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Been looking at maxYMiser today and noticed that it converts samples from 8-bit to 4-bit. I thought the STe had 8-bit PCM DMA?

Afair the samples are played back at 4bit but it can use 8bit samples. Dunno what use means exactly.. maybe use means simply that it can load them. *shrugs*

I mean that I thought the Atari could playback samples at 8-bit, so was wondering why maxYMiser is restricted to 4-bit?

Maybe that tracker support 8 bit raw samples (like protracker) but they are automatically downscaled to 4-bit on load cause YM2149 has just 16 volume levels.

But I, as an Amiga fanatic, never used (perhaps I should give it a try because I love YM sound) maxYMiser, so maybe I'm wrong.

Btw, can this tracker use samples as tonal instruments or are they restricted to drum effects and hit-hats?

Well they call it digi drums but I'm sure you could get some chord stabs in there ;)

The tracker can use samples and tonal instuments on STE/TT/Falcon with the two separate dma channels, but with some limitations (like no sample looping), and the cpu load increases drasticly.

I like the discussion, but it's fairly easy, actually:
The STE has 8-bit DMA and maxYMiser replays 8-bit samples just fine
on the dedicated STE DMA channel(s).
If, however, you try to put samples (as digidrums) onto one of the
3 regular YM voices, it will be scaled down to 4 bits because the YM
only has 16 volume levels.

AFAIK, "digidrums" means essentially using the YM sound chip's channel volume as a D/A converter by changing the volume rapidly, in a fast-rate interrupt routine (several kHz) or in the main program with busyloop based timing. Either way, it consumes much more CPU cycles than anything based on DMA transfers (which moves stuff from/to RAM independently of the CPU). The per-channel volume register is 4 bits wide, so that's where the bit limitation comes from.

what paranoid said.

also, i had a rather shit day at work but hearing about the potential of a hoffman ym choon coming up makes it a good one regardless! :)

Excellent! Cheers for confirming guys :) I'm thinking of doing something in this tracker and 8-bit samples is a must.

hoffman: i'm not a musician but afaik most of the time 4bit samples are used for drums/effects/etc. are you looking to make a tune for a demo/platform or just some way to incorporate atari sounds in your music? if the last applies, some trackers do midi so that might be an option as well :)

maxYMiser can do midi, even polyphonically and has great options for using it to perform live shows.
gwEm's documercial on youtube gives a good impression of it.

Nah just looking to possibly write a maxYMiser tune really. I know using the STe side of things kinda cuts out the earlier models of Atari, but hey, its a bit of fun.

I for another, would be very interested in some hoffman tunage on maxYMiser!

extra info: to see the STe DMA channels (after enabling them in the tracker settings, IIRC), you have to put your cursor in the tracker roll and scroll to the left using the cursor keys. There was no space on screen to fit all 5 channels at once.

h0ffman on YM2149?!

HELL YEAH, THAT'S GOOD NEWS!!

just posting to say hoffman + maxymiser = awesome :)

I have yet to master how the sound chip can be brutally assaulted yet, but judging from the awesome work Reed did on the CPC, theres some serious mileage in it.

Glad to hear also that you're planning on writing a MaxYMiser tune; good luck and I for one along with others look forward to hearing it ;)

What Spiny said :)

usually there also someone on irc who knows the ways of this stuff. check #atariscne on IRCnet...

If you want to hear some of the possibilities of my tracker you can check https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=16261