Re: Apple II Sound

[mjmahon@aol.com (MJMahon)]

As the initial stimulus for this thread, I'd like to point out that
_all_ of the sound/speech examples mentioned here are examples
of 1-bit sound sampling.  The quality is limited in two ways:

1) the sampling rate is 7-10 KHz, on the hairy edge of adequate
   for voice frequencies (300-3000Hz), and
2) with only one-bit precision in each sample, the sound is
   reproduced "infinitely clipped"--that is, max "fuzz", and,
   while intelligible with practice, cannot be compared to 5-bit
   sound.  5-bit samples provide sufficiently low "sampling noise"
   to sound realistic for speech, bells, sound effects, etc.

Making a 1-bit sound sampler/player is indeed a nice quick hack
(I did mine in 1981 using the mini-assembler, too), but with few
exceptions (like Paul Lutus' Electric Duet, and Scott Alfter's SoftDAC),
the state of the sonic art on the 8-bit Apple did not progress much
in over a decade.

I challenge you to load up one of these older programs and play
a sound, then load up Sound Editor and play a sound (two are
included, but any 8-bit 11KHz sampled sound can be played).
I think you'll agree, that the fidelity of DAC522 is incomparable.
If you have headphones or an external speaker, it'll blow your
mind!  ;-)

-michael ("They said it couldn't be done!"  ;-)