Parallel-port sampler emulation - yay!

[syphus]

I hadn't checked back in a while, but it's great to see some emulation of the parallel-port sampler in the latest WinUAE. Sure, there are other means of getting audio into the Amiga (usually I just use my hardware, either with a real Turbosound or importing raw files via CF) but there's something beautiful and dirty about the directness of getting host system audio right into emulated Protracker. Especially when you're on a plane or train and using your netbook's microphone

Milkytracker's often a convenient alternative to Protracker for tracking MODs, and while the old WindowsCE version had the ability to record from your PDA's mic, the desktop version inexplicably doesn't, adding another laborious app-juggling task to the chain. So WinUAE now beats that in this regard.

Even as a work in progress, this is great; I'm posting mainly to let Toni know that I appreciate its inclusion and to let others know that it's there. If any more work gets done on it, even better!

Edit: technically, this thread has a legitimate place in the Support subforum...as Toni identified in the changelog, the sample capturing is a bit clicky and low quality (relatively), so I'm confirming that and hoping that it'll improve. If there's any specific feedback that would help, I'll try to supply it.

[Fabie]

all of that means that if I connect my DSS8+ sampler or my perfect sound 3 sampler to the PC parallel port.....will work on winuae?

[syphus]

Nope, or at least I very much doubt it. The parallel port itself is emulated and the relatively simple circuitry required for a parallel port sampler (it was a popular DIY project back in the day, cost about £10 in parts!) is also emulated. Any program that can access the parallel port looking for sampled audio data on hardware can now do the same in WinUAE, and what it gets is the default input from your PC soundcard. On a laptop, that's probably a mic or line-in. Actually, maybe it just records the mix monitor, in which case you could play an mp3 and sample that in. I'll try that later

Off topic, IBM PCs are supposed to have 25-pin parallel ports, just like Amigas. It'd be pretty easy for somebody to write a Windows/Linux/etc app that recorded audio from an Amiga parallel port sampler...but it would be a thoroughly pointless endeavour - there are easier ways of making your audio sound that bad

[Amiga1992]

I really loved this too, it sounds like ass on my system but I hope Toni keeps improving it. Here's another post that shows support for this neat feature!!

I thought it was not implemented then I realized I had WinUAE 1.53 (!!!) so I updated and found the feature I was going to request!

[syphus]

Yeah, I updated on an idle whim and the feature took me by surprise

Although I hope it doesn't get improved *too* much...it probably wouldn't be cool if it ends up sounding *better* than Amiga hardware :P

[Toni Wilen]

Sound syncro is non-existing, it drifts and then buffer either under or overflows and restarts and so on..

Perhaps it will be improved someday..

[syphus]

Protracker can only sample a few seconds of audio anyway, and it currently doesn't sound a whole lot worse than it does on real hardware. But I don't know whether the buffer drifting you refer to is the cause of the pops and clicks, or whether we'd only notice the lack of synchronisation in longer samples in different programs...

Anyway, thanks again!

[ElectroBlaster]

This is brilliant! I cannot tell you guys how long I have waited for such a feature

I slapped on protracker 3.62 and slowly started to remember how things worked and managed to create a nice dirty hissy 8bit sample! YAY

Toni you are a god, if I could send pints of beer down the broadband to your house I would!

[Photon]

Before determining that it 'sounds crap' so to speak, make sure the PC waveform you're recording in WinUAE is maximized. In 8-bit samples, aliasing distortion is considerable and affects the sound much more than sample rate.

I converted a while ago to record 'What U hear' in a waveform editor and save as Amiga IFF (not .aiff). That way I can see the meter while recording and manipulate the sample before saving. If the samples exist already and are maximized, you can convert them (even batch) using sox.

If you use Goldwave, add a few seconds of silence (=wait before stopping recording) to the sample before saving - it has a bug that affect the tail ends of samples not present in sox, but is otherwise just as good.

If you record from an internal sound card (ie. PCI sound card, motherboard excuse for a sound card or same for laptop), you will very likely get digital noise in the sample for free, courtesy of the electronics manufacturer.

[syphus]

It doesn't sound particularly bad, not beyond my expectations/requirements, but having tried it properly (with music rather than single synth notes) I definitely notice the lack of sync. Audio is sampled roughly at the right speed but the wrong pitch (an octave down), along with all the attendant glitches. Look forward to seeing how this develops!

[Fabie]

so
which amiga program can I use to record audio on winuae?

[TCD]

You can use WinUAE itself. Just have a look at the 'Output' panel.

[Fabie]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

You can use WinUAE itself. Just have a look at the 'Output' panel.

you do not understand very well my question
I'm talking about which Amiga program on winuae can record audio from external sources like the line-in of the sound card

[Fabie]

btw,

I just realize that you can record audio on winuae using a program named AHI record or using Soundprobe v2 configured to use AHI
maybe other programs will work
but
realtime effects on soundprobe V2 not works because it says that AHI do not support realtime effects.....it seems it needs a paralel sampler for that..
then I configured soundprobe to use generic parallel sampler but not worked

so I don't know which audio program will work with the parallel sampler emulation?