How did STe handle audio?

[+wood_jl]

I have never seen the back of an STe, and repeated googling didn't turn up a picture. However, I understand there are stereo left and right RCA jacks.

 

So what about the old ST sound chip? It's still there, right? Meanwhile, the monitor port only has one audio pin.

 

So I'm thinking, either:

 

A) 2 completely separate unmixed audio outputs, mono 3-voice old ST sound on the monitor pin and separate fancy stereo channels on the RCAs

 

B) All the STe audio is mixed into a mono channel so you'll still hear it all through your mono monitor

 

C) All of the audio is mixed everywhere - old 3-voice ST sound comes out not only on the monitor pin but on the RCAs (both) as well as the new fancy sound.

 

D) something else?

 

 

Short question is:

 

When making a ST composite monitor cable, then plugging it into a STe, will it work for audio and will you hear everything?

 

 

As always, thanks!

 

 

edit: the only STe monitor info I could pilfer is from someone's scans of the Mega STe manual. I see there's only one audio pin still.

 

What's all that "clock select" "clock in" stuff on pins 3 and 4? I didn't see that in the ST/STm/STfm pinouts.

 

Edited September 14, 2010 by wood_jl

[atarian1]

All sound is routed through the RCA jacks in the back and the monitor output pin at the same time. The difference is that the RCA jacks output stereo when the program running takes advantage of the STe stereo sound. The original ST sound output is mono through the RCA jacks. All sound output is mono through the monitor output pin.

[Rybags]

Most monitors have crap speakers anyway, so even a cheap PC type speaker setup would be worthwhile.

 

You'd need a 2xRCA to single 3.5mm plug adaptor, they're about 3-4 bucks.

[oky2000]

Depends what monitor you want to use, if you have a stereo monitor just use a fly lead to the two phono sockets for audio like that

[+wood_jl]

I've never seen a SC1435, but I understand they had stereo.

 

So I'm imagining you'd run a pair of RCAs to it from the STe stereo ports, eh? What about the monaural sound on the monitor pin? I mean, the monitor cable's plugged in and it's going to carry that audio. Was there a switch on the monitor to use it stereo inputs and ignore the monitor cable's mono audio? Just trying to understand how this worked. If you plugged a monaural STfm into SC1435, which speaker(s) did the sound come out?

[OldAtarian]

All sound is routed through the RCA jacks in the back and the monitor output pin at the same time. The difference is that the RCA jacks output stereo when the program running takes advantage of the STe stereo sound. The original ST sound output is mono through the RCA jacks. All sound output is mono through the monitor output pin.

 

I wouldn't imagine there were many programs written to take advantage of the STe stereo outputs. That was one of the big weaknesses of the STe, the developers kept coding for the lowest common denominator which was a 512k 520ST with single sided floppy drive. There's not too much software that requires you to have more than that to use it.