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Making Your Graphing Calculator a Musical Instrument

Posted by samzenpus on from the soothe-the-savage-mathematician dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Thanks to a recently published open source music editor/sequencer, you can now create music on Texas Instruments graphing calculators. The complexity of the sound is impressive (video) for such a simple device, which does not feature any dedicated sound hardware. HoustonTracker 2 is open source, and is available for the TI-82, 83, 83Plus, and 84Plus.

10 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. So basically 1-track MOD tracker by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is cool, but we were software mixing doing this on the Apple ][ and PC/Amiga ages ago with FastTracker, ScreamTracker, etc, etc.
    i.e.
    Tech. Specs for the TI-32: Zilog Z80 @ 6 MHz

    I was more impressed with "Oscillofun":

    * https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re:So basically 1-track MOD tracker by bob_super · · Score: 3, Funny

      I remember writing down the frequencies of every note so that we could encode a song into an HP48.
      Then the resident Uber-geek added that to an unrelated piece of code that we gave to the idiot who had erased a couple of our calculators "for fun". Essentially started playing the song in the middle of class at full speed, then looping ever so slower, and nothing short of pulling the batteries or the physical reset button could stop it for about 2 or 3 loooong minutes.
      The teacher had to turn around so we wouldn't see him laugh, but when we could still hear it from the depths of the backpack, I saw him lose it.

    2. Re:So basically 1-track MOD tracker by es330td · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember writing down the frequencies of every note so that we could encode a song into an HP48.

      You certainly did it the hard way. A=440 hz. The ratio between any two adjacent half steps is 2^-12 so one can calculate any pitch given a note name and octave. A friend wrote a program for our 48SX's that would take a file of the format {t=60 {notename octavenumber duration}...} (the first term is the tempo, duration is 1 for whole note, 2 for half note, 4 for quarter, etc.) and convert it to the format "freq dur BEEP" so we could input songs directly from sheet music. I still have the program on my HP48SX twenty years later and still have the interpreted William Tell Overture and Imperial March.

    3. Re:So basically 1-track MOD tracker by Crashmarik · · Score: 2

      Really long history.

      People were doing it on the TRS-80 using the cassette data port and pulse width modulation.

      Before that there were examples of people using loops to generate RF signals that you could use a radio to listen to.

  2. Pshaw! by ArhcAngel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Call me when it can do the Hallelujah Chorus

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  3. Using the Amiga is cheating by tekrat · · Score: 2

    The Amiga had dedicated sound hardware that was highly sophisticated for its time.

    If you were doing this on a PC that had no soundcard (i.e., no sound hardware), and you were getting music out of the internal speaker usually known for just going "beep", then you've got something impressive.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  4. how pathetic by rubycodez · · Score: 5, Insightful

    TI-82 introduced in 1993, TI-83 in 1996. Twenty fucking year old tech and they have the gall to ask $150 list for those pieces of shit, and moreover get schools to require them. Fuck you TI, die in a fire

  5. Now *this* is news for nerds! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't understand where all the negative comments are coming from. To get that out of a pathetic 6 MHz little calculator with no sound hardware is awesome! This is what being a nerd is all about. This is the best news post I've seen on this site in months.

  6. Much more interesting by avandesande · · Score: 3, Funny

    Making your musical instrument a graphing calculator :-)

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  7. Similar was done on the ZX Spectrum by Vapula · · Score: 2

    Back in the 80ies, the ZX Spectrum had a Z80 clocked at 3.25 MHz (about half TI's clock) and a direct control to the speaker (OUT(0xFE),x allowed to change border color, speaker output and tape output).

    There were many games that were using that simple 1-bit control to play multi-channel music, some even simulating ADSR enveloppe (Release was missing).

    You may find many old Spectrum games using these tricks like Gyroscope, Fox fights back, Dizzy série, ...

    Basically, same processor, lower clock frequency, same kind of output... nothing impressive... but still a nice hack...