RS 20 sec recording module

[WeAreAs1 at aol.com]

I don't know about the pre-built module that Radio Shack sells, but the 
company that sells a ton of these type of chips is ISD.  You can find their 
product list at:  http://www.isd.com/products/chipcorder

They have chips that will record anywhere from 10 seconds out to several 
minutes.  Many of the chips can record several sounds, which can then be 
random accessed with a serial address line.  Having a large-memory chip with 
multiple addressable sounds would eliminate the need for multiple chips, 
unless you needed more polyphony (the chips can play only one voice at a 
time).  They may even have a provision for external clocking (for pitch 
control), but I'm not sure.

The ISD line is available through Mouser and Digikey.  Some selected parts 
from the line can be purchased from Jameco and Radio Shack.  Cute little 
chips, but I'm not sure how useful they might be in a music system.  The 
biggest problem, I think, would be the progressive deterioration of the 
recorded sound - unless you were to refresh the memory by loading the sounds 
back in.  This, however, could create another problem if you needed to always 
have the waves show up at exactly the same addresses.

Michael Bacich