Can anyone identify this item...?

[KptAmiga]

I got this item when shopping a box of Amiga equipment:


http://www.robbestad.com/IMGA0165.JPG
http://www.robbestad.com/IMGA0167.JPG

However, the seller didn't know what it was good for, and frankly, neither do I. Can anyone tell me what it is?

[Lemmink]

Looks like it is some kind of MIDI-box.

[Casper]

Looks like an AMAS sound sampler with midi interface to me. Used to have one of those way back, but it broke.

[KptAmiga]

Aha! thank you!

I looked up AMAS on the net, and yeah, it looks like it's the same thing. I've no idea how to use it, but I'll try and see if it works.

I also got a Trumpcard 500 AT with the lot. It didn't come with a power supply, but I understand this isn't necessary(?). Going to try and boot that one too.

Again, thanks!

[Framiga]

Hi,

it is a stereo and MIDI sampler:

1 MicroPhone Socket (3.5mm Jack)
2 CD in (left/right) (RCA Connectors)
3 MIDI Type Connectors (5 pin DIN)

Uses both the Serial Port and Parallel port to sample in stereo.

Don't know which software it uses.

Ciao

[Jope]

Probably serial for midi and parallel for sampling..

[Fredrik]

I had a simular sampler/midi-combo (think it was an AMAS, but I can't remember 100%). I composed a few tunes using MidiTracker which is a really nice tracker for midi, you'll find it on AmiNet. Used Audiomaster for sampling.

I also had an external hard-drive which had a connector for a power supply but was able to run without one plugged in (allthough a bit shakey).

[zipper]

CU Amiga Oct-91 tells it uses specially-written software. HW responds
to 90 KHz (mono) but SW max sampling rate is 28 kHz (mono) and 24 kHz
(stereo). Playback 28 kHz in stereo. Resolution is 8bit.

[KptAmiga]

Hmm. That's interesting. A friend of mine suggested I use Aegis Audiomaster IV as it supposedly should be able to utilize the sampler. I'll borrow his copy and give it a try

[Karlos]

zipper wrote:
CU Amiga Oct-91 tells it uses specially-written software. HW responds
to 90 KHz (mono) but SW max sampling rate is 28 kHz (mono) and 24 kHz
(stereo). Playback 28 kHz in stereo. Resolution is 8bit.

I wonder if any parallel port samplers ever used high sample rates to perform any oversampling and reduction? If you sampled at say 112kHz mono and used some little MCU to average 4 input samples into one outputsample, youd get a slightly better LSB estimate over normal 8-bit sampling...

Another idea I had once (again would need an MCU) was to use 16-bit sampling and convert this to an 8-bit logarithmic delta that could be pumped over the parallel port (just like normal) and converted back to 16 bit with a custom driver. Not as good as genuine 16-bit, but it should be much better than normal 8 bit...

Any takers?

[odin]

I also acquired one of these samplers, apparently it's a 16-bit sampler. I emailed one of the original builders asking if there's still any software available to use it. He answered that he didn't know of any.

[Karlos]

16-bit? I never knew there were any genuine 16-bit parallel port samplers. I do recall a 12-bit one that used either the joystick port or the serial port (can't recall which) to get the extra 4-bits of data across in the same timeframe, but short of using low sample rates, I always thought 16-bits was too much traffic for the parallel port (28kHz mono should be do-able if 28kHz stereo 8-bit is though).

[spihunter]

The clarity 16 was a 16 bit serial/parallel port sampler

[Karlos]

spihunter wrote:
The clarity 16 was a 16 bit serial/parallel port sampler

I thought that was a PCMCIA fitting one...Or was that the Aura?