ZX spectrum beeper music made for the current 1bit jam. The jam rules specify using two colors without any stipulations about music but 1bit is 1bit.

Dark Labyrinth BGM02

1-bit Channel F chiptune written for Summer Chip XIII on Battle of the Bits https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/Cat+Cafe+Simulator/61054/

artwork by eriophora also from SCXIII https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/Summer+Fungi/60771/

Cat Cafe Simulator

Snake Chase

Dungeon Exploration

Torchkin

Ringtone 3 from the Nokia 3350, only released in asian markets. Perhaps only China? Not entirely sure. It sounds cute, though.

Nokia 3350 - Ringtone 3 (Asian Markets Exclusive Model)

A little piece using only Rhythmic Robot's little VST plugins:

SpecTone
SpecTalk
SpecDrum
Commodore 64 Sessions Deluxe

Owning (many) Spectrums, Currah μSpeech, and Cheetah SpecDrums it was fun to use these implementations in software.

The Currah μSpeech (Microspeech) was an allophone based early speech synthesiser for the ZX Spectrum (and other computers).  59 allophones that could be combined into something approaching a robotic voice.  It actually used a very common General Instruments SP0256-AL2 chip containing the allophones, so the 'voice' was very common in the early 80s.

The Cheetah SpecDrum was a drum machine peripheral - technically an audio interface - for the ZX Spectrum.  The step sequencer software and sound data was loaded on the Spectrum from cassette.  It actually sounds pretty good, and quite crunchy - with it's 6bit samples (a whopping 7bit for the kickdrum) and limited polyphony (3 sounds at once, with limitations).

The Spectrum itself initially had just a 1bit beeper, rather than an audio chip (allowing the speaker to be high or low and nothing else) with timing and movement controlled by the main CPU.  Later 128K Spectrums added a General Instruments AY-3-8912 PSG chip (which had been around for years) allowing three voice polyphonic music, including noise.  It wasn't the greatest platform for making music, but some people did some amazing things.

The Commodore 64, by comparison, had a dedicated sound chip (SID) that was capable of amazing sounds.  Playground rivals might have argued over the merits of C64s vs Speccys, but it was obvious who won on the music!  I use the C64 sound just for the bass here.

For reasons I need not explain, I own three μSpeeches and two SpecDrums and - I think - eight Spectrums of various incarnations.

The artwork is a work in process piece of laser cut acrylic art, that is inspired by (and an homage to) the ZX Spectrum - which was genuinely fundamental in shaping me into the person I am today.

ZX Spectrum An' Chums Anthem.

Outtarut

Lightbeam

Little Joyful Bird Sick Edit

I like cloudy days, industrial machinery, graphical programming, miso, surgery machines, prickly pears, Howqua, hammond organs, sherbet, political economy, thistle, IDM, medical imaging, spreadsheets colloquially known as games, tomatillos, european history, the American Southwest, abstract algebra, and ✨ YOUUUUU ✨

⚡glitch composer & experimentalist - vgm, chiptune, digital fusion
🌱 open for work! portfolio + contact: https://samplemance.rs

New tracks tagged #1bit