realdmx: Johannes Bjerregaard's own player — the James Bond 3 demo (a Maniacs of Noise commission) and Myth

Two of johannes-bjerregaard's own Turbo Assembler sources from 1989, in the realdmx collection (s-realdmx-sid-players) under Bjerregaard_Johannes_MON — but the player is his, not charles-deenen's musicfile: nothing in the code is shared with the MoN driver, which fits VGMPF's note that he "preferred his own driver" (s-vgmpf-maniacs-of-noise). What the James Bond file does show is a maniacs-of-noise job sheet at the top of a Danish composer's source. Cheat sheet on bjerregaard-player.

Key claims#

Provenance — a commission in the header

• James Bond 3, Bjerregaard's own header: ;RECEIVED : 18/6, ;LATEST DELIVERY : 19/6, ;ROOM : …, ;ZERO PAGE : …, ;SPECIFICATIONS : 30 SECS OF JAMES BOND TITLE TUNE INCLUDING A DEMO OF THE MANIACS OF NOISE MUSIC STYLE (line-wrapped in the source). Instrument 9 is named ;JEROEN PLOINK — a jeroen-tel-style sound by name. A commented-out BASIC stub at $0801 decodes, with the standard BASIC tokens, to 1989 SYS2083 STORM LORD MUSIC (C)MON. (reading of the bytes $21,$08,$C5,$07,$9E,$32,$30,$38,$33,$20,$53,$A4 …; interpretation, not a comment in the file) — the same player shell was used for a Stormlord music demo credited to MoN. The demo screen text reads "Player and music by Jozz Bjerregaard" (PETSCII, decoded).
• Above the job sheet an ;IMPROVEMENTS: list: ;"2ND SUSTAIN" / ;SET1+7 BIT 4-7 = LEVEL / ;RELEASE ONLY WHILE RESTING / ;(!)CHIP RESET ALWAYS / ;AUTO SUSTAIN DELAY / ;SET1+6 BIT 5-7 = TIME=FRAMES / ;RELEASE TRIGGER / ;SET1+3 BIT 4-7 = 2*TIME=FRAMES / ;DON'T FORGET: / ;FILTER SEQUENCE END/STOP / ;RECOGNITION BYTES CHANGED! — a change log of the player between jobs.
• Entry points, both files: jmp setmus ;init(.a=music no) at $1000, jmp musoff ;stops playing tune at $1003, jmp play ;jsr in irq-interrupt at $1006; a fade-rate byte (faderate !by 0 ;store fade rate(1-127)) the game can poke; Myth additionally keeps three raster-time bytes rtime at $1009 ($d012 sampled at the start and end of each voice) — a rastertime meter shipped in the player (sid-player-routine). The JB3 file also carries its commented-out test harness: border colour while PLAY runs, keys 1–3 for tunes, space to fade, a key held for fast-forward, and a frames/seconds/minutes clock.
• Not the same version. Same command ranges, track format and frequency table, and six leftover instrument rows byte-identical in both files; but JB3 packs instrument bytes 3/5/6 as nibbles and addresses its wave/note/pulse/filter programs through pointer tables with $FE (keep last) / $FF (repeat) and $7E/$7F for filters (the "RECOGNITION BYTES CHANGED!" warning), while Myth uses whole-byte offsets from p0/f0/w0/n0 and only $ff. Myth has a voice-count byte, writes AD/SR every frame and has a working tie; JB3 has the second-sustain machinery. Which is older the files do not say.

Song → tracks → patterns (orderlist)

• Song table: 8 bytes per song — !by 2,4 ;TITLE THEME / !wo V0,V1,V2 (byte 1 = tempo; frames per tick = value + 1; Myth reads byte 0 as voices − 1). Track bytes: < $80 pattern number, $80–$FD transpose = (byte & $7F) − $40 ($C0 = 0, $CC = +12, $BC = −4), $FE stop, $FF restart all three voices. Example: V0 !by $C0,$01,$CC,$04,$C0,$06,$09,$09,$09,$09,$FF.
• Pattern bytes (& $1F where a range is given): $00–$5F note (+ transpose); $60–$7F select arpeggio/note program; $80–$9F select instrument; $A0–$BF glide speed, next byte the target note; $C0–$DF note length ($C0 = 1 tick, $C7 = 8); $E0–$FF rest of that length; Myth only: $fc tie/legato, $fe xx override sustain/release for the following notes ($fe,$39, $fe,$95 — used all through the bass lines); $FF end. Excerpt (JB3 S0B): $E1 / $C1,$88,$34,$39,$3B / $3C,$E1,$3E,$E1,$C2 / $A2,$3C,$3B … = rest, then 2-tick notes on instrument 8, a glide of speed 2 to note $3C.
• New data is read one tick before it is applied — the tick in between is where the hard-restart writes go.

Instrument = 8 bytes (JB3's header: ;0=ATK/DCY ;1=SUS1/REL ;2=VIB1 ;3=PULSE/DLY ;4=NOTES ;5=FILTER ;6=WAVES ;7=VIB2/SUS2; Myth's: attack/decay, sus/rel, vib delay/speed, pulse block pointer, notes program# selector with bit 7 shutup notes, filter block pointer, waves block pointer, vib steady/rate) (instrument-tables):

• JB3 rows: ;INTROFILTERBASS+DRUM $0A,$A7,$17,$01,$05,$22,$04,$31; ;GUITAR $08,$6C,$79,$02,$04,$80,$05,$01; ;ORCH HIT ......HMMM $06,$59,$10,$03,$0C,$00,$06,$10; ;DRUMM $06,$A9,$00,$00,$03,$00,$01,$00; ;MELODY $06,$50,$17,$04,$04,$20,$07,$51; ;JEROEN PLOINK $08,$86,$17,$00,$04,$20,$08,$23.
• Myth rows (pointers as label differences): ;chord $02,$79,$19,p0-p0,$84,f0-f0,w0-w0,$00; ;boring 41-sound $00,$36,$00,p0-p0,$84,f0-f0,w1-w0,$00; ;bazedrum $08,$66,$00,p1-p0,$05,f0-f0,w2-w0,$00; ;baze $0a,$a3,$00,p2-p0,$04,f1-f0,w3-w0,$00; ;plonk $04,$56,$17,p0-p0,$0b,f0-f0,w4-w0,$14; also ;shortsnare, ;tom, ;guitar, ;filterbazedrum, ;soft guitar wo vib, ;zzzzooooow f.x., ;wierd solo guitar.

Programs — one byte per frame, byte 0 = repeat point:

• Waveform: W0 ;BASSDRUM $01,$81,$41,$40,$FE; W1 ;LONGSNARE $01,$81,$11,$40,$80,$40,$80,$FE; W5 ;GUITAR $01,$43,$43,$43,$40,$FE; Myth w2 ;bazedrum $01,$81,$41,$11,$40,$40,$40,$40,$40,$80,$ff — every Myth program starts with $01 (gate, no waveform) (wavetable-programming).
• Note/arpeggio: entries < $80 are semitone offsets, ≥ $80 absolute notes; JB3 N0 $01,$04,$04,$00,$FF, N5 $01,$BF,$A2,$9A,$00,$FE (absolute notes, then offset 0); with bit 7 in byte 0 the entries are raw $D401 bytes — N2 $81 / $58,$08,$06,$04,$03,$02,$03,$04,$03,$FE, a drum sweep; Myth n0 $07,$03,$00,$07,$ff (minor), n5 ;bazedrum $01,$ca,$aa,$b1,$a6,$a2,$9f,$9c,$9e,$df,$da,$ff, n7 ;tom $08,$05,$03,$02,$01,$01,$00,$ff (chord-arpeggio). Drums are ordinary instruments: noise-first wave program plus a falling note program — no drum routine.
• Pulse: ;BYTE 0 = REPEAT POINT / ;BYTE 1 = LO/HI PULSE WIDTH, then (delta, frames) pairs, bit 7 of the delta = add: JB3 P2 ;GUITAR $01,$E0, $C0,$01, $B0,$01, $A0,$02, $10,$03, $08,$04,$FE; Myth p1 ;skwear polls waive $08,$00,$7f,$ff (fixed $0800), p2 ;filterbaze $e2, $83,$01, $87,$01, $8a,$01, $90,$0a, $70,$0a,$ff (pulse-width-modulation).
• Filter: ;BYTE 1=CUTOFF TRIGGER VALUE / ;BYTE 2=FILTER PASS (0=OFF) (the $D418 mode nibble), then signed (delta, frames) pairs moving one global cutoff; JB3 F1 $01,$80,$10, $F0,$06,$7E; Myth f1 ;filterbass $90,$10,$d0,$03,$00,$7f,$ff. Resonance is hard-wired to $F (FONT !by $F1,$F2,$F4) (filter-programming).
• Vibrato has no table: the depth is the semitone distance at the current note taken from the frequency table and shifted by the rate nibble, ramped in over N frames — constant in cents across octaves (vibrato).

Envelope tricks — the "improvements" (read from the code; the mechanism is not commented beyond the header list)

• Second sustain (JB3): after SET1+6 bits 5–7 frames the gate is dropped and re-raised in the same frame with AD = 0 and the high nibble of SET1+7 as a new sustain — the SID re-attacks instantly to a second level; then, after 2 × (SET1+3 high nibble) frames, the gate is released regardless of note length ("AUTO SUSTAIN DELAY", "RELEASE TRIGGER"); a rest performs the same release write if it has not happened ("RELEASE ONLY WHILE RESTING") (adsr-envelope).
• Hard restart, two ways: JB3 writes AD = SR = $00 two ticks before every new note and $F0 to the control register one tick before, then $09 (test + gate) on the note frame; Myth zeroes ADSR one tick early only for instruments whose byte 4 has bit 7 set (;4 : bit 7 shutup notes), never sends the test bit (its gate mask is $f7/$f6), and uses the program's first $01 frame as the silent restart. Bit 3 of a Myth wave entry means "force pulse width $0800", not "test bit" (hard-restart).
• Myth rewrites $d405/$d406 every frame from per-voice variables, which is what makes its $fe xx sustain/release command possible mid-pattern.

Practical takeaways#

• Bjerregaard's sound in one instrument: $01 for a frame, a noise frame, then the waveform; a pulse program that steps down in unequal (delta, frames) pairs; a filter program on one global cutoff; vibrato proportional to the semitone.
• The "second sustain" is a two-stage envelope done in software — the same result later trackers get from ADSR tables or a gate-off/gate-on pair in a wave table.
• Drums as instruments (noise wave program + raw-frequency note program) instead of a drum routine: portable to any tracker with an absolute-pitch wave table (wavetable-programming).
• Sizes (estimated from the listings, no assembler available): JB3 ≈ 1.6 KB code + 1.3 KB data; Myth ≈ 1.5 KB code + 2.7 KB data.

Notable quotes#

• ;SPECIFICATIONS : 30 SECS OF JAMES BOND TITLE TUNE INCLUDING A DEMO OF THE MANIACS OF NOISE MUSIC STYLE (JB3 header).
• ;JEROEN PLOINK, ;ORCH HIT ......HMMM, ;boring 41-sound, ;zzzzooooow f.x., ;wierd solo guitar, p1 ;skwear polls waive (instrument and table names).

Relevance to the wiki#

Primary source for bjerregaard-player and the first first-hand document of how a MoN job was specified (maniacs-of-noise, johannes-bjerregaard); adds a scene composer's own driver to the comparison on sid-player-routine; hard-restart and two-stage-envelope ancestors for hard-restart and adsr-envelope; table shapes for instrument-tables, wavetable-programming, chord-arpeggio, pulse-width-modulation, filter-programming, vibrato.

To verify#

• (unverified) Whether "Myth" is System 3's Myth: History in the Making (1989) — the file says only intro tune / ending tune; the PSID header says "1989 Johannes Bjerregaard".
• (unverified) The BASIC-stub reading "STORM LORD MUSIC (C)MON." is a decoding of commented-out bytes, not a statement in the file.

Pages touched#

bjerregaard-player · johannes-bjerregaard · maniacs-of-noise · jeroen-tel · musicfile · sid-player-routine · sidid · instrument-tables · hard-restart · adsr-envelope · wavetable-programming · chord-arpeggio · pulse-width-modulation · filter-programming · vibrato · orderlist · song-init-and-looping · semitone-math