mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) (07/09/88)
I recently purchased the Mimetics PROMIDI SoundScape program for my Amiga to use with my SQ-80. So far, I have used the tape deck for saving and playing sequences on the SQ. I have also used the sampled voices to play on the Amiga hardware. I'm new to this stuff, but as far as I can tell, most of the standard MIDI sequencer stuff is present and seems to work. I'll post more as I progress. The major complaint I have is that this program is horrible in two aspects: It is copy protected, and the protection is the key disk variety, but not really. If the original disk is not installed, it does not simply request the key disk, but crashes the whole system. This is inexcusable, and a good enough reason not to buy the program. The second problem is that there are logical device names hard-coded into the software. This makes it impossible to move everything but the key onto a hard disk, as the device name is the same as the disk name! I have spent many hours trying to move all but the key track onto my hard disk, and still find that the libraries insist on loading modules from the floppy. Yuck. It would be real nice if some thought had gone into properly using the Amiga environment. If you are a floppy only user, and you don't mind having a $150.00 investment riding on a single floppy, then go ahead. If, on the other hand, you have a hard disk and/or have a floppy drive that eats a disk from time to time, DO NOT buy this brain-damaged port. Mark Huth P.S.: If anyone can tell me how to get around these problems, I would be glad to change my opinion..
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (07/09/88)
In article <786@rover.UUCP> mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) writes: >I recently purchased the Mimetics PROMIDI SoundScape program for my >Amiga to use with my SQ-80. So far, I have used the tape deck for > ... >The second problem is that there are logical device names hard-coded >into the software. This makes it impossible to move everything but >the key onto a hard disk, as the device name is the same as the disk >name! I have spent many hours trying to move all but the key track >onto my hard disk, and still find that the libraries insist on loading >modules from the floppy. Yuck. It would be real nice if some thought >had gone into properly using the Amiga environment. I do not have SoundScape, but I found this from a flyer a picked up last year at COMDEX Cbooth: CUSTOMIZING Soundscape Start-up You might have noticed that Soundsape 1.4 uses the device Default: when you do Load and Save operations. It will load a nd save from the default : until change it to something else like a disk name. When you make a Soundscape workbench disk a file is ceratedd in the s directory called ss-modules. Soundscape looks in thi file for commands before loading. Two commands are e placed there when the file is created: assign Default: SoundScape: assign Help: Soundscape: Users can edit this file to change the default settings to customize their working environment. For instance, assign Default: Data: or assign Default: df1: [ or , I say, assing Default: dh0:SoundScape] [Similarly the article seems to imply that one could reassing where to look for the "soundscape.library" by doing: copy Soundscape: libs/soundscape.library to dh0:libs assign libs: dh0:libs run Soundscape:Soundscape This is pretty much standard with any program that uses custom lobarries: they must be in libs: Also if you boot from the Soundscape disk, the sSoundscape:libs will be the default libs:, until you do the above assign. The flyer implies that you should be able to put the executable of Sounscape in the c directory of another disk (possible dh0:c) and executit from there] I hope this helps. -- Marco Papa 'Doc' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (07/10/88)
Everything marco said is correct about customizing Soundscape so that it only
hits the real disk on the "verification" phase. However, when things are saved
the volume names are expanded and stored with the environment so if you hard
disk is named "FooBar" and you save a song, when you reload it, it will look for
the tracks on FooBar: which can be a real pain in the behind. Copying tracks to
floppy is not as easy as it should be. They need something like a script mover
facility.
--Chuck
--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.erickson@cbmvax.UUCP (Lee Erickson) (07/11/88)
The two preceeding articles are WRONG about being unable to run SoundScape
from a hard disk. When the SoundScape program is run, it executes the script
"ss-modules" located in the S: directory. The default supplied on the
SoundScape disk has the following two lines in it:
assign HELP: SoundScape:
assign DEFAULT: SoundScape:
If the "SoundScape" in these two lines is changed to the logical volume
containing the SoundScape software, SoundScape will access that volume, NOT
the floppy, for everything EXCEPT the keydisk check. I just tried it on my
system, and the floppy light remained on about 5 seconds after I inserted it.
I DON'T like the keydisk system, but if they MUST copyprotect, that seems the
way to go.
--
Lee Erickson - not working with, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|caip}!cbmvax!erickson
or in any way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!erickson@seismo.css.GOV
Commodore.mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) (07/12/88)
In article <10555@oberon.USC.EDU> papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: >In article <786@rover.UUCP> mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) writes: >>I recently purchased the Mimetics PROMIDI SoundScape program for my >>Amiga to use with my SQ-80. So far, I have used the tape deck for >> ... >>The second problem is that there are logical device names hard-coded >>into the software. This makes it impossible to move everything but >>the key onto a hard disk, as the device name is the same as the disk > [ information about customizing Soundscape startup and location of files} Thanks, you are correct as far as it goes. But the key problem turns out to be what I mentioned - many of the accesses use logical device Soundscape:, which is the name of the master disk. When the disk is in the drive, it takes precedence over the logical device. The way I discovered to help the situation is as follows: Copy all the files onto the hard drive (either build a script to do this or dcopy to another disk, run diskdoctor to fix the file system, and use the copy all option). Fix the ss-modules command file to point the correct place on the disk. Install the libraries. Start Soundscape, with the key disk in the drive (failure to have the key disk present results in a visit to the guru). After the Patch Panel is up, remove the key disk. Now, using another CLI window, assign Soundscape: to the path where the image of the disk resides on the hard drive. Further operations take place without need for the key disk. All this is made necessary because the program uses Soundscape: as both the logical device for loading program modules and as the name of the key disk. Specifically, the soundscape.library contains several pathnames containing the logical device Soundscape:. Mark Huth