Subject: REVIEW: Concierto sound module for Picasso IV
From: [email-masked] (Patrick James)
Date: 21 Sep 1998 11:00:03 -0400
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Concierto 1.1

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A 16-bit sound module capable of recording and play back of stereo 
samples at up to 44.1 khz (CD audio quality), with a MIDI interface, for the 
Picasso IV graphics board.  The module is based on the Yamaha OPL3 synthesizer.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Village Tronic Marketing GmbH
	Address:	Wellweg 95
                        31157 Sarstedt
                        Germany

	Telephone:	+49 (0)5066 / 7013-10 (Technical Support)
	FAX:		+49 (0)5066 / 7013-49

	E-mail:		[email-masked]
	World Wide Web:	http://www.villagetronic.com/amiga/

LIST PRICE

	£99.95 (Pounds Sterling) (Blittersoft - UK Village Tronic resellers)

     	The review board was bought at the World Of Amiga show, at a reduced 
price of £75 pounds sterling.

DEMO VERSION

	Demo versions of either the Concierto module or its software are not 
available.  However, the Audio Hardware Interface (AHI) software is available 
on the Aminet or directly from its WWW site at:

        http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lcs/ahi.html

AHI can even be used with the Amiga's internal audio hardware (Paula), with 
a 14 -bit driver.  While this cannot be compared with the Concierto's audio 
output, it will enable you to decide whether AHI and the software available, 
which supports it, will suit your requirements.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Amiga computer with Zorro II/III 
		68020 or better processor.  The manual recommends a 
		  68040 at 40 Mhz when using an A3000[T]/A4000[T].
		Picasso IV, with 4.1 firmware.

	SOFTWARE
	
		Workbench 2.04 or better.  3.x is required to use the 
		  included AIFF datatype.
	        AHI, which is not included with the installation 
		  software (see above).

COPY PROTECTION

	None

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 2000 rev 6.2 
	Full ECS chipset 
        1 MB Chip RAM, 48 MB Fast RAM
	MicroniK 1.76 MB HD Floppy drive, replacing DF0:
	
        Phase5 Blizzard 2040/40 MHz 
        Village Tronic Picasso IV  V1.2, 4 MB, 4.1 firmware 
	  (Picasso.resource 7.1)
        GVP 4008 SCSI
	GVP IO Extender
        Village Tronic Ariadne Ethernet 
        
	1.2 Gigabyte Quantum Fireball
 	Iomega Zip 100
	Sony CDU-55S CDROM
	
        AmigaDOS 3.1 (Kickstart 40.63, Workbench 40.42)
	SetPatch 40.16
	
	Picasso96 1.33
	AHI 4.16
	NewIcons 4.1
	MUI 3.8
	Powersnap 2.2a

INSTALLATION

	The Concierto's installation is in two parts; hardware and software.  
Before the card can be used, its driver software must be installed.  The 
installation process is no harder than installing any other Zorro card.

HARDWARE

	The installation of the Concierto module requires your Amiga 
to be reopened and the Picasso IV board to be removed.  The module 
consists of two circuit boards.  One of these, the main board, is 
attached to the Picasso IV itself and the other, the IO board is 
attached to a Zorro backplane.  In order to fit the cable joining the 
two parts of the module, it may be easier to 
remove other Zorro cards depending on where you intend to install 
the IO board.  For this reason it is generally easier to install the 
Concierto module before installing the Picasso IV for the first time.

	The cable which joins the two boards must be connected before 
proceeding, because there is a very little space between the connector 
for the cable and the Picasso IV's VGA output connector.  Similarly, 
connecting the other end of the cable to the IO board, after the IO
board has been screwed into position can be difficult due to the ISA 
slots.  The cable features a locating notch, so can only be connected 
one way.

	The main board, which is the smaller, then connects to two 
connectors on the Picasso IV.  The Picasso IV should be placed on a 
flat, non-metallic surface, as you apply pressure to plug the main 
board on to the Picasso IV.  It is imperative that you check that the 
main board is connected correctly and that there are no overhanging 
pins.

	With that completed, the Picasso IV can be reinstalled in 
its Zorro slot.  The connector ribbon cable can then be fed to the 
backplane where the IO board has been placed.

	Finally, having reconnected all necessary cables to your Amiga, 
connect your speakers to the lower of the two 3.5mm jacks and then your
microphone or other audio input device to the upper jack.  
Unfortunately, while the manual tells you which jack is which, there 
are no such indications on the board itself.   

SOFTWARE

	The software installation uses the Commodore Installer program.  
Version 43.3 is present on the disk, so it is assumed that it is 
required.  This process is straight forward until the installer checks 
the Picasso IV's firmware version.  The Picasso IV used for this review
had the required firmware so this was not a problem.  With the 
installation completed, having rebooted an "acoustic signal" can be 
heard.

	If, however, you have an earlier firmware version and have not
already obtained the update from Village Tronic's WWW site, the
installer will update it for you.  During this process the mouse
pointer will not move.  You must not reset your Amiga lest the
firmware be damaged and your Picasso IV no longer recognised.  If you
do, booting with the Concierto floppy (my disk had no bootblock,
preventing this), will allow you to reinstall the firmware.

REVIEW

	The first feature of the new audio module you will notice is its 
"acoustic signal".  This is useful to begin with, indicating that the 
installation has been successful.  Presumably, if the firmware were to be 
damaged, the signal would not be present, telling the user that something 
had gone wrong.  However, after a while this beep on startup can become 
annoying.

HARDWARE

	If you want to use existing MIDI equipment, you will notice 
that the Concierto IO baord's has non-standard connectors.  Thankfully, 
adapter cables have been included.  Again there are no labels stating 
which port is which.  Not having any MIDI equipment, these have not 
been tested.  A "feature" of the audio chip used means that the 
Concierto's input will only receive a mono signal.

	The module fulfills the capabilities, which the manual ascribes 
to it.  16-bit stereo samples at 44.1 Khz (CD quality) could easily be 
obtained.  A chapter in the manual points out that a standard A4000[T] 
is only capable of either 16-bit or stereo sound at 44.1 Khz, but not 
both.  Apparently, the A3000[T] can support both, so presumably this is 
due to the A4000's "crippled motherboard memory access." The
reviewer's A2000, which although having Zorro II, uses the recommended 
specification of a 40 MHz 68040 could easily handle both.  Fast RAM is the 
only limitation of sampling.  With 48 MB, some of which is used by 
various commodities and Picasso 96, around four minutes of sound could
be sampled directly from the CDDA cable attached to the Picasso IV.

	One hardware problem is the question of where to locate the IO board.  
Using an Amiga 2000, with no ISA cards, one of the spare backplanes 
could be used.  This is also no problem with the Amiga 3000 or 4000 
towers.  However if you are using a desktop 3000 or 4000, mounting the 
board there will preventing complete use of a Zorro III slot.
Again, if you have a half length card (e.g.  one without inputs or 
outputs on a blackplane), such as a Buddha, this is not a problem.  
It is not recommended to leave this board outside the case.
	
	The only major problem noticed is of an audio nature but is actually 
caused by a fault with the Picasso IV or the Amiga itself.  With
speakers attached to the Concierto, the Amiga's audio output cannot
be heard.  At first it was thought that the Amiga's volume was low
either on the Concierto's Mixer tool or in the firmware settings,
which are accessed by holding down either shift key, when
rebooting.

	If fact, it turns out that this is a very complicated problem,
which displays different symptoms on different Amigas.  Village Tronic have
a page on the WWW site explaining the problem, with the Picasso IV, and
offering a few solutions, at:

	http://www.villagetronic.com/amiga/support/fpiv.html
 
One cheap solution to this is to connect the Amiga's phono audio
outputs to the Picasso IV's line-in.  This means that another input is
lost though.  An e-mail to Village Tronic revealed that a board called
"Mixer" is available for 50 DM from [email-masked], which should fix
this.

SOFTWARE

	The supplied software is functional and capable of demonstrating
the Concierto's features fully.  Most of the software is involved in 
integrating the board with Workbench and your existing audio software.
After installation a program called Concierto Mixer is located in
Sys:WBStartup.  This tool, which pops up on startup (add the tooltype;
CX_POPUP=No; to disable), allows the user to control the volume of the
various inputs and outputs available.  These include a microphone connected
to the Concierto; the Picasso IV's line-in; the AV module, when connected;
the synthesizer itself and the Picasso IV's Switcher.

	The only other real piece of software is the ConciertoRecorder.
This is a capable sampling tool, allowing recording from a microphone, 
the AV module, the mixer tool's output or any of the Switcher's inputs,
including a CDROM drive, if one is connected.  Stereo as well as 8 and
16-bit samples are supported.  The sample rate can be varied between
3,107 and 44,194 Hz.  Assuming that enough RAM, the upto twelve hours can be
recorded and saved as 8SVX, WAVE or AIFF samples.  The tool doubles
as a player for the supported formats.  

	The remainder of the software includes drivers for various packages
including a driver which acts just like the serial.device for MIDI
compatibility.  A preferences editor, MidiPorts, controls the Concierto's
MIDI driver.  The most important, most useful piece of software is the 
AHI driver.

AHI

	While AHI is not the product being reviewed here, most of the software 
tested was AHI based so somethings will have to be said about this system.
AHI can be thought of as an audio equivalent of the CyberGFX or Picasso96
retargettable graphics (RTG) APIs.  In practice this means that AHI sits
between applications and the audio hardware, so tools only have to be
developed for AHI, rather than many different sound card libraries.  
	
	In comparison with RTG, AHI's preferences editor supports five
units for play back and recording.  While Picasso96, at least, can
be used to drive more than one card at the same time, in AHI this is 
an extremely useful feature.  While CyberGFX can be used with AGA, in the
presence of a PPC card, AHI be used without any additional hardware.
So with the Concierto, the user is more likely to want to use multiple
units, for the Concierto, the Paula 14-bit driver and the filesave driver.

	AHI seems to be almost part of the Amiga's operating system because
the integration is tight.  The new AUDIO: device can be used for play back
and recording, just like PRT:  for printing.  A command called AddAudioModes
performs a similar function to AddDatatypes or Binddrives.  Everything is
handled in an intuitive, Amiga style.

	A growing amount of AHI software is appearing.  Several freely
available programs have been tested and worked very well with the
Concierto.  A patch for the sound.datatype is available, which helps
with the Amiga audio problems mentioned.  A protracker module datatype,
using AHI is a useful system addition.  Play16 is vastly superior to
ConciertoRecorder.  SongPlayer, a MPEG Audio Layer 3, player works
very well, giving a nearly (indistinguishable) full play back rate on a
40MHz 68040.  A commercial and untested package called SoundProbe also
supports AHI, which should be sufficient to make up for functional nature
of the included tools, giving sample editing capabilities.  A freeware
editing program, called SampleE, performed very well using AHI on the 
Concierto.  

DOCUMENTATION

	The package includes a detailed printed manual in both English and 
German.  The manual contains a full index.

	The installation disk contains a readme file, with English and 
German versions, describing the latest information, which became available 
after the manual had been printed.  Documents for the Recorder and Mixer tools 
are included on the disk as well.

	The printed manual and on disk documents provided more than enough 
information to install and use the hardware and software.  Operation of the 
mixer and recorder tools is fairly straight forward.

LIKES

	The Concierto simply plugs onto the Picasso IV, so does not use a 
Zorro slot.  This makes the module cheaper than a similar, full 16-bit sound 
card, such as the Prelude.

	AHI support and the inclusion of development material on the 
installation disk mean that a range of software is/will be available freely, 
via the Aminet, as well as commercially.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	The small amount of software supplied is disappointing.  This
is only a minor problem though, as AHI is supported and the development kit
is included with the package, so hopefully more creative software to
drive the synthesizer will soon be available.

	The problems with the Amiga's output are also annoying, but
fixable.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Having never owned any other Amiga audio cards, comparisons
cannot be made with individual cards' features.  However, compared
to the Prelude, for example, the major advantages of the Concierto
are its lower price and that it does not use another Zorro slot.
The Prelude seems to have more software which directly supports it.

BUGS

	No bugs were found in either the included software or AHI.  The
problems with the Amiga's audio output have been described elsewhere.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	The reviewer is not associated in anyway with Village Tronic
or its resellers.  Vendor support is available through Village
Tronic's web site.  The site includes updates to the Picasso IV
firmware and the Concierto software.  In addition to this, there is
page containing hardware fixes for the Picasso IV (presumably their
other boards will follow, if necessary), specifically including the
problem mentioned above:

	While trying to solve the bug mentioned above, Village
Tronic's e-mail based support was very swift in responding and very
helpful.

WARRANTY

	No warranty card was included because Blittersoft do not distribute
them in the UK.  The date of purchase starts a twelve month warranty.

CONCLUSIONS

	The Concierto is a very good sound card, which, assuming you
already have a Picasso IV, is cheaper alternative which does not
require another Zorro slot to be used.  While deserving a higher rating,
it can only be given 3.5 out of 5 stars due to the presently limited
software included and the problems with the Amiga's audio output.  

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1998 Patrick James, referred to as "the reviewer",
but may be freely distributed, beyond the normal distribution of
c.s.a.reviews.

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