Applied Engineering's Lost Apple II Sound Board

        pic and ad text are from an AE ad in a 1984 Nibble issue
        scans provided by Al Crout

      SUPER MUSIC SYNTHESIZER  -  END MOCKINGBOREDOM

• Complete 16 voice music synthesizer on one card. Just plug it

into your Apple, connect the audio cable (supplied) to your
stereo, boot the disk supplied and you are ready to input
and play songs
• It's easy to program music with our compose software. You will

start right away at inputting your favorite sings. The Hi-Res
screen shows what you have entered in standard sheet music format.
• Now with new improved software for the easiest and fastest music

input system available anywhere.
• We give you lots of software. In addition to Compose and Play

programs, 2 disks are filled with over 30 songs ready to play.
• Easy to program in Basic to generate complex sound effects. Now

your games can have explosions, phaser zaps, train whistles, death
cries. Your name it, this card can do it.
• Four white noise generators which are great for sound effects.
• Plays music in true stereo as well as true discrete quadraphonic.
• Full control of attack, volume, decay, sustain, and release.
• Our card will play notes from 30HZ to beyond human hearing.
• Automatic shutoff on power-up or if reset is pressed.
• Many many more features.

     A few weeks ago sfbong asked about an Apple II sound card which seemed to offer
three more tone voices than the standard six available from Mockingboards. (The mystery
board had three AY-8910 Programmable Sound Generator IC's.)  Specualtion about
the board on Csa2 led to a tentative conclusion that it may be a user-modified Mockingboard
or some low-production model or an unknown clone. It also led to an offer from Al Crout
of a 1984 ad scan for a many-voiced sound board from Applied Engineering!

     At first perusal, the ad's claims are fairly impressive-- twice as many tone voices and
white noise generators as Mockingboard! If you never heard about the "Super Music
Synthesizer" and wonder why, the answer is in the picture of the board.

     Back in 1979-1980, there was at least one Apple II music card--  the "Jukebox"
card from American Micro Products-- which offered similar specifications, except it had
only one channel with three voices. Jukebox came with the "KIS" music editor on diskette
and, like the AE board, its IC's were small, mainly14 and 16-pin, types.

     The sound chip used on the Jukebox is TI's 76489,  a 16-pin IC which delivers 3 tone
voices plus white noise. AE's picture shows 4 16-pin chips in the center of the card:

4 x (3 tone + 1 white noise) = 16 voices (if you stretch the definition of "voice" a bit)

I'm pretty sure the Super Music Synthesizer board is a souped up version of the
AMP Jukebox and that it uses either TI's 76489 or its 76494.

     Why was AE's board "Lost"? The price did not help; SMS was $60 more than a
stereo Mockingboard and only $20 less than the stereo Mockingboard + speech. And, by
1984, Mockingboard was the closest thing to being the standard Apple II sound board,
including support in Ultima III and Music Construction Set.

     Still, you do get 12 tone voices vs. the Mockingboard's 6. The catch here is that
TI's chips offer a 10-bit frequency divide register vs. the 12 bits available in the
AY-8910 Programmable Sound Generator IC's used on Mockingboard. You get
much better note accuracy from the Mockingboards.

     None of which means that you can't do a lot with AE's Super Music Synthesizer
card plugged into your Apple II. And, being "lost" and all, I'll bet they're very rare.
In fact, it would be kind of neat to have one!
 

Rubywand
 
 

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