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From: miskinis@aisg.enet.dec.com (John Miskinis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: MIDI input problems (C or assembler programming)
Message-ID: <3901@ryn.mro4.dec.com>
Date: 6 Feb 91 04:58:46 GMT
Sender: news@ryn.mro4.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 32


Hi,

	I bought an Atari 1040ST over 2 years ago with the intention of
becoming a MIDI developer.  I'm a full-time Software Engineer, and a
part-time Atari user.  I've been trying to develop a software system
that would record MIDI data *PERFECTLY*.  

	I started out by using a polling loop querying the OS to see if
any MIDI bytes were in the (default) 128 byte buffer.  This worked
somewhat usefully, but aside from the bad nature of polling, I found
that I would lose about 1 byte per 10,000. 

	I hit the books, bought Mark Williams C, and wrote an interrupt
routine that duplicates that the standard MIDI input code, but I write the
bytes to MY buffer, and time-stamp each byte when it comes in.

	This method allows application freedom, as MIDI input will happen in
the background.  BUT I STILL LOSE DATA WHEN I MOVE THE MOUSE, AND VERY
INFREQUENTLY WHEN I DON'T.

	Does anyone know how to get around this?  Someone must, since there
seems to be a lot of sequencing packages available for the ST.  I've noticed
that some of them mess up, but some seem to be VERY stable.

	I use a Roland TR505 for testing, with the tempo cranked up to the
maximum, and a pattern that contains as many drum sounds that I can fit
in on 16th note intervals...

H E L P   N E E D E D   P L E A S E!     T H A N K S   I N    A D V A N C  E

_John_