unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) (05/06/90)
In article <11669@netcom.UUCP> lyle@netcom.UUCP (Lyle Fong) writes: >The sound on the IIgs is among the BEST in the PC industry, capable of playing >15 sounds simultaneously with Orchestraic quality. It is better than most >stock Macs, and better than IBM's even with AdLib sound cards on them. Well, you have underestimated it! As far as I've read/been told, the GS's sound chip is capable of 31 channels simultaneously, yet through "legal" means, 15 is how many you get... As we've all seen though, trickery gets you much more than going through the legal means. -- _ __ __ __ _ /-------------------------------\ /_\ |__| | __| |_| |_ \ / |_| | unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu | / \ | |__ |__ | |__ \/ | \ | unknown%darkside.com@ames.arpa | Computer engineering student seeking a job. \-------------------------------/
haris@wam.umd.edu (Chris Mazzola) (05/07/90)
Actually, the Ensoniq chip used in the Apple IIgs has 31 oscillators, but they are each paired to give a richer sounding machine. So, on the GS, only 15 at once, but on an Ensoniq keyboard (which are WONDERFUL), 32. -Chris Mazzola -haris@wam.umd.edu
rlw@ttardis.UUCP (Ron Wilson) (05/08/90)
In article <3133@darkstar.ucsc.edu>, unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes: >In article <11669@netcom.UUCP> lyle@netcom.UUCP (Lyle Fong) writes: >>The sound on the IIgs is among the BEST in the PC industry, capable of playing >>15 sounds simultaneously with Orchestraic quality. It is better than most >>stock Macs, and better than IBM's even with AdLib sound cards on them. > Well, you have underestimated it! As far as I've read/been told, >the GS's sound chip is capable of 31 channels simultaneously, yet through >"legal" means, 15 is how many you get... As we've all seen though, trickery >gets you much more than going through the legal means. It's NOT really trickery. The Ensonic chip used in the //gs does indeed have 32 logical oscilators. The //gs sound toolkit uses one those as a timing source. 30 are then used in a paired mode of operation, leaving one unused by the sound toolkit. In the paired mode of operation (which IS designed into the Ensonic chip), one "oscilator" plays the initial or attact portion of a sound, then the other "oscilator" is automatically triggered (in the chip, no software intervention required) to play the sustain portion of the sound (looping until the software tells the chip to stop the "oscilator"). This mode of operation, while "wasteful" of potential "polyphony," was devised (by Ensonic for their Mirage sampling "synth") to provide a more realistic sound within the constraints of 64K of RAM (even on the Mirage, no single sound can occupy more than 64K - the Mirage, however, can access multiple banks of SOUND RAM, 2 at a time - the //gs only provides 1 bank of *SOUND* RAM - the sound chip can't access any the "system" RAM). I known that "Music Construction Set" uses this mode of operation, HOWEVER, some other programs (such as both version of Music Studio I have (1.2 and 2.0)) do not use this feature - In fact, it's very obvious: the higher the pitch of note being played, the shorter it's duration (ie: notes can not be sustained). One program, Diversa-Tune, implements this feature in software so as to make use of all 32 oscilators. It would have been nice if Apple's sound toolkit does what Divers-Tune does, but I guess they (Apple) thought the CPU overhead would be to large for anything but a dedicated music program to use. With the paired oscilator mode of operation, the program only has to worry about starting the note and then stopping it - it doesn't need to "reprogram" the oscilator partway through the playing of the note. (of course, if it WANTS to reprogram the oscilators on the fly, it IS free to do so - Apple's sound toolkit just doesn't provide a defined way to do this) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We were wondering when somebody would discover that one." - The response of a customer support rep to a customer's phoned in bug report (name of company with held to protect the guilty). rlw@ttardis rel.mi.org!ttardis!rlw sharkey!cfctech!ttardis!rlw