Atari 8-Bit Using an Amiga Parallel Port Audio Sampler

[UNIXcoffee928]

It strikes me that this may very well be an easy cable hack. Just have to find out the implementations of both the 850 Parallel Port, and the Amiga's Parallel Ports.

 

Keep in mind that the gender was different on the Amiga 1000, if you're testing out old stuff in the attic.

 

Some of the the Amiga samplers were very high quality. I'm sure that there should be programming info on them out there somewhere.

 

Might be a cool thing for anybody interested in music.

 

Has anybody out there tried adapting this type of device, or any other Amiga peripheral to the Atari 8-Bit?

[Rybags]

I don't think you'd have a lot of luck doing it via an interface like the 850 - probably too slow.

 

Plus, you might need to manipulate the port and control lines at the bit level.

 

Using the joystick ports would give 4 bits I/O + 1 input bit per port, which might cover it on an XL/XE.

 

If not, the 400/800 should definately cover it.

 

A possible kludge if more bits are needed would be to use SIO lines like Interrupt, Proceed, and Command.

Edited February 15, 2008 by Rybags

[JayoK]

You could easily add an additional PIA to the XL/XE? It will give you the extra I/O pins, but you will need to write your own software.

[Rybags]

Whatever way you go, you'll probably need your own software.

 

Personally, I don't see it as worthwhile - you can sample with a PC sound card, an iPod, or any number of handheld devices these days.

 

And, Audacity, and any other number of freeware products can edit, and change bitrates and resolutions of sampled sounds.

[atariksi]

It strikes me that this may very well be an easy cable hack. Just have to find out the implementations of both the 850 Parallel Port, and the Amiga's Parallel Ports.

 

Keep in mind that the gender was different on the Amiga 1000, if you're testing out old stuff in the attic.

 

Some of the the Amiga samplers were very high quality. I'm sure that there should be programming info on them out there somewhere.

 

Might be a cool thing for anybody interested in music.

 

Has anybody out there tried adapting this type of device, or any other Amiga peripheral to the Atari 8-Bit?

 

I have directly coded 68000 ASM routines to sample in Perfect Sound digitizer input in stereo on Amiga 500. The second version of the sampler apparently split up the 6-bits and 2-bits of the sample which made things more complex but it would work better for use with a joystick-port based adaptation on Atari 800/XL/XE since the DAC on the Ataris can at most play 5-bit samples. The Perfect Sound library came with source code so you can easily port it over to the 8-bit 6502 code. I prefer using the PC sound sampler and then transferring the data using the following software:

 

http://www.krishnasoft.com/sps.htm.