Chip Tune is both a continuity from the haydays of music on old 80's personnal computer/consoles and a part of the retro-computer mouvementmovement.
It is also an underground electronic subgenresub-genre, or an inspiration in various musical performances.
It started as because most computers and consoles featured some sort of sound-chip.
It also evolved as games often featured music and sound effects, thus spawning a generation of professionnal personnal computers musician.
Amstrad 8 bit computers are part of the [[AY]]-family, along the ZX spectrum, most MSX and the Atari ST (which use a YM variant)
It is also to note that many arcade systems or home consoles also included an AY-family chip, as it was cheap and easy.
==Most used AY/YM computers==
Many computers from the "AY/YM-family" included a MIDI port.
Atari ST (with its YM) is notable for its built-in Midi port, enabling music programation with Q-Base and spawning an entire generation of electronic home-musicians thx thanks to the power of the 16+ bit, and the fun of a decent GUI.
The ZX Spectrum 128 and the amstradAmstrad's Spectrum range (+2 and +3) also feature a Midi compatible port thanks to their RS232/Midi port.
Of course Amstrad's ZX spectrum +3 is a clever choice as it include Disk drive.
MSX often featured such a Midi port, and were featuring a wide range of sound processors/co-processors :
==Amstrad's limitations==
Compaired Compared to ZX spectrum 128 specs, the amstrad Amstrad clearly failed to impose itself on the AY-scene. *It Perhaps because it was less popular worldwide, perhaps because it lacks a built-in Midi Port. as a result, an external peripheral is needed, being somewhat less reliable than a directly built-in connector.
*It has heavier graphicsTo have MIDI on an Amstrad an external peripheral is needed, being somewhat less reliable than a directly built-in connector.
Perhaps Amstrad's tunes were not as complex because the 10Ko computer needed more space for graphics, therefore there was less for music.(The 10KB differences in needed graphic RAM betwen between Speccy and CPC makes a lot of difference.)
Of course you could manage a better Ram/CPU ressources by disabling the screen display, yet this can't allows the use of the computer as a direct Musical instrument/mixing station.