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At about the same time as the first sequencers were arriving,
computers began to get sound chips with some semi-decent capabilities.
Machines such as the TI-99/4A and Atari 800 had chips capable of
playing at least 3 independent tones at any one time. However, the
tones were preset, usually to a square wave, which has very little
musical interest. This went to the next step when a young engineer
developed the SID sound chip for the Commodore 64 computer. The SID
chip could play 3 tones at once [plus 1 channel devoted to 'white
noise' percussive sounds], and each of the tones could be selected
from a range of several waveforms. In addition, advanced effects such
as "ring modulation" were avalible on this chip. The C=64 soon allowed
many to compose some amazing tunes, but the best was yet to come.

The engineer who designed the SID went on to join a company called
Ensoniq, where he designed the DOC (Digital Oscillator Chip) which
powered the company's now legendary Mirage synthesizer. The Mirage was
unique in that it was the first major synthesizer to offer sampling,
wherein you could digitally record any sound you wanted, from trumpets
to snare drums to water dripping, and use it as an instrument. Best of
all, the DOC chip could play up to 32 samples at any one time, making
it useful to emulate a whole orchestra with one Mirage. The DOC chip
also powered Ensoniq's ESQ-1 and SQ-80 synthesizers.

Now, to get some Apple II-ish relevance. During the design of the
Cortland (aka IIgs), Apple was planning on using a chip not unlike the
one on the Mac II series. This chip played 4 samples at once, but was
limited in it's stereo capabilities (you got 2 samples on the left,
and 2 on the right, and that's it) as well as overall flexibility
(it's limited to 1 fixed sampling rate of 22,050 Hz). Luckily, Ensoniq
sent a sample of the DOC chip to Apple, and it ended up in the hands
of a music enthusiast working on the IIgs project. This engineer
fought with management until they decided to use the DOC chip for the
IIgs. However, up until nearly the last minute, the DOC and it's 64k
of RAM were to be an extra-cost feature, which would have killed the
GS music software market dead. Luckily, price drops on components
allowed the DOC to be standard, so all IIgs owners could hear great
sound.

Back to generalized things, the next development was to combine
sampling and sequencing software on capable computers. This resulted
in the *Tracker genre on the Amiga, as well as Music Construction Set,
Music Studio, and other programs on many platforms. These programs
typically had a sequence file and a series of sample files used as
instruments, with some notable exceptions (the *Tracker series on the
Amiga had all-in-one 'modular' files, hence the name MOD).

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