From: kjohnson@castor.cs.uga.edu (Kristopher Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Falcon DSP -> standard modem & fax?
Date: 27 Aug 92 01:38:32 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens

In article <94611@bu.edu> selick@csa.bu.edu (Steven Selick) writes:
>
>Just how programmable will the dsp chip in the new Falcon be? For
>instance, could one program it to emulate a standard modem? How fast
>would it be able to run? How about using the Falcon as a midi sampler?
>What polyphony would such a beast have? Perhaps a vocodor? It would seem
>that somebody who was a bit clever could even make the Falcon into a
>Yamaha DX-7, or even a more complicated machine, using MIDI as the key
>input. Could the dsp chip possibly be used for added processing power if
>you are using non-dsp programs? Any chance C-Lab's Notator will be
>taking advantage of the new falcon hardware in the near future? When
>they say "8 channel digital recording" Do they literally mean like an
>alesis adat machine? Will future programs be able to do digital cut and
>paste on one of those tracks independantly? How large a disk drive would
>one need for say 1 minute of 8 track recording? Would it be possible to
>do such recording directly to a tape backup drive? Can the Falcon start
>up an old car on a frosty morning? :)
>
>Lots of questions here...feel free to answer just a few!
>
>-Steve <selick@csa.bu.edu>

There is already talk of using the DSP for high-speed modeming 
(9600-14400bps+) that would only require an interface for the phone
connection to the CODEC (A/D / D/A converter) and the software.  The 
interface shouldn't cost much, though.  By "talk of" I mean as if it's
already planned.  There is also talk of sampling/synthesis/effects 
applications already being the works.  And C-Lab is soon to release 
Notator Logic for the Mac and Atari which should use some of the Falcon's
abilities.  Likewise, Steinberg/Jones' new Cubase Audio for the Mac and 
Atari should also be using some of the Falcon's abilities.  By "8 channel
digital playback and record," what is meant is that the Falcon has a 
built-in 8 channel multiplexer, but in truth the Falcon can only record
in 2 channels simultaneously since it only has a stereo input (although
an interface could be made for the DSP port which would allow 8 channel
recording, or even more).  Likewise, without some kind of expander, the 
Falcon combines/mixes the the 8 channels into 2 channels for playback since
it only comes standard with a stereo output.  1 minute of CD-quality 
(44.1kHz) sound on one channel takes up about 5MB (5.046844482MB to be more 
accurate), so 8 channels would take up 40MB.  However, since you'd probably
need at least 5 minutes of recording time per channel, you'd really need
a little over 200MB of hard drive space.  It would be an okay system to do
some relatively inexpensive digital 8-track demos on that you're going to
mix back down onto 2-track DAT or cassette, but you'd be much better off
with an Alesis ADAT (if they get the bugs out of it) or the like if want 
something more professional (and have the money).

The NeXT is a fairly popular research workstation, partially because of the
built-in DSP (the same one in the Falcon).  With the right interfaces for 
the DSP port, it can take in gobs and gobs of data and spit out results 
before you can say "go!"  Okay, maybe that's somewhat of an exaggeration, 
but a DSP can do some mighty impressive things.  Perhaps (and that's a big
"perhaps") the Falcon will also be used by some researchers on a budget.  


Steve "This is my brother's account, so don't send me mail!" Johnson
GEnie: S.JOHNSON10  (E. Krimen probably knows who I am.)
Internet: ???@athena.cs.uga.edu (in about a month)