If you care about sound accuracy on Amstrad CPC emulators like Mr_Lou, you should know that at the moment the best emulator is CPCE (last version is v1.94 patched on 2th June 2011).

Thanks to this interesting discussion on CPCWiki, dont doubt that more emulators will have soon a better sound accuracy, a new version of WinApe may even be out soon.

Amstrad Expo is no more, but rejoice as ReSeT #0 is the new name of the Amstrad meeting organized by the tireless Eliot.

As usual you can expect a warm welcoming, good food, not much sleep (except if you are a sissy and use a bed), 4 competitions :

• demo : runnable on CPC6128 or 6128 Plus, without any extension
• 4 Ko intro : runnable on CPC6128 or 6128 Plus, without any extension. Maximum size is 4 Ko (4096 bytes)
• graphics : all formats/modes are allowed. The entry must be submitted with its viewer program runnable on CPC or Plus
• music : any executable music on CPC or Plus. The entry must be submitted with its player. No size limit

CPC Hardware will be given for free at the party-place: monitors, keyboards, floppy-drives, floppy-discs... All the parts from CPCParts.net will be available to repair and upgrade your CPC with the help of hardware specialists.

The ReSeT Party will take place from Friday 24th (10:00) to Sunday 26th of June 2011 (18:00) at Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs in Coutances. The price is 11 euros per day for the entrance, drinks and food. You can book a double room at the party place for 20 euros per night.

Please use the ReSeT #0 site to register if you intent to come, thanks in advance.

A new music remake by Ömer Aydin (Noisywan) of Mission OMEGA is available on Youtube.

All Noisywan music remakes can be downloaded if you wish.

CPC Power is holding 4 contests : coding, GFX, music and logo GFX.

A new Amstrad CPC music written with Starkos Tracker : Lost in fractal dimension par Ultrasyd.

A new music remake by Ömer Aydin (Noisywan) of HATE (Hostile All Terrain Encounter by Vortex) is available on Youtube.

A new music remake by Ömer Aydin (Noisywan) of Vindicator is available on Youtube.

A remake of the Saboteur II music is available on Youtube by Mcklain.

You can download Arkos Tracker v1.0 beta 3 for PC by Targhan.

Here's the changelist :

• AKStoYM, a command line tool to convert any AKS song into an interleaved or non-interleaved YM6 format,
• MSX2 compatible player test thanks to WYZ.

If you don't have .Net, you can still use the command line tools (AKStoYM, STKtoAKS, AKStoYM) if you have Mono installed.

You can download Arkos Tracker v1.0 beta 2 for PC by Targhan.

Here's the changelist :

• Complete coding of the sound generating and outputing by myself. The emulation is more accurate, and will allow the implementation of samples and Sids in the future,
• Plug in your best MIDI Keyboard or any MIDI-In device, play and record your music with it,
• 150hz and 300hz replay modes are now available. They are very slightly slower than on a real CPC. Nothing you should notice...
• CPCBooster output is now very accurate,
• Ability to save Interleaved/non-Interleaved YM6 format,
• AKStoBin : a command line software to converts any AKS song into a binary to use on hardware (warning, you still need .Net to use it),
• STKtoAKS : a command line software to converts any STarKos songs into an AKS song (warning, you still need .Net to use it).

You can download Arkos Tracker v1.0 beta for PC by Targhan.

The ZX Spectrum Computer Sound Chip Emulator v2.9 beta 9 by Sergey Bulba is available, it permits to listen to .YM, .AY and .AYM music files.

Targhan (Arkos) has announced on the CPC_FR mailing list a preview of Arkos Tracker for windows. You can see a video of this Arkos Tracker preview on Youtube. Final version could be released in 2 or 3 weeks.

Seing the video, you can export to .WAV et .YM, and import .SKS (STarKos Tracker). The program can send the sound directly to an Amstrad CPC with a CPCBooster (I have some to sell, cant remember at the moment the price I paid for them, but they will be selled without a profit) or of course directly on the sound card of the PC.

More features given on the CPC Wiki's forum :

• 256 patterns available
• Each pattern is composed of 3 independent tracks
• 512 tracks available, each being reusable in any pattern, or even several times in the same pattern
• Each track can be transposed independently in a pattern
• A track has a height from 1 to 128 lines, independently of the pattern that uses it
• 255 instruments available
• The instrument editor allows you to modify each registers of the PSG
• Replay frequency of 13, 25, 50, 100, 150 or 300hz
• Possibility to put "events" in your song. They can either be used to synchronize your music with your production, or trigger digidrums for exemple
• Big news : instruments are divised into two channels : a Software, and Hardware one. These channels can be independant or dependent from each other. Allows using two waves at the same time
• Allows you to play sound effects in a very flexible and powerful way. You can also play the SFXs without any music
• You can import any STarKos song
• NO SID/DMA for CPC+ for now. I may plan that...

About the Player :

• Only 25 scanlines maximum used !
• On top of being faster than the STarKos player, it's lighter : one and a half kb.
• The player works on Amstrad CPC, MSX, Spectrum or Pentagon (using conditional assembling : only the necessary code is used).
• The generated songs are very light (about as much as the STarKos song. Sometimes a bit lighter, sometimes not).
• Can be used in Basic (call the player by yourself, or use it under interruptions), and Assembler.
• The source of the player is given, and documented.
• The format of the music is given. So you'll be able to create your own custom tools (conversion, new players...).
• Fade in/out available.

About the sound effects :

• Every instrument of your song becomes a sound effect.
• You can play/stop a sound effect on any, or all, of the 3 channels.
• You can choose the note, volume, speed of any triggered SFX.
• You can add Pitch to them (useful to add randomness to the sounds, for example).
• Sound effects are in a seperate file : you can use the same sound bank even if you change the music.

A new music remake by Ömer Aydin (Noisywan) of Boulder Dash on Youtube.

If you need to write some music for an Amstrad CPC program (either demo, game, etc...), you can do it either on an Amstrad CPC :

• STarKos v1.21 by Targhan,
• Digitracker v1.4 by Prodatron,
• Soundtrakker 128k by Oliver Mayer,

Or you can do it on a PC :

• WYZTracker for windows (needs .NET v2.0) by Augusto Ruiz, an .AY (Amstrad and Spectrum) music creation utility using a pattern-based editor, spanish interface only at the moment, short english manual inside
• Vortex Tracker II v1.0 beta 19, a Win32 PT3-editor, can load, play, edit PT1, PT2, PT3, STC, STP, SQT, ASC, PSC, PSM, FLS, GTR, FTC, FXM, AY (ZXAYAMAD) files and save them in PT3 format or in temporary text format. You can export modules into SNDH-format to play it on Atari ST, and into HOBETA (with player or without player), AY's ZXAYEMUL format, SCL or TAP to play it on Amstrad CPC ou ZX Spectrum, for more information go see Vortex tracker's website.

Also, it's possible without an emulator to listen to .YM, .AY and .AYM files with ZX Spectrum Computer Sound Chip Emulator (same address than above).

If you use other music tools, thanks to let me know so I can add informations here and in the comp.sys.amstrad.8bit FAQ).