js9b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. Slenk) (12/14/88)
Howdy all! I saw an advertisement (in sharper image catalog) for a unit that takes voice input and then gives a smooth, instrumental output. This allows one to play instruments through humming, singing etc, freeing the person of learning how to play the real thing. It struck me that the SID chip is a full synthesizer. Couldn't it be set-up to do much the same thing, but with greater variety? The chip is designed to work on input, to modify it, so you can daisy-chain them for complex sounds. How does the 64 do this? Does it have a port where I could stick a mic and then have an assembly program take this data and use it to create the output sounds? Any help (input :-)) would be appreciated! Sincerely, Jon Slenk / js9b CMU.
Geoffrey.Welsh@isishq.FIDONET.ORG (Geoffrey Welsh) (12/16/88)
> From: js9b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. Slenk) > Message-ID: <cXdcoVy00Uo6A9KGEV@andrew.cmu.edu> > I saw an advertisement (in sharper image catalog) for a > unit that takes voice > input and then gives a smooth, instrumental output. > It struck me that the SID chip is a full synthesizer. Couldn't > it be set-up to > do much the same thing, but with greater variety? I'm no SID expert, but I'm sure the answer is "no"; at least not without extra hardware. The SID chip's input is not affected by the synthesizer aspect of the chip, so you couldn't use it to modulate some other output. If I remember correctly, the only thing that you could do to the input on the SID chip was pass it through the frequency filter (offering high-, low-, band-pass, and notch-reject modes). In order to modify an incoming signal, you'd have to be using analytical hardware (or some basic A/D hardware and analytical software) and then re-generate the desired sound from the SID. For more detail on that, you'd have to talk to people who've added sound interfaces to their 64... I only played with the SID briefly when I got my first 64 back in '82 or '83. -- Geoffrey Welsh - via FidoNet node 1:221/162 UUCP: ...!watmath!isishq!Geoffrey.Welsh Internet: Geoffrey.Welsh@isishq.FIDONET.ORG
aliu@nunki.usc.edu (Alejandro Liu) (12/23/88)
In article <992.23AFEC5A@isishq.FIDONET.ORG> Geoffrey.Welsh@isishq.FIDONET.ORG (Geoffrey Welsh) writes: > > > From: js9b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. Slenk) > > Message-ID: <cXdcoVy00Uo6A9KGEV@andrew.cmu.edu> > > I saw an advertisement (in sharper image catalog) for a > > unit that takes voice > > input and then gives a smooth, instrumental output. > > It struck me that the SID chip is a full synthesizer. Couldn't > > it be set-up to > > do much the same thing, but with greater variety? > I'm no SID expert, but I'm sure the answer is "no"; at least not >without extra hardware. I am not a SID expert either, but the thing is possible, with some cheap Hardware aditions. That is called digitizing. The problem is that digitizing takes HUGES ammounts of memory. So you have two options, record a shorter sound or loose sound quality. Probably, this device you are talking about, decide to loose sound quality in order to allow longer songs. > The SID chip's input is not affected by the synthesizer aspect of You don't use the SID chip's input that is connected to the Video Port of the C-64 to do that though. > In order to modify an incoming signal, you'd have to be using analytical >hardware (or some basic A/D hardware and analytical software) and then The SID chip, also has two A/D converters built in. Currently, they are used to read the Paddles. I am not an electronics wizard, but it is possible to use them to DIGITIZE a sound input. (I belive that there were a couple of devices that use that scheme to digitize sounds, but I think that the company that built them has gone out of business) Using that by itself, you will be able to achieve some success in digitizing sounds, pretty much like a CD, but with a resolution of 4 bits. The A/D converters, have 8 bit resolution, but I think most of the SID register are 4 bit only. Of course, you can then use a program to analyze the data so it can be played back using a more elborated way, rather than changing volume levels. -- aliu@nunki.usc.edu (Alejandro Liu) (Simple .signature, $CHEAP$)