Listen to a sound chip from the '80s that reproduces the sounds of birds, whistles, and even a Jackhammer

Even if you did not grow up in 1980, you may find that an old retro soundchip brings back some memories. A creative owner examined their own sound chip and, using recording equipment and reading spectrograms to approximate the sounds of a bird's call, a jackhammer and a pedestrian crossing. It's quite magical, in a "squint to see it" sort of way.

InazumaDenki, a YouTube channel (via Hackaday), uploaded a video titled "AY-38910 VS. THE WORLD – Part 1" where they demonstrate their AY-38910 sound chip. This chip was first introduced in 1978 and used in many arcades games, including Gyruss. It also appeared in the Intellivision system, Amstrad's CDC system, and, most importantly for Brits, in the ZX Spectrum 128.

They tried to convert real-life recordings to digital sounds, by first analysing the spectrogram. They can see how dark the tone appears on the graph and then use frequency notation to get a more complete picture of the sound.

The original creator selects the most important bands to emulate the sound, and has reprogrammed sound chip to accept that frequency. Each frequency can be given a number that corresponds to a board, and then the results can be input from the spectrogram.

You can watch the entire video above. The original creator has provided timestamps and the results are shown. The results are impressive, given the technology. They mimic both the register and the timing of the original sounds. The bird call is perhaps the most fascinating, as it has a haunting beauty to it.

It's not the same as actually going outside and listening to the birds, but it is still pretty. It's not the same as going outside to listen to the birds, but it is still pretty.