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Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
fluidlogic@oldbytes.space ("Amin Girasol") wrote:
Another wonderful interview by @savetz, this time with Tom Zimmerman, part of the four-person team at Atari that worked on the never-released AMY sound chip: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari%5FAMY
Tom comes across as an absolute gentleman.
His description of what the AMY could do is terrific. It synthesised audio using up to 16 oscillators for the fundamental and harmonics to build rich, complex sounds. It could also be run "in reverse"; quoting Wikipedia:
An input sample could be run through a Fast Fourier transform to extract the spectral pattern, and then that pattern could be input to the AMY to set up the oscillators.
Tom contrasts the AMY's design against FM synths like the #YamahaDX7 and sample-based synthesizers.
Tom's words of wisdom at the end of the interview are wonderful too. A recommended listen, even if #Atari isn't your thing.
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-431-tom-zimmerman-amy-chip
