Re: MIDI files on IIgs?

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

mjmahon@aol.com (MJMahon) wrote,
in response to my reply:
>>Can't you "stack" several oscillators together to break the 256
>>levels limit?  That is, volume intensities 1 to 256 would be
>>represented by a single oscillator, then a second one could generate,
>>with the first one maxed out, volume intensities 257 through 512.
>>Diversi-Tune appears to be doing just that.
>
>Yes, you could "stack" two oscillators, giving a 9-bit dynamic range,
>or four oscillators, for a 10-bit range--but I think you can see that
>this is not going to be very effective except in special
>circumstances.
>
>The number of bits per sample determines the level of quantizing
>noise in the sample.  Put simply, the "round-off error" of an 8-bit
>sample is 1/256, while the round-off error in a 16-bit sample is
>1/65536.  The difference is audible to most people.

Interesting, so the _theoretical_ maximum dynamic range of an
Apple IIgs is 14-bits, since the Ensoniq 5503 has 32 oscillators.
Not bad at all, although I know that this technique is not
implemented on any GS software.  Still, this may be an interesting
challenge to programmers.  Only useful for playing samples, of
course.

Two oscillators is commonly paired for music programs and four
are paired for MIDIsynth, so it's not like oscillators have not
been used together before.

-Scott G.