ceej@itsgw.rpi.edu (Chris J Hillery) (03/23/91)
Since I've so determinedly defended Med in its previous incarnations, I felt
rather impelled to expound upon the latest version.
So, to sum: Fabulous, beautiful, better than I expected, etc.
OK, so I'm a fanatic. So sue me. It IS a good program.
First, a few smallish bad points:
1. SIZE. 205k is a tad large for smaller Amigas. Fortunately Chip mem use
is not too great.
2. I've also had a transient problem running MED with a terminal, wherein
the terminal lost a few characters. It's only happened once thus far, so
I don't know how serious it is.
3. Bugs. A few small ones, anyway. One neato crash so far that I simply
have no explaination for, and a few odd burps that went away.
4. The included player is still pretty lousy (although it IS bug-free, so
far as I've seen, more than any NT-mod player I've seen). Hopefully some
third party will come out with a better version (can't be TOO hard since
load and play routines are included in libraries; heck, I may give it a
swing myself...).
Anyway, enough of that... on to the GOOD stuff:
1. Synth sounds! These are neat. Imagine a small programming language
dedicated to manipulating small chunks of sound at a very low level, giving
you very fine control over exactly what is produced. This form, applied to
one to sixty-four 128-byte mini-samples (for which there is a nifty little
editor), can produce many interesting effects including a lot of C64 type
sounds (I've been told this method is similar to the C64 SID's programming).
These instruments have the advantage of very small size (around 1/2k for most).
The language can also be applied to regular sampled sounds, allowing for
complex enveloping and other effects. Overall with MED 3.0, I see much more
attention paid to very precise details of the sound, such as in the speed
settings (see below).
2. Sample editor! And a very nice one. People have said that it doesn't
give Audio Master anything to worry about, but for most needs of sample-
editing it actually does things somewhat better than Audio Master. To wit:
range selection. Why doesn't Audio Master let me select an exact range? I
have to guess from the screen, or go to full-zoom mode and then drag around
(very slow). MED, at last, offers an editor which, among other things, lets
you input numbers directly for perfect fine adjustments. (I realize some
other editors also do this, but it's still a VERY useful feature.) Also, a
very nice touch: by holding the Shift key one can adjust just one end of the
range with the mouse. This is oodles better than Audio Master, where one
click totally elimiates the range you just set; so if you are painstakingly
moving from one end to the other and miss or drop the mouse, you must start
over. Anyway. Med also allows you to assign the sample's loop points to the
range, so you have this fine control over looping as well.
Special effects are also available: transpose, echo, mix, ramp, etc. And
they are lightning fast compared to Audio Master. I don't know why this is;
maybe MED takes a few short cuts in the computations that may compromise sam-
ple integrity, but I certainly haven't noticed any loss of quality.
I'm not going to say that this editor is better than Audio Master 'cause
people will start looking at me funny, but for basic sample needs it is much
easier, and it is right there in the program. It certainly is full-featured
enough for all my uses and less aggravating. (I can't comment on the digitizer
as I haven't tried it yet, but it doesn't, unfortunately but expectedly, work
with Perfect Sound 3.0. This is due to PS3.0's hardware doing its gain in
software rather than hardware, and MED doesn't support the needed signals. (I
personally think that it's a bad move on SunRize's part, since it makes PS3.0
incompatible with many other pieces of software too.))
3. New speed method. There are now two speed settings and corresponding
commands; one is the same as before, going from 16-240, and sets the speed
with which the CIAB timer produces timing pulses (if I understand the docs
right). The other, going from 1-32, sets the number of pulses which pass
between notes. The point of this is: That is the way NoiseTracker sets its
tempos. So, we now have perfect NoiseTracker emulation, at least in speed;
set the main speed to 33 and let the NT-mod change the secondary speed, and
you'll have the exact speed of NT. (Note: I've discovered that this is in
fact the PAL speed setting. On an NTSC machine, playing NTSC songs, this
should instead be set to 38. For those of you familiar with Module Master,
33 is the equivilant to clicking the PAL button, 38 without setting it.)
For 'normal' (ie, non-NT) songs, this will normally be set to 6 and the tempo
adjusted with the main adjust. (Further note: MED will automatically convert
NT-mod tempo settings to the secondary control on loading, and set the main
tempo to 33.)
4. New Sample-list requestor. Now it goes on the bottom part of the screen
where the note-display or synth or sample editors go, so it's MUCH larger and
easier to use.
5. Many, many other new features, most small but nice: one can add comments
to songs; one can select whether the note between A and C is a 'B' or an 'H'
(finally!); one can set the auto-advance when entering notes to go right (or
left, actually) instead of down on command-numbers, _very_ nice for entering
songs; one can close the workbench screen for more chip mem; the file reques-
tor, while still small, has options for selecting from assigns, devices or
files and no longer makes you wait until it's finished reading a directory;
there's a new sideways scrolling note display; ranges for cutting, pasting
etc. can be selecting by click-dragging the mouse (!); Shift-#key note/command
entries can now be ranges of data instead of just one line; one can enter
chords by holding down all the notes desired, the notes will go in left-to-
right on whatever tracks you select; auto-spacing is now definable, not just
jumping by twos; the number pad can control either instrument or (de)select
tracks; tracks can also be (de)selected by just clicking on them with the
mouse; most of the gadgets (such as the panel-selecters) are somewhat larger
now; some new MIDI features I don't really know about; a song timer in the
corner of the screen; and on and on and on...
I guess you could say I'm impressed. Even with a few bugs (which I'm sure will
be cleaned up soon enough), it's the best Tracker of its kind I've seen; so
many features to use! People will still complain about some NoiseTracker-
modules not loading correctly, but in most cases I'm pretty sure its the module
at fault and not MED; and at any rate, MED isn't _supposed_ to be a Noise-
Tracker module player (although it comes pretty darned close now!), but is in
fact a step beyond them all. I'm STILL amazed (even more so now) that this is
freeware. Give it a shot, and happy Tracking!
Enjoy!
Ceej
aka Chris Hillery
ceej@rpi.edu
MED 3.00 is available for anonymous FTP from ab20.larc.nasa.gov.
Path: incoming/amiga/MUSIC/MED30.lzhC503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU (Baird McIntosh) (03/23/91)
That was a fairly comprehensive review. Well done! If I were to expand on
the feature list I would say this about MED 3.00:
1. Hold/Decay commands look very powerful for creating expressive music
with precise note durations. This is also good for simulating different
playing styles like legato and staccato. Also, good substitute for
what was previously done with volume slides (command 'C' and/or 'D').
2. Synth sounds are pretty simple yet very flexible. They sound mainly
C-64ish (but I like C-64 sound). Now if someone could duplicate the
Analog synths from Sonix (wow)...
3. Well organized interface. Virtually bugless; for the average user there
are no GURUs and multitasking is the normal, clean Amiga way. (by this
I mean there are front/back gadgets and Amiga-M/N work as well)
4. Has new note-activated play/record. That is, you set this playback type
and then the song starts when you enter the next note. This is good for
improvising and playing along where you want to record on the first beat.
There are many more great features, but you're tired of the good points,
right? What would be nice for MED in the future?
1! It would be neat if MED saved the half-step transpose figure as well as
the hold/decay defaults for an instrument in the Sample List (as is
already done with the loop points).
2! If it is feasible, a medium-resolution screen would offer more room for
menus, filenames, and editting (because of 80 columns). Currently,
MED uses a lo-res screen (as do most Trackers, I believe).
3! This is a major compatibility issue, but I always thought it'd be neat
if you could address separate tracks in the play list. There might be
four separate track-play lists (one per Amiga voice) instead of the
the current block-oriented play list. This would be more like a
MIDI sequencing package, I guess. Probably difficult to implement at
this point.
4! The graphic equalizer (or whatever it's called) E1 in the Play menu--
do all of those 'bands' ever light up? I think that this display is
too wide (too many bands) as only the left-most 5 or 6 bands ever move.
I don't use that display much, though.
5! Finally, here's an easier one: make the MEDPlayer controllable
via the Shell and/or ARexx. Allow me to load a song into memory,
then do something else (start an animation or display a picture),
then send MEDPlayer the 'play' command and it starts the song.
The buttons for Load, Play/Stop, and Cont are on the MEDPlayer's
window; I just want to control those functions via scripts. Finally,
add a file requestor and the ability to play MED songs (using the
MED_Paths file in current directory or s: ).
| Baird McIntosh | c503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu <-or-> c503719@umcvmb.bitnet |
| "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." |
| "Let's go!" LEMMINGS "Oh no!" |ceej@itsgw.rpi.edu (Chris J Hillery) (03/25/91)
C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU (Baird McIntosh) writes: >That was a fairly comprehensive review. Well done! Why thank you. (= If I were to expand on >the feature list I would say this about MED 3.00: >1. Hold/Decay commands look very powerful for creating expressive music > with precise note durations. This is also good for simulating different > playing styles like legato and staccato. Also, good substitute for > what was previously done with volume slides (command 'C' and/or 'D'). Yes, very true... I kinda forgot to go back and stick those in about half- way down. I'm sure these will become more useful as I learn how to use 'em... >4. Has new note-activated play/record. That is, you set this playback type > and then the song starts when you enter the next note. This is good for > improvising and playing along where you want to record on the first beat. That too. Also Teijo claimed that the real-time recording was improved, which is good as it didn't use to be very accurate at all. Haven't tried 3.0 on that yet. >There are many more great features, but you're tired of the good points, >right? What would be nice for MED in the future? >1! It would be neat if MED saved the half-step transpose figure as well as > the hold/decay defaults for an instrument in the Sample List (as is > already done with the loop points). Agreed, maybe... certainly if this were optional, as you may or may not want the same transpose for all songs. Although, it's none too hard to change, either way... (= This is related to the one major feature I _didn't_ see in 3.0 that I'd like, though; a fine-tune transpose, at least for the whole song if not individual tracks/blocks (useless, really) or instruments (well..). This can be kludged now by changing the 'tune' of all the instruments with the sample editor, but this obviously isn't the best way; besides, that's no good for real-time tuning in live performance. (Which I DO intend to try, someday...) >2! If it is feasible, a medium-resolution screen would offer more room for > menus, filenames, and editting (because of 80 columns). Currently, > MED uses a lo-res screen (as do most Trackers, I believe). Hm. Problem is, it would use twice as much precious Chip-mem. That would cut out some of my larger creations... at least till I get a 1Meg Agnus... >3! This is a major compatibility issue, but I always thought it'd be neat > if you could address separate tracks in the play list. There might be > four separate track-play lists (one per Amiga voice) instead of the > the current block-oriented play list. This would be more like a > MIDI sequencing package, I guess. Probably difficult to implement at > this point. Very interesting idea! I've thought that an editor with similar features would be a nice thing, and that's probably the best way to do it... although, on the other knee, the only real advantage is minor time saved in editting and a some- what smaller song (could be a real space-saver if you have a boring drum line, but... =) >4! The graphic equalizer (or whatever it's called) E1 in the Play menu-- > do all of those 'bands' ever light up? I think that this display is > too wide (too many bands) as only the left-most 5 or 6 bands ever move. > I don't use that display much, though. These bars go up and down when an particular instrument is used, so no, they'll never all go off since there's 64 instruments and only 16 tracks. It's useful for debugging (finding un-used instruments, say), but not much more really.. >5! Finally, here's an easier one: make the MEDPlayer controllable > via the Shell and/or ARexx. Allow me to load a song into memory, > then do something else (start an animation or display a picture), > then send MEDPlayer the 'play' command and it starts the song. > The buttons for Load, Play/Stop, and Cont are on the MEDPlayer's > window; I just want to control those functions via scripts. Finally, > add a file requestor and the ability to play MED songs (using the > MED_Paths file in current directory or s: ). Also a nice idea... maybe when Mr. SuperUser (or anyone) makes us a really good Med module (and song, please!) player that'll be included.. >| Baird McIntosh | c503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu <-or-> c503719@umcvmb.bitnet | >| "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." | >| "Let's go!" LEMMINGS "Oh no!" | Enjoy! Ceej aka Chris Hillery ceej@rpi.edu