This is a message I sent to the Electronic Organ list today. They were discussing simulating a pipe organ with a computer. I looked at the Alphasyntauri in my collection, and thought "Been there, done that . . ." ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 08:40:21 -0700 (PDT) From: "Charles P. Hobbs" <transit(a)primenet.com> Cc: EORG-L(a)CFRVM.CFR.USF.EDU Subject: Computer simulation of an organ Anyone here heard of the AlphaSyntauri? This was an organ keyboard, connected to an Apple II computer. The Apple was equipped with sixteen 8-bit DACs (digital-analog converters). The DACs converted digital waveforms (sequences of numbers in the Apple's RAM) to analog, audio signals. The AlphaSyntauri could play up to eight notes simultaneously (2 DACs were normally assigned to each note). Tonalities could be easily selected via software. There were even Fourier-analysis tools allowing the users to make and manipulate their own waveforms. This instrument was popular in the early 80's, but died out before the age of MIDI. By that time, its output (8 bit DACs, relatively low sampling rate) had made the instrument obsolete for most serious musicians (I have one as a collector's item). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Charles P. Hobbs __ __ ____ ___ ___ ____ transit(a)primenet.com /__)/__) / / / / /_ /\ / /_ / / / \ / / / / /__ / \/ /___ / -------------------------------------------------------------------------------