Re: AE Transwarp GS & AE Sonic Blaster GS & 14MHz 65c816 & 65c832

[paulb@arcadia.ece.nwu.edu (Paul Brazis)]

In article <67ef04$32pe$1@newssvr07-int.news.prodigy.com>,
ToasterKing  <ToastBrain@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
>I guess I should have started a new thread for this -- this has nothing
>to do with my problem -- but I was just wondering:  What kind of signals
>actually come out of the Ensoniq connector?  Analog or digital?  It
>"seems" like analog, judging from how one channel will go out if one side
>of the connector is lifted.  And what does the Sonic Blaster do to these
>signals before they are amplified?  It seems to have quite a few IC's on
>it for just being an amplifier.
>

One pin has the actual sound output, and three pins designate which channel
the sound is supposed to be located. I believe it cycles through all eight
sound channels continuously. It's been a while since I played around with
it. To decode the sound, all you have to do is read the channel number and
direct the sound output to the proper channel. Realizing how simple it is
makes me sick that Apple just didn't go and fork out the dollar (or less) on
making the stock GS stereo.

I remember in the late '80s building a card that was to decode four channels
in order to get four-track sound. Don't believe I got it working completely,
and (as far as I know) there was no software out there supporting more than
two audio channels. Anyone know of any? The IIgs is capable of 8 tracks of
audio output (if you ever wanted to use them...).

Back to the connector, there is also a pin intended for sound input. The
pinouts and the function of each is well covered in the IIgs Hardware
Reference Manual, and I am sure that you can find it in a Apple II technote
or a FAQ (Nathan Mates', etc).