game boy sound comparison

all game boys were played at their highest volume. they were connected directly to the audiointerface (motu 2408). except normalization to -0.1 dB no further processing was made. i did without comparing the levels of the different game boy models. if you record the output of the game boy, you will most likely normalize and do some mastering. in a live situation, you will simply turn up the volume of the mixing desk or the amplifier, if a game boy is not loud enough. if you are interested in a comparison of the different levels, please refer to my old game boy sound comparison. i used lsdj 3.5.1., which was copied to a transferer cartridge (unless otherwise noted). the mp3s were encoded with lame 3.96.1, 192 kbit. the examples were done this way: first you hear a bit of background noise from the game boy, then the song starts with some samples. after that there is a break, where i used panning without notes. on the older game boy models this will result in some rhythmic pulses. on the newer models this will have no effect. after the main part of the music i waited for a short time, and then stopped the song. at the end you hear background noise, again. if a game boy model with light was used, the example starts with the light switched off, then the light is switched on.



not only do the different game boy models sound different, if you have a look at the waveforms, you can see that these already look very different (thin sound - thin waveform). i recorded the pulse instrument, envelope: A8, wave: pulse width 50% (square), with a pitch of C3 (which is great C, in musical terms). the picture of the wavefrom, as displayed in the audio editor, was then saved as a graphic file, which you can see here.