Game Boy sound comparison delights musicians, confuses others

by John Bardinelli { Mar 29th 2007 at 9:44AM }

More geeky than most of us can handle, musician Herbert Weixelbaum has an in-depth analysis of the sound output for every Game Boy system, including both Nintendo DS models. He even included minor upgrades to the line and tested systems with backlighting both on and off. The guide is aimed squarely at chiptune musicians who want to get the most out of their performances. Everyone else, just smile and nod.

The results? The original Game Boy has a "warm, bassy sound", the Game Boy Color produces a lot of background noise, while the Game Boy Advance SP has the best display. According to Herbert, however, the original Game Boy is the best of the lot with the all-important "retro feel".

[Via GameSetWatch]

Tags: chiptune, ds, dslite, gameboy, gba, music, retro, sound

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

White Rose Duelist @ Mar 29th 2007 10:38AM

"Warm, bassy feel"? More like "Electronica-flavored fingernails on chalkbaord".

Yoshi Likes Boys @ Mar 29th 2007 11:08AM

Don't hate on the GB, that synth was unbelievable for the time, and this article is pretty awesome in detailing it. 8 bit forever. :)

FrankTheCrank @ Mar 29th 2007 11:11AM

I have an original Gameboy Light from Japan that was never released in the states.

Time to fire it up.

billychaos @ Mar 29th 2007 11:47AM

I went to a rave...I mean 'party' and the DJ was using a gb to get cool retro sounds. It was really cool.

Arno @ Mar 29th 2007 12:03PM

The Gameboy Advance SP has the best display? I beg to differ... the backlight on the SP washed out all the colors into a blueish grey. My GBA games look a lot better on the top half of my DS.

Thomas @ Mar 29th 2007 12:45PM

Interesting that someone took the time to investigate that so thoroughly. You would think all Game Boys were created equal, but apparently not -- at least from the perspective of chiptune musicians.

It looks like as the circuitry was shrunk, it suffered more and more from electromagnetic interference. Hence the humming and hiss. The problems with bass response are probably by design though, with the oldest models skimping on a high-pass filter near the terminal output. Some clever hackers could probably swap a capacitor somewhere and get more body out of their Pocket or Color models.