Re: Sound Cards - more info

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

RichardK-PB wrote:

>Simon Williams wrote:
>
>> The S.A.M. is quite a nice little card... much better than the Echo
>> (IMHO). I was mucking about with an Applesoft program some time ago that
>> would let you control pich and speed with the joystick while triggering
>> phrases with the keyboard -- a singing Apple II, if you will.
>
>Heh! I wrote something like that for the BBC Model B ;)
>
>Does the SAM work without software loaded, then? I've chucked it in the 
>][+, but I don't know how to use it - haven't had time to search for 
>stuff...

SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) was _two_ things:  the digital-to-analog
converter plus amplifier that you have, driven by a program that reloads
the DAC several thousand times per second, and a pure software program
that replaces the hardware DAC with a "software DAC" that drives the
speaker with a variable duty cycle waveform to simulate a DAC.

Both versions essentially monopolize the Apple II during speech, while
"real" synthesizers only need to be reloaded a few to a few dozen times
per second, and, if interrupt driven, allow the Apple to do other things
while "speaking".

-michael

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