The Galaxian background hum has never sounded quite right to me in MAME so I did a little research.
On the web, I found a number of original (and a few not-so-original) Galaxian machines and checked the background hum.
A link to those I found are below.
Here are my observations.
-1- The hum is generally quieter than the Galaxian attacking shriek.
-2- The hum hits various bands where there is a noticeable increase in pulses / second
-3- The hum, within a given band, appear to get faster but *very very* gradually.
-4- The hum stops getting faster at a certain point
-5- The hum stops during freefall mode.
Timings
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I timed 40 pulses at the point just after the start jingle on both MAME and the links below. For 40 pulses, around 15 seconds is typical with MAME coming out at around 21 seconds.
These real arcade machines were not entirely consistent but are within a tolerance and all are quite a bit faster than MAME.
Note that it is not always easy to count these with gameplay going on - but FindArcadeMachine's entry was better.
I took the top link below (FindArcadeMachine) and did some more detailed timings.
First, I stripped out the audio to the point the start jingle ended leaving the file pointing to the beginning of the hum.
I modified the file to increase the bass and reduce the treble (to hear the hum a little better above other sounds).
The files are on the Google Drive link below which should work.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13Mp83el6dp4zX3wWzBotgMLYgpcnyr3-
Here are the timings and the approximate point at where the next band begins and the pulses speed up:
Band 1 00 seconds
Band 2 10
Band 3 19
Band 4 27
Band 5 45
It seems to me that MAME is not quite there, yet with the pulses being quite a bit slower and the volume of the hum a little too loud.
Possibly the best solution currently (if people agree) is that MAME should be marked 'Imperfect sound'
Hopefully, someone with an interest in this game will check it out at some point.
-- ORIGINAL GAMEPLAY --.........Link.................................................................................Start...Timings
FindArcadeMachine.............. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mdSHAC6zlk ....00:40...40 pulses 15:20 Seconds
Joe's Classic Video Games...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngw9yijOOo ....15:37...40 pulses 16.22
TNT Amusements................. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfypw0H5khM ....05:00...40 pulses 16:12
ArcadeDocs524.................. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhOX1f0bd3U ....13:45...40 pulses 14:00
DeLuSioNal's Arcade............ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to8KrmkIYhE ....24:00...40 pulses 15:22
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MAME............................................................................00:00...40 pulses 21:00
-- NON ORIGINAL --
Joe's Classic Video Games...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2NFboPZVdc ............40 pulses 15:30
FindArcadeMachine.............. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQe9n4ftrTc ............40 pulses 14:00 secs
Sound hardware web link.
http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2012/09/galaxians-digital-oscillator-explained.html
God, I miss those dark, musty arcades ....
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Galaxian background sound (hum) not quite right.
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