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2022-08-26
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S A M P L E D S O U N D S
by Dave Moorman
Paul Gomes called me with some
questions about the Home Tower and
other things. While we were talking,
he mentioned having a disk with music
on it. And singing!
"A clip from Van Halen! With
exceptional quality," Paul said.
I replied, "Send it to me. This is
definitely something for LOADSTAR!"
The two files I could use are "The
Sword and the Serpent", and Van Halen
performing "Why Can't This Be Love."
Both are quite large in disk blocks
(read: Long Load Times). Neither
returns to LOADSTAR or Basic.
Nevertheless, you will be
wondering -- Is this Memorex or is
this LOADSTAR?!
Sound sampling on the C-64 is not
new. Actually, the technology is not
all that complicated. (Ahem -- Robin
Harbron wades in here to note that he
and others have written articles in
C=Hacking #20 and #21. Slapping
nybbles into the volume register is
not hard. Timing and noise reduction
is a bear! Then there is Pulse Wideth
Modulation, which [can] be done, but a
SuperCPU really, really helps.)
One must have an interface that
runs the output of the audio source to
the Analog-to-Digital (paddle)
register on the SID chip. The bytes
are recorded to memory. For playback,
four bits of each byte are quickly
sent to the Volume register of the
SID. Out comes the sound.
That's the simple answer. The
question now is: How did these two
samples get such good quality? Check
out Robin's article mentioned above.
The other limitation on the C-64
is [memory]. Samples take gobs of
memory. Perhaps the quality in these
two samples is a result of pushing the
maximum number of nybbles through the
Volume register per second. And that
means Van Halen's clip is only a few
seconds long.
All in all, this is what keeps me
using this quaint platform -- there is
nothing I can NOT do, if I am willing
to accept (or dodge) the limitations
of the machine.
DMM
[NOTE]: For the articles by Robin and
Steve Judd (and others) check out
http://www.ffd2.com/fridge/chacking/
All the gritty details are there!