Re: Who's Dr. Tom?

[iigs@wam.umd.edu (Geoff Weiss)]

In article <42h416$97d@news.wco.com>,  <gbmaidsf@wco.com> wrote:
>Excluding a bit of humor thrown into my VAMPS 2 x 4 doc's, everything
>stated is 100% true and accurate (in my own mind).  I am not a substance 

I, like many, still question the validity of your claims with the VAMPS.
I got a book from the school's library (3-D Sound For Virtual Reality and
Multimedia. Begault, Durand R.  AP Professional, Boston, 1994.) on the
subject of 3-D sounds and it appears that the GS is unable to support 
3-D sound with the software that is available.  Before I go into why I
think this is the case, I want Dr. Tom to explain (in one paragraph or
less) the following terms (to see if he knows anything about this
subject):  IHL, HRTF, and R/D ratio.  Concepts like these are what
should be explained with the VAMPS documentation.  Words like
"Digital Audio Transmutation" are complete nonsense.  How can you
change digital audio?  It is all 1's and 0's.

Now here some of the resons why I don't you can make 3-D sound on the
GS.  1)  One way to produce 3-D sounds is with 2-4 DSP boards and a
mixer.  No GS Stereo cards have that.  2)  Another way to produce
3-D sounds is with a "convolvotron"--the hardware in the Gravis
Ultrasound card for the PC.  No GS stereo card has that.  3)  For a
sound to appear to come from a specific direction, you need to play the
same sound at the same time in both ears AND to process the result 
through a FIR filter (this is what the convolotron does).  I'm
100% positive that the ensonique chip inside the GS does not have any
FIR filters.  If anything, any modifications you made to these songs
were the FIRST step to produce 3-D sound.  These songs do not have
the 3-D characteristics that you claim.

I'm going to state for the record that I am in no way an expert in
3-D sound.  All of this information is directly from the one book I
checked out.  I did not read the book in its entirety--I skimmed it
to find out about the theory and pratical applications.  Also, I do not
have a stereo card in my GS.  I believe others who say that they do not
hear 3-D sound with the VAMP pieces.  I have given reference information
about the book for anyone for anyone who wants to verify this subject
matter.

Geoff
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