichtproject.de Back Online
Yup, the site’s back up after a prolonged downtime. All the content should now be accessible again. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.
February 3rd, 2016
New ZX Spectrum Beeper Engine: wtfx
In my search for a more accurate, distortion-free PCM wavetable playback on the ZX beeper, I’ve come up with a new engine. Named “wtfx”, the routine mixes 2 channels with 4 volume levels each at a blazing 17.5 KHz. This time, I’ve followed the advice by introspec and implemented 8t output alignment in order to work around the Spectrum’s I/O contention issue. wtfx also features tick-based effects, meaning you can change pitch and instrument settings within a row of song data. Unfortunately this means there is will be no XM converter for this engine, and until the routine is implemented in a proper editor, the only way to make music with it is to code it by hand, in assembly. So, it’s more of a tech-demo than an actual music making package. For now, you can watch a short demonstration video, view the source code on github, download the package for further inspection, and upvote the entry on pouet.