Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!att!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Sound Digitizers Keywords: Perfect Sound 3.1, FAUG Demo, 12 bit, 16 bit sampling, vaporware Message-ID: <1990Dec6.235842.14198@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 6 Dec 90 23:58:42 GMT References: <901204.205840.CST.C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU> Sender: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 118 C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU (Baird McIntosh) writes: >In Message-ID: <8286@lynx.UUCP> vik@lynx.uucp (Vikram Sohal) said: >> Any suggestions as to which sound digitizer is best to get? I have >> seen PerfectSound at my local software store, but have no idea as to >> how it compares to others. Are there any 16/8 bit digitizers >> available? how about bundled software? I picked up an interesting document from SunRize Industries Tuesday at the FAUG meeting. It was a news release for an R&D effort -- vaporware personified -- dated 5 October 1990. The effort was for a "Audio for Video Post production System", with a choice of two sampling digitizers. One was a card for an A2000 or A3000 which "features a 12 bit sampler and player, on-board microprocessor, ram, SMPTE in/out, MIDI in/out, and [adjustable] linear phase low pass filters...Sampling rates of up to 44KHZ are supported." Whatever all that might mean -- I don't do music. "The second card, in the process of being licensed from Vision Quest, supports multiple channel 16 bit in/out. Also featured is on-board ram, digital low pass filters and a Motorola DSP chip (the same one used by NeXT Inc.)" This one is expected to be more expensive, but give CD quality. (!?!) "To support the hardware, modular software is being developed. Modules to record and edit direct to hard disk are well along. A cue list module is also under development. All modules support time code." "With this new Audio Sweetening System, users will be able to record their entire sound track to hard disk along with SMPTE time code. They can edit the sound and specify SMPTE in and out points. A final mixdown can be performed digitally, followed by playback to video tape synced to time code." Folks to whom any of that makes sense and looks interesting might like to contact them at the number below. > Look at something besides Perfect Sound. The only software that works > with Perfect Sound 3.x hardware is Perfect Sound 3.x and AudioMaster > III. Get a different digitizer and maybe AudioMaster software. At the FAUG demo, the presenter of Perfect Sound 3.1 mentioned a couple of other compatibilities which I promptly ignored, and the software and hardware come packed with an ad for Dr. T's Tiger Cub music program, which might or might not indicate some level of compatibility or transportability at least of the sampled sound. Or it might have been stuck in because the styrofoam packing ran short. > I don't recommend Perfect Sound because the 3.0 software was not > thoroughly debugged before release, and while I've heard there is a > 3.1 software version, I have not heard anything from SunRize > concerning upgrading. To be fair, they sent me a small upgrade (3.01), > but before that they asked me to send them a letter telling how I > observed the bugs I reported on the registration card. In effect, I > was doing their beta-testing for them! Plus, the 'fixed' version 3.01 > is not totally fixed. Finally, while 3.1 *may* be a miraculous piece > of code, you can probably do much better software-wise by getting > AudioMaster III or QuasarSound. And as I said above, you probably want > a different hardware digitizer because there is not much software > supporting the 3.x PSound hardware. Well, 3.1 is definitely out, the floppy is in my DF0:. I bought it for a toy, and since I mostly detest music, I'm probably not the right one to do a review. However, the demo at FAUG seemed extremely robust, so probably most of the bugs are gone. The software is still limited. For one example, while you can zoom on a sample in the sound editor window, you can't do any editing while zoomed! Nevertheless, we got to watch and hear sound stretched, reversed, overlaid to create an echo, stretched and overlaid to create some weird effect -- "plange" is what it sounded like he said -- I never heard of such a thing, echoed in a tight loop and that loop lengthened with the mouse while the loop was running. There seems to be an ability to cut and paste among six "slots", or sound sample files, and the software supports a nice Amiga-style interface, with several active graphics and text windows in a "console", gadget buttons to evoke various functions, etc. The drawing speed seemed essentially instant, though the presenter said that you get better sound quality if you don't try to graph it simultaneously with capturing it. I've not even booted it up yet, but whatever its quality as a serious sampling system (it does 30 KHz sampling on a 2000, around 50 KHz on a 3000 or 2030 equivalent system), it is a nice toy to pass the time. For those who haven't seen it, the hardware is a dongle shaped gadget, maybe ten by three by 1.5 centimeters (like a skinny long cigarette pack), that plugs into the printer port in place of the printer cable. It takes either a single microphone or stereo _unamplified_ signals from, e.g. a CD player's audio out jacks. >Aside: Can anyone give me a phone number for SunRize? I want to be sure > I can send them my PS hardware without including the receipt. > (They have my registration card, after all.) I've noticed that > all the samples I have done have little or no negative amplitude. > (i.e. the wave graph in Perfect Sound is chopped just below the > center-line.) Didn't see any such thing in the demo; could be hardware or software, I'd think. > I had a number, but I think I threw it away. The only number I have > is on the 3.01 upgrade disk and it's been changed. There is no > phone number in my Perfect Sound manual. From the flyer for their R&D effort: Contact Anthony Wood, SunRize Industries 2959 S. Winchester Blvd. Suite 204 Campbell, CA 95008 (408) 374-4962 >| Baird McIntosh | c503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu <-or-> c503719@umcvmb.bitnet | Kent, the man from xanth. -- Info only; I claim to know _nothing_ about this product.