Concierto IV Sound Module for Picasso 4

16-bit Sound Module for Picasso IV

The Concierto Sound Module adds sound to the PicassoIV. "Sound" does not just include playback of digital audio data, it also includes recording, synthesis and MIDI.

Concierto supports digital sound playback and recording in mono and stereo, both with eight and with sixteen bits per sample, using recording rates from 3 kHz to 44.1 kHz. This effectively allows for CD quality sound and exceeds the quality of the built-in Amiga sound hardware by far.
Part of the hardware is a Yamaha OPL3 synthesizer which supports 18 voices and stereo sound. Please note this is not a "Wavetable" synthesizer.
The audio signal the Concierto delivers is the results of mixing. Six sound sources can be mixed together. These sources include the Amiga sound signal, a microphone connected to the Concierto, the sound fed into the external audio connector on the PicassoIV and others. A special feature of the mixer is that you can record its output.

MIDI (an acronym for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface") is a standard for controlling musical instruments with computers. The Concierto features two connectors which allow you to plug in keyboards, rhythm machines, sequencers, etc. that comply to the MIDI standard interface.

The Concierto plugs into the PicassoIV, which is absolutely required for operation. The sound card actually consists of two parts, a smaller one which holds the sound chip (Concierto main board) and the other which holds all the connectors (Concierto I/O board). Both must be linked with a special cable.

Due to the size of the connectors, the I/O board should be mounted in the place of an unused Zorro/ISA slot. The sound connectors are for 3.5mm jacks; the microphone connector is mono only whereas the sound output connector requires a stereo plug.

If you wish to connect MIDI equipment to the Concierto, you need the adaptor cables supplied with the card which allow for the Minid DIN 5 connectors to properly connect to MIDI standard DIN 5 connectors.

The driver software requires an Amiga with an MC68020 CPU or better. We recommend an Amiga 3000-4000(T) which should be fitted with a fast CPU (e.g. MC68040 at 40Mhz or faster). Operating system version 2.04 or better is required.

The PicassoIV firmware may need updating in order to recognize the Concierto and allow it to be used. Firmware version 4.1 or higher is required, which depending on when your PicassoIV was manufactured might already be installed.

The Concierto software does not require the Picasso96 software to be installed.

Limitations

Depending on how fast your Amiga runs, there is a limitation in whether the Concierto will deliver stereo sixteen bit sound at 44.1kHz. Typically, an unaccerated Amiga 4000/4000T will support only either stereo or sixteen bit sound at 44.1kHz, but not both.
No such limitation has been observed with the Amiga 3000/3000T.

Technical Information List:

• Concierto main board
• Concierto I/O board
• 1x cable to connect main board with I/O board
• 2x mini-MIDI to standard DIN 5 MIDI adaptor cables
• Manual (German/English)
• One installation disk
• Registration card
• AHI driver which is an audio hardware driver standard devised by Martin Blom.

  

• CAMD driver where "CAMD" stands for "Commodore-Amiga MIDI Driver" which is a driver concept to allow the Amiga to talk to MIDI devices
• Device driver is also provided and was developed for those programs which use the serial.device interface to talk to MIDI hardware connected to the Amiga serial port, there is a replacement driver, called concierto.device which is identical to the serial.device.
• Conciertomixer is as the name suggests for controlling the part of the Concierto that mixes six audio signal sources into the final sound output. This mixer also has an ARexx interface for remote controlling.
• Conciertorecorder allows you to listen to sampled sound and create your own samples. Sound files can be loaded and saved in three different formats (IFF-8SVX, IFF-AIFF and Microsoft Windows WAV format). Other files are identified by the standard Workbench 3.0 datatypes system.
• AIFF Datatype is a special feature for Kickstart 3.0 or above users. It allows for the IFF-AIFF sound files saved with the recorder tool to be loaded and played with the MultiView utility
• Software development kit is also included and allows programmers to control the low level features of the Concierto, including the integrated Yamaha OPL3 synthesizer.