Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!jhunix!barrett
From: barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: CD sound
Message-ID: <6741@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Date: 30 Oct 90 22:44:54 GMT
References: <1990Oct25.003358.24989@dg-rtp.dg.com> <112348.26565@timbuk.cray.com> <7521@eos.arc.nasa.gov>
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF
Lines: 43

In article <7521@eos.arc.nasa.gov> phil@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Phil Stone) writes:
>If it were possible to increase the Amiga's dynamic range capability
>to 16 bits, perhaps switchable to 8 bits for downward compatability,
>I would be a very happy person.

	Me too.  Like you, I "drool over" the Digidesign cards for the Mac,
and wish that something comparable were available for the Amiga.  Even
something simpler like realtime hard-disk audio recording isn't available
(to my knowledge), even though similar systems for the Atari ST (ADAP) have
been available for years.  I want this for Amiga too!

	I don't care if 16-bit sound comes from Commodore or a 3rd party
company.  Given the choice, I'd rather have Commodore concentrating its
efforts on graphics and the OS than on sound, so maybe I'd prefer a 3rd-party
card.

	A company called "Vision Quest" was designing an Amiga card
around the Motorola 56001 (same as in Digidesign and NeXT), but I have
not heard from them in a long time.  They used to post to this newsgroup.
Hello?  Anyone there?

>...maybe Digidesign could be talked into an Amiga port of their excellent
>system....

	Digidesign?  For the Amiga?  I doubt it will happen.  Remember that
Digidesign's president is THE person who started the rumors IN PRINT about
the Amiga and MIDI (how the multitasking OS made it "unreliable" for MIDI
timing).  I am not making this up, and I can tell you the issue of KEYBOARD
that contained his article.  It says, in effect, "Uh, my friend told me
that his Amiga sequencer doesn't handle timing well, so we blame the hardware
and the OS."  Not the software, of course.  Respectable journalism, eh?  :-(

	I would absolutely LOVE a powerful 16-bit DSP card for the Amiga.
I would pay $$ for it, particularly if the software is excellent (or if
it could be used transparently by existing applications like SYNTHIA).

                                                        Dan

 //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
| Dan Barrett, Department of Computer Science      Johns Hopkins University |
| INTERNET:   barrett@cs.jhu.edu           |                                |
| COMPUSERVE: >internet:barrett@cs.jhu.edu | UUCP:   barrett@jhunix.UUCP    |
 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////