Sound Controller
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Contents
Sound Overview
There are two sound channels connected to the output terminals SO1 and SO2. There is also a input terminal Vin connected to the cartridge. It can be routed to either of both output terminals. GameBoy circuitry allows producing sound in four different ways:
Quadrangular wave patterns with sweep and envelope functions. Quadrangular wave patterns with envelope functions. Voluntary wave patterns from wave RAM. White noise with an envelope function.
These four sounds can be controlled independantly and then mixed separately for each of the output terminals.
Sound registers may be set at all times while producing sound.
(Sounds will have a 2.4% higher frequency on Super GB.)
Sound Channel 1 - Tone & Sweep
FF10 - NR10 - Channel 1 Sweep register (R/W)
Bit 6-4 - Sweep Time
Bit 3 - Sweep Increase/Decrease
0: Addition (frequency increases)
1: Subtraction (frequency decreases)
Bit 2-0 - Number of sweep shift (n: 0-7)
Sweep Time:
000: sweep off - no freq change 001: 7.8 ms (1/128Hz) 010: 15.6 ms (2/128Hz) 011: 23.4 ms (3/128Hz) 100: 31.3 ms (4/128Hz) 101: 39.1 ms (5/128Hz) 110: 46.9 ms (6/128Hz) 111: 54.7 ms (7/128Hz)
The change of frequency (NR13,NR14) at each shift is calculated by the following formula where X(0) is initial freq & X(t-1) is last freq:
X(t) = X(t-1) +/- X(t-1)/2^n
FF11 - NR11 - Channel 1 Sound length/Wave pattern duty (R/W)
Bit 7-6 - Wave Pattern Duty (Read/Write) Bit 5-0 - Sound length data (Write Only) (t1: 0-63)
Wave Duty:
00: 12.5% ( _-------_-------_------- ) 01: 25% ( __------__------__------ ) 10: 50% ( ____----____----____---- ) (normal) 11: 75% ( ______--______--______-- )
Sound Length = (64-t1)*(1/256) seconds The Length value is used only if Bit 6 in NR14 is set.
FF12 - NR12 - Channel 1 Volume Envelope (R/W)
Bit 7-4 - Initial Volume of envelope (0-0Fh) (0=No Sound)
Bit 3 - Envelope Direction (0=Decrease, 1=Increase)
Bit 2-0 - Number of envelope sweep (n: 0-7)
(If zero, stop envelope operation.)
Length of 1 step = n*(1/64) seconds
FF13 - NR13 - Channel 1 Frequency lo (Write Only)
Lower 8 bits of 11 bit frequency (x). Next 3 bit are in NR14 ($FF14)
FF14 - NR14 - Channel 1 Frequency hi (R/W)
Bit 7 - Initial (1=Restart Sound) (Write Only)
Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive selection (Read/Write)
(1=Stop output when length in NR11 expires)
Bit 2-0 - Frequency's higher 3 bits (x) (Write Only)
Frequency = 131072/(2048-x) Hz
Sound Channel 2 - Tone
This sound channel works exactly as channel 1, except that it doesn't have a Tone Envelope/Sweep Register.
FF16 - NR21 - Channel 2 Sound Length/Wave Pattern Duty (R/W)
Bit 7-6 - Wave Pattern Duty (Read/Write) Bit 5-0 - Sound length data (Write Only) (t1: 0-63)
Wave Duty:
00: 12.5% ( _-------_-------_------- ) 01: 25% ( __------__------__------ ) 10: 50% ( ____----____----____---- ) (normal) 11: 75% ( ______--______--______-- )
Sound Length = (64-t1)*(1/256) seconds The Length value is used only if Bit 6 in NR24 is set.
FF17 - NR22 - Channel 2 Volume Envelope (R/W)
Bit 7-4 - Initial Volume of envelope (0-0Fh) (0=No Sound)
Bit 3 - Envelope Direction (0=Decrease, 1=Increase)
Bit 2-0 - Number of envelope sweep (n: 0-7)
(If zero, stop envelope operation.)
Length of 1 step = n*(1/64) seconds
FF18 - NR23 - Channel 2 Frequency lo data (W)
Frequency's lower 8 bits of 11 bit data (x). Next 3 bits are in NR24 ($FF19).
FF19 - NR24 - Channel 2 Frequency hi data (R/W)
Bit 7 - Initial (1=Restart Sound) (Write Only)
Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive selection (Read/Write)
(1=Stop output when length in NR21 expires)
Bit 2-0 - Frequency's higher 3 bits (x) (Write Only)
Frequency = 131072/(2048-x) Hz
Sound Channel 3 - Wave Output
This channel can be used to output digital sound, the length of the sample buffer (Wave RAM) is limited to 32 digits. This sound channel can be also used to output normal tones when initializing the Wave RAM by a square wave. This channel doesn't have a volume envelope register.
FF1A - NR30 - Channel 3 Sound on/off (R/W)
Bit 7 - Sound Channel 3 Off (0=Stop, 1=Playback) (Read/Write)
FF1B - NR31 - Channel 3 Sound Length
Bit 7-0 - Sound length (t1: 0 - 255)
Sound Length = (256-t1)*(1/256) seconds This value is used only if Bit 6 in NR34 is set.
FF1C - NR32 - Channel 3 Select output level (R/W)
Bit 6-5 - Select output level (Read/Write)
Possible Output levels are:
0: Mute (No sound) 1: 100% Volume (Produce Wave Pattern RAM Data as it is) 2: 50% Volume (Produce Wave Pattern RAM data shifted once to the right) 3: 25% Volume (Produce Wave Pattern RAM data shifted twice to the right)
FF1D - NR33 - Channel 3 Frequency's lower data (W)
Lower 8 bits of an 11 bit frequency (x).
FF1E - NR34 - Channel 3 Frequency's higher data (R/W)
Bit 7 - Initial (1=Restart Sound) (Write Only)
Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive selection (Read/Write)
(1=Stop output when length in NR31 expires)
Bit 2-0 - Frequency's higher 3 bits (x) (Write Only)
Frequency = 4194304/(64*(2048-x)) Hz = 65536/(2048-x) Hz
FF30-FF3F - Wave Pattern RAM
Contents - Waveform storage for arbitrary sound data
This storage area holds 32 4-bit samples that are played back upper 4 bits first.
Sound Channel 4 - Noise
This channel is used to output white noise. This is done by randomly switching the amplitude between high and low at a given frequency. Depending on the frequency the noise will appear 'harder' or 'softer'.
It is also possible to influence the function of the random generator, so the that the output becomes more regular, resulting in a limited ability to output Tone instead of Noise.
FF20 - NR41 - Channel 4 Sound Length (R/W)
Bit 5-0 - Sound length data (t1: 0-63)
Sound Length = (64-t1)*(1/256) seconds The Length value is used only if Bit 6 in NR44 is set.
FF21 - NR42 - Channel 4 Volume Envelope (R/W)
Bit 7-4 - Initial Volume of envelope (0-0Fh) (0=No Sound)
Bit 3 - Envelope Direction (0=Decrease, 1=Increase)
Bit 2-0 - Number of envelope sweep (n: 0-7)
(If zero, stop envelope operation.)
Length of 1 step = n*(1/64) seconds
FF22 - NR43 - Channel 4 Polynomial Counter (R/W)
The amplitude is randomly switched between high and low at the given frequency. A higher frequency will make the noise to appear 'softer'. When Bit 3 is set, the output will become more regular, and some frequencies will sound more like Tone than Noise.
Bit 7-4 - Shift Clock Frequency (s) Bit 3 - Counter Step/Width (0=15 bits, 1=7 bits) Bit 2-0 - Dividing Ratio of Frequencies (r)
Frequency = 524288 Hz / r / 2^(s+1) ;For r=0 assume r=0.5 instead
FF23 - NR44 - Channel 4 Counter/consecutive; Inital (R/W)
Bit 7 - Initial (1=Restart Sound) (Write Only)
Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive selection (Read/Write)
(1=Stop output when length in NR41 expires)
Sound Control Registers
FF24 - NR50 - Channel control / ON-OFF / Volume (R/W)
The volume bits specify the "Master Volume" for Left/Right sound output.
Bit 7 - Output Vin to SO2 terminal (1=Enable) Bit 6-4 - SO2 output level (volume) (0-7) Bit 3 - Output Vin to SO1 terminal (1=Enable) Bit 2-0 - SO1 output level (volume) (0-7)
The Vin signal is received from the game cartridge bus, allowing external hardware in the cartridge to supply a fifth sound channel, additionally to the gameboys internal four channels. As far as I know this feature isn't used by any existing games.
FF25 - NR51 - Selection of Sound output terminal (R/W)
Bit 7 - Output sound 4 to SO2 terminal Bit 6 - Output sound 3 to SO2 terminal Bit 5 - Output sound 2 to SO2 terminal Bit 4 - Output sound 1 to SO2 terminal Bit 3 - Output sound 4 to SO1 terminal Bit 2 - Output sound 3 to SO1 terminal Bit 1 - Output sound 2 to SO1 terminal Bit 0 - Output sound 1 to SO1 terminal
FF26 - NR52 - Sound on/off
If your GB programs don't use sound then write 00h to this register to save 16% or more on GB power consumption. Disabeling the sound controller by clearing Bit 7 destroys the contents of all sound registers. Also, it is not possible to access any sound registers (execpt FF26) while the sound controller is disabled.
Bit 7 - All sound on/off (0: stop all sound circuits) (Read/Write) Bit 3 - Sound 4 ON flag (Read Only) Bit 2 - Sound 3 ON flag (Read Only) Bit 1 - Sound 2 ON flag (Read Only) Bit 0 - Sound 1 ON flag (Read Only)
Bits 0-3 of this register are read only status bits, writing to these bits does NOT enable/disable sound. The flags get set when sound output is restarted by setting the Initial flag (Bit 7 in NR14-NR44), the flag remains set until the sound length has expired (if enabled). A volume envelopes which has decreased to zero volume will NOT cause the sound flag to go off.
