Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!nosc!dog.ee.lbl.gov!lbl.gov!jnmoyne
From: jnmoyne@lbl.gov (Jean-Noel MOYNE)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: a new music standard
Message-ID: <7894@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 5 Nov 90 23:25:19 GMT
Sender: usenet@dog.ee.lbl.gov
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
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X-Local-Date: Mon, 5 Nov 90 15:25:19 PST
References:<35126@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <558@cbmger.UUCP> <183@cbmcel.UUCP>


    I couldn't agree more on the need for a new IFF music file format. The 
current SMUS format is a mistake. Let's face it, nearly nobody uses it. ST 
has had such a succes because it came with the source code for the song 
player, this song player was 2k long, very fast (in front of any SMUS 
player), and very easy to use from a programmer's point of vue. 
Programmers are not musicians usually, and they had the choice: either try 
to write your own SMUS player (long process, it's gonna be long and 
difficult to do, lots of bugs comming, hard to do in asm, will take a lot 
of CPU time), or you use ST (nothing to write, you have an asm code 
allready here, it's fast, etc ...).

     So, since programmers needing a music for their programs are game and 
demo programmers, and what they need is a fast song player, the fact that 
you call the routine every VBL int is very cool too (since for all these 
programs doing animations, everything is tied to the VBL int.).

     So nobody never really used the SMUS, because it's too complicated, 
programmers are lazy etc ... (whatever .. (-:). ST is really like an 8 
bits program, but you can easilly put the different parts of it's file 
format in an IFF form, IFF is really nice for the fact you can create all 
the chunks you want. The instruments in the ST file format are merely a 
dump of the waveform, with a name, a length, and a number. The body of the 
songs is a suite of patterns, so you create a chunk pattern (the pattern 
number, and the pattern itselfs) all the patterns have the same size, and 
here you are. You may need a couple of other chunks, but the less the 
better. Then you take your good old ST player, and just modify the loader.

     By the way, it should be a great idea to use 8SVX to store the 
waveforms instead of the dumm 'dump' used by ST (remember the problems 
with the first versions of ST that couldn't load IFF samples).

    At the same time, I think we need this RSMS IFF form (Real Simple 
Music Score (-:), and a RESM IFF form (Really Evoluated Music Score). 
Because ST doesn't use much of the sound possibilities of the Amiga. ST 
uses only simple samples, the way it stores and allows you to enter the 
score is kinda 'rude'. SONIX is giving a much better idea of what a music 
program should be. Especially the instruments you can create yourself, 
with an Enveloppe Generator (a real one), playing with filters, LFO's etc 
... The Amiga synth is really a very poor synth for that (no enveloppe 
generator (or follower), no funny things like ring modulation, LFO, etc 
... it's 'do it yourself') it is a FM synth however ... but nobody was 
ever able to produce an interesting sound using the FM in a program.

     I don't know if it would be a wise idea to have 2 different IFF 
formats. But we definitely need a Real Simple Music Score format. Then if 
some program appears that uses really more of the internal musical 
possibilities of the amiga (I don't belive too much in that however (-:), 
this program should define an Evoluated format.

         JNM

--
These are my own ideas (not LBL's)
" Just make it!", BO in 'BO knows Unix'