Miggy, games and synthesis

[Mr Softy]

In fact this is a multiple question, all in one thread!

- Besides 8-bit sampling, what are the other possibilities to generate sound with an Amiga? How where made those cool games and demos synth sounds?
- What are the amiga sound synthesis capabilities? Is there any good share/freeware or commercial softsynth available?
- What where the most used hardware synths used to make games SFX's?

(The last one is a toughie, so I don't expect much! )

[Mr Softy]

+BUMP+

[Twistin'Ghost]

Originally posted by Mr Softy
+BUMP+

There is no need to bump a message after only a few hours.

[Mr Softy]

Sorry about that...
But Mr softy is the impatient and enthousiast type of guy! Fortunately enough, there is always someone to remind him the existence of concepts like "etiquette" and "tacit rules"...

[Amiga1992]

Originally posted by Mr Softy
- Besides 8-bit sampling, what are the other possibilities to generate sound with an Amiga?

Err.. none with the standard chipset. I know there are 14 bit replayers for Eagle/Deliplayer, but I am not sure of how they are working. The Amiga's Paula is 8 bit and that's yer lot. If you have an external soundcard like a Tocatta, you could get 16 bit output.

How where made those cool games and demos synth sounds?

Depends on the tracker the composer used. Sometimes the synthesizing sound is sampled and furtherly processed, other times it's synthesized realtime by the Amiga.

- What are the amiga sound synthesis capabilities? Is there any good share/freeware or commercial softsynth available?

Its synthesis capabilities are absolute non-existant, at least not by hardware. The Amiga has no synthesizer chip, only the Paula dsp. But lots of trackers, like MusicLine editor, Octamed or SIDMon, could work with synthesized sounds (whet they called synth instruments)... these were synthesized by the 68000, afaik (please correct me if im wrong). If by 'softsynths' you mean something like Rebirth etc., I'm afraid you are not gonna find many. There was a 303 simualtor called Amiga 303(and its evolution, 303Tracker). You can find it in the Aminet. Aegis Sonix was supposedly another softsynth. Never tried it but looked pretty damn nice for its time. Dunno about others but DO TRY Musicline Editor. IMO, it is by far the best Amiga sound tracker.

- What where the most used hardware synths used to make games SFX's?

You mean real synthesizers? That'd be hard to tell. Email Chris Hülsbeck or Alister Brimble

[Mr Softy]

Thanks akira. Things needed to be sorted a lil bit in me head!
btw what is exactly a "replayer"? some sort of converting tool?

[Amiga1992]

Aye, never read this reply of yours!

A replayer is a, let's say, "plugin", for an audio player to recognize different sound formats But when I said replayer I think I actually wanted to say "genie"... In any case, it's a "plugin" too

[IanS]

Paula can join together two 8 bit channels to create one 14 bit channel. Much like the old Atari 8 bit machines did, but a lot better. But then you end up with only two mono channels, not four.

I still think Amiga sound sounded ok.

[Amiga1992]

BUT how about this (this might be the way these replayers work):

You join both left channels and then both right channels. Then you get two channels stereo.

This would be like a Soundblaster or most any other soundcard, innit? If you need more "channels" you can do them by software (isn't this the way XM files are played on the miggy?)

Thanks for that data IanS.

[IanS]

Your welcome Akira

I have the musical ability of a deaf chimpanzee with it's hands tied behind it's back, but some of the 64 channel Octamed stuff sounds ok to me. You just keep making individual tracks and it combines them all together on the HDD. 14 bit sound isn't as 'loud' as 8 bit for some reason. I never got past a drum beat and two chords myself.

If I remember rightly, Midi files played on Paula sound so feeble. There was that build it yourself Yamaha XG sound box that CU Amiga did, which sounded interesting though.

[Mr Softy]

Maybe that digitized speech was very top-notch at the time the amiga was released, but I think that synthesis can be more interesting! Maybe they should have made some sort of dual-chip possibilities (synthesis AND sampling). But then, maybe the price would have been higher. Well, almost certainly.

But, when ppl where composing with trackers capable of playing only 4 sounds at once, they where forced to be more imaginative. You had to "keep it simple" to be efficient.
Sometimes, low specs can boost creativity I think.

Do I need to mention that I sucked at this?

[Amiga1992]

Originally posted by Mr Softy
Maybe they should have made some sort of dual-chip possibilities (synthesis AND sampling). But then, maybe the price would have been higher. Well, almost certainly.

I dunno. Those Yamaha chips inside the ST, etc. were very very cheap, they could have added a similar thing.

Sometimes, low specs can boost creativity I think.

I completely agree LImitations increase the person's creativity. The C64's SIDs are a brilliant example.

[IanS]

True to a point. Limitations have their uses. But of course, increased capabilities have their bonuses too.

My god... I've become a PHILOSOPHER!

[Puzzle]

I think the Amiga should have had a SID-chip.