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YM Volume Levels

You  all know  how to  change the  volume of  the YM  chip sound,  so why  am I
bothering with this discussion? Well, read on:

The YM designers gave us 5 bits per channel to set volume. Four of the bits give
us 16 volume  levels, and the  fifth allows us  to override these  and select an
internal evelope generator, or buzzer as we call it on the scene.

When using the buzzer, the YM chip actually gives as 32 volume levels, twice  as
many as without. This explains the reason why volume sweeps using the buzzer are
much smoother that by setting with the usual channel volume.

The 16 volumes levels selectable  via the registers are (roughly)  logarithmicly
decreasing, which  is how  our ear  works. This  makes it  dead easy  to program
smooth volume fades.

The YM2149 data sheet tells us the volume decreases by a factor of [half  square
root 2] each step. In  reality this is far from  true. I discovered this when  I
looked at the YM output from the STEem Atari ST emulator. I measured that  STEem
uses the theoretical values for YM volume levels, but as any musician will  tell
you, the volume  levels in the  current version of  STEem are not  accurate to a
real machine.

I decided to measure the real output  levels, firstly to send to the authors  of
STEem for  a more  accurate emulator,  and secondly  to use  in a  best possible
accuracy 8->4 bit sample converter for  use in a digidrum routine. These  values
were measured on my Atari Mega2 ST and a Tektronic digital oscilloscope,  taking
into account the noise floor of the YM and normalising to $F = 1.

$0 = .000                $8 = .069
$1 = .005                $9 = .095
$2 = .008                $A = .139
$3 = .012                $B = .191
$4 = .018                $C = .287
$5 = .024                $D = .407
$6 = .036                $E = .648
$7 = .048                $F = 1.00

I also measured the output from  a Falcon, which has slightly different  values,
and if you want them then just write me an email.

So how  to use  these measurements?  Emulators and  digidrums have  already been
mentioned, but  you could  also apply  them to  sample tracker  replay routines,
waveform generation etc.

gwEm/Gareth Morris, Nov 2004

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