Archives of Genesis8 Amstrad Page from 1999 to 2024 about music, page 2 / 13







Replacing the original sound chip of the Amstrad with an AY-3-8912 clone by vRetro

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Seen on CPCWiki, it is possible to replace an AY-3-8912 original sound chip (originals for sell are costly) by a replacement chip created by vRetro Design (better to put the chip in a socket after removing the original) : AY-3-8912 functional equivalent for 25 euros.

There is another replacement chip : AY-3-8912A-TS (Turbo Sound) but contrary to what was thought at the start of the CPCWiki thread, it isn't usable on an Amstrad CPC. It's only for ZX Spectrum and it offers 2 AY instead of one.

The clone had a timing problem but it has been corrected by vRetro on the 12 October 2023 as announced by SerErris.






W.I.P. Picogus by Ian Scott, give a G.U.S. sound card to your PC XT/AT

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If there is a Twitter account you should follow, it's Ian Scott who is working on a clone of the mythic sound card Gravis Ultra Sound with a Pico of the Raspberry foundation. Give some love to your Amstrad PC XT/AT ! Otherwise you can try to buy a real one, but you will have to sell your house first. For more informations you can go to Vogons.



AY (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST) Computer Sound Chip Emulator v2.9 beta 32

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The ZX Spectrum Computer Sound Chip Emulator v2.9 beta 32 by Sergey Bulba is available, it permits to listen to many music format files, including .YM, .AY and .AYM music files, for windows and linux.





Mod Master XT v1.0 for your PC XT, listen to musical modules files

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The version 1.0 of Mod Master XT by FreddyV is available on Vogons.

This msdos utility lets you hear a lot of music modules formats on any PC even a PC XT (CGA), for example an Amstrad PC 1512/1640 or a PPC 512/640...



Nebulus and Cauldron by carlc27843 on Pico-8

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Carlc27843 has written for PICO-8 an Amstrad CPC AY-3-8910 sound chip emulator using undocumented 5512Hz 8-bit mono PCM channel, to compose or convert Amstrad CPC music by Dave Rogers.

And I just tumbled on his two other creations : a remake de Nebulus and a demo about the game Cauldron on Pico-8 of course. Hit the links so you will able to see a video of the game and the demo.



CPCDiskAdapter by LambdaMikel

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CPCDiskAdapter by Michael Wessel is an universal Floppy Disk Drive Adapter for the Amstrad CPC. It's a PCB which lets you connecting disk drives other than the standard Amstrad DD1 / FD1 drives to the CPC via the disk controller, which usually requires some floppy cable mods. Moreover, these mods usually fix the drive to either being CPC A or B drive.

With this adapter board, one can flexibly use the DIP switches to select 2 out of 3 possible disk drives, and flexibly determine which one is A or B. Moreover, no more (destructive) cable mods are required with this board.

The following drives can be used:

  • the standard Amstrad DD1 / FD1 3" floppy
  • standard PC 3.5" floppy (with READY signal if possible)
  • 5.25" floppy (with READY signal if possible)
  • Gotek floppy drive

If the drive does no emit the READY signal, then it can be "faked" by grounding the READY line with the corresponding READY DIP switch (this is a standard CPC floppy cable hack)

CPCDiskAdapter's PCB

disk drive cable

Amstrad CPC's disk drive tower

Amstrad CPC and disk drive tower



The MIDI converter (in python) by LambdaMikel is available

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The python converter of MIDI music files written by Michael Wessel in python is availabe. It let you play MIDI files on an Amstrad CPC with two hardware expansions :

Source of the MIDI player in Z80 assembly is available.




Symamp v4.1 by Prodatron for SymbOS, a musical player

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Symamp by Prodatron is a musical player for SymbOS which let you play these formats :

  • MOD (4 canals)
  • SA2 (Surprise! Adlib Tracker 2)
  • SKM (compiled Starkos modules)
  • ST2 (Soundtrakker 128 modules)
  • PT3 (ZX Spectrum Protracker/6channel Vortex Tracker)
  • MP3

It supports the following sound cards/chips (all internal sound chips of course) :

  • Dave soundchip of the Enterprise 64/128
  • CPC Playcity expansion
  • MSX Darky catridge
  • Dk'tronics AY soundcard for the PCW
  • any MP3MSX compatible MP3 decoder on any platform
  • OPL4 (MoonSound, MonsterSound, OPL4 Shockwave, Dal So Ri)
  • carte Willy de Pulkomandy




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