Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jm7e+ From: jm7e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jeremy G. Mereness) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Ensoniq Message-ID: Date: 8 May 90 02:25:28 GMT References: <1981@polari.UUCP>, <12800@smoke.BRL.MIL> Organization: Computing Systems, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 59 In-Reply-To: <12800@smoke.BRL.MIL> > Excerpts from netnews.comp.sys.apple2: 7-May-90 Re: Ensoniq Doug > Gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (684) > In article <1981@polari.UUCP> tm@polari.UUCP (Toshi Morita) writes: > -The Ensoniq DOC has 32 oscillators. If monophonic sound is bearable > then you > -can assign all 32 oscillators to a single channel and run 32 tones. > Apple > -recomments that programmers write for a stereo machine and so only 16 > -simultaneous tones are possible (2 DACs per tone, one for each channel). > -Apple reserves the last pair of oscillators for system usage, so 15 > pairs are > -usable under GS/OS. Wrong. Or atleast I hope so... The Ensoniq DOC is known in the synthesizer world as the Q chip, the same machine that drives the Ensoniq Synthesizers Mirage, ESQ-1, and Digital Piano. It is a 32 oscillator chip, each oscillator an independent entity. The Apple //gs is set up so that two of those oscillators are used for timing. That leaves 30. The Apple tools split the oscillators in half, so that for each tone, two oscillators are acting in combination. This is a standard configuration for musical synthesizers, as a single oscillator, playing by itself, sounds thin and unattractive. The second oscillator, slightly detuned or better yet playing a different timbre or waveform, fattens up the sound. This is called "Analog Synthesis" where oscillators are layered on top of each other to create a final sound. Conceivably, by bypassing the tools, you could have only one oscillator per pitch, allowing you to have 30 notes plays simultaneously. Or you could do the reverse, having 3 oscillators per pitch, allowing only 10 note polyphony but fattening up the sound quality tremendously. This technique is not widely used on the //gs or any computer for that matter, as computists prefer to sample the waveforms into a space and leave it at that. The DOC has much more power, however, to take sampled and/or simulated waveforms and layer them by the technique I described above, but it has yet to be exploited. My recommendation? Go to a music-performance store (a real one, not the Kimball's at the mall) and play with the ESQ-1 by Ensoniq. Try programming in a sound (called a "patch" in synth-speak) and become familiar with filters and envelopes and modulations. Then, think about that thing sitting inside every //gs in the country..... YOW! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ |Jeremy Mereness | Support | Ye Olde Disclaimer: | |jm7e+@andrew.cmu.edu (internet) | Free | The above represent my| |a700jm7e@cmccvb (Vax... bitnet) | Software | opinions, alone. | |staff/student@Carnegie Mellon U. | | Ya Gotta Love It. | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --