Re: CDR's & MP3 for GS???

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article Will Smith <wsmith@ctron.com> writes...

>On 14 Dec 1998, Mitchell Spector wrote:
>
>> In article Will Smith <wsmith@ctron.com> writes...
>>
>> >On 12 Dec 1998, Supertimer wrote:
>> >
>> >> digital audio which Oversampler can play, try a few
>> >> stereo samples created by the Sonic Blaster.  These
>> >> are true left-right separate stereo.  rSounds from
>> >> this board go into the right and the left speakers
>> >> as separate channels (NOT doubled as you claim).
>> >> Play the samples with Oversampler and then tell
>> >> me it is not outputing true stereo.
>> >
>> >seeing as i HAVE a Sonic Blaster, i'll vouche for you there...  :)  they
>> >have a "bouncing ball" sound sample that's INTENDED to show the Stereo
>> >capabilities...   does so rather nicely, i think.  :)
>>
>>     Vouche for what specifically? That the Apple IIgs is capable of
>> outputting true stereo waveforms, or that the _program_ Oversampler
>> is capable of recognizing and outputting stereo waveforms?
>
>that the GS (through add-on boards) is capable of stereo output.

    Yes, but that was _never_ an issue in our debate. You are vouching
for something that both of us already agree on. :)

    The question is: Does Oversampler recognize and output true stereo
waveforms. The answer is clearly "no" (Supertimer suddenly went silent
on this debate when I asked if he could point me to a example of an
audio clip which would prove me wrong. I guess that means he concedes).

>>     I never disputed the former, only the latter. I have the same
>> demo samples on my Audio Animator disks and just tried the one I
>> think your referring to ("LEFT.CEN.RIGHT"?). When I try and play
>> it through Oversampler (not the AE SonicBlaster software) both of
>> the stereo channels are mixed together, making it monorail sound.
>
>so... what's the difference between the Oversampler and the SonicBlaster
>software?  why would one dump stereo and the other mono?

    They're two different programs, that's why. Oversampler is not
merely a program that plays back waveforms, it plays a sample at
the _same time_ it is being loading. This spooling process allows
you to play waveforms much larger than your total free RAM space.

    My guess is loading _and_ playing *two* independant audio
channels at the same time (essentially two separate waveforms)
is too taxing for the IIgs, so the author choose not to support
stereo. In fact, I can't think of _any_ software that supports
direct loading and playback of stereo waveforms other than the
software AE included for their stereo cards.

>since i don't have Oversampler, i can't comment on it.  all i know is
>based on what i have.  the Sonic Blaster CAN put out stereo.  i'm not sure
>what good this is, since (aside from listening to stuff out of the Sonic
>Blaster instead of the internal speaker) the Sonic Blaster is basically a
>PSA ([P]ower-[S]ucking [A]lien) to me. the only software that i know of
>that takes advantage of it is the software it came with.  i hope i'm
>wrong.

    Any software that uses the Ensoniq chip will automatically take
advantage of the card. The IIgs is always producing stereo, but the
headphone jack ties all the channels into one monorail channel (it
it is then doubled to the left/right channels, but not true stereo).
You need a stereo card to demultiplex the stereo signal from the chip.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca