Sound Chip Synth

Colin Monro

Atari owners who use their machines for musical ends these days will find themselves up to their joystick ports in 16-bit samples, direct-to-disk digital audio, MIDI sequencing and synthesiser sound programming and librarian tasks.

So it seems surprising to see Electronic Cow releasing Sound Chip Synth, a program designed to hack into the sonic possibilities of the humble YM-2149 programmable Sound Generator chip that lives under the bonnet of all Atari computers.
A backward step?
At first glance yes, but Sound Chip Synth will show you two things:
  • how to create sounds quickly and easily without the hassle of a programming language,
  • how versatile a set of sounds can be wrung from this much-maligned piece of silicon.

Author Danny McAleer drew his inspiration for the program from an Amiga chip synth program and an Atari shareware effort. Unimpressed by the Atari program, he thought, "I can do better than that!".
He's certainly succeeded.
Supplied on a single disk in a CD-style case, Sound Chip Synth works on all Ataris with 512Kb or above (1Mb on the Falcon), in a resolution of 640 x 400 pixels and above. It can also take advantage of a maths co-processor if one is fitted.
The program is a simple but nicely-designed affair, most of the activity takes place on the single " front panel" window, with very little in the menu bar that can't be accessed from the front panel as well.
Offsetting the Fine Tuning sliders produces a rich, fat sound. Imitate a PolyMoog without frightening your wallet!

This implies some nod towards a multi-tasking environment, but sadly v2.09 would not work with MagiC.
The author puts this down to a lack of programming documentation for MagiC.
While it's all there should you want it, there's no need to get into the theory of electronic sound creation to use Sound Chip Synth. With front panel controls reminiscent of old analogue synthesisers, it's simply a case of tweaking those sliders, pressing those buttons and experimenting!
Simple sounds can be created quickly. More complex, sweeping, affairs (like the "Seashore" patch on the Reader Disk) take a little experimentation with the envelope sliders, which shape the sound waves, volume and timing, to come away with something realistic.
"Patch" by the way, is a golden oldy synthesiser term harking back to the days when synths needed patch leads to link the various modules together.


The internal .SYN patch files created by Sound Chip Synth can be exported in the popular Atari .AVR file format, or in the .RAW data format. At present, it's only as an 8-bit 32KHz sample, although this can be played back and edited by many sample packages such as Stereo Master, Replay 16, and Zero-X. Tracker programs can also utilise these samples, and I suspect that these might be the most useful place for the fruits of your labours. With the best will in the world I cannot see how the limited abilities of the sound chip can hold a candle to the many sound sources now available to even the most modest Atari owner.
That said, Stereo Master and Replay 16 do provide information in their manuals on how to use the samples in your own programs, and I do find the idea of using a nice bass-rich, three-channel burble in a progress bar to signify the end of a task, say, quite appealing! Perhaps if a later upgrade of Sound Chip Synth could create source code from your patch to add into programs, then it would be truly a labour-saving device.


Future developments already promised include MIDI Sample dump support, more export waveform and formatting options, graphic envelope displays and a pitch envelope controller. PC and Mac versions are planned, so it's nice to see the other platforms lagging behind for a change!
On the whole, Sound Chip Synth is an attractively-designed easy-to-use program that's a more of a solution looking for a problem than a professional 1990s sound creation tool.
It excels, however, at what it does and the results are good too. Have fun, and remember, there are no rules!

The YM-2149 Sound Chip
The Yamaha programmable sound chip has three independent tone generators, a noise generator and a mixer for noise and tone.
It also moonlights by controlling the Atari's parallel printer port.
The YM-2149 can produce sounds above human hearing range.

Try Before You Buy
Four sounds created specially for this review have been included on the Reader Disk.
  • COLSMOOG,
  • BUZSWEEP,
  • LEAD1 and
  • SEASHORE
are provided both as .SYN files for you to play with in Sound Chip Synth and also as .AVR samples so that you don't even need to buy the program to hear what it can do!

  • Sound Chip Synth v2.09
    • Available from: Electronic Cow,
      350 Broadwater Crescent,
      Stevenage,
      Herts, SG2 8EZ.
    • Cost: £10 plus £1.50 post and packing.
      Make cheques/money orders payable to "Electronic Cow".
  • System requirements:
    • Any ST or Falcon ,
    • 640 x 400 resolution or better needed,
    • maths co-processors supported.
  • Pros:
    • Attractive interface
    • Easy to use
    • Sample export quality good.
  • Cons:
    • Not MagiC compatible
    • Lack of ST medium resolution support
  • Rating: 85%

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