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From: keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga sound, checks
Message-ID: <990@cadovax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Dec-85 20:05:48 EST
Article-I.D.: cadovax.990
Posted: Tue Dec 17 20:05:48 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Dec-85 01:57:29 EST
References: <11217@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <270@sdcarl.UUCP>
Reply-To: keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle)
Organization: CONTEL CADO Systems, Torrance, CA
Lines: 35
Keywords: sound, checks

In article <270@sdcarl.UUCP> tre@sdcarl.UUCP (Tom Erbe) writes:
>
>	Listening to an 8-bit DAC is like playing your stereo through a
>fuzz box.  It may be okay for games and demos, but any serious sound work
>should be done with at least 12-bits (16 or more preferred).  Perhaps the
>Amiga needs an outboard sound box.
>
>	thomas r. erbe

Wellllll, yes and no.  I've done a lot of playing around with an 8-bit 
A/D D/A for this sort of thing for some time, and find that it all depends
on what you're doing.  Sampling frequency seems to have a more detrimental
effect if it's too low than using 8 bit dacs.  Filtered output sure helps.
Sure, playing your stereo thru an 8 bit dac would sound pretty terrible,
there is not enough dynamic range really, the loud parts would probably
be tolerable, but the soft parts would sound like a fuzz box.  For sound
sampling for synthesizers though, lots of dynamic range may not be quite as
important.  Note that the Ensonique Mirage is a commercialy available sampling
synth ($1695 U.S.) that uses 8-bit, though they may be using companding or
something, I'm not sure.  One thing that helped my experiments, is that I
was using an analog synthesizer for volume envelope control over a digitally
sampled sound that was always being output at full volume.  This probably
had the effect of masking some of the dynamic range problems of using a
system where the DAC is used to do the volume variances too.  

Still, an 8-bit DAC is better than a 4-bit DAC which is better than no
DAC at all.  Especially an 8-bit DAC that dosen't require you to dedicate
large CPU resources to keep the sound going.  The Amiga dosen't need an
outboard sound box as much as the Mac, the Atari, and the P.C. do by a
far cry.
 
Keith Doyle
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