Re: Release of DMS Drummer: A Percussion Sequencer for the Apple II

["Marc S. Ressl" <mressl@gmail.com>]

On Dec 6, 7:18 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
> Marc S. Ressl wrote:
> > On Dec 6, 6:15 am, Michael J. Mahon <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> >>"Marc S. Ressl" <mre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>On Nov 30, 8:05 am, bloomer_au <bloo...@iprimus.com.au> wrote:
>
> >>>>On Nov 30, 5:46 pm, Michael J. Mahon <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>"Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>>With inspiration and musical mentoring provided by Seth Sternberger
> >>>>>>of _8-Bit Weapon_, I've impemented a percussion sequencer/synthesizer
> >>>>>>for the Apple II.
>
> >>>>>>It allows a user to create sequences as long as 255 patterns, where
> >>>>>>each pattern is one of a set of 16 musical measures. Within each of
> >>>>>>these patterns, any one of 8 percussive voices can be played at any
> >>>>>>1/16th note boundary.  In addition, the "pitch" for playing back the
> >>>>>>percussion sample can be specified, which is useful for pitched drums,
> >>>>>>like tom-toms.
>
> >>>>>>Like RT.SYNTH (which Seth also offers as DMS Synthesizer) DMS Drummer
> >>>>>>uses the DAC522 5-bit 22kHz pulse-width-modulation wavetable synthesizer
> >>>>>>engine, driven by a sequencer that runs in real time.  DAC522 represents
> >>>>>>"silence" as pairs of 6 cycle pulses spaced 46 cycles apart, regardless
> >>>>>>of whatever the code is doing--which subroutine it's calling or which
> >>>>>>branch path it's taking.  Executing "branchy" code while maintaining
> >>>>>>a constant stream of evenly spaced pulses is pretty tricky, but it must
> >>>>>>be done if the sequencer is to keep silent except for the desired
> >>>>>>sounds.
>
> >>>>>>Seth is offering the full version on his website:
> >>>>>>  http://www.8bitweapon.com/store.htm
> >>>>>>for $15, but the demo version (downloadable both from my website
> >>>>>>and his) is free for you to play with!  It is limited to 8 distinct
> >>>>>>programmable patterns and the Save function is disabled.
>
> >>>>>>Listen to the sample song, created by Seth, on either of our websites
> >>>>>>to hear the realistic rhythm line that an 8-bit Apple II can produce!
> >>>>>>The melody and bass lines are being played on RT.SYNTH, so the only
> >>>>>>non-Apple II-produced sounds are the "explosions" (which could also
> >>>>>>have been played by SOUND.EDITOR on an Apple II!).
>
> >>>>>>-michael
>
> >>>>>>DMS Drummer for more rhythmic Apple II computing!
> >>>>>>Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
>
> >>>>>>"The wastebasket is our most important design
> >>>>>>tool--and it's seriously underused."
>
> >>>>>I should mention that many emulators do a pretty bad emulation of Apple
> >>>>>sound at 22kHz--I recommend a real Apple II, but with a good amplifier
> >>>>>attached. The "treble" should be turned down, since any frequencies above
> >>>>>5kHz are just noise.
>
> >>>>>Headphones are also good, unless you are one of the people who can hear
> >>>>>22kHz. ;-)
>
> >>>>ActiveGS (ergo KEGs) does the best job. There's a crackling, but the
> >>>>sounds are still clearly audible, vs Virtual II and Sweet16 in which
> >>>>they are awash with noise.
>
> >>>>Obviously I look forward to hearing it on my IIGS, but it's down atm.
>
> >>>>When I listen to Seth's sample, the bass tone coincidentally sounds a
> >>>>ton like the bass synth in IIGS Music Studio.
>
> >>>>- Wade
>
> >>>�Have you tried AppleIIGo?http://code.google.com/p/appleiigo/
>
> >>>I am not supporting this project anymore, but the sound engine is
> >>>quite similar to the OpenEmulator one. I would love to hear your
> >>>comments on sound quality.
>
> >>No, I've not used AppleIIGo.
>
> >>I'll give it a try and report back.
>
> >>-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II:http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon
>
> > I forgot, try AppleIIGo rev. 154, because 301 has no sound support!
>
> And I just took a look and found it requires MacOS.
>
> Sorry, I'm a Windows environment guy.  ;-)
>
> FWIW, I remember that Catakig did a great job with sound, because
> the author used DSP techniques to faithfully emulate the Apple II
> speaker sound into PCM for modern sound hardware.
>
> -michael
>
> NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
> Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
>
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it's seriously underused."

Oops, sorry! But let me tell you I'm looking forward to porting this
project to Windows and Linux :-).

Best wishes,

Marc.-