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#2174 Sound processing incorrectly
Just downloaded and installed v3.9 and loaded up Impossible Mission by Epyx.
I have perfect pitch, and I noticed that the sound is pitched too high. If the sound pitch is linked to the emulation speed (which I have set to 120%), then that may explain the issue and the sound processing needs fixing. Otherwise, the sound emulation is simply pitched too high.
Also, the default option in Preferences/Settings/Audio/Sound Driver/Output Mode is "System", but I got no sound out of the emulator until I switched it to "Stereo". If "System" is going to produce no sound, you might want to set the default to "Stereo" instead.
Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work.
The sound pitch is hard-linked to the system speed, that is quite correct, and there is no way around it (the same is true for the real thing, ie NTSC is pitched higher)
I can't reproduce the problem with "System" (it should be the same as "Stereo")
Just set the emulator back to 100% speed, and the sound on Impossible Mission is correct. Changing the emulator speed affects the pitch of the sounds, and that needs to be fixed. I should be able to run at 120% speed and still get accurate sounds.
Also, I saved the "Stereo" setting on exiting previously, but the emulator started with no sound again. Going into settings and changing to "System" then back to "Stereo" made it work with an audible thump. Somehow, the sound system isn't turning on properly on loading the emulator (or maybe Win11 has something to do with it, who knows).
Also, the emulator randomly CTDs on loading, when you load it multiple times without rebooting. This error has probably been reported already.
The current behaviour is correct. Since the C64 can read back the oscillator state of voice 3, pitching it down to compensate for increased emulation speed would allow a program to detect that it is running on an emulator - but since an emulator's goal is to work exactly as the original machine, that would be a bug.
Furthermore, pitching down the SID would lead to inconsistent pitch if the program is playing samples - like Impossible Mission does. Sample playback on the C64 is fully CPU driven, the timing neccessarily changes with a change of emulation speed and thus their pitch changes. A piece of music that combines SID voices and samples would sound horrible.
Then why do earlier versions (v3.3) do so properly? It can run at 100%, 120%, even 150%, and have no problems playing the sound at pitch. Disconnecting pitch from the emulator speed was done before in VICE C64, but not now?
No idea what you are talking about. Such feature never existed.
So, is there a way I can change it to NTSC and try it out?
Never mind, I found it, and you're right, that's the pitch that I'm used to at 100%. So, I've been using NTSC for years and not known about it. Problem solved. Thanks, this is much better. :)
I can't reproduce this - on Windows 10 however
no idea what that is even supposed to mean :)
Sorry, I didn't get email notifications because the check box doesn't show anything with my color set, apparently.
CTD = Crash To Desktop. When you open the emulator multiple times without rebooting the computer, sometimes it will open the window with a black background, then close immediately without starting the emulation. Thus it crashes back to the desktop (CTDs). After the first run, the CTDs can happen with any loading of the emulator - the first load is the only one I think is guaranteed to run every time. Subsequent runs can load, or they CTD. There doesn't seem to be a pattern. Again, it could be a Win11 thing, it doesn't play well with anything.