Re: Amelio's ouster

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

In article GUDATH@EZINFO.VMSMAIL.ETHZ.CH (Henrik 'Ratte' Gudat) writes...

>In <16JUL199718353990@vax2.concordia.ca> spec@vax2.concordia.ca writes:
>
>>     That is a rather murky defination of "wavetable synthesis". Simply
>> having a DAC does not make a music synthesizer, and if you want to see
>> examples of how the term is loosely used, you can find references of
>> the Macintosh Plus and Macintosh II as having wavetable synthesizers
>> built-in (all they have is a crummy 4 voice DAC).
>
>Mitchell, I think you are really missing a few facts here. PowerMacs do not
>have a physical limit of sound channels.

    Yes, but you are still using just a DAC and have to rely totally
on software mixing to create music synthesis. Granted that may a neat
bit of tricky to do the job a hardware synthesizer normally does, yet
keep in mind your left putting a great burden on the CPU. You need a
fast machine, and even then, how much resources will be left to do
other things like animation, rendering and sound? 

    Another thing to keep in mind, software mixing is not nearly 100%
perfect or as affective as a hardware synthesizer, even if you have
the fastest PowerMac or Pentium available (doing it through software
is almost like a kind of emulation of sorts). As well, the number of
voices and quality depend on your machine, so you cannot program a
game and expect it to be the same across the whole platform lineup.
Music by this method comes at a cost, and no matter how you look 
at it, it is a limitation that could have been avoided by Apple.

>>     Have you ever heard a Roland Sound Canvas, Yamaha XG, AWE-32,
>> Gravis or several other wavetable boards with chorus and reverb
>> effects?
>
>Yes, I do. Seriously, I prefer a real synthesizer like a Korg M3R over a
>crippled bonsai synthesizer PCI card any day.

    The Roland SCC-1 in my PC is a _real_ synthesizer, in fact it's a
Sound Canvas (one of the best sounding music synthesizers out there)
stuck onto an ISA slot card. Boards like the SCC1, SC88, Yamaha XG
or AudioTrix Pro are professional quality wavetable synthesizers.

    These sound like a live orchastra, and I am not exaggerating in
the least here! Sure the quality of wavetable boards do vary, you can
get one for as little as $25 and others up to $800+, it's up to you,
but even the cheapest opinion is better than software mixing.

>>     Game software is one case where a windows environment is completely out
>> of place, and I don't recall having to type in obscure commands while in the>
>Nonsense. Please give me one reason why one should leave the windows
>environment.

    Windows and icons may be fine for card games or perhaps adventure
games, but in a complex 3-D video game are you going to want pull down
menus and icons cluttering the screen? (in most cases your going to
want to make the playing field full-screen and hide all that GUI stuff
and burry it underneath). You must admit, there are certain types of
games where a GUI is perfect (e.g. Ultima Online), and certain types
where gets in the way and would destory the playability of a game
(e.g. Carmageddon).

    Also, games tend to be very animation intensive, no? Is that a place
you would want a toolbox and a GUI eating up system resources? Imagine
if the IIgs were designed so it could never have left GS/OS and the
Finder. Do you think games like Task Force, Rastan or The Immortal would
have been written? Or closer to home, Spacefox and The Gate? :)

>>     How, if the port openings do not match on different cases? Besides
>> which, I don't believe Apple sells motherboards and chips you can buy
>> ans install yourself (you have to bring in your system to an authorized
>> dealer and have them do the swap at a hefty cost, assuming there is a
>
>Mitchell, please get the facts straight. If you're really clueless as to what
>is concerning the Macintosh, please don't post.

    If I'm so clueless about the Macintosh, then please set the facts
straight and enlighten me, I'm listening. One of the reasons I jumped
into this debate is so I could state my points of views and hear what
the other side has to say. I'm trying my best to keep an open mind,
and if I'm mistaken about something, correct me and I'll learn. You
didn't answer why I was mistaken about logic board upgrades, you just
responded that I'm clueless and should not speak anymore. Will that 
help me learn?

    I'm sorry if I've offended you (or anyone else here), but I'm just
trying to discuss the pros and cons between two machines. By sharing
thoughts here I figure we could learn from one another, but I'd hate
to see this turn into an emotional debate and from there, a flame war
(and over what, machines? :).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca