From: spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Sound Input on IIGS Date: 3 Aug 1996 06:07 -0500 Organization: Concordia University Message-ID: <3AUG199606073181@vax2.concordia.ca> References: <4tsc5k$r7l@news.vanderbilt.edu> In article lesherjt@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (John Lesher) writes... > > How can I get the IIGS to sample sound? When I had >my //e, I had this nifty little program to sample sound via >the cassette port, but the IIGS has no cassette port. Is >there a simple method? Or must I buy a peripheral card? The Apple IIgs is a huge leap above the IIe in terms of capturing digital sound waveforms. The built-in Ensoniq 5503 chip has a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) for playing back sound samples, as well as an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) for capturing them. This is 8-bit resolution with varying sampling rates that can reach quite high (not sure of the limit, but 44.1 Hz is not out of its range). In other words, unlike the IIe, you'll get clear, crisp and audiable waveforms. Depending on your source, software and shielding, that can be near CD quality (16-bit resolution to really a must to be _that_ clear though! :) As I mention above, sound sampling is built-in to the chip (ADC), but Apple didn't add any conventional way to plug in your sound source. They did however provide a set of molex I/O pins. You basically have two options: build your own crude device to connect a microphone, or purchase a specialized digitizer. Some are better than others, though here's a list off the top of my head... Stand alone digitizers: - HyperStudio slotless digitizer - MDIdeas Digitizer Professional - Sound Ace Combination stereo/digitizers: - AE Audio Animator - AE Sonic Blaster - MDIdeas SuperSonic stereo (requires piggyback SS Digitizer) - SoundMeister - FutureSound - GStereo All the above should be decent enough for your purposes, although for the cleanest sampling I would guess the Audio Animator would be best. It uses it's own separate ADC and sits inside a shielded external mixer box (free from the electronically "noisy" inwards of the GS ;). Also the Digitizer Pro and FutureSound have their own ADC, but I've never heard these to compare. Unfortunately, with the exception of the SoundMeister from Alltech, none of the above are still available new. You can probably still get the Slotless digitizer from Roger Wagner Publishing though, but usually it comes bundled with the HyperStudio software package. Otherwise search on comp.sys.apple2.marketplace... Mitchell Spector spec@vax2.concordia.ca