djh@neuromancer.metaphor.com (Dallas J. Hodgson) (06/12/91)
With regards to SunRize's $2,000 16-bit stereo sound board, I think they're missing the point. If I was going to spend that kind of bucks, I'd expect the software to be pretty bang-up - run on a Mac and integrate with all the high-end audio tools with which the Amiga is lacking. I was in Egghead today, guess what I saw. A PC external box that plugs into the parallel port. It claimed 16-bit stereo sampling/playback ability, with "reproduction up to 20KHz." I assume this means a max sampling rate of 40Khz. It came with waveedit software and some various libraries and such to integrate with a few other PC tasks. The box was called M-Stereo, and its total cost was <get this> $199. Now, without actually opening the box and trying the unit out, I imagine the box at little (if any) memory of its own so the CPU would have to be tied up to playback or sample any sounds. Now, imagine this: Get a stereo sample. Break up the left channel values into 2 8-bit samples, to be played on audio channels 1 and 3. Break up the right values similarly, and play channels 2 and 4. Provided the DMA timing is tight enough, (and I don't have my Hardware Manual handy) you could playback the 16-bit samples on a stock Amiga! <grin> Anyway: for $2000 you can get a DAT, two 16-bit stereo signal processors a couple of decent Bose bookshelf speakers and a mixer. With regards to SunRize's 12-bit mono sampler, it sounds like a big yawn at any price - let alone over $500.00. Come on guys, you can do better than that. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dallas J. Hodgson | "These days, you have to be pretty | | Metaphor Computer Systems | technical before you can even | | Mountain View, Ca. | aspire to crudeness." | | USENET : djh@metaphor.com | - William Gibson | +============================================================================+ | "The views I express are my own, and not necessarily those of my employer" | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+