Computer Sound (Re: Amelio's Ouster and why Macs suck)

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <16JUL199714353297@vax2.concordia.ca>,
Mitchell Spector <spec@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
>I find it equally as silly to boast the Macintosh as having an edge
>in music/sound merely because it has a 16-bit DAC built-in.

   Some PC motherboards (Intel Advanced EV (Endeavour) plus more) have
a SB16 builtin, which is as good a DAC as the Mac's plus FM synth (not
much of a selling point, but some things can use it well). Unless you
search the flea markets, you're not likely to pick up any sound card
for the PC that doesn't have at least that ability, and probably goes
way above that. You can get pretty good PC soundcards made by Ensoniq
that incorporate more advanced versions (and more soundram) of the
same chip that the GS has-- and the GS still beats Macs unless you
steal processor cycles to try and get around it.

   Just like most of the rest of the PC market, there's this little
thing called a CHOICE. Your choice of OSs, HDs, Soundcards, etc. I
initially didn't get a soundcard or a few other frills with my PC so
that I could spend the money on non-upgradeable stuff like a bigger
monitor. I wasn't locked into spending money on a half-assed solution
that isn't suitable for real work. 

   The lack of sound beyond a simple *beep* on the most bare-bones PC
isn't as much of a problem. I use a 386 at work as an ethernetted
terminal; a 16-bit stereo beep is totally fluff for such a machine.
SB16 clones aren't more than $20, which is far less than the price
differential between the rest of the system. Once again, you get a
choice from almost nothing to awesome sound rather than being told "We
tell you this is all you need" or similar crap.


>And I still can't understand why Apple used an Ensoniq DOC
>synthesizer in the Apple IIgs back in 1986, and more than 10 years
>later, still haven't added one to the Macintosh.

   I've never seen this proven, but it makes a lot of sense. Apple
Computer Co. was not the first company with 'Apple' in the name. The
big one before that was the company handling the Beatles' music
stuff. Apparently, Apple(Beatles) allowed Apple(Computer) to keep the
name as long as they didn't go into music. The Ensoniq was added at
almost the last minute in the GS's design, and slipped out the door
with vastly better music capabilities than any previous creation by
Apple(Computer). It's rumored that Apple(Beatles) thought that this
was pushing things too far and put their foot down such that nothing
new with that capability got out.

   Also remember that for a number of years, Macs were trying to
break into the business market, and except for the niche of DTP,
they never unseated PCs. Sounds are unnecessary and fluff for such
uses. The occasional *beep* was fine for educational stuff at the time;
by the time that Apple tried to pass themselves as 'Multimedia' there
was the processor speed to pull off rudimentary software mixing. 

   In the PC market, it was the games that really drove the first
waves of soundcards into wide public acceptance, just as games are
pushing in high-quality massmarket hardware 3D in the past 8 months.
Games are definitely a huge selling point for computers, as anyone
who's looked at the volumes of game sales for PCs will tell you. In
the past 5+ years, the games have really been more plentiful,
colorful, available first, and better on the PC side.

   Macs were initially pushed (Jobs's influence, I believe) as
"serious" business machines rather than the far more intelligent
strategy of a "powerful" one. [Possibly also the thought that anyone
dumb enough to require a mouse and not be able to figure out a command
line may not be able to figure out a game more complex than 'pong'.]

Nathan Mates

--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
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