CompuServe Thread

#ST-TNG Theme

3 messages in this thread
#936From: Kevin DarlingSep 28, 1990 10:05 PM
Hi David – Wanted to thank you for uploading the stereo ST-TNG theme music. Sounds great! I'm not playing it on an Amiga tho, which means I have a question if you can answer it: In the IFF file, is the left channel the first half of data, or the second? Also, does the second half start exactly half-way through the BODY chunk? Much thanks again! best – kev
#939From: <David L. Gold>Sep 28, 1990 10:35 PM
Kevin, Since the sample is ))STEREO((, the left and right channels MUST run synchronous, otherwise the sample would have an echo delay effect, and sound like it was recorded in the bathroom! So, the left channel IS the left channel, the right channel IS the right channel – hence:stereo. With my mono file BNDSTD.LZH (the AmericanBandstand theme) your theory holds true. The left track is the first half, and the right is the second half. The SOUND playback program can separate the tracks and run them back to back (left then right) without a break. I'm not exactly sure *where* the exact halfway point is on the sample. Sorry. Why do you ask about the halfway point? Did the file "hiccup"? And if you're not using an Amiga, just what *are* you using – and is it playing in true stereo? Full of questions, <Dave>
#958From: Kevin DarlingSep 29, 1990 3:58 AM
Dave – I'm using an MM/1, which is a new 15Mhz 680×0-based multitasking computer. It has stereo D/A converters which use Amiga sound data perfectly. Also it has dual A/D _inputs_, but since my stereo TV doesn't have output jacks, I couldn't digitize the ST-TNG theme in stereo myself (so again, thanks!!). The nice thing is that the DMA-driven sound can come from anywhere in 68K memory (not just "chip ram"); and I've also been able to play your file straight from the MM/1's high-density 3.5" floppies with no glitches. The bad thing is that there is no separate DMA pointer for each stereo channel…. thus I must first pre-mix left/right sides (so that each word in memory contains a left channel byte and a right channel byte). That ties in with the halfway point: your sound file consisted of 711940 data bytes, of which the first half (355970) was one channel, and the second half was the other channel. I was afraid that the division wasn't quite even, as the listening separation seemed a bit much to me… altho since then, a friend has now heard it and said the theme was indeed just like that. Also I hadn't noticed the CHAN chunk before, which answered all my questions: it flags the data as stereo, left channel data comes first, and the data is exactly half and half (left/right). So I'm in good shape now. Much thanks again! best – kev