Labels:text | screenshot | font OCR: AM/FM The Question of Progression Subtitled: A Rambling Tome Slagging Off Atari and Commodore At The Same Time (Sort Of) by David Cassidy of Cynostic We all know that the Amiga is quickly becoming outmoded by its competitors in the sound field. PCs and others have sound boards that are, quite simply, superb. This has been due, mostly I think, to the intervention of Roland - that giant of the giant sound technologists - into the computer sound market. However, they are also rumoured to be working closely with Commodore. (This is a murmur I heard some time last year from a computer magazine in the UK.) On what, you may ask? New sounds! The rumours basically consisted of ideas about what Roland could possibly do for Commodore and, obviously, the answer has to be that of sound. A new sound chip, maybe; capable of unheard-of wonders, outstanding statistics. Orgasmic waveology you might say. (Then again you might say "pretty good". But I'm a sycophant so I say what I like. 8-) Nowadays the talk is more of funny little widgets called Digital Signal Processors, or DSPs for short. These amazing bits of hardware are lightning fast chips which can, as their name suggests, process digital signals with terrifying speed. Due to their technical abilities it is possible to use them to process, other things, sound tasks with more than a hint of speed. "Super-fast-omigod- where's-me-ears-gone" may be a little closer description, in fact. amongst The new Atari Falcon has got one. The Amiga 1200 has not. Oh dear. The Amiga 4000 hasn't either. Oh dear oh dear. And Commodore are saying very little. OH-SODDING-DEAR!!! The question of what CBM should be doing about the Amiga's faltering sound capabilities is one which is being constantly addressed by every single Amiga owner I know. (Well, at least the ones who actually know what "ProTracker" is anyway!!) The general consensus is that: "It should have been revised years ago"; "Commodore are being crap (again)"; "The Falcon has an edge over the Amiga"; "We need more channels"; and; "Commodore need to get their collective head from out of their collective arse and do something about it. QUICKLY! ? Now there's a few points that need to be cleared up first of all. As anyone who's read any Amiga magazines over the past couple of months will know, the Atari Falcon is equipped with a DSP. So, they must have an edge over the Amiga in quite a phenomenal way, right? Wrong. The DSP in the Falcon is connected in such a way as to make it sound great in theory but make its performance lag behind machines like the A1200 (which, you'11 remember, hasn't got a DSP at all). The reason for this is that DSPs have what's known as "burst modes". Normally in computers parts of memory are copied about as needed one at a time. With burst modes four or so (I'm not absolutely sure) parts of memory are shifted about at the same time. So, this increases speed considerably. The Falcon can't do this because the DSP in it has got its burst modes disabled because of its architecture. As another little interesting fact, the Falcon also has a 68030 processor, as opposed the A1200's 68020. However, '030 in the Falcon operates on a 16-bit bus, meaning that it is a 32-bit chip surrounded by 16-bit architecture. What Atari have effectively done, then, is to put together a machine with some really nice-sounding hardware and then, metaphorically, chopped its arms and legs off. And sound in the ST, errr-I-mean-Falcon, is crap anyway. And it comes in a familar box (an ST one in a darker grey colour, in fact. Urgh)! The point with this argument is that Commodore didn't put in a DSP in A1200s etc because, I presume, it simply wasn't ready and it would have forced the price up considerably, too. ú399 for a machine with proper32-bit architecture really is a superb bargain, you know. Just to ramble on a bit more about the Falcon, it does have MIDI capability built-in, just like its predecessor, the ST. However, once you begin to use the machine with MIDI you can do nothing else at all with it - the MIDI takes control of the whole machine! So, you can't multitask, you can't use other programs, you probably can't sequence or anything else whilst using MIDI on the Falcon. I mean; WHY? Surely they must know that this is just CRAP DESIGN. Well, it is Atari... Talking Dirty Policies The thing which worries me most about the new Amiga machines is that their sound capabilities were so horribly ignored. Graphics freaks have got a lovely new machine to play with and the release of the A1200 will no doubt prompt many an A500 user into seriously considering buying the machine for its graphics abilities alone. But what about sound? My true opinion is split into two theories. Firstly, that Commodore are going towards the graphics user in whole and will ignore the sound market altogether in its production hardware. For the past year or two we have all seen superb enhancements to the Amiga's graphics capabilities and also in the other graphics peripherals available for the range ("OpalVision", "DCTU", etc). What have we seen sound-wise? "Clarity 16". Okay. Erm... A few other nice(ish) samplers. Errrr... A new version of "ProTracker"!!! Errrr... Struggling? I know I am. The fact is that far more advancements have been made for Amiga graphics than Amiga sound throughout the computer's history. The only reason the system makes any musical noise at all is because of PD tracker programs, which is just CRIMINAL on Commodore's part, may I add. In all honesty, the Amiga is perfectly placed to be the world's best graphical production system, may that be for DTU (Desk Top Video), home users, genlocking, presentations, or whatever. But it's hardly going to be an essential part of music studio production, the way things are going. My second theory is that Commodore are pushing the graphical side of the machine to grab headlines. 16 million colours sounds so much better than 8 channel stereo sound. The sheer weight of the numbers makes it sound as if you should be paying for a Cray super-computer. When people hear "16 million colours" they say "Pah! Cost an arm and a leg!". And then they hear the price. When people hear "8 channels of stereo sound" they just go "Oh, really?" and wander off to look at PCs with a sound board fitted. Marketing. It's what it's all about. I hope. If not, then CBM are working themselves into a corner with this "graphical- orientated machine" lark. They simply cannot afford to ignore the sound market. If they do, they'll lose not only a large proportion of the gaming market but also a great deal of professional users. Neither of which they can afford to be without. This rambling tome was inspired by a series of letters and faxes I've had with a few Amiga users over the past months and, more recently, by Bjºrn's letter in the May edition of "CU Amiga". (You didn't really buy a PC? DID YOU?!) We cannot afford to lose talented people to the realms of crap systems like PCs or others. The Amiga is the best computer on the market, of any description. Its games are superior, its productivity software is better, its capabilities are mind-boggling. And its possibilities are endless. If only Commodore realised this, what a wonderful world it would be. This is only an opinion! This article is written by David Cassidy and should in no way be necessarily taken as the opinion of the entire Cynostic team. Any comments, arguments, death-threats or whatever should be directed to: David Cassidy, Cynostic, 85 Wyken Croft, Coventry, CV2 3AD, UNITED KINGDOM. Or telephone: +44 (0)203 613817 Or fax: +44 (0)203 682084 I'm always glad to hear from new (or old!) people. So get in touch. AM/FM
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