sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (scott sutherland) (10/28/89)
I just started reading this group about 3 weeks ago. I have noticed that it doesn't get much "traffic", and also that the many of the articles concern MIDI. I was curious as to the interests of the people who read this group and who submit articles. My particular interest, for those who would like to know, is that I have an Amiga personal computer, and music is one of the things it does well. My second question IS NOT INTENDED TO START A "MY-COMPUTER-IS- BETTER-THAN-YOURS" war. I am really curious. I would like to know the opinion of people involved in computer music concerning the relative merits and flaws of the Atari, Amiga, Mac, Mac II, and IBM computers and their capabilities in computer music. This includes the quality of the hardware, cost of additional hardware (if needed), quality of the software, and general opinions. I thumbed through a computer music magazine and noticed that much of the software listed was for the ST and the MAC. I am not surprised at the amount of ST MIDI and music software, as it has a built in MIDI port and has quite good sound capabilities (at least from what I've read). But the MAC surprised me. I have played around with the MAC, and while it has its strong points (great Desktop Publishing software), I was not impressed with the audio. Do people using the MAC for computer music, synthesis, and MIDI buy an add on of some sort? I also noticed quite a bit of software for the IBM computers. Again I was surprised. I do know that there is a saturation of IBM and compatible computers on the market, but mostly in businesses and schools. I was not aware of the IBM's impact in computer music. I did see an add-on synthesis board for the IBM (~$400 I think) that had some really nice features, but I was not aware that people were choosing this option instead of going with computers designed with computer music in mind (specifically Atari ST and Amiga, and now the NeXT). PLEASE EMAIL ANY RESPONSES TO ME. Thanks, Scott Sutherland sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu