SirNickity wrote:I wanted those 8.3kHz samples mixed to the highest quality possible, to bring out all the nuance of the source audio samples, which were mostly recorded via a potato (that is, an Amiga.)
Allow me to straighten some facts:
1) There is no 'fixed' samplerate for instruments in Amiga mods. Sure, early samples may date from the late 80s (think ST-00), and due to a combination of lack of diskspace/internal memory and low quality samplers, these may not have been too high quality, and effectively around 8.3 kHz.
However, later MODs have much better quality samples, so this was certainly not through any inherent limitation of the Amiga or the MOD format.
2) The Amiga had no audio recording whatsoever, so whatever the samples were recorded with, the Amiga can not be blamed for the quality or lack thereof.
Aside from that, you are drawing a direct relation between 16-bit audio and PCM-encoded music. As your own MOD example already proves, there's more to 16-bit audio than just having prerecorded PCM data.
There's plenty of PC trackers that supported 16-bit audio, including in the instrument data. There's also been a thread on here a while ago about games that use 16-bit sound effects.
Aside from that, the early 90s were also the time when CD-ROM became a thing, and games could include full audio tracks and videos. Need For Speed is a fine example of a game that uses the CD-ROM to show video and play audio, which it does in 16-bit, and no it's not CD-ROM audio. They use a custom format that is streamed from CD and played through the sound card.
So 16-bit audio was a legitimate step-up from 8-bit. The problem with the argumentation here is that some sound cards did 16-bit audio significantly better than others. Which is why I don't buy into the '70 db SNR is enough'-argument. Might be enough for some, but once you hear a great 16-bit card, you can't un-hear it.
Besides, it's not just the SNR... The overall audio on SB cards on that era is just... unbalanced, because of their poor eq'ing of the audio.
I have various GUS cards, and also an AWE32, but playing the same tracker songs on the cards makes a world of difference. The GUS sounds full and punchy, where the AWE32 is tinny and 'scooped'.
I also have various Amigas, so I know what MODs *should* sound like. Amigas have quite decent sound circuitry with a reasonably flat frequency response, and the GUS has the same basic characteristics, but just offers 16-bit samples if you want them (the Amiga as you may know, has 4 actual DACs so performs its 'mixing' in the analog domain, making its effective sound more than 8-bit resolution. Theoretically you get about 14-bit resolution out of the 4 channels combined, taking the 65 volume levels per channel into account).
The AWE32 just doesn't compare. It has too much bass, virtually no midrange, and the high frequency range is just too 'fizzy'.
And the Amiga is 80s technology. 90s tech should sound better... Some of it did, but some 90s PC sound cards were still quite horrible.
Here's some nice recent Amiga music (in 64k): https://youtu.be/tshGRUDvsUs
Oh, and mustn't forget this one: https://youtu.be/WkHl3VoP-W8