EIGHTBIT.COM :: 8BIT IS - "History of 8-Bit Music" Part 2 Article

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8BIT IS

What is 8-bit Music
History of 8-Bit Music Part 1
History of 8 Bit Music Part 2
8-Bit Console and Handheld Game Music
Where to Find Computers for 8 bit Music
Do You Sing with an 8 Bit Voice

History of 8 Bit Music Part 2 - Thoroughly MODern PAULA

In 1985, two years after the 8 bit C64 home computer, Commodore released the Amiga 1000, and Amiga joined the names of 8 bit music devices. The Amiga 1000 had a 16/32 bit CPU and a considerably higher price tag than the 8 bit machines, but the sound chip was another revolutionary 8 bit sound chip, Paula. All three chips in the Amiga chipset had women's names.

The 8 bit sound chip Paula is fundamentally different from the earlier SID chip. Paula's sounds are sampled 8 bit sounds, not computer generated sounds, and Paula's four independent voices were the first to be arranged for stereo sound. The 8 bit sampled sounds can be further modulated, opening up an impressive yet still low tech array of 8 bit sounds and musical possibilities. It was the lower priced Amiga 500, released in 1987, that really opened up the 8 bit sampled sound capabilities of Paula and introduced the world to the MOD tracker format of digital sequenced music. Amiga 500 also leapt ahead of other machines with its ability to lock and coordinate video signals, and with a $600 price tag, it opened up the video production frontier to starving artists, performers and directors, worldwide.

Machines that recreate the SID, POKEY or PAULA chip sounds are available for more than $1000, or you can download free software plug ins for you PC that emulate, as best they can, these 8 bit chips. As the cost of silicon chips and memory declined, video game music shifted almost entirely to sampled and digitized music, but that early 8-bit sound is still coveted and musicians and fans of 8 bit music are still thriving in 2007.

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