Re: about "penny lane.prg" on vic 20

From: Anders Carlsson <anders.carlsson_at_sfks.se>
Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 09:05:46 +0200
Message-ID: <BC3AC67559EC421C8C15F847E54376FD@ryds>
Marko Mäkelä wrote:

> f(n)=f0*2^(n/12) where n is an integer that identifies the note that you 
> want to play.

As well as changing the note frequency table, changing the key of the music 
also makes a difference. I have tried various keys for many of my musics, 
and believe that my adaption of the Penny Lane tune also was subject to 
finding the best combination of frequencies and key. To make matters worse, 
one set of frequencies that sounds OK on PAL will sound awful on NTSC and 
vice versa, and it is not even given that the same key is playable on both 
types of computers. For a long while, emulation was also far off (too 
precise) from the real VIC chip, but later versions of VICE improved the 
detuned emulation somewhat.

(guess why I eventually invested in a NTSC VIC-20 to have next to my PAL 
ones)

The source for my music adaption was a listing I found in a Swedish 
magazine, I think it was Elektronikvärlden's special VIC-20 page in 
1983-ish. However I'm totally positive the listing was imported from another 
source, either a magazine or a PD library, so quite likely the program you 
remember with black screen contained the same music. There is a such BASIC 
program on Zimmers FTP, but I can't say for sure it exactly matches the 
listing in my magazine.

I suppose Didier's VIC to be a PAL one (never heard of SECAM VIC-20's 
anyway). If it by chance is a NTSC one or his VICE emulator is set to NTSC 
mode, that is a definite reason why the BASIC program sounds awful, assuming 
the frequencies used are intended for a PAL machine. It could be worth 
double checking.

Best regards

Anders Carlsson


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Received on 2015-05-11 08:00:06

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