I think PC Speaker, not OPL.
DOS itself never had any sound card support.

beep

It should be noted that DOS did include certain musical stuff, from the very beginning...
in PC DOS 1.00, there's a bunch of Basic examples, including MUSIC.BAS:

Re: DOS start up sound

leileilol wrote on 2023-06-19, 01:37:

beep

😂

The sound of a floppy drive seeking.

wiibur wrote on 2023-06-19, 03:42:

leileilol wrote on 2023-06-19, 01:37:

beep

😂

That's even supported by the MS-DOS API and ANSI - the bell character.
It was used since the days of mechanical typewriters, before proper glass terminals were available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_character

But to be serious, yes, there were chimes in old computers, so the idea isn't entirely bogus. 🙂

The Commodore PCs (PC compatibles) borrowed the startup "melody" of the PET line (3 beeps), I believe.

PET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRCmkjorQaw&t=32

PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3wQfCWXqe8&t=857

Edit: Since FreeDOS has a whale as a mascot, how about using a variation of the sound of the whale probe in Star Trek IV? 🐳

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvdR0UuNsFY

leileilol wrote on 2023-06-19, 01:37:

beep

this

But was there any documented specification of which default note/tone?

Let me explain the scenario: I'm building a "super " ms-dos with a boot screen, and I want to spruce it up with a boot sound, and I want to be sensible when doing this, I mean, I'm not going to put the boot sound of playstation 1 to be played through the pc speaker (although possible), i want to do something that is logical, because i like to build these things as an art form, as a vision "what if MS-DOS was user friendly like windows? " I know that countless other people have already done this, but it's like a music remix, each artist has their own style and conceptions.

I made some jingles with FL Studio, songs with notes inspired by floppy seek, but as far as I remember, the PC emits a beep during boot, but this beep didn't seem to be a standard note, I don't think there was a standard note to be played on the beep. I think the closest thing to a standard is the beep emitted by any computer when many keys are pressed at once (it must be exactly the same beep emitted by the bell character)

Silence after MFM HDD or floppy booting)))

Rikintosh wrote on 2023-06-19, 19:50:

But was there any documented specification of which default note/tone?

I think the IBM PC used a 896Hz tone. This video has some good information about its history and different amplification/recording methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi2tW23qb9c.

Rikintosh wrote on 2023-06-19, 19:50:

But was there any documented specification of which default note/tone?

Let me explain the scenario: I'm building a "super " ms-dos with a boot screen, and I want to spruce it up with a boot sound, and I want to be sensible when doing this, I mean, I'm not going to put the boot sound of playstation 1 to be played through the pc speaker (although possible), i want to do something that is logical, because i like to build these things as an art form, as a vision "what if MS-DOS was user friendly like windows? " I know that countless other people have already done this, but it's like a music remix, each artist has their own style and conceptions.

I made some jingles with FL Studio, songs with notes inspired by floppy seek, but as far as I remember, the PC emits a beep during boot, but this beep didn't seem to be a standard note, I don't think there was a standard note to be played on the beep. I think the closest thing to a standard is the beep emitted by any computer when many keys are pressed at once (it must be exactly the same beep emitted by the bell character)

This makes sense, I think.
Maybe it's also relevant what using DOS meant to users, to "catch the spirit" of it so to say.

In the professional scene, AutoCAD, P-Cad, Deluxe Paint (DPaint) were kind of relevant.
Maybe desktop publishing and animation software, too.
Autodesk Animator Pro, Autodesk 3D Studio..
And that's not even covering the musicians yet.

Some YT links: Re: Autodesk FLIC (FLI/FLC) Editor?

Especially the first one gives an idea how DOS days were to some people.

So yes, DOS users were very diverse. Apart from GW-Basic, Monkey Island and Castle Wolfenstein, there was much more.

Developers of SNES/Genesis games had used 486 era PCs running DOS, too.
They had ISA boards that interfaced with the console hardware.
Likewise, the support people at the help hotlines had worked with DOS PCs.

Sega Documentary (1993)

Maybe watching old 3D animations provide an inspiration, too.

Computer Animation Magic

Good luck! 😃👍

Byte By Byte by Craig Palmer (The Computer Chronicles Theme 1983-1989)

creepingnet wrote on 2023-06-19, 21:46:

Byte By Byte by Craig Palmer (The Computer Chronicles Theme 1983-1989)

Interesting one! 😃

What makes me a bit sentimental about the old times, the early 90s in particular, is an forgotten electronic song that translates to "Between The Times".
It's audible here.

Wow this unlocked my memories of Computer Chronicles even though it wasn't shown in my country, I watched it through youtube in 2008.

off topic: I like these "production songs", I don't know the exact name of it, but they are songs for television and commercials, some didn't need a license to be used. I had a library of these songs in a pack of 50 cds that were used on a Brazilian station, I could use them freely, because the license agreement was of the type "who owns the CDs". Unfortunately around 2012 the CDs were peeling and could no longer be played (I believe the CDs were produced in 1993). I remember finding out that they screwed up around the same time that youtube started with stupid copyright policies that last until today, but my bad luck, at that time, if you were caught 3 times with videos that reproduced copyrighted music, it was immediately banned, and that's how I lost my first channel, which even had a partnership with machinima. After discovering that some of my videos had copyrighted music, I went looking for the cds to change the music, but the cds no longer worked. Fortunately today archive.org has a lot of good content saved, but I won't be able to use the tracks because I no longer meet the license requirements (of owning the CDs)

Rikintosh wrote on 2023-06-19, 23:20:

Wow this unlocked my memories of Computer Chronicles even though it wasn't shown in my country, I watched it through youtube in 2008.

off topic: I like these "production songs", I don't know the exact name of it, but they are songs for television and commercials, some didn't need a license to be used. I had a library of these songs in a pack of 50 cds that were used on a Brazilian station, I could use them freely, because the license agreement was of the type "who owns the CDs". Unfortunately around 2012 the CDs were peeling and could no longer be played (I believe the CDs were produced in 1993). I remember finding out that they screwed up around the same time that youtube started with stupid copyright policies that last until today, but my bad luck, at that time, if you were caught 3 times with videos that reproduced copyrighted music, it was immediately banned, and that's how I lost my first channel, which even had a partnership with machinima. After discovering that some of my videos had copyrighted music, I went looking for the cds to change the music, but the cds no longer worked. Fortunately today archive.org has a lot of good content saved, but I won't be able to use the tracks because I no longer meet the license requirements (of owning the CDs)

Honestly, when I found out it was Craig Palmer who did early Computer Chronicles I was rather shocked, as I was curious about 2 years ago who did the music for all the old Bigfoot Monster Truck VHS tapes I had as a kid, turns out Craig Palmer did the music on the early ones ("Deadlines" was the tune), and later they chose Mark Shreeve - mostly his "Legion" Album for Strikes Again (1989) forward. Of course, it's a bit of interest to me because it falls in the same sort of realm as "chiptunes" do, and I'm always covering those on BandLab and making up original ones.

Craig Palmer's more known for the song that underscored a Heritage Auto commercial which had a displacingly more known spoof on...

When it comes to an MS-DOS theme song, there can be only one...