The General Instrument AY-3-8910 was a multipurpose sound chip that was later licensed to Yamaha, who produced it as the YM2149F. Though there were several differences between the GI and Yamaha chip, the functionality remained the same. These two chips would spawn off a large family of other chips, with only minor modifications. The AY family had 3 independent, programmable sound channels. This allows any channel to play a variety of different sounds. There are some limitations to this however. For example, there is only one noise generator available for use by any channel. The chip also had a built in waveform based envelope generator, though this was very awkward to use as a volume envelope. Because of this, it would frequently be used as an audible sound oscillator to create the trademark "buzzy" sound of the AY. And like noise, only one instance of this sound can be played at a time. In hardware, the AY could even be coaxed to play PCM sound with additional CPU help. File format choosing rationale: '[b]SND/SNDH'[/b] Since it's the most modern format, they allow more effects because the conscious mindset when created was pushing the hardware to its limit. Surpasses ym revision 1 through 6. '[b]STC/PT3/SQT'[/b] The defacto standards on the scene (cross compatible on pc/original hardware) '[b]ay/ym'[/b] Surpassed BUT legacy. Saving in this for either atariST/ZX Spectrum is A downgrade in quality/possibilities. They are all very playable in different OSes and computer architectures, though. '[#[Trackers] '[[maxYMiser] (Atari ST) (*.snd) '[l[http://www.preromanbritain.com/maxymiser/[link] '[[Vortex Tracker II] (Windows) (*.snd, *.sndh, *.pt1, *.pt2, *.pt3, *.stc, *.stc, *.sqt, *.asc, *.psc, *.psm, *.fls, *.gtr *.ftc, *.fxm, *.ay) '[l[http://bulba.untergrund.net/vortex_e.htm[link] Too many to list at present. '[#[Players] There are plugins for both xmplay and winamp but they don't seem compliant with Vortex Tracker II exports. Fortunately the Vortex peeps have their own player : '[l[http://bulba.untergrund.net/emulator_e.htm[ZX Spectrum Computer Sound Chip Emulator] (Windows) Plays back AY-3-8910 on ZX Spectrum and others. '[l[ftp://ftp.modland.com/pub/software/players/Windows/Just%20Another%20Musicplayer%20(JAM)/[Just Another Musicplayer] (Windows) Plays back YM2149F on ataris.
