Click on the video above to check out the complete process of building the sound for the PlayStation 1 startup
Do you remember that iconic startup of the PlayStation 1? Did you know that that sound was "mixed" in real time when you turned on the console? For many years I thought that introduction was nothing more than a single, complete, pre-recorded audio file that was played every time the console was turned on. Something like pressing play on a song. But while browsing the internet, I found a guy named Troy McQuin, and he extracted the PlayStation 1 sound file, showing how things really work. He didn't go as far as explaining the step-by-step process of how to perform this extraction, but he made it clear that it was quite easy. You just need a BIOS of the PS1 and the software PSound.PSound is a software that had its last update in 2016, and is capable of scanning and playing all sound files that are on a Playstation disc.
BIOS is the acronym for Basic Input/Output System. This is an essential component that boots the system, and it is as if it were the "soul" of the PS1.So I did the following: I downloaded PSound, quickly understood how the program works, scanned the PS1 BIOS, and there was the secret: it's not just one file. It's 3 samples! It's as if you took the entire PS1 startup, dismantled it completely, and stored those files in the console's BIOS.
But why did they make the PlayStation 1 startup this way?
As I had mentioned in this article here, due to read-only memory limitations, the creator of the startup sound, Takafumi Fujisawa, needed to keep the files as small as possible. In addition to the audio, the BIOS had to store the software used for the CD player, manage the memory card, and the boot system to run the games. All of this fit into a BIOS of only 512 kilobytes. So, to save space, Fujisawa stored three very small audio files in the BIOS:
-
- First audio: a type of chime or bells in glissando.
- Second audio: it seems to be glass breaking in reverse
- Third audio: a synthesizer with phaser applied
But how do these 3 audio clips turn into that fabulous opening?
That's where the most interesting part comes in: every time you turn on the PlayStation 1, the opening sound is assembled in real time. Everything is "mixed" right there on the spot, at different speeds and pitches compared to the original files. Processing the sound this way results in a much smaller overall data size.
[ajax_load_more]
