Decreasing VRC6 volume - FamiTracker

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## Decreasing VRC6 volume

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Proteun
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### Decreasing VRC6 volume

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Post by Proteun » Sun Dec 04, 2016 3:59 pm

When the volume of a square pulse note in one of the VRC6 channels goes down, a low buzzing sound plays. That sound is always at the same pitch, but louder when the pulse note's volume decrease is faster. I've tested this a bit and the same seems to happen to 2A03 channels but much less noticeably (not as loud). Why does this happen, and is there any way to change it? How do you guys go about it?

VRC6 problem.ftm
  An example with different pitches and instruments.
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I'm getting the hang of this music. Currently working on an NES-style project with Link-NM from NovaTech Gaming.
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Stratelier
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  Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:46 pm

### Re: Decreasing VRC6 volume

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Post by Stratelier » Sun Dec 04, 2016 6:55 pm

I believe this is actually a normal artifact of the 2A03 operation. The 2A03 has sixteen discrete volume levels (0 through 0xF); any time you change the output volume the waveform will jump abruptly from the previous volume setting to the new, and depending on which phase of the waveform (pulse or rest) this happens to occur on you can sometimes hear the transition. It happens more often in direct proportion to pulse width / higher duty cycles -- e.g. on the 2A03, V01 (25% pulse) and V03 (75% pulse) sound more or less the same but the volume transition artifacts are more noticeable with V03 than V01 because its pulse is three times as wide. Inversely, with the VRC6 pulse waves this is more noticeable with low duty cycle settings because VRC6 pulses are inverted compared to 2A03 pulses.
One way to inspect it is to record the note into a DAW (like Audacity) and zoom in on the waveform so you can see the transitions between volume levels.
The exact pitch of this "buzz" is dependent on your engine speed (normally 60Hz). There is not much you can do to avoid it, but it is less noticeable when you have multiple channels mixing together, and when you have gradual (as opposed to sudden) volume transitions.
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