Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!LSUVM.BITNET!$CSD211 From: $CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Stellar 7 re-release Message-ID: <9012151327.AA27327@apple.com> Date: 15 Dec 90 12:58:45 GMT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 82 |From: APPLE //GS - THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST | | |I remember reading somewhere (a Macmag?) a description of the IIgs with the |sentence "...and its unusually sophisticated sound capabilities will be welco |by any music teacher." As of 1990 the only computers with better sound than t |GS BUILT IN are the Next and POSSIBLY the new Atari ST. The sound capabilities |of a stock GS are far superior to ANYTHING on the market. Any IBM has pathetic |sound capabilites from a 4mhz XT up to an i486 PS/2. "But I can connect a |Roland/Yamaha/Casio etc... to my machine that BLOWS AWAY your stinking GS!" |True, you can, but I can connect the same stuff and instantly have parity if |not superiority. You can connect ANY MIDI device to ANY properly equipped |computer and have a computer controlled digital synthesizer. The difference |with the GS is that for no additional cost (or parts) you get this tremendous |sophistication in sound. Then when you do want to spend the $$$ on sound you |don't have to buy a synthesizer in the first place, you can go for amplifiers |, stereo card, mixers, samplers, etc... You, and several others, keep missing the point. I mentioned the Roland LAPC-1 card...Yes, it's on a card and not built in, and yes it does cost $400. Your logic would be correct, if it all things were equal (which they never are). PC's are cheaper than GS's...$500 to $1000 for comparably equipped systems. Can you get a GS with comparable speed to a 16 MHz 386SX, a 40 Mb Hard disk, VGA-level graphics, a Monitor, and software for under $2000...not on this planet. For the money you save, you can easily buy Roland's card, and probably another MIDI Synth for that matter. | The big BIG diffeculty is in programming the damn 5505 chip! I thought |when I bought my GS that I could get great stuff out of Basic. Donkey chips! |Its only asscessible through assembly/machine language which I am only a fair |beginner at yet (though trying hard). As someone pointed out here, the probl |with GS sound is that it has not been fully exploited yet in software, there |no integrated package for sound development available (sort of an Appleworks | r. Despite the ASIF (apple standard instrument format) its still a pain ge i ng |some of these music packages to share instruments let alone songs. (sure you |can do it but it SHOULD be much easier). I can only agree. Whitesel had the right idea in mapping the Ensoniq's registers to the '816s address space. | I still think that the GS can be looked at as 'a synthesizer wrapped |in a computer' and that means unlike many digital midi machines on the market |you can program your own instruments AND your own sequencers AND your own |translator (midi keyboard to notes on a staff) AND anything else you want. Th |'synthesizer' also is expandable 'cause it has six built in slots for various |fun cards. The only synthesizer I can think of that offers ALL these options |standard like the GS is the Fairlight series that routinely go for 10000$+! | So, for music/digital synthesis/no-extra-hardware voice synthesis, I' |stick to the best...the GS! | - Joseph Nowakowski | - nowako09@snybufva | (bitnet) Anything you can do on a GS, you can also do on a PC. A "Synthesizer wrapped in a computer?" I don't think so. There are a lot better synthesizers and a lot cheaper and more powerful computers. Perhaps you just haven't seen the software and hardware available for other computers. Much more is being developed for PCs, Macs, and Ataris (music-wise) than the GS. I can't see this trend reversing. Most music programs largely ignore built in sound capabilities anyway. You want to see a "synthesizer wrapped in a computer?" Look at the old Alpha Syntauri (Mountain Computer Music board set + Proxima keyboard) for the Apple II. Add a Decillonix DX-1, and you have a real synthesizer with capabilities and sound quality that the IIgs would be hard pressed to match. (such systems were available in 1984 through about 1986. The Apple II used to be THE computer for MIDI and music, but that market is long gone.) Look, I like the GS. I'd like to see it upgraded, but that's not going to happen. Apple's brass has given up on the II. The Apple IIgs could do so many things if it had some nagging problems fixed. But Apple Inc. would rather spend time and money on other things. The Apple II just isn't as marketable as the Mac. Strike up a funeral dirge, get some shovels and lets head for the cemetary...there's a burial to attend to. ---------------------------------- | MARK A. ORR | | $CSD211 @ LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU | | @ LSUVM.BITNET | ----------------------------------