c503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU ("Baird McIntosh") (03/30/90)
In the midst of the current fiery battle, I post the following bits of info:
Check out Keyboard (April '90, p95), Musician (April '90, p71), and Electronic
Musician (April '90, p15) for a one page ad from Commodore for their musical
Amiga deal. The basics are:
- May 31 deadline
- A2000HD system with 1084 monitor
- Dr. T's KCS 3.0 with AutoMix, Copyist Apprentice, and buyer's
choice of one Caged Artist Patched Librarian program
- MIDI interface from ECE R&D
- additional info is given on Amigas and general features
- coupon for the deal is included in the advert
Ok, so it appears that CBM is still advertising--with special purchase
programs, no less! In addition, Electronic Musician has a good deal of
Amiga coverage in that issue. There is a review of Bars & Pipes, an article
called _The New Computers: Platforms for the '90s_ as well as an article
called _Musical Multitasking_. Here are some tidbits from those articles:
_The New Computers: Platforms for the '90s_
- title shot shows (in order): Amiga 2500/30, IBM PS/2, Mac IIci,
NeXT (!), and the as-yet-unreleased Atari TT.
- on memory: "The Commodore Amiga line currently has an upper limit
of 9 MB of *autoconfigured* memory... but AmigaDOS will be
upgraded in the not-too-distant future to increase this maximum
to one gigabyte."
- "The Amiga still has ground to make up after a slow start, but its
strength in the video software market is a plus, and it has been
multitasking since the first Amiga 1000 arrived. In addition,
it supports color and is less expensive than a Mac or fully loaded
IBM."
- the article thanks the various companies for the machine loan
_Musical Multitasking_
- the article provides background on multitasking, discussing the
differences between program switching (ST Juggler, Windows),
applications that allow background processing (Multifinder), and
then built-in to the OS multitasking.
- "Although the Amiga has received warm welcomes from computer
artists, its musical profile has remained surprisingly low, despite
being a machine of considerably good value and the only personal
computer in its class to offer multitasking as a basic feature.
...this computer is finally starting to get the recognition it
deserves."
- "Most recently, Commodore announced [they did?] a set of Amiga
MIDI programming tools, called *CAMD* (for Commodore Amiga MIDI
Driver). Though still under development, according to Commodore's
announcement, this software will provide a MIDI driver and tools
to route MIDI data, in real time, from one application to another.
In the 1990s, the ever-increasing number of Amiga advocates may
be vindicated."
End of tidbits. At least Electronic Musician sounds optimistic and fair in
their assessment of the Amiga. Well, this posting is getting too long, but
you may also want to browse VideoMaker (March/April '90) for an article on
Desktop Video that was illustrated with screens of Mindware's Pagerender 3D.
Disclaimer: this has been FYI. I hope I have given enough credit to get away
with the quoted material above.
1.RAM DISK:> type baird.sig
Baird McIntosh --> c503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu <-or-> c503719@umcvmb.bitnet
"Ok Dad, for *this* amazing trick I'll need an ordinary American Express Card.
Now close your eyes..." - Calvin, yet another quote from "YUKON HO!"