reifsnyderb Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 Do many people use Covox? It looks like it's use is fairly limited but it doesn't look that hard to build. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w1k Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 (edited) very good upgrade, recommend Edited December 27, 2023 by w1k 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted December 27, 2023 Author Share Posted December 27, 2023 My thinking is that a Covox 1090 card would be pretty easy to make. Pop a card in the 1090 board and enjoy. 🙂 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nasty niff Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 Where can I download this file? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted December 27, 2023 Author Share Posted December 27, 2023 23 minutes ago, nasty niff said: Where can I download this file? What file? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w1k Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 try this Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine (320 kbps) covox mono 44270Hz ide pal.cov 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 The problem with covox is that it requires the full time attention of the CPU. Now on the other hand if someone could make one that streamed off of its own RAM, which could get filled when the CPU wasn't busy doing other things, then that would be a worthwhile and useful device. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nasty niff Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 10 hours ago, w1k said: try this Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine (320 kbps) covox mono 44270Hz ide pal.cov 5.43 MB · 3 downloads Looks like my file, enjoy.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted December 28, 2023 Author Share Posted December 28, 2023 2 hours ago, mytek said: The problem with covox is that it requires the full time attention of the CPU. Now on the other hand if someone could make one that streamed off of its own RAM, which could get filled when the CPU wasn't busy doing other things, then that would be a worthwhile and useful device. The main downside, I see, is that to make such a device would result in an incompatible sound card standard. Essentially, the card itself would be another computer. Of course, this is done all the time. But, in our case, we'd also need developers to port and/or create software for the new card. Then, we'd have a VBXE type scenario for sound cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nasty niff Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 https://archive.org/download/atari-xl-covox-files The rest of the files are here, if your interested.. Enjoy peeps 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 2 hours ago, mytek said: The problem with covox is that it requires the full time attention of the CPU. Now on the other hand if someone could make one that streamed off of its own RAM, which could get filled when the CPU wasn't busy doing other things, then that would be a worthwhile and useful device. Does COVOX need a separate sound output or does it exit the Atari via the normal monitor plug. Is there a standard way to combine COVOX and stereo POKEYs or does "full time CPU" mean that there is no time for POKEY sound anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nasty niff Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 If you get pokeymax version, sound is outputted from the jack like stereo pokey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 Hello Brian 2 hours ago, reifsnyderb said: Then, we'd have a VBXE type scenario for sound cards. All you'd need is a way to get the sound file into the sound card. The sound card would do the rest. So you need a way to get the sound file from the computer into the smart Covox device. This methode doesn't need to be different for every piece of music. And you need firmware for the sound card that takes the sound file and feeds it to the DA convertor on the smart Covox device. This firmware would also always be the same piece of firmware, independent of the piece of music you are playing. So basically, once the smart Covo device reaches the status where it is ready to be used, all you need is to make sure it gets the music file in the correct format. Sincerely Mathy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 A Covox indeed does require all the CPU time, but that still does not mean that there cannot be some applications for that, such as trackers (Neotracker for example), module players (mentioned, if I am not mistaken) or WAV players (D2D). As for a more intelligent sound card, there is the Soundboard by @candle. Anyone who has the VBXE can transform it into a Soundboard by flashing into it the relevant FPGA core and connecting the video DACs to a sound amplifier. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nasty niff Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvdOZRwNO0m/?igsh=NzcxNHp0d2FiNTFn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Pokeymax v3 also has a ‘Paula like’ sample engine. The main problems are that it doesn’t have a lot of ram and there isn’t any software except my test examples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geister Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Soundes like an opportunity for an intelligent sound card for the 1090 backplane. I'd buy that! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Simple Stereo 4 I think could solve this, but it's been "ready to ship" now for almost 8 years so I am not holding my breath on it ever coming out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 2 hours ago, Stephen said: Simple Stereo 4 I think could solve this, but it's been "ready to ship" now for almost 8 years so I am not holding my breath on it ever coming out. What's Simple Stereo 4? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 (edited) 4 hours ago, Geister said: Soundes like an opportunity for an intelligent sound card for the 1090 backplane. I'd buy that! A lot of development work would be involved for such an animal. Edit to add: I can do a normal 1090 COVOX board pretty quickly. (I am actually around 75% done with one.) Doing an intelligent board would require a lot of work for a small number of people. Edit to add: If anyone wants to tackle such a project, I'd be happy to explain the 1090 to them and provide what information I am able. Edited December 31, 2023 by reifsnyderb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 1 hour ago, reifsnyderb said: What's Simple Stereo 4? Atari SimpleStereo V4 board, featuring USB mouse/keyboard interface, 4 pokey chips, 2 SID (MOS8580) chips, 2 PSG chips, Soft-Synth like 32 channels sythetizer and 32 channels WaveTable with up to 8Mbytes of sample memory: https://atari-owner.com/club/threads/simplestereo-v4-demo.487/ It was shown on Lotharek's page for years, with a stack of them, seemingly ready to order, and now I don't even see it listed on his page. Sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 12 hours ago, Stephen said: Atari SimpleStereo V4 board, featuring USB mouse/keyboard interface, 4 pokey chips, 2 SID (MOS8580) chips, 2 PSG chips, Soft-Synth like 32 channels sythetizer and 32 channels WaveTable with up to 8Mbytes of sample memory: https://atari-owner.com/club/threads/simplestereo-v4-demo.487/ It was shown on Lotharek's page for years, with a stack of them, seemingly ready to order, and now I don't even see it listed on his page. Sad. Hopefully the proposed VBXE with HDMI output doesn't suffer the same fate, although its been a couple years now since I heard about it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geister Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 37 minutes ago, mytek said: Hopefully the proposed VBXE with HDMI output doesn't suffer the same fate, although its been a couple years now since I heard about it. Perhaps a build-a-bear (development) board for the 1090 expansion board would allow quick development of a VBXE-like (80 column + Hi-res and Sprites) plug in for the Atari. One of the advantages of a standard expansion interface for a computer is having pre-buffered development boards that can be experimented with. I could see an accelerator board with a 65C816 coupled with a 4MB ram board and an 80 column video providing a complete development system that would obviate the need to develop on a PC. Since the VBXE needs to sit on a GTIA, I guess moving everything else outside the box would leave room for the VBXE to fit in the case? And with the full system bus on the 1090/1, perhaps the GTIA could be moved outside the case as well? I haven't looked at the schematics in a long time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reifsnyderb Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Geister said: Perhaps a build-a-bear (development) board for the 1090 expansion board would allow quick development of a VBXE-like (80 column + Hi-res and Sprites) plug in for the Atari. One of the advantages of a standard expansion interface for a computer is having pre-buffered development boards that can be experimented with. I could see an accelerator board with a 65C816 coupled with a 4MB ram board and an 80 column video providing a complete development system that would obviate the need to develop on a PC. Since the VBXE needs to sit on a GTIA, I guess moving everything else outside the box would leave room for the VBXE to fit in the case? And with the full system bus on the 1090/1, perhaps the GTIA could be moved outside the case as well? I haven't looked at the schematics in a long time. Do you think something like a breadboard combined with the normal 1090 power supply and logic? Edit to add: I could make something up like this. However, the capabilities of the 1090 are really only restricted by the limits set by the MMU. The COVOX, for example, would only require some basic address translation so as to set the register. Very simple. Extended memory cards require some address translation to set the register. Also pretty simple. Having the programmable logic chips available really helps with address translation. More advanced cards, that require a ROM, require address translation and an enable/disable latching system for the card id at $D1FF. This would probably be where this "build-a-bear" board would come in handy. Having an IRQ latch would also help. So a dual atf22v10 system would most likely be able to handle this. Throw in an open collector buffer and a 74f74. Even so, developers are still required. Admittedly, I find this aspect discouraging as I've released all the Atari PBI stuff I could find and verify. Thus far, development is very limited. Edited December 31, 2023 by reifsnyderb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 1 hour ago, Geister said: an accelerator board with a 65C816 coupled with a 4MB ram board Why 4 MB only? As for the Covox: whoever does it, make it *detectable*. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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