Evaluation of the NeXT Computer System for Psychoacoustic and Music Perception Research

Abstract

[Editor's Note: When Computer Music Journal originally accepted this article for publication, the NeXT machine it evaluates was growing in popularity for use as a computer music workstation, used either alone or in combination with coprocessors in the form of the IRCAM Signal Processing Workstation or the Ariel_ Corp. QuintProcessor. Since that time, NeXT has announced that it is discontinuing production of its hardware and will instead deliver the NeXTSTEP software environment on Intel-based platforms (for which no widely standardized sound I/O and DSP solutions exist). The editors feel, however, that this article serves the community in presenting a set of criteria and an excellent discussion of the requirements of psychoacoustics and music research.] With the discontinuation of the NeXT hardware production, musicians and acousticians have lost a useful, integrated platform for sound and music work. While the software tools that came with the NeXT will live on in NeXTSTEP, one must still consider what audio hardware is available for computer-assisted sound generation. Three years ago, the NeXT was the only workstation-class machine that offered 16-bit, CDquality audio as a standard. Today, there are several other options, including the various SPARCstations from Sun Microsystems, Inc., and the IRIS Indigo manufactured by Silicon Graphics, Inc. There are also several sources for 16bit sound cards for expanding the audio capabilities of both Intel-based and Macintosh PCs, and rumours of forthcoming multimedia PCs with integrated 16-bit audio. Of course, as revealed in the analysis of the NeXT audio hardware, having 16 bits in the computer specifications does not necessarily imply true 16-bit performance, and a careful characterization of the hardware is necessary to verify that it meets the audio requirements of the discerning user. An examination of the sound software tools available on a given platform is also important. The procedure described in the report below suggest one way of establishing a benchmark.