4 individual outs for Paula

[Kola]

Hi,

Can anyone enlighten me. Was there ever an amiga fitted with paula that could output each sound to its own channel. Instead of two left and two right?

SO have 4 outs and 1 sound each. I have owned a 500/600/1200 and none of these could. But then I wonder did any of the tower version have this option? Or did they not use Paula?

[clauddio]

Originally Posted by Kola

Hi,

Can anyone enlighten me. Was there ever an amiga fitted with paula that could output each sound to its own channel. Instead of two left and two right?

SO have 4 outs and 1 sound each. I have owned a 500/600/1200 and none of these could. But then I wonder did any of the tower version have this option? Or did they not use Paula?

yes it is possible.. 4.1 sound in the amiga
I seen a hack on aminet long time ago which works on any amiga model...but I can't post the link I can't remember now
also you can get 4:1 sound on winuae if your soundcard support it

[Toni Wilen]

You won't get 4 physical channels from Paula. All Paula chips are internally the same.

[skan]

http://www.amiga-resistance.info/bbo...391&artlang=en

[h0ffman]

I got really excited about the for a second!! Dam it!!

[johnim]

this looks interesting

[Akira]

Yeah, it's a shame Commodore didn't think of this. Having 4 outputs would be dreamy.

[emufan]

i found Lasermax software which has some modification details of an A500. maybe this is of interest : http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=842590&postcount=35

[Akira]

Thanks for that m,an, I for got I had asked this question some time ago! http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53213

[emufan]

no problem, i saw your posting, so the doublepost. if this is the correct modification, then its time for some more hackery

[Akira]

I don't think so, the diagram does not in any way mention the Paula chip, then again, I am not very good at reading electronic diagrams. Perhaps someone with a better idea can give this a look and tell us how it works. From the words of experts I would assume this isn't possible at all with Paula.

[emufan]

the manual mentions the pangolin lsd modification, which can be used with LaserMax. so both modifications must have something in common.
well, maybe rkauer can solve the puzzle.

Edit: Amiga 1200 Modification Project - added link at the older posting.

[Akira]

As you can see, it's only taking the positive pin off each capacitor. It's not splitting the audio into 4 channels, otherwise there'd be 5 cables instead of 3. I suppose what that Pangolin QM8 card does is allow you to control more than one laser or have more parameters, by using 4 signals instead of two.

[emufan]

yes, i saw this too. i had some hope for the box itself, but it also only got 3 connectors - it was the budget solution.
the qm8 paula-socket adapter on the other side must be relative simple, other wise i cannot explain, they didn't release any picture of this device on their website.

Edit: "The QuadMod32 is a four-layer computer using a 40 MHz Motorola 68030 microprocessor, and 4 or 16 MB of memory." - maybe the amiga version wasn't that simple then - QM32 is the windows version

Edit: Jumper of the QM32

the messageboard might be worth a closer look. maybe still someone there, who was using such amiga qm8 solution.

Edit: Pangolin's QM32 website shows the whole card.

[hooverphonique]

correct, the basic version just dc-couples the regular left/right outputs and adds some offset/level adjustments..

what the qm8 does is more of a mystery, though.. it seems it would make more sense to use a dedicated dac extension board instead of replicating paula with a 4 channel output modification..

maybe the qm32 has an 68030 in order to run their amiga software directly on the board

[emufan]

i made a posting at pangolin message board. perhapbs we can get some information that way

maybe the qm32 has an 68030 in order to run their amiga software directly on the board

sort of early fpgaarcade

[Sektor 83]

Call me a charlatan, but I've always felt the Amiga sounded at its best in mono

[pandy71]

Originally Posted by Sektor 83

Call me a charlatan, but I've always felt the Amiga sounded at its best in mono

Amiga miss independent channel positioning for Left and Right - this probably double size PWM circuitry and at developing was simply abandoned.
however there is plenty of not used bits in AUDxVOL registers so this kind of extension can be added now...
Second modification easy to implement should be channel modulation by channel - this can be used or to double sampling frequency or double resolution - still without redesigning DMA architecture.

[h0ffman]

Originally Posted by Sektor 83

Call me a charlatan, but I've always felt the Amiga sounded at its best in mono

HERE!!! HERE!!!

Does my head in when people render my mods with that stereo separation! eugh!

[Stefan Lindberg]

According to the Paula pinout so does it only have two sound outputs, so you cant split them into four.

[mc6809e]

Originally Posted by pandy71

Amiga miss independent channel positioning for Left and Right - this probably double size PWM circuitry and at developing was simply abandoned.

Well it's possible to get independent channel positioning if two voices is enough. Just point one voice on the left output and one on the right output to the same waveform and period, and adjust the volume controls to position the voice.

I could see how two voices might be enough in some cases.

It might be possible to use software synthesis to get more voices.

Here's a crazy idea: use interrupt driven mode to time CPU fetches from waveforms for four voices, but then use simple mixing of the fetched samples to create the desired left/right balance for each voice.

Probably isn't enough time, though, if output rates are high.

[pandy71]

Originally Posted by mc6809e

Well it's possible to get independent channel positioning if two voices is enough. Just point one voice on the left output and one on the right output to the same waveform and period, and adjust the volume controls to position the voice.

I could see how two voices might be enough in some cases.

It might be possible to use software synthesis to get more voices.

Here's a crazy idea: use interrupt driven mode to time CPU fetches from waveforms for four voices, but then use simple mixing of the fetched samples to create the desired left/right balance for each voice.

Probably isn't enough time, though, if output rates are high.

This is my point - doubling number of bits - one half dedicated to Left, second to Right - give a real panorama positioning - however probably was seen to costly when Paula was designed (low budget, problems, time constrains etc).