This Covox audio "thing"?

+Nezgar · November 18, 2018

Yes I remember these parallel port covox DAC's on the Atari ST and PC's.... Supported by the popular music tracker programs...

Lynxpro · November 18, 2018

Yes I remember these parallel port covox DAC's on the Atari ST and PC's.... Supported by the popular music tracker programs...

They worked on the ST too? I don't remember that. I just watched The 8-Bit Guy's video on those devices awhile ago...

Lynxpro · November 18, 2018

Hello Gunstar

No. The Eastern European Covox used to be an array of resistors, connecting the data lines together. That way, digital bits were turned into analog sound signals. It was very cheap, but since all resistors come with a tolerance range (one 4.7 Ohm resistor might be 4.75 Ohm while another might be 4.65 Ohm for instance), your Covox might sound a bit different from mine. And none of them might sound exactly as they should sound. After a while people started using more modern ways to turn digital signals into analog signals. Far more modern than the voice chip in the 1400XL.

AMY was XE era.

Sincerely

Mathy

The speech synthesis chip in the Atari 1400XL and 1450XLD were from Votrax:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Votrax

Atari fans often mis-spell and mispronounce it as "Voltrax".

The Atari AMY chip was a product of Atari Inc's Advanced Research Division. It was tentatively going to be replacing the POKEY in Atari Coin/Games' arcade games [Atari Coin/Games was going to decide between the AMY or the YM2151; the 2151 won out mostly because the AMY was never completed]. The successor Atari Corp wanted to first use in the ST but couldn't get it to work and they were running out of time to release it with the ST so they licensed it to Sight+Sound to complete it. Atari Corp then hoped to release it as part of the 65XEM. Sight+Sound apparently tried to screw Atari Corp over and they both became involved in litigation and the rest is history...

tane · July 20, 2019

Covox questions for knowledgeables:

- It seems that this design will produce 4 individual outputs for each of the 4 channels.

- Will this work with standard old software (not only for new developments), ie. will the 4 channels be divided correctly with old games? Will the sound be the same if the 4 outputs are joined?

- Is there a video or review?

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