D i g i t a l R e c o r d i n g On The IBM Compatibles

D i g i t a l    R e c o r d i n g
       On The IBM Compatibles

  Have you ever wondered why the Apple MAC and Amiga Can play
back hi quality sound and generate music that sounds like a $50,000
synthesizer and you IBM PC/clone Only plays Beeps and tones?
  The only reason IBM put a speaker on there pc was because it was
cheeper than using a buzzer. The output is only one bit and Looks more
like they just stuck a speaker on a left over signal line from the keyboard
controller.
  This is not well suited to play back digital recording or music other than
beeps and tones. The task to generating sound on internal speaker is a lot
like trying to turn on and off a light switch fast enough to play music.

    _____           _ ..________         _______              __
   |  . .|         | .  ..  ..  |       | ..    |            |  |
   |.    .         |.     ..  . |       |.  . . |            |  |
   .     .         |.          .|       .      .|            |..|        0 Line
 --.-----.---------.------------.------.|-------.------------.--.----------------
   .     |.       .|            |.  . . |       |.  .       .|  |.  .     .
  .|     | . .    .|            | .. .  |       | .. .     . |  | .. .   .
 ._|     |____.__._|            |_______|       |_____.___.__|  |_____..._
                .                                      ...

 Think of the " . " as the original sound wave.
  The best the Internal speaker can generate is shown by the " __ " and " | " .

 As you can see a lot of the Information in the sound wave was lost when
  you force the different levels in the wave to only two levels (this is
  called a square wave).

This loss in information is heard in the form of noise.
  MOZART.COM and any other Programs that play Sound from the IBM's internal
  speaker use this method. The best attainable sound quality is
   6 DB S/N ratio. (provided the source was not a square wave to begin with.)

  The three computers I mentioned above have a built in d/a converter
(Digital to analog). This allows them to generate all the different
levels in the sound wave.
  The Number of levels that can be reproduces is measured in bits.
    1 bit     2 Levels  6 Db S/N ratio
    4 bits   16 Levels 24 Db S/N ratio
    8 bits  256 Levels 48 Db S/N ratio { MAC AMEGA }{ VGA cards for video }
   10 bits 1024 Levels 60 Db S/N ratio
   12 bits 4096 Levels 72 Db S/N ratio { ISDN PHONE LINES COMPRESSED TO 8BITS }
   14 bits 16 K Levels 84 Db S/N ratio
   16 bits 64 K Levels 96 Db S/N ratio { Compact Disk player }

  There are several company's that sell Digital recording and playback
boards. They range for $395.00 to $8K . Most are 8 Bit some of the more
expensive ones are 12 & 16 Bit.
  The voice mail systems are from $4000. to $20K and up. they are all 8 bit
with some kind of compression to save space.

  I have designed an built an 8 bit digital recorder and player that
Operates through the Printer Port. It is Inexpensive to built .
  I used to to record MOZART.COM with but to make it into a demo form
that can play on a standard MSDOS machine with out the special playback
hardware it is only a one bit recording.
 I have software to convert MAC soundfiles and Tandy 1000 soundfiles
into a format that can then be played back through an
                        IBM PC with NO ADDITIONAL HARDWARE.

 I also have software to play back MAC and tandy 1000 sound files in there
original hi sound quality ( !Sounds great! ).

 I an currently making a better recording utility and play to make a
sound editor ,synthesizer and conversion program.

  If anyone is interested in digital recording or buying
 Some of this software/hardware or just want to see a demo
   feel free to call me at (415) xxx-xxxx.

   I currently don't have any plans to market this but I would like to.
 There is no reason why IBM users have to put up with bad sound any more.

                                            John L. Sokol
                                            6/89