Re: AlphaSyntauri

["Simon D. Williams" <bb065@chebucto.ns.ca>]

On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, RichardK wrote:

> I just, finally, got my hands on an AlphaSyntauri (eBay, wish me luck - 
> I don't know yet whether it works or when it will get here. It was $89). 
> It appears complete; keyboard, small PCB for the controller, couple of 
> PCBs which I guess are the music cards (linked with a ribbon; it's 
> really hard to see on the pictures), manual, looks like a lightpen.

Congratulations... that's a lot less than mine cost (of course we weren't
bidding against each other this time ;-)

> Anyway; I don't know if it has discs. Hard to find?

I have them all (as far as I know) archived on my site:
http://8bitsoundandfury.ld8.org/hardware.html#alphasyntauri
With the exception of one disc which is copy protected (I think it for
creating Hammond B3 wavetables).

There's also the Mountain software (the two conjoined cards are the
Mountain synthesizer), which is what the light-pen is for... mine doesn't
work all that well, so I've never used that feature.

The only other hardware you might want (AFAIK) are a pair footswitches
with 1/4" jacks (which appear to be pretty generic) and a set of Apple II
game paddles, but those are probably only necessary if you plan to do any
live performances.

> I'm working on an article based on it - what I'm most curious about is 
> the DX-1 sampling card - what would one of these be worth? Mark Glinsky 
> is selling one and a couple of AlphaSyntauris, prices are... well, I 
> expect they're nearer the upper end of the market. But I'd like to see a 
> DX-1.

Applefritter was selling them for $20 for the longest time... I wish I'd
have bought a few spares... There's nothing particularly special about the
DX-1, it's just an 8-bit DAC. Samples are limited to what will fit in RAM
(doesn't support AUXMEM), sampling rate can go _really low_ which is nice,
but it's still plenty gritty at the highest rates. Oddly enough it works
better using just the Apple's built-in keyboard; the Syntauri KB causes it
to sound "thinner" and doesn't allow for reverse sample playback.
 
> I'm also curious about the genuine relationship between Passport, 
> Mountain Music, and AlphaSyntauri.
> 
> Finally, did Mountain Music evolve into anything else, maybe PC cards?

Can't help you there...

I do have a full set of "manuals" which I started transcribing (they are
typed and badly printed/copied so OCR is not possible), I'll probably get
back into that during the winter... if you need something specific, I can
scan it for you (given enough warning)...

> Richard (yes, I am still around, and yes, I do still have my Apple IIs!).

Welcome back :)

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