DigiDesign Sound Accelerator for Mac SE/30

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I got it too, now just I need to find the SA II to try it on my IIfx.

I finally remembered what was going on back then. I've still got the RAM upgrade for it sitting around somewhere in the Memory Boxen. The author of MPegDec (?) used to hang around here back in the beginning. IIRC, he was working on a version to use the DSP on the SA II and I wanted to use it for the DuoBoomBoxDock™ hack.

The acceleration scheme never worked out though. :-/

 

[tt]

The author of MPegDec (?) used to hang around here back in the beginning. IIRC, he was working on a version to use the DSP on the SA II and I wanted to use it for the DuoBoomBoxDock™ hack.
The acceleration scheme never worked out though. :-/

What a cool idea.

I got it too, now just I need to find the SA II to try it on my IIfx.

There is another copy of Turbosynth available if you search for that name in youtube and click on the link in the description section. There are many more files such as demos files. The unfortunate part is that it looks like the maker of the .RAR file lost the resource fork and creator info for the files. I was able to restore the demo files by correcting the creator and type info with a batch utility in OS X, but not the waveforms-- at least not yet.

 

[Bunsen]

The author of MPegDec (?) used to hang around here back in the beginning. IIRC, he was working on a version to use the DSP on the SA II and I wanted to use it for the DuoBoomBoxDock™ hack.

I remember that. I wrote to him about it once. IIRC he was working on the DSP version using an Audiomedia card, and it didn't have enough RAM, nor any way to expand it. ISTR there was some difference between the AM and the AMII as regards RAM too.

 

[tt]

I have the Sound Accelerator installed and it sounds good!

SEthirty, you mentioned you have the full rig with AD-In. The unit I received had a cable to attach to a NUBUS card so the cable it came with went from DB25 on the AD-In to a smaller connector. The SE/30 has a DB25 connector on the back. Do you know if the DB25 connector is standard or if each pin is straight through (no crossing over of pins) to the other end?

 

[SEthirty]

@tt It surely sounds great !

The cable is AFAIK a standard DB25, with no strange crossings.

At least I use a standard DB25 cable and it works amazingly good.

I only had to rip the (s)hell off the cable to make it fit properly on the PDS-card side.

Really simple, isn't it :

But why can't I record something ? } :lol:

 

[tt]

SEthirty, thanks for the info on the connector, now I know to keep in mind the connector housing in the cable selection. Your AD-In is interesting in the fact it also has audio outputs. The model I have is white and only has inputs. It looks like it was designed for the SE/30 to sit right on top of it.

 

[SEthirty]

Could you post a pic of yours ?

Now you've made me quite curious :beige:

Mine is actually an Atari A/D, judging from the sticker on the underside of the black box.

Btw : I will shoot some nice pictures for you, YES YOU WHO'S STARING AT THAT SCREEN :lol:

Just for fun :beige:

 

[Bunsen]

What are the model names/numbers of your external I/O boxes, tt and SEthirty?

 

[SEthirty]

I'm extremely sorry for my late reply, it has been a tremendously busy week.

I made some nice shots for you; just take a look :

There I was recording something off my iPod (works really well !) to edit on the Mac.

I also edited Nyan cat }

Here a shot of the monitor imaging the sound waves :

It unfortunately wasn't yet ready with loading, so it doesn't display the upper part of the screen well.

I also have pictures of the Analog Interface's internals (they are relatively old, so not that good quality) :

You can see the serial of the Analog Interface in the picture, but it is a little harder to look up the Sound Accelerator's SN, because it is built in.

Maybe in the near future

 

[SEthirty]

Hmm... tt isn't that active anymore... } :beige:

 

[ojfd]

Boy, this is trip to the past..

Other interfaces that will work with your SA card are:

DAT I/O (for digital transfers)



and

PRO I/O (A/D and D/A only)

This one is sort of 'super duper' box - analog power supply, Apogee filters, video and word clock sync and so on



Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, they are off of ebone

P.S. I have SA Nubus + PRO I/O myself, if _REALLY_ needed I can take some pics, but that wouldn't be today or tomorrow. I also have SD 2.5 PT, 2.6; 2.6 PT; 2.6 SC and 2.7 in my archives. Sampler support menus (for individual samplers) have been removed after SD 2.6

As far as I know, Digidesign slowly moved away from SD being a sample editor to SD as a 2 track hard disk recorder. According to programmers at Digi they needed space for additional code therefore some functions had to go, including sampler support.

Cheers.

 

[tt]

Oh, I missed the updates here. Really nice to see the photos of the setups!! SEthiry, I really like the composition of the second to last photo you took. It is very striking.

I'll take a photo of my box tomorrow when I get some sunlight in the room to hopefully get a better capture.

 

[tt]

Here are photos of my AD-In A/D converter:

 

[tt]

I forgot to ask, when you turn on your A/D box, does it make a loud external humming sound? I am thinking the internal PSU may not be running optimally.

 

[SEthirty]

Whoa, that white box is uhm... VINTAGE } :beige:

@tt Mine does make the hum, for about 2 seconds, and then it's gone.

It may be a capacitor load or something like that.

 

[tt]

Maybe a little too vintage... It would be nice to have separate L/R outputs on the interface like yours has. :b&w:

 

[CJ_Miller]

:drool: :drool:

You lucky sod...

I was wondering how people used Sound Designer on SE and SE/30s! I can never even find NuBus Audiomedia or Sound Accelerators! I would go gaga over an SE card

 

[ojfd]

In the early days of digital they were mostly used for sample editing in conjunction with Emulator and later with Akai samplers. Hence the software name - "Sound Designer".

SE and SE/30 were of limited expandability, so SA and AM versions for these were considered a "poor investment" by audio recording and editing folks - they needed more "power" (computers kept getting faster all the time) and extra NuBus slots for their other cards.

Also, one needed to be in the league of well earning independent engineers/composers or owner of a more or less successfull recording studio to justify the purchase of that gear. I know all this, besause I already was in the scene by the early '90s.

http://www.mikecollins.plus.com/PUBLICATIONS/PDFS/Sound%20Tools.pdf

http://www.mikecollins.plus.com/PUBLICATIONS/PDFS/Sound%20Tools%20Review.pdf

@CJ_Miller:

NuBus versions of SA and AM could be found - you just have to look harder and ask around. ;-)

I also suspect that many of AM II's are still in use these days and people aren't dumping them only besause they're "old".

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The model I have is white and only has inputs. It looks like it was designed for the SE/30 to sit right on top of it.

Compact Macs always were just a bit too short for comfortable viewing, as well as effective convection cooling. Apple also made their Compact Mac HDDs and the CD in the Zero Foot Print form factor. There are tons of ZFP designs from other manufacturers. With a different faceplate without the 1U mounting ears, would that long low SuperDuperBox be a ZFP case for a IIx/IIfx perchance?

Very cool boxen, I wish I had a breakout box for my NuBus SAII. The headphone jack out is all I really need in order to choke stereo out of my Duo's. What a PITA that project was!

 

[ojfd]

Very cool boxen, I wish I had a breakout box for my NuBus SAII.

Why would you need that? Coolness factor? ;-)

If you're not going to record or connect your Mac to some outboard gear via digital cable (external DAC, DAT recorder etc.) but all you need is analog output, I can tell you that output circuitry of SAII NuBus and SE/30 cards is identical to that in the A/D box pictured above.

* Same convertors - Analog Devices AD1856 or pin compatible Burr Brown PCM56.

* Same encapsulated Murata low pass filters.

* Same I/V stage ICs - NE5532

* Same red WIMA 1uF capacitors

.......everything..........

All you need is Y-split cable to go from jack to RCA (Cinch).

EDIT - oh, ok, Digi used "audiophile quality" WIMA FKP caps (green boxen) in filters instead of blue NP0 ceramic ones on cards, but that's the only difference.