jca@hou2f.UUCP (J.ANTROSIGLIO) (09/17/87)
I've been sitting back and just reading all the mail dealing with
midi on the Amiga. Well now its time for me to put my two cents
in. I own an Amiga 1000, 1040ST, and a AT&T-6300. All used for
various music application in my little home studio. Which consists
of a KX88, DX7, TX816(8 DX7's), CZ-101, 3 drum machines, 4-track
cassette, a various effects processors. All this stuff is controlled
via midi.
FLAME ON
Let's talk about the PC world. Forget it! Anything good cost
real bucks(>$300.00) and is copy protected (I hate that!). Most
programs require a Roland MPU-401 which will set you back another
$300.00. What can you do with a 640K PC anyway? I use mine to play
around with Minix.
FLAME OFF
That brings us to the Amiga and the ST. First, I agree that the
Amiga got a bad rap from the music world when it was first released,
one bad program can do that. But damm, you have to admit there is
very little music stuff available for the Amiga. I'm a subscriber to
Keyboard, Electronic Musician, and Music Technology, and it looks like
the ratio of programs is 20:1 in favor of the ST. Most of these are
ports from the C64/128 world, however, their real products and you
can by them today. What's available for Amiga? Just Soundscape 1.4
(thanks Todd!), Deluxe Music, and Texture. A big difference.
Guys, I'm a devoted Amiga nut. I purchased my A1000 two weeks after
it was released. I already purchased a midi interface for the A2000
I have on order (Please Mister C man, send a 2000 to me).
I also hung my head in shame when I went into my local music store
and picked up my ST. I didn't feel too bad when I walked out
with a 1040ST with two DS/DD drives, color monitor, and two free
music programs for a mere $850. I was in in the right place at the
right time. I also only paid $550 for a 20 Meg hard disk.
It seems that Jack T. has the music world wrapped around his little
finger. Most sales personal in music stores don't even know what an
Amiga is. There are a few who can respond to this question with the
following quote, "The Amiga, isn't that that new version of the C64
from Commodore. Those things are just toys. Let me show you this neat
new computer from Atari." Just yesterday I was told by a salesman at
a New York music store (no names) that I better dump my Amiga because
the whole family was going to be canceled in January. He wouldn't say
where he heard it, but he proceeded to tried to sell me a 1040ST.
I chuckled and walked out.
The midi.device project seems like a great project. However, its
not going to get the Amiga back into the game in the music world
unless it comes standard with the Amiga, works, and provided by
Commodore. Developers of music software want something they can
count on, not public domain drivers. I can't understand why they
(Commodore) haven't provided a midi driver long ago. Maybe they
should get Todd to do one for them!
It all boils down to this. When it comes to music, the 1040ST
gives you more bangs for the bucks, and there is software to do
just about anything you would want to do. Maybe, just maybe,
Commodore can do something with the A500 if they play their cards
right. However, I don't have high hope that they will!
Maybe someday I will be able to use my ST as a doorstop. But not
until the music world accepts, make that understands, the Amiga and
some software starts showing up on the shelfs. Until then I'll have
to suffer with GEM-DOS (I just got a chill), slow disks, 40 file
limits on a hard disk, and the worst shade of gray I've ever seen
(it clashes with my furniture).
Commodore, are you listening?
John Antroiglio
AT&T Bell Labs
ihnp4!{hou2f,hotld}!jcapage@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (09/18/87)
I somewhat agree about the Amiga MIDI scene -- we're fighting what
appears to be an uphill battle. There are some things, however,
that can be done.
We can't ignore the 'image' aspect. When the Amiga gets bad press
about the timestamp problem, everyone suffers. Two things can help
here:
First, let people (developers) know how to use the existing OS,
drivers, etc, to get data from the serial port without dropping data.
Second, have a serial.device that can (optionally) timestamp events.
Having a midi.device would work too, but why not hack the serial
driver to do it? It's not a lot of work.
Third, make the serial port a DMA device. Much harder, I know...
------------
OK, so now that we've tackled the technical aspect, we need to get
software out to the marketplace.
#define SOAPBOX_MODE 1 /* true if we're on the soapbox */
First and foremost, the Amiga (to get noticed) has to have at least
one fantastic music package that's not available anywhere else.
Having an Amiga port of every other music package makes the Amiga
a 'me too' music machine.
Look at this: musicians buy Macs because they want to run Personal
Composer, they buy PC's to run Texture, and ST's so they can run
Dr. T's KCS. They don't give a damn about the hardware or the OS;
they want to run the software package.
On, the Amiga, Soundscape is the answer. OK, OK, it has problems,
including bugs, terrible docs, and terrible user interface. But these
are all being worked on, and should be solved RSN.
I say it's the answer because Soundscape is a MULTITASKING,
MESSAGE-PASSING MUSIC OPERATING SYSTEM. That idea is powerful as the
Amiga itself, and Mimetics has not done that idea justice in its
marketing.
The hooks into this OS make it inherently extensible AND individually
customizable. Mimetics needs to publicly release the specs for the
Soundscape data structures and library calls, so more third-party
(read: public domain) software/utilities can get written for it.
It means we can have something as powerful as Texture, KCS and/or
Personal Composer, even the best of all of them, without having
to buy a new machine, or reboot the machine to run the new package,
or deal with differing data file formats between the packages.
I don't want to sound like I'm doing for marketing for Mimetics,
but I can't understand why this package has not gotten wider
attention. Since SOME (not all) the Soundscape specs are available,
including soundscape.h, we should be seeing more software that
hooks into the package, but nobody is ... yet. The music standard
for the Amiga seems to be DMCS, which is a really nice hobbyist
music package but is unusable for pro or semi-pro work.
#undef SOAPBOX_MODE
I hope Soundscape catches on, and more software is written for it,
else I'm afraid Mimetics will port it to Multifinder or OS/2 and
the Amiga will have yet another 'me-too' music package.
..Bob, the frustrated musician
--
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@ulowell.{uucp,edu,csnet}