Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Digital sound revolution

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was no consensus; keep. Johnleemk | Talk 06:47, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Digital sound revolution

"Revolution" is a bit silly, when practically all computers from the start used digital audio, and most synthesizers used for music remained analogue. Also, this article is inaccurate - the Commodore SID was largely digital (all waveforms were digital), and really only the filter was analogue (and remained practically external to the chip, IIRC). The Amiga sound chip was the first digital chip used in a computer? Absolute nonsense. I could name ten others predating that by half a decade just from the top of my head. I know that inaccurate information should be rewritten rather than deleted, but when there was no real digital sound revolution it seems silly to have this article at all. WMarsh 09:02, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I would like to know about these predating computers with digital sound chips you refer to. Pixel8 21:39, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Even if you define it narrowly, certainly the Mac in '84 qualifies (it had a DMA-driven 8-bit DAC). Mirror Vax 19:40, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Machines with the AY chip for starters - this includes popular home computers from the very early 80s and onwards. Okay, it's not designed for playing samples from memory, but the article doesn't say this is a requirement - in fact, it's hard to tell what the article is saying at times, or what the supposed revolution was (another good reason to just get rid of it). There were many chips like this, and they certainly didn't use analogue oscillators, and could be made to act as low-quality DACs. WMarsh 19:47, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

If anyone remembers the Fleischmann & Pons "room temperature fusion" affair of the late 80s, that experiment was controlled using the onboard ADC and DAC on a BBC Model B :-) - Just zis  Guy, you know? ^[T]/_[C] AfD? 20:27, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

If quality isn't an issue, the Apple II (1977) was perfectly capable of playing sampled sound. In fact, that's all it could do, because it didn't have a sound synthesizer, just a bit-banging 1-bit DAC. Mirror Vax 20:36, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Agree that this article is incorrect . When it concerns computers there was more of an evolution than a revolution. For instance most early home computers had some kind of DA convertor. So did most early game consoles. The 'revolution' spoken of in the article most likely refers to sampling 'revolution'. As DA convertors beccame cheaper/better and memory became less of a problem sampling became viable. The Commodore Amiga is a perfect example of this evolution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.87.224.111 (talk) 12:26, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

• Delete ambiguous (could equally refer to the CD or DAB radio) and in any case subjective ("revolution?" Where were the riots?). Not a likely search term, adds nothing obvious to digital audio and the neologism itself scores very few non-Wiki hits. Just zis  Guy, you know? ^[T]/_[C] AfD? 13:51, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
• Keep The SID chip is a three VCO synthesizer, basically a glorified sound effects chip. This article is talking about the first commercial (as opposed to hobbyist) stereo digital-to-analog converter installed in a personal computer. With another paragraph about the Sound Blaster this would be an even more compelling Keeper. Endomion 16:31, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

• In which case it needs to be moved to a title which does not imply POV and OR; it also needs to be sure it is not duplicating content in the linked and other articles. As far as I can tell this article is arguing that those (elsehwere described) innovations constitute the digital sound revolution but as far as I'm concerned they don't, for the reasons stated. - Just zis  Guy, you know? ^[T]/_[C] AfD? 18:03, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

• Keep I agree the title of this article should be changed. This "revolution" only applies to the computer industry naturally. I'm not sure the reference of the SID should be here since it is not a true digital audio chip. The addition of the Sound Blaster would improve the article greatly. Pixel8 21:39, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
• Merge to Synthesizer. I'm pretty sure digital sound didn't spring forth fully formed with the Amiga. Not all computers are personal. Gazpacho 01:34, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.