Radio Shack Rack Stuff

[brad sanders]

>I...noticed a chip that the package claimed would hold a 20 second
>audio message.  Has anyone here done anything musical with these
>parts?  Like can it be clocked at different rates to, perhaps, get a
>couple or three octaves out of it?  Fidelity?  I'd guess 8 bit.

You can also get these in module and chip form from Digi-Key. They're
the exact chip (technology) used in those talking greeting cards,
christmas ornaments, and gawd only knows what else.

It's EEPROM technology - but an ANALOG cell. Claimed accuracy is
"effectively 6 to 8 bits" - but each cell holds a variable charge so
there's no DAC or A/D (thus, a 512KB EEPROM actually holds 4 million
samples - neat, huh?)

Some have a variable clock, but they really are so full of aliasing
distortion I dunno if it matters. Max sample rate with the "best"
device is something like 11KHz. 

Ever see the fantastically funny SNL spoof of the "crying baby jesus"
christmas ornament? It was so dead on, well...