I added 2 sounds to my game which have pretty low frequencies, and they sound quite distorted through the playdate's speakers*.
Other games seem to hold up at maximum system volume, but these two sounds sound terrible at 70+%. Especially the electronic_hum sound. Is it at the resonant frequency of the speaker maybe?
Simulator and headphones plugged into playdate sound fine. sound_test.zip (86.5 KB)
Most noticeable when playing both sounds simultaneously
See attached demo project for the sounds.
*Note: I'm using a development preview unit pdu-01. Has there been any relevant revision to the speaker?
On my consumer Playdate's internal speaker, each sound—alone—seems a little harsher than my Studio Display speakers. Even at max volume (which, for these sounds, is not very loud) I wouldn't call it distorted. Nothing that strikes me as speaker resonance.
The better test was with some old iPod earphones, plugged into my MacBook/Simulator and into the Playdate. With the same earphones:
Blower sounds the same on sim vs. hardware
Hum does NOT sound the same! Different DAC? It sounds like maybe slight clipping on hardware, vs. cleaner on the sim. I might call it distorted—slightly?—but this is with headhones, NOT the internal.
As for both sounds playing TOGETHER:
No distortion on the sim, with speakers or with earphones.
BAD distortion on Playdate hardware—INCLUDING with earphones, not just the internal speaker. Lots of crackling. Earphones vs. internal share the same kind of distortion.
So the two sounds seem to interact with each other on hardware in a way they don't in the sim. Clipping? Turning down the Playdate volume does remove the distortion.
It's interesting that you didn't hear distortion on PD hardware with headphones. I definitely do. Maybe your headphones were turned lower?