Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!haven!uvaarpa!mcnc!ncsuvx!shumv1!rnf
From: rnf@shumv1.uucp (Rick Fincher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Mac sounds on IIGS [Was: Re: IIGS Sound Digitizers]
Message-ID: <4338@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 27 Oct 89 15:37:28 GMT
References: <8910161512.AA17112@trout.nosc.mil> <5917@portia.Stanford.EDU> <11342@smoke.BRL.MIL> <35953@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: rnf@shumv1.ncsu.edu (Rick Fincher)
Organization: NCSU Computing Center
Lines: 23


>[...]
>>It may have something to do with a design botch in the IIGS use of the
>>Ensoniq, in that a 0 sound level does something unexpected (documented,
>>so it's an official "feature").  I don't have my references at hand.
>>Try changing all 0 bytes to contain 1 instead and see if it sounds better.
>
>A 0 does something documented:  it stops the sound (for that oscillator).
>-- 
>

There is a tech note on this problem, it is in the Ensoniq chip I believe
not in the design of the IIgs because the tech note said the only real fix was
an updated Ensoniq chip.  The tech note suggests a work around.  If I remember
correctly the problem occurs with a transition through zero, it causes an
unexpected sound that can make quiet pieces of sound sound full of noise.
The work around was to simply not use 0.  It only throws your note off by a 
small margin and sounds much better than the noise.  I don't know if Ensoniq
ever fixed the bug.  The noise is less noticeable in loud passages.  This does 
not affect the way you use commercial programs for making sound, only the 
programming of sound.  Presumably the commercial programs contain workarounds.

Rick