Do you miss the hum of old screens?

[Lee Bee]

Remember that humming/buzzing noise Speccy games used to make on a CRT screen?

For me, it's a big part of the Spectrum's identity, and a huge part of my childhood. It made quiet games feel more "alive", with the sound reacting to what was happening on screen.

Anyone else miss that noise? Or are you glad it's gone?

I also wondered if there are there any emulators that simulate the hum? Or any YouTube videos where the hum is clearly heard?

[Czarnikjak]

I dont think the hum is specific to CRT screens.

I have my +2 connected to LCD TV (via RF) and it still hums quite a lot!

[stupidget]

My grandad and me used to make these and place them over the vent at the back of the CRT they had in their lounge:



We’d stick a pencil in a cotton reel and the huge amount of heat rising from the vent would make the ‘snakes’ spin like mad.

Happy days.

[1024MAK]

Remember that humming/buzzing noise Speccy games used to make on a CRT screen?

Do you mean the noise from the TV speaker or the noise from the inside of the CRT TV (the horizontal/line frequency 15625Hz) or the noise from the inside of the Speccy (caused by the coil vibrating at the frequency of the internal DC/DC converter)?

I am now too old to hear the noise from a CRT TV. I don’t miss the noise from the TV speaker, as it always had the volume turned down.

Using a real Spectrum, depending on the board issue, you can still hear the noise from the coil.

Mark

[Jbizzel]

Old CRTs make me feel sick when they're switched on.

And my son can hear one that is on from anywhere in the house. He hates the sound.

It's a shame because I still us my Amstrad CPC monitor

[Lee Bee]

Do you mean the noise from the TV speaker or the noise from the inside of the CRT TV (the horizontal/line frequency 15625Hz) or the noise from the inside of the Speccy (caused by the coil vibrating at the frequency of the internal DC/DC converter)?

I'm talking about the TV speaker picking up magnetic interference from the tube due to poor electrical shielding.

It's a very distinctive sound, always very loud when I played Speccy games. I consider it one of the three "sounds of the Spectrum", along with the Beeper and AY chips. Here's a recreation I made of it:

[WhatHoSnorkers]

When I played Lords of Midnight, you'd get a different hum based on what was on the screen... and if you suddenly came across an enemy army the sudden appearance of loads of different characters made the hum quite menacing!

[zxbruno]

I remember the hum coming from my parents' black and white TV when using any Spectrum, and also the hum between the loading noise in many of my tapes.

[Pobulous]

There were humming and buzzing noises and slight patterns on the screen (like jailbars but moving) that corresponded to whatever the Speccy was doing.

It was the soundtrack to Tir Na Nog, and the pattern changing was particularly noticeable at start of 2nd level of Commando.

[PeteProdge]

Anyone else miss that noise? Or are you glad it's gone?

Glad it's gone.

The portable colour TV I had would have a subtle high-pitched drone that could go steadily louder, until I applied some 'percussive maintenance' to the side. That could usually resolve the problem or at least change the octave of the noise. Then it would creep up again.

One time I hit it so hard, the internal television speaker fell off and went down a few inches at an angle, making things quite muffled (a bit like owning a +2A, eh?). I persevered with that for a month or so, before feeling brave enough to take the back off the telly and moving it back into place. I later learnt that, even though I switched the telly off, I still risked fatal electrocution if I touched certain parts of the main CRT. Wow!

You could also hear the sound of the Spectrum whirring its way through interpretation when entering in lines of BASIC.

On the visual side, I kind of like the dot crawl and the shadowing of contrasted areas.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I also wondered if there are there any emulators that simulate the hum?

There are some emulators that has the 'scanlines' option for the screen, so including that noise as an optional feature would be great.

[Pobulous]

There are some emulators that has the 'scanlines' option for the screen, so including that noise as an optional feature would be great.

Would be nice to see an emulation of the ULA jailbar patterns on the screen, too - do we know what caused them and caused them to animate? They seemed to leak a lot of info about what the CPU was doing - they even looked a bit like an x-ray of the register section of the Z80: https://www.righto.com/2014/10/how-z80s ... -down.html

I can't find a decent pic or video of the onscreen patterns, though - a lot gets lost in the moire and YouTube colour compression. You can sometimes see the bars, but not all the flickering details.

[spider]

I am now too old to hear the noise from a CRT TV. I don’t miss the noise from the TV speaker, as it always had the volume turned down.

Using a real Spectrum, depending on the board issue, you can still hear the noise from the coil.

Mark

Same for me, I cannot hear that high pitched whine from some CRT's anymore.

The Speccy coil I can, or I could when I had a working machine with a coil!

[Lee Bee]

Are all Speccy models equally noisy? I don't recall my +2 making much noise.

[Lee Bee]

I later learnt that, even though I switched the telly off, I still risked fatal electrocution if I touched certain parts of the main CRT. Wow!

Scary stuff!

On the visual side, I kind of like the dot crawl and the shadowing of contrasted areas.

Would be nice to see an emulation of the ULA jailbar patterns on the screen, too

I find these kind of graphical glitches fascinating and would love to know more about these phenomena and what causes them. Is dot crawl something specifically to do with PAL? 8-bit tech seemed so much more "alive" and "organic" than modern computers, with everything moving and buzzing somehow!

[1024MAK]

Are all Speccy models equally noisy? I don't recall my +2 making much noise.

No, the issue one, issue two and some issue 3 rubber key machines are the worst for coil noise. Later issue boards and later machines were either much less noisy or did not make any noise at all.

Mark

[1024MAK]

The dot crawl is due to the frequency reference for the monochrome pixel information being different from the colour encoder frequency reference. Sinclair used two different crystals, with nothing to lock the two frequencies together.

This was corrected on the 128K machines.

The jail bars are normally causing by electrical noise on either the +12V supply (16K/48K/+ models) or the +5V supply. Fitting higher capacity ceramic capacitors in selected positions can remove or reduce this effect.

All the above is down to the video being an analogue system once it exits the digital part of the ULA/gate array.

Mark

[EdToo]

The portable colour TV I had would have a subtle high-pitched drone that could go steadily louder, until I applied some 'percussive maintenance' to the side. That could usually resolve the problem or at least change the octave of the noise. Then it would creep up again.

I miss percussive maintenance it used to sort so many issues from noise to picture problems. They just don't make TVs like they used to.

[patters]

I'm talking about the TV speaker picking up magnetic interference from the tube due to poor electrical shielding.

It's a very distinctive sound, always very loud when I played Speccy games. I consider it one of the three "sounds of the Spectrum", along with the Beeper and AY chips. Here's a recreation I made of it:

Oh my. That sound really takes me back to ATV simulator, and Pro Ski Simulator!

[XTM]

I missed this topic when you posted it, but I know exactly what you mean. It was some kind of high-pitched "purring" sound and it was very atmospheric in those games that had very little or no sound (a good example would have been Skool Daze when you sat in class and waited for the bell). In fact, I think I made a thread called something like this ...

*interrupts writing while he searches for the thread*

Well, I thought I posted it here but it was on WOS, back in 2017. Here's a link to the thread - if you read the replies to my opening post you'll notice almost no one picked up on this "humming" thing I was asking about.