Hall of Fame: Amiga 500, the computer that showed consoles how it's done

[persia]

SGI went belly up in 2009, they had long before lost the title of top graphics machines...

You can render on anything if you wait long enough, but an A500 isn't going to look as good as something on an SGI because the a500 is likely rendered to 320x240 64/HAM8
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yJNGwIcLtw

[Amiga_Nut]

Hall of Fame: Amiga 1000, the computer that showed consoles how it's done*

FTFY

[gertsy]

My first intro to the Amiga (1000) was in a computer shop running the boing ball demo. This was a week after I'd just bought my C128d and monitor. Very frustrating before realising there wasn't the software to meet my needs. I held out for 3 years before I got a 2000. The 500 wasn't on the shopping list as expandability was a key requirement.
Games were an important but secondary objective.

[orb85750]

Bah, if it was 16-bit it wouldn't have had the neat crunchy sound it did. There's a reason people still swear by the old 12-bit samplers; sometimes you want that color to your sound.

Who swears by 12-bit samplers, and which old ones in particular?

[commodorejohn]

A bunch of people, especially in sampler-heavy genres of music (it's not my thing, but I understand Wu-Tang Clan's 36 Chambers was made entirely with an Ensoniq EPS - though that was 13-bit, but still.) EPS, E-mu Emax, etc. Low sampling resolution gives any sound a certain grit and character that a lot of people just like. 16-bit is fine for high-fidelity audio reproduction, but in an instrument (as opposed to a playback mechanism) you don't usually want the highest possible precision and lack of tone coloration. Nobody complains because a violin doesn't produce a perfect sawtooth wave.

[orb85750]

A bunch of people, especially in sampler-heavy genres of music (it's not my thing, but I understand Wu-Tang Clan's 36 Chambers was made entirely with an Ensoniq EPS - though that was 13-bit, but still.) EPS, E-mu Emax, etc. Low sampling resolution gives any sound a certain grit and character that a lot of people just like. 16-bit is fine for high-fidelity audio reproduction, but in an instrument (as opposed to a playback mechanism) you don't usually want the highest possible precision and lack of tone coloration. Nobody complains because a violin doesn't produce a perfect sawtooth wave.

I think Ensoniq and EMU are known for their excellent filters, which make any samples sound better.  I don't believe that raw 12-bit would be preferred, although it's still pretty decent.

[commodorejohn]

Well, I've known people to compare the EPS favorably to its own 16-bit upgrade, so there's that. Though yes, Ensoniq's filters were good stuff (they oughta be, considering the company was founded by Bob Yannes!)

[Amiga_Nut]

One of the most collected sample based synthesizers is the Ensoniq model used by the UK band Inner City (they did the hit single Good Life using the samples provided as a standard set with each machine) and this was only an 8-bit system. However due to a lot of excellent additional circuitry it actually sounds better than most medium budget 16 bit sampler modules/synths

[commodorejohn]

The Mirage, I presume? Yeah, that's another popular one...