ravi@eneevax.UUCP (Ravi Kulkarni) (02/13/85)
The latest creative computing magazine had a description of
Atari's new AMY music chip as well as descriptions of their new
machines. Here is an excerpt about the AMY music chip.
"Features 8 fully independent multi-timbre voices
comprised of 64 seperate and software-configurable
oscillators which can easily change sonic
characteristics on the fly. AMY handles 10.75 octaves
from 4.8Hz to 7.8KHz which encompasses the range of an
88-key piano.
In contrast to more conventional sound synthesis
devices like Commodore's SID chip, AMY is based on
digital sampling. This approach "recreates" the waveform
rather than attempting to imitate it. AMY has a 30KHz
digital sampling rate and a 60dB dynamic range, and runs
of the internal clock of the XEM at 7MHz.
Those who have heard AMY confirm that it can
realistically portray a wide range of musical sounds.
Listeners report, for example that AMY simulates the
highly distinctive "bow attack" of the cello sound with
almost discomfiting accuracy."
I originally bought the c64 based on it's sound capabilities and
the promise of a multi SID keyboard( they never produced the
keyboard though ). This AMY chip though looks like it is 10 times
better than the SID. Some of the features are comparable to
board level products like the Mountain music system or the
Casheab music synthesizer that cost from $300 up to several thousand
dollars. If atari would come out with a keyboard based on a few of
these chips and a midi interface so that it could be controlled
by the new ST computers it would be a big hit.
BTW in the outpost atari section is a remark by sam tramiel that
the new 32 bit machine will use the 32032.
--
ARPA: eneevax!ravi@maryland
UUCP: [seismo,allegra]!umcp-cs!eneevax!ravidoug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (02/14/85)
> I originally bought the c64 based on it's sound capabilities and > the promise of a multi SID keyboard( they never produced the > keyboard though ). This AMY chip though looks like it is 10 times > better than the SID. Don't feel disappointed. If you had waited to get an Atari system with an AMY chip, one of two things would probably happen: a) it may never materialize at all (like that multi SID keyboard), and you would have waited for nothing; or b) by the time it materializes, some other company will already be touting the new super-duper sound chip that they're working on that's 10 times better than AMY, so you'd end up waiting for that. "State-of-the-art" is a fleeting condition. If you feel that you must always have state-of-the-art equipment, you must be prepared to scrap all of it each year as the state-of-the-art marches on. -- Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug