Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!amdcad!sun!swap!page
From: page%swap@Sun.COM (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: MIDI advice sought.
Message-ID: <126811@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 25 Oct 89 18:10:56 GMT
References: <482@wrgate.WR.TEK.COM> <2933@qiclab.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: page@sun.UUCP (Bob Page)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 60

baer@qiclab.UUCP (Ken Baer) wrote:
>My experiences are with Amiga, but the Atari seems to have more MIDI 
>software.  

That was certainly true up until about 6 months ago.  At this point I'd
say it's about even.  Many of the major packages (all the stuff from
Dr.T's, Intelligent Music, Passport and more) run on both platforms.  In
addition, the Amiga has Music-X and HMSL, both are real pluses for the
Amiga.  On the other hand, the ST has the Steinberger (sp?) package,
which I understand is a real feather in Atari's cap.  The Amiga also has
Soundscape, which may or may not be an advantage depending on your
viewpoint.

[At AmiExpo last weekend, A rep from Dr.T's told me they used to develop
on the ST and port it to the Amiga.  Now they develop on the Amiga and
port to the ST. (Who knows, maybe at the Atari show they say the
opposite). They had a beta version of KCS 3.0 running; it looked prety
sharp but I didn't pay a lot of attention to it because I have enough
musical software to keep my interest.]

The Amiga has a lot of commercially available audio digitizers and some
great sound editing packages (like AudioMaster II).  And of course the
stereo sound quality of the Amiga is very appealing.  None of this
relates to MIDI per se, but you'd be surprised at how much you can get
out of just the Amiga sans MIDI.  And some new packages give you the
best of both worlds.  Take a look at AMAS, which is a combined
digitizer, sound editor and and MIDI interface.  You can play your
samples via your MIDI keyboard.  The software might be right for everyone,
but the point is: the capability is there.

Here's another great example: At AmiExpo, I picked up Synthia Pro from
"The Other Guys".  This package turns your Amiga into a 16-bit synth,
all in software.  You can do additive, subtractive, FM/PM, resynthesis,
and a whole lot of 'esoteric' kinds of synthesis (plucked string, drum,
etc .. granular is not available).  Also in software, you add delay,
chorus, etc.  If you want to learn about synthesis, this is the best way
to do it, on any personal computer.  Once you've generated your sample,
you can edit it with Synthia Pro, AudioMaster II or any of the other
editing packages available.  When it's just the way you like it, you can
have Synthia Pro send this "sample" to your MIDI sampler (DSS-1 or
whatever), and voila, you've synthesized a sample.  So you can generate
and preview samples on your Amiga, then use MIDI to put them on your
sampling keyboard.  Hot stuff.

>I've been reading a number of MIDI related magazines lately, and most of them
>conclude that the Amiga is the best machine for MIDI, but when they list
>available software for the various machines, Amiga comes in dead last.

Around spring you'll see the magazines catch up with all the software
now becoming available for the Amiga.  But you don't have to wait for
the magazines to tell you there's MIDI software for the Amiga, because
there's a whole lot of it available already.

And remember: all these packages I mentioned above (and a lot I haven't
mentioned) all WORK TOGETHER, at the SAME TIME.  You can pick the
sequencer package that's best for you, and the patch editor that's best
for you, run them both, and they don't have to be from the same
manufacturer.  Welcome to multitasking.

..bob