Intense Tech #19 — New Noise and 9.1.0 News (Defense Mechanism)

lsdj 9.1.0 reorganised the noise channel into ordered notes; defense-mechanism (intense-tech) explains the new layout, offers a converter for old shape values, and lists the other 9.0.1–9.1.0 changes — P, C and V on noise, rhythmic TICK vibrato rates, two-digit FINETUNE and LIMIT.

Key claims#

• New noise layout: all noise values are ordered by frequency. Long-loop noises come first, lowest to highest, as 00–3B; above them the short-loop noises appear as note names — C, D, F and G# (the pitches each frequency is closest to) in octaves −9 to 8; octaves −9…4 have all four notes, octaves 5–8 only C, plus an extra F in octave 5. The old scheme (octave digit + divisor digit, s-intense-tech-17-the-joys-of-noise) is gone.
• Loading an old song converts the noise notes automatically, but not transposes or S values; the page's converter (also at defensem3ch.github.io/noise-convert) maps an old byte and S/TSP value to the new note and offset. Read from its table: the old short-loop shapes X0…X7 become D, F, G#, C, F, C, C, C in rising octaves (90 → D-2, 93 → C-1, 95 → C 0, 97 → C 2; A5 → C 1; 80 → D-3, 70 → D-4), and the old long-loop shapes X8…XF become 4·(X−2) plus 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 15 (e.g. 98 → 1C, 9F → 2B), compressed near the top (FF → 3B).
• P on noise now sweeps the ordered notes smoothly without a table, with a new speed scale: P01 applies S01 every 4 ticks, P04 every tick — kicks, hats and crashes from one instrument.
• C on noise arpeggiates like on pulse/wave, limited to the available notes: F 5 with C12 gives F, G# and C (an F minor triad); larger values span octaves.
• V on noise is new — always tick-based.
• 9.0.1: sprite-based play-position indicators at 60 Hz (tables become readable).
• TICK vibrato rates now match phrase steps: V0x = 16 steps, V1x = 12, V2x = 32/3, V3x = 8, V4x = 6, V5x = 16/3 … VFx = 1/2 step.
• Instrument FINETUNE has two digits (old 01 = new 10); bookmarks mark whole song rows, B+UP/DOWN jumps between them; synth LIMIT has two digits and above 0F overdrives — wrapping with CLIP distortion for new harmonics; wave-channel F commands are immediate again (they had been delayed by silky wave since version 7 — clicks return, rhythm precision returns); noise FREE/STABLE is removed and random muting reduced, though a hardware bug on many Game Boy models can still mute the channel (BGB, SameBoy and most Game Boy Advance models are unaffected).

Practical takeaways#

After upgrading past 9.1.0, re-enter every noise transpose and S value with the converter; rebuild noise drums with P sweeps instead of tables; pick TICK vibrato speeds by the step lengths above.

Notable quotes#

"If you've ever thought the LSDj noise channel was confusing, you are not alone!"

Pages touched#

lsdj · instrument-design · vibrato · chord-arpeggio · pitch-slide-and-portamento · wavetable-programming · game-boy-apu · intense-tech · defense-mechanism · levels-and-headroom