glewis@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Glenn M. Lewis) (12/20/87)
I purchased the Pro MIDI Studio by Mimetics several months ago, and noticed that the sound sampling software was built in to the package, even though they charge extra for the little "sound sampler" box. I figure that since the box is so very small, and it is attached to the gameport connector, that the electronics inside must be trivial. I doubt that there is much more than a RCA jack and a resistor inside. I have read through the RKM Hardware manual about the gameport, and was surprised to find that the A/D converter for the two analog inputs could operate at a maxmimum frequency of 60 Hz (the video scan rate). That blew my theory that Mimetics was using the built-in A/D converter. What else could they be using for their A/D? My key question is: Can I build my own? Has anybody out there built their own box to take microphone or line-level input so that the Pro MIDI Studio could sample it successfully? Thanks. -- Glenn Lewis -- glewis@cit-vax.caltech.edu
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (12/22/87)
There could be almost any sort fo proprietary goodie in the Mimeteics smapler. They probably use an 8-bit ADC with a serial ouput. There are quite a few available from a number of manufacturers. Figuring out what handshaking goes on twixt the black box sampler device and the game port would be the hard part. The Mimetics smapler is kind of neat. Give the software away for free and make you *want* to buy the copy protection dongle to run the software. Essentailly the same theory used with Digiview. Never mind that Pro Midi Studio has gosh-darn copy protection on the disk too! Grrrrrr!!! Cheers, --Bill
karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer) (12/29/87)
I had a look inside my Mimetics sampler just to see what was going on. Although they didn't go so far as to seal the circuit in a block of epoxy, they did apparently file off the manafacturers' IDs and part numbers from the chips. There's like three little chips and some analog junk - hey, I'm a software guy. -- ..!uunet!nuchat!sugar!karl, Unix BBS (713) 933-2440