peter@entropy.UUCP (04/16/87)
I keep seeing the Deluxe Music Construction Set version 2.0 advertised. Being a registered owner, I had expected to see an upgrade notice. Has anyone? For those of you who have got it (if it is out), has it fixed any of the two major annoyances (to me) with earlier versions: No ritardando or other smooth tempo change No graceful way of ending a manuscript I would be grateful for facts or opinions by mail or through news. --- Peter Guttorp peter@entropy.ms.washington.edu
oster@lapis.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (04/16/87)
I got an upgrade notice from Electronic Arts, I sent in my money, and I got the upgrade. It still puts a garbage bar at the end of the manuscript. The nicest thing about it is that if you pay Adobe for the Sonata postscript (LaserWriter) font, DMCS will use it. (Adobe fonts are copyprotected though, so if you rent time on a laserwriter, this is kind of a pain. (The copyprotection scheme locks the disk so it can only be used with a single laserwriter.) You can install DMCS on a hard disk, but it will re-boot if it discovers a debugger (like MacsBug) present. You can save phrases in the scrapbook now (as I remember.) The manual describes a voice editor. Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: DMCS version 2.0 Summary: Expires: References: <566@entropy.ms.washington.edu> Sender: Reply-To: oster@lapis.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: University of California, Berkeley Keywords: Upgrade? I got an upgrade notice from Electronic Arts, I sent in my money, and I got the upgrade. It still puts a garbage bar at the end of the manuscript. The nicest thing about it is that if you pay Adobe for the Sonata postscript (LaserWriter) font, DMCS will use it. (Adobe fonts are copyprotected though, so if you rent time on a laserwriter, this is kind of a pain. (The copyprotection scheme locks the disk so it can only be used with a single laserwriter.) You can install DMCS on a hard disk, but it will re-boot if it discovers a debugger (like MacsBug) present. You can save phrases in the scrapbook now (as I remember.) The manual describes a voice editor.
chow@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Christopher Chow) (04/16/87)
In article <566@entropy.ms.washington.edu> peter@entropy.ms.washington.edu (Peter Guttorp) writes: >I keep seeing the Deluxe Music Construction Set version 2.0 advertised. >Being a registered owner, I had expected to see an upgrade notice. DMCS 2.0 has been out for quite some time. Electronic Arts is pretty bad at sending upgrade notices...the one I received was part of a generic Electronic Arts mailing. You basicly have to send in the front cover of your version 1.0 manual along with an upgrade fee (I think $50, but I forget). >For those of you who have got it (if it is out), has it fixed any of the >two major annoyances (to me) with earlier versions: > > No ritardando or other smooth tempo change Not that I'm aware of, but then I don't use DMCS for playback. (I use it with Opcode's sequencer to make transcriptions) > No graceful way of ending a manuscript DMCS 2.0 has the Adobe Sonata font (scrren version) built it. The last measure in your composition has the double-bar on the end. Like the old DMCS, a bar appears after that one, but if it has nothing it won't be printed. >I would be grateful for facts or opinions by mail or through news. Version 2.0 is a vast improvement from 1.0. The Sonata font make a big difference in the program's appearence. I always thought DMCS 1.0 scores looked pretty non-musical - not true with 2.0 though. 2.0 still dosen't have all the features Prof. Comp has, but if you can live with its subset it is much faster. MIDI input is nice, but it is seriously buggy. (Try entering chords instead of single notes in midi input mode...) << flame on >> Copy protection is pretty obnoxious. As you recall, version 1.0 had a pretty stupid CP in that it caused the Mac to bomb if the master disk wasn't the internal drive upon startup. That was no problem because MacBackup will remove the CP automaticly and the program behaved fine afterwards. Well 2.0 isn't stupid - it'll ask for the master disk. You can install I believe 2 copies onto your hard disk. Unfortunately, it also uses the same CP that Opcode and Digidesign uses. I.e., it disables the microdebugger upon entry and dosen't restore it; it resets the Mac if you have any debugger loaded; it uses encrypted CODE resources so that even if you have it on a hard disk it takes a long time to load because its too busy translating the CODE resources as it reads it into memory... << flame off >> BTW, does anyone know if Electronic Arts ever made any updates to 2.0 (especially to fix the midi input problems...) Christopher Chow /---------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Internet: chow@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (128.84.253.35) | | Usenet: ...{uw-beaver|ihnp4|decvax|vax135}!cornell!batcomputer!chow | | Bitnet: chow@crnlthry.bitnet | | Phone: 1-607-253-6699, USPS: 7122 N Campus 7, Ithaca, NY 14853 | | Delphi: chow2 PAN: chow | \---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
naftoli@aecom.UUCP (04/22/87)
In article <714@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, chow@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Christopher Chow) writes: > MIDI input is nice, but it is seriously buggy. > (Try entering chords instead of single notes in midi input mode...) I don't have the program, but if you mean that chords come out slanted instead of straight down the staff the answer is simple. MIDI is not a parallel interface -- it is serial. Therefore, each note-on/note-off must come through one at a time even if you play chords. What most programs do is quantize the notes. This lines everything up although I'm sure it could make mistakes. I'd be surprised if DMCS doesn't have such a feature. -- Robert N. Berlinger Supervisor of Systems Support Compuserve: 73047,741 Albert Einstein College of Medicine Easylink: 62956067 UUCP: ...{philabs,cucard,pegasus,rocky2}!aecom!naftoli GEnie: R.Berlinger
chow@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Christopher Chow) (04/24/87)
In article <1035@aecom.yu.edu> naftoli@aecom.yu.edu (Robert N. Berlinger) writes: >In article <714@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, chow@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Christopher Chow) writes: >> MIDI input is nice, but it is seriously buggy. >> (Try entering chords instead of single notes in midi input mode...) > >I don't have the program, but if you mean that chords come out slanted >instead of straight down the staff the answer is simple. MIDI is not a >parallel interface -- it is serial. Therefore, each note-on/note-off must >come through one at a time even if you play chords. > >Robert N. Berlinger I'm aware that MIDI is a serial protocol. Perhaps I should be clarify things. In DMCS normally what you do is to select a short note, say an 8th note. Then if you hold down a note and release it, DMCS will insert an 8th note in the score. If you wanted a longer note instead, keep holding it down and it'll increment to the next value. I.e. the 8th -> 8th w/ dot -> 4th -> 4th w/ dot, ... until the measure is filled up. That works fine for one note at a time input. Now say you play a chord, like a G major triad on the octave of middle C. What can happen is that after you release the chord the notes in the chord continue to increment in length until you end up with a chord which fills up the bar. This happens even if you only quickly hit the chord. Christopher Chow /---------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Internet: chow@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (128.84.253.35) | | Usenet: ...{uw-beaver|ihnp4|decvax|vax135}!cornell!batcomputer!chow | | Bitnet: chow@crnlthry.bitnet | | Phone: 1-607-253-6699, USPS: 7122 N Campus 7, Ithaca, NY 14853 | | Delphi: chow2 PAN: chow | \---------------------------------------------------------------------------/