pouët.net

I've got a 1-channel mono sound interface and can only play notes one at a time. Anyone got song suggestions for me to try and mangle enough to get to happen on these restrictions?

Also, this is on a calculator, if anyone wanted to know why the specs were weird.

People already realized 30 years ago that this is not a limit of single-voice speakers, it's just a challenge. ;)
random example of what can be done by quickly altering the played notes. Later on people even played rendered MOD music over the PC speaker, but that might be a bit too taxing for a calculator.

A less buzzy example, Zak McKracken intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pViljsxtcA

Sharp MZ computers have a single-channel tweeter. You can just set the tone frequency and turn it on/off. These demos might give some idea of what's possible.
http://www.pouet.net/prodlist.php?platform[]=Sharp%20MZ

I've made my Sharp MZ tunes in Arkos Tracker 1, using just one channel and instruments that don't utilize volume or noise.

There's also http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=50396

All of these are good suggestions, but this is the about the fastest I can change notes.
https://picosong.com/wmqLB

so, yeah, like I said: it's gonna end up mangled.

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=66473

Time to steal some code from that :P

i suggest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzEOvyDcVas

Get a musician to compose a tune for you, for the music system: tweeter like Sharp MZ, but something like 5 Hz refresh rate instead of 50 Hz.

Just increase the speed and you'll have all the arpeggios you'll need. What's the problem? :)

I... yeah, that'll do it.

That does actually kinda sound nice, tbh, but it's not in English so not many people may recognize it.

actually, no, never mind
@porocyon this sounds like ass

if your temporal resolution/update rate is high enough, you can do pwm tricks up to playing back samples and doing all kinds of sYnthesis trickery.

it took ppl many years to figure out ways to do hires sample playback on a c64. but turns out it's possible. which calculator is it, and can you program it using assembly language? how well documented is it?

@jco TI-84, and no, as full-ASM would require rewriting the entire OS on the thing since it's a multitasking OS.

I'm quite sure a TI-84 isn't multitasking. SE, maybe, but not the plain 84 (Plus). It has a Z80 and a few ten kilobytes of RAM, it's not really suited for multitasking.

Secondly, you can run ASM programs just fine without having to rewrite the entire ROM.