From: larsen@meena.cc.uregina.ca
Subject: RE: What soundcard will do what I want?
Date: 11 NOV 92 05:02:33 GMT
Organization: University of Regina, Regina, Sask., Canada

In a previous article, Mike J. Brown <mjbrown@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> wrote:
>I am in the market for a sound card for my 12MHz 286+287.
>I was impressed by the performance of my friends' EPS-16 and DSM-1
>rack-mount samplers, and would like the ability to have something
>like that of my own.  I need the ability to:
> 
>      * sample 16-bit, 44.1KHz over full range (low end of 30Hz or less)
>      * edit and compress samples
>      * use a keyboard to trigger samples (MIDI)
>     AND be able to play multiple samples at once.
> 
>A typical application of the EPS or DSM-1 would be:
>  I sample a breakbeat, vocal sample, guitar riff, or whatever.  The source
>  would be sped up (i.e. played off a turntable at the wrong speed and/or
>  from a tape at double speed) to make it as short as possible.  I assign
>  the sample a root key on the keyboard by hitting the key after the sample
>  is taken.  Then the sample can be played all up and down the keyboard, or
>  over a certain range of keys (with the other keys being reserved for
>  other samples).
>  Playing the sample on lower keys (i.e. slower speed), the sample
>  start/end/loop parameters are edited, then I truncate it, compress it,
>  and save it.
>  I get several samples (8? 10?) loaded in, then I trigger them from a
>  keyboard or other composing/sequencing MIDI device.  Sometimes many
>  samples will be triggered at the same time.  Other people play other
>  parts live or have their own sequences going for the finished song.
> 
>I want to do all of these things with my PC.  I've been reading the
>postings on comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard and the various FAQs, but I'm
>still not sure what is out there for me.
The Gravis UltraSound is the only one technically able to do this.
However there is no software written for the Ultra Sound with this
in mind.  If the Ultra Sound does become popular, such software 
will probably be written, but I do not see it for a long time.
Also, the 16 bit sampling card for the Ultrasound is not out yet.


> 
>1. Can you use a sound card in the manner I described above?
>   Especially the MIDI part.
>2. Can I run a sequencer like Cakewalk on the same PC and have it trigger
>   multiple samples via the sound card?
Sure, on the UltraSound.  I am doing it now.  No other cards,
though.

>3. How many bytes does a typical 4 second 44.1KHz mono sample use?
4 seconds * 44100 samples/second * 2 bytes / sample = 352.8K
More than the GUS's built in RAM (256K)  It's very easey to expand
to one megabyte, though.
>4. Do I have to surrender one of my internal hard drives to be used
>   exclusively by the card?  That is, would the drive be plugged into the
>   card and would it be accessible as normal through DOS?
Nope.  The card uses the DOS file system for samples.

(Rather, it relies on the software to load the samples for it.)
> 
> 
> 
>I have some questions about the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 FAQ:
> 
>>Compatible with the following sound standards:
>> ...
>>Windows with Multimedia
>>Windows 3.1
> 
>1. I have Windows 3.1 but am not a big fan of it.  Wouldn't running
>   Windows take up a lot of memory which would be needed for sampling?
Samples are stored in on board memory on the GUS:  the AT-bus would
not be able to handle the stream coming at it for multiple samples
at 44.1Khz, 16bits!

> 
>>--Dynamic filtering 2Hz-22kHz programmable
> 
>2. What is 'dynamic filtering'?
> 
Dunno -- you wouldn't want a PAS-16 anyway! (not for what you want
to do.)

>>Advanced 20 Voice Stereo Synthesizer
>>
>>--Yamaha YM262 (OPL-3) synthesizer
>>--4 operator FM synthesized sound for true stereo
>>--16 bit FM DAC
>>--General MIDI compatible
> 
>3. How does the synthesizer relate to the sampling?  Or is it entirely
>   separate - they're giving you a 'bonus' synth to go along with your
>   external sampling?
> 
exactly.  The synth is a low end synth -- lower end than the SY-22
for instance.  (Of course, compared to the Soundblaster, it sounds
great.  The old Yamaha chips are garbage compared to today's
technology.  These OPL-3 chips are better, though.)

>>Audio Mixing
>> ...
>>--10 channels with stereo enhance
> 
>4. How does this relate to the 20-note polyphonic synthesizer chip(s)?
20 channel synth in mono -- divide by two for stereo.

The Gus is the same - 32 samples in mono, 16 in stereo.  (If you
can fit them all into the onboard RAM)

>5. How does this relate to multitimbrality?
> 
10 channels -- 10 notes polyphony.  Channels on the board do not
relate directly to midi channels so you can have one channel with
10 notes -- it's dynamically allocated in software.

>>MIDI Interface (Requires Optional MIDI Mate)
>>--Full duplex MIDI port (can record and playback at the same time)
>> ...
>>SP Spectrum -- MIDI Sequencer
>>--Compose and playback music using the on board 20 voice stereo
>>  synthesizer or other MIDI devices
> 
>6. Again, I want to play multiple samples with a keyboard or sequencer.
>   Can I do it?
Definitely not on a PAS-16!!!

> 
>>System Requirements
>>
>>--IBM PC, AT, 80286, 80386, 80486, or 100% compatible
>> ...
> 
>7. I was under the impression I needed a 386.  And I gather from what I've
>   been reading that faster computers are bad?  How can that be?
> 
No you don

No, you don't need a 386, although having a 16-bit bus helps
(but is not necessary - a PAS-16 or a GUS will run fine on an XT!)
Using a PAS-16, a fast Hard Disk helps because the sample is played
off the hard disk -- a slow or fragmented hard disk will result
in glitches.  Of course the GUS uses on board RAM, so doesn't have
this problem.
>>Monologue -- Text to speech synthesizer
> 
>8. Is this the regular old monotone 'Gorf' chip?
> 
Nope -- just a program that has the phenome samples stored, and
plays them back in the order you want (I think, I haven't seen it.)
Oops, phrased that strange -- you can type straight English in.
Nobody should purchase a PAS because of this though.  I think they
might be starting to include a speech to text translator -- that
might be interesting.

>That is all for now but I'm sure I will have many more questions...
>Please help!
> 
>Thanks,
>Mike
Conclusion:  I bought a GUS because it's potential as a sampling
synthesizer and because it should make an awesome video game
sound board.  If you want a sampling synth I recommend you wait a
while to see if somebody is going to write the software you need.
I don't use mine quite how you want to -- I use it more as a
straight synthesizer, so CakeWalk for Windows with the GUS multi-
media drivers works for me.  (Right now CakeWalk does not implement
MM Windows properly so it doesn't load the patches for me -- I have
to do that manually.  A pain in the butt.  Gravis has said they
would patch it for us because, unfortunately, CakeWalk is the norm
rather than the exception.)

Also, modifying samples is a pain in the butt right now -- it can
be done, but it's often more work than it should be.  Again, as
software starts to support the GUS patch format, things should
run better.

Bryan

Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.synth