User avatar
Dynamic_Computing

Posted Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:50 pm

With all my new found Amiga Storage, I thought I would move my MP3 library to my A4000 so I could jam out while working. In the past, I used my A3000 with a Warp Engine and a Sunrise AD516 card for MP3 playback, and it was OK. I moved all that hardware to my A4000 and it is still just OK.
My rig has a Warp Engine 68040 running at 40 MHz, 48 MB RAM and some zippidy fast SCSI drives. I have been using AMPlifier that comes with OS 3.9. It supports AHI audio, so it can pump the tunes through my soundcard, but only at 1/4 sampling. The whole thing sounds muddy and muffled. I can set it to 1/2 sampling and improve the audio, but then the Amiga grinds to a crawl. Changing it to 1/1 sampling sounds great, but the audio skips and the Amiga is useless - like it takes 8 seconds to register mouse movement.
I tried AMIGAAMP from http://www.amigaamp.de , and it is brilliant software that is still supported and updated, but it apparently needs an '060 CPU to be useful. It is just a stuttery mess on my system.
Soooo... Does anyone have any other software that works and sounds good on an 040 Amiga? Recommendations? Or should I just use the PS3 that is three feet from my Amiga and have perfect playback with no issues, and stop kicking a dead horse?
Nah... I have a bunch of things that play MP3's just fine. I just want to get my Amiga to do it!

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:11 am

Hi,
actually one of my main uses for the Amiga is MP3.

I use a clockport-sound card for that since I only have a 030-CPU. Examples are the Prisma, the Delfina Flipper and the Melody 1200 pro. The Prelude 1200 afair doesn't support offloading the MP3-processing off the CPU. Of these, the prisma is still available new.

If you have a BigBox-Amiga and a free Zorro-Slot I highly recommend the Prisma. It's main use is actually decoding Audio files such as MP3s.

In my case I am stuck with a specific version of Amplifier that works with my Soundcard. It's ok. Obviously not the comfort of modern Media players, but, hey, it's an Amiga from 25 years ago!

:)

Cheers,
McT

User avatar
Dynamic_Computing

Posted Fri Jul 27, 2018 7:09 am

Hmmmm.... I suppose that my nifty Sunrize AD516 does not offload processing of the MP3 files through AHI. I suppose it would not, since it is a 25 year old card.

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Sat Jul 28, 2018 6:01 am

Hi,
correct - the Sunrize doesn't help with mp3s. That's why I recommended the Prisma. I'd keep the Sunrize as a Soundcard for AHI, though.

Cheers,
McT

User avatar
Dynamic_Computing

Posted Sun Jul 29, 2018 11:40 am

I finally found some reasonable settings in "Songplayer" that seem to handle my MP3's just fine. As long as I don't go crazy doing wild stuff on my Amiga, it Multitasks OK.
I upgraded to AHI 6.2 (I think) - I know it has some issues with some games, but it has worked well for me pumping sounds out of my AD516 soundcard.
I am really enjoying that sound card in my Amiga. The utilities that come it with are quite powerful.





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