On Beeps and Sweeps
Having completed the initial versions for major graphical components in my 8-Bit engine, I turn to the equally important and far more mysterious world of 8-bit audio. This is something of a difficult jump in experience for me. I have relied upon 3rd party tools like FMOD for some time, but it’s time to dig in and get some knowledge of Audio Synthesis. I found a few websites and resources to get me started.
- Wikipedia is always a good place to start. Reading articles on Square, Triangle, Sawtooth, Pulse and other wave forms provide basic concepts.
- Mattias Gustavsson has much love for Retro Games and Consoles, and has some great information on optimized 2D engine techniques. He has started the RetroBox project, for which he has provided source code for his initial version, now available. Audio is not completed yet, but you can read about his Specification for the RetroBox, which does covers his plans for audio.
- Shay Green pointed me to his Blip Buffer project and documentation, which will undoubtedly help me understand synthesis in action. He has created several audio synthesis projects to assist NES, SNES, and other console emulation projects. Definitely check him out.
And while I am absorbing all this information, I have the SNESmusic.org (and winamp plugin) to keep me inspired. Man, they really had some great composers back then. So glad we can still enjoy their great music.