Re: AlphaSyntauri

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Simon D. Williams wrote:
> 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).

Simon, I'd be happy to take a crack (!) at deprotecting that disk
if you'd like...

> 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

It's both an ADC and a DAC, isn't it?  (memory going...  ;-)

> (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.

Although one might prefer using an Apple II to digitize, I generally
use my PC sound card to capture samples.  I capture in 16-bits,
then normalize, clip down to a few KB, and save as 8-bit mono
to load into the Apple II.

Capturing in 16-bits makes the gain settings much less critical,
and allows me to use the full 8-bit range.  (At 8-bits, you don't
want to waste one or two high-order bits--and since DAC522
uses just the high 5 bits, it's even more critical that they
contain information!)

> > 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?

Mountain Computer, Inc., manufactured the Mountain Music System, and
they went on to design cards for PCs.

> Can't help you there...

-michael

Music for 8-bit Apple II's!
http://members.aol.com/mjmahon