Michael has made a habit of coaxing audio out of computers that were only ever given a one-bit beeper. He has already done this on the Apple II and the IBM PC. His latest target is the ZX Spectrum, documented on the Bumbershoot Software blog on September 5, 2026.
The approach rests on pulse code modulation or pulse width modulation. PWM should deliver the cleaner result, but he has not got it running yet. Other machines he targeted drive their buzzer through a dedicated hardware timer. On the Spectrum, the speaker is toggled purely in software, which complicates the timing.
He also explored an algorithm for multichannel music on the single bit, which the writeup covers in detail. The results this week are partial, and he documents them as such. His own conclusion: a well-described failure teaches more than an effortless success. A follow-up is expected, and earlier installments of the series cover the working implementations on the other machines.
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