Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!cory.Berkeley.EDU!piaw From: piaw@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Na Choon Piaw) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: AmiExpo report (1 day only) && stuff Keywords: AmiExpo, AMAS, A.M.A.S. Message-ID: <18679@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> Date: 23 Oct 89 02:04:48 GMT Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU Reply-To: piaw@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Na Choon Piaw) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 104 Well, I got back from AmiExpo. I was there only Saturday (21st) and left this morning in spite of having bought a 2-day ticket because I had homework... :-( Here's my report... The turnout was fairly good, considering the Earthquake and all that. The first thing I saw as I approached the pre-registration counter was the T-shirt "I made it to AmiExpo, California, Santa Clara", in letters that were breaking and shaking up (for obvious reason) It was funny and appropriate. Once I got in, the first booth I saw was NewTek's. They were demoing the video toaster (to be released early next year, price is $1599), and version 4.0 (software upgrade) of DigiView gold. The video toaster was *very* interesting. They hooked up a camera to it, and had the toaster performing a shrink of the picture and spiralled the picture around leaving a trail behind it. IN REAL TIME. I stood in front of the camera, and waved as the spiral started, and all the trails of my hand waved as I was doing so. Seeing that toaster was worth the price of admission alone. (My broadcast engineer friend, Robert Gutierrez said that he wanted one.... :-) ) DigiView Gold 4.0 was to incoorporate New-Tek's new "Hi-Res 4096" mode. Apparently, they managed to stretch the Amiga's hardware to do that. The demo reel that they had looked incredible (as good as a MAC II in terms of resolution, sez one of the people there). I couldn't get the technical specs (or the file format) but was told by NewTek's people that the displayer for that format will be PD-distributed by them. This 4.0 is shipping first week of November. Price: $199. Hi-Res 4096 can be edited by Digi-Paint 3.0 in "super-bitmap" mode. I also saw the transputer (housed in a Tower (YECH) case), and it looked good. It can handle 16.7 million colors, and all of them on display at once. (Not true, since you don't have 16 million pixels on screen) I picked up a copy of their brochure and I can type it in if there are enough people who wants the specs. The catch: $5500 for the graphics board, and $6000 for the transputer. Cheaper than a Mac, I supposed... Talked to Lattice, and they said that they've already shipped 5.04, but the Bay Area will not be getting it as soon since the Postal Service is still uh.. a little slow in reponse. Price: $0.00 if you already bought it. My friends bought Lattice 5.04 direct from them at the booth at $150 with educational discount (good work, PT and CT!!). Another interesting thing was distant suns (remember that names competition??), which told me that they were supposed to have the product at the booth, but the manual was at a printer during the earthquake... Price: I forgot, but they had a $20 discount for people at the Expo. Saw "Shadow of the beast". It knocked my eye-balls off, as my brother said... Anyone wants to sell their copy can contact me, though I'd like to know if it'll work with expanded memory and a 2000HD first. (I know ALL 'bout Psychnosis games --- even my arcade happy brothers don't like them.) Various dealers were there, as was WordPerfect with their M&M classes :-). Of the seminars there, I only attended one about Amiga Graphics. It was fascinating, with Rick Park (an Amiga artist) giving a great discussion about DeluxePaint III. It was amazing --- this guy actually paints pixel-by-pixel (Ok, I know that it's possible, but didn't realize how hard it was, til this guy demonstrated some of the effects... Anyone got any of his pictures that he could mail me??). Well, that was about it... All in all, I'm glad I went, but I think it would have been much more crowded and exciting w/o the Earthquake.. Oh yes, I heard Jay Miner's name paged while I was there.. Did anyone here on USENET get to meet him there?? I wish I could have... On to other stuff: I just bought A.M.A.S. (at AmiExpo), and I'm having trouble with the software --- it only samples 200K banks at a time. Questions: 1) I've got 8 banks lit up with a decimal point -- why can't I access anything except "B" bank? (I've got 3 meg on an A2000HD) I can copy fine, but not switch banks.. 2) What's the latest version of the software? I have 1.1. 3) Is there anyway I can get it to cascade the recording automatically (from B to 1, 1 to 2, and so on..) I want to digitize long tracks. 4) Is it advisable for me to get another sampling software package? I've heard good things about Audio Master, but I'm wary about spending more money... 5) What sources can I look up for programming my own audio sampler software? If no commercial product exists that meets my needs, I'll just have to roll my own --- and figure out the IFF format, and stuff like that. 6) AMAS claims a hardware potential of digitizing at 90kHz (mono) and 40kHz (stereo). Is there any possibility of writing software that can take advantage of that potential? Does it exist? Is it PD? Can anyone mail it to me? Does it work with AMAS? (most important..) 7) Can anyone send me that 8svx IFF specs? Well, no, can someone send me all the IFF specs ('cept ILBM). 8) The SAVE and LOAD options don't seem to work. Why? 9) What is MicroDeal's phone? I want to call them and flame them for the software.. I can't believe this is the same package reviewed as "a winning package" by AmigaWorld. Thanks to all for replies received. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Na Choon Piaw P.O Box, 4067, Berkeley, CA 94704-0067 piaw@cory.berkeley.edu Disclaimer: I'm speaking only for myself! piaw@ocf.berkeley.edu "Still on honeymoon with his Amiga...." -------------------------------------------------------------------------