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The third attribute of a sound, timbre, depends on the presence or absence of overtones,
or harmonics. Any complex waveform is actually a mixture of sine waves of different
amplitudes, frequencies, and phases (the starting point of the waveform on the time
axis). These component sine waves are called harmonics. A square waveform, for
example, has an infinite number of harmonics.
In summary, all steady sounds can be described by their frequency, overall amplitude,
and relative harmonic amplitudes. The audible equivalents of these parameters are pitch,
loudness, and timbre, respectively. Changing sound is a steady sound whose parameters
change over time.
In electronic production of sound, an analog device, such as a tape recorder, records
sound waveforms and their cycle frequencies as a continuously variable representation of
air pressure. The tape recorder then plays back the sound by sending the waveforms to
an amplifier where they are changed into analog voltage waveforms. The amplifier sends
the voltage waveforms to a loudspeaker, which translates them into air pressure
vibrations that the listener perceives as sound.
A computer cannot store analog waveform information. In computer production of sound,
a waveform has to be represented as a finite string of numbers. This transformation is
made by dividing the time axis of the graph of a single waveform into equal segments,
each of which represents a short enough time so the waveform does not change a great
deal. Each of the resulting points is called a sample. These samples are stored in memory,
and you can play them back at a frequency that you determine. The computer feeds the
samples to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which changes them into an analog
voltage waveform. To produce the sound, the analog waveforms are sent first to an
amplifier, then to a loudspeaker.
Figure 5-2 shows an example of a sine wave, a square wave, and a triangle wave, along
with a Table of samples for each.
NOTE
The illustrations are not to scale and there are fewer dots in the wave forms than there
are samples in the Table. The amplitude axis values 127 and -128 represent the high and
low limits on relative amplitude.
- 132 Audio Hardware -
Содержание Amiga A1000
Страница 1: ...AMIGA HARDWARE REFERENCE MANUAL 1992 Commodore Business Machines Amiga 1200 PAL...
Страница 20: ...Figure 1 1 Block Diagram for the Amiga Computer Family Introduction 11...
Страница 21: ...12 Introduction...
Страница 72: ...Figure 3 12 A dual Playfield display Playfield Hardware 63...
Страница 87: ...Figure 3 24 Horizontal Scrolling 78 playfield hardware...
Страница 101: ...92 Playfield Hardware...
Страница 199: ...Figure 6 9 DMA time slot allocation 190 Blitter hardware...
Страница 203: ...Figure 6 13 Blitter Block Diagram 194 Blitter Hardware...
Страница 229: ...220 System Control Hardware...
Страница 246: ...Figure 8 8 Chinon Timing diagram cont Interface Hardware 237...
Страница 265: ...256 Interface Hardware...
Страница 289: ...280 Appendix A...
Страница 297: ...288 Appendix B...
Страница 298: ...APPENDIX C CUSTOM CHIP PIN ALLOCATION LIST NOTE Means an active low signal Appendix C 289...
Страница 302: ...APPENDIX D SYSTEM MEMORY MAP Appendix D 293...
Страница 343: ...334 Appendix F...
Страница 351: ...342 Appendix G...
Страница 361: ...352 Appendix H...
Страница 367: ...358 Appendix I...