SheppyWare

AmperSound GS is a set of ampersand (&) commands for Applesoft BASIC that you can use to access and control the Ensoniq 5503 Digital Oscillator Chip (DOC) that is the core of the great sound capabilities of the Apple IIgs. You can create and play back sound waves at any frequency you choose, even make music!

AmperSound GS is a fairly simple suite of commands; it provides individual control over each of the 30 available oscillators on the Apple IIgs. Normally these oscillators are paired for finer and more vibrant sound, but AmperSound GS doesn't do this, so the sounds you can create are fairly simple waveforms. However, you can still do quite a bit with it.

Included are several BASIC sample programs, including one with a reusable subroutine you can use that can play music using strings representing the musical notes you wish to play. Documentation on how to use the commands is included as well.

This program was published by Nibble magazine back in 1993, some four years after I submitted it to them. I thought they'd decided not to run it, and let my subscription lapse literally the month before it finally got printed. Talk about timing! I have the issue now, so that’s pretty awesome.

I was very proud of this code when I sent it to Nibble, and extraordinarily excited when they offered to buy it. Looking at it now, it’s not quite as impressive as I thought it was back then, but it’s still really fun to play with and can be useful.