[comp.sys.m68k] MM/1 Software Suggestions..

Steve@sandv.UUCP (Steve Laisch) (06/11/91)

We'll.. a while back somebody asked what kind of term program that would be
available for the MM/1.. We'll.. if IMS/IDEA really wants to do good inthis
area they shouldlook at Jr. Comm for the Amiga...

Another thing that they should look for the Amiga in terms of Rendering
software is a program called Imagine...

One more thing.. if their looking for games to either mold or port over to
the MM/1 they should look at companies such as Psygnosis & Cinemaware..

.. One thing that i >>>REALLY<<< hate about the MM/1 is though even though it
has dual stereo sound theirs only 2 voices! And not only that their 8 bit but
their is not really any music(note) chip envolved.. so I wouldthink the only
way people could produce sound in this thing is digitize every note/sound in
a synthesizer and put together the required criteria for their
application..(A very tedious thing in its self!).. - Regards..

valentin@public.BTR.COM (Valentin Pepelea) (06/13/91)

In article <96@sandv.UUCP> Steve@sandv.UUCP (Steve Laisch) writes:
>
>We'll.. a while back somebody asked what kind of term program that would be
>available for the MM/1.. We'll.. if IMS/IDEA really wants to do good inthis
>area they shouldlook at Jr. Comm for the Amiga...

>One more thing.. if their looking for games to either mold or port over to
>the MM/1 they should look at companies such as Psygnosis & Cinemaware..

Good idea! They should look at companies that go bankrupt, such as Cinemaware,
or companies that make software upwardly incompatible, such as Psygnosis. Hey,
fewer companies to compete with!

Valentin

-- 
"An operating system without virtual memory      Name:      Valentin Pepelea
 is an operating system without virtue."         Phone:     (408) 985-1700
                                                 Usenet:    mips!btr!valentin
                     - Ancient Inca Proverb      Internet:  valentin@btr.com

jejones@mcrware.UUCP (James Jones) (06/13/91)

In article <96@sandv.UUCP> Steve@sandv.UUCP (Steve Laisch) writes:
>.. One thing that i >>>REALLY<<< hate about the MM/1 is though even though it
>has dual stereo sound theirs only 2 voices! And not only that their 8 bit but
>their is not really any music(note) chip envolved..

True, but I would think that there are enough boxes with sound coming
out one end and MIDI hookups on the other, and that said boxes change and
improve so quickly, that it's just as well that IMS didn't try to put in
a sound generating chip. 

	James Jones
	(not associated with IMS, save that I bought an MM/1)

jimomura@lsuc.on.ca (Jim Omura) (06/18/91)

In article <96@sandv.UUCP> Steve@sandv.UUCP (Steve Laisch) writes:
>
>We'll.. a while back somebody asked what kind of term program that would be
>available for the MM/1.. We'll.. if IMS/IDEA really wants to do good inthis
>area they shouldlook at Jr. Comm for the Amiga...
>
>Another thing that they should look for the Amiga in terms of Rendering
>software is a program called Imagine...
>
>One more thing.. if their looking for games to either mold or port over to
>the MM/1 they should look at companies such as Psygnosis & Cinemaware..
>
>.. One thing that i >>>REALLY<<< hate about the MM/1 is though even though it
>has dual stereo sound theirs only 2 voices! And not only that their 8 bit but
>their is not really any music(note) chip envolved.. so I wouldthink the only
>way people could produce sound in this thing is digitize every note/sound in
>a synthesizer and put together the required criteria for their
>application..(A very tedious thing in its self!).. - Regards..

     Well not really.  The MM/1 hardware is a direct subset of CD-I.
For CD-I one expects "mass digitizing" for sound.  That is to say
First you compose and produce your music as you would any song you'd
want to put out on a CD record, and then you digitize the whole thing.
This may sound like a wasteful idea for traditional "computer music"
people, but it's the "wave of the future."  It's undoubtably why the
Atari STE has only a small handful of fixed D to A speeds for DMA
sound production.



-- 
Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880
lsuc!jimomura
Byte Information eXchange: jimomura

kdarling@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) (06/19/91)

> Another thing that they should look for the Amiga in terms of Rendering
> software is a program called Imagine... [and other programs]

I'll pass those on.  I know they started talking to companies last summer.

> One thing that i >>>REALLY<<< hate about the MM/1 is though even though it
> has dual stereo sound theirs only 2 voices! And not only that their 8 bit
> but their is not really any music(note) chip envolved.. so I would think
> the only way people could produce sound in this thing is digitize every
> note/sound in a synthesizer and put together the required criteria for
> their application..(A very tedious thing in its self!).. - Regards..

There's no need to digitize each note from a synthesizer for the D/A:
just sample one note from several octaves... for all the rest you simply
change the playing frequency.  This same method is used on the Amiga.
And there's also a single-bit tone generator of any frequency you want.

For more voices tho, yes you'd have to do software combination of the
waveform before asking the hardware to play it.  There was a cost issue
also... and I'm glad they chose to include the 24-bit palette instead!

An addition I'd like to have myself, is audio DMA which automatically loops.
And altho there'll be I2C-controlled volume/bass/treble/fade external
boards later on, it'd be nice if those were already built and included.

Something I do like is that the output data doesn't need to share the video
(Chip) RAM... it can come from anywhere in memory.  Plus with the included
input ports, sampling sounds is something almost everyone will be doing.

  cheers - kevin <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>  <CIS: 76703,4227>