Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!ceej From: ceej@itsgw.rpi.edu (Chris J Hillery) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.audio Subject: MED 3.00 Review Summary: Glowing review of MED 3.00. Keywords: med 3.0 review tracker music editor etc. Message-ID: <42{=LY@rpi.edu> Date: 23 Mar 91 04:06:02 GMT Lines: 129 Nntp-Posting-Host: jec409.its.rpi.edu Since I've so determinedly defended Med in its previous incarnations, I felt rather impelled to expound upon the latest version. So, to sum: Fabulous, beautiful, better than I expected, etc. OK, so I'm a fanatic. So sue me. It IS a good program. First, a few smallish bad points: 1. SIZE. 205k is a tad large for smaller Amigas. Fortunately Chip mem use is not too great. 2. I've also had a transient problem running MED with a terminal, wherein the terminal lost a few characters. It's only happened once thus far, so I don't know how serious it is. 3. Bugs. A few small ones, anyway. One neato crash so far that I simply have no explaination for, and a few odd burps that went away. 4. The included player is still pretty lousy (although it IS bug-free, so far as I've seen, more than any NT-mod player I've seen). Hopefully some third party will come out with a better version (can't be TOO hard since load and play routines are included in libraries; heck, I may give it a swing myself...). Anyway, enough of that... on to the GOOD stuff: 1. Synth sounds! These are neat. Imagine a small programming language dedicated to manipulating small chunks of sound at a very low level, giving you very fine control over exactly what is produced. This form, applied to one to sixty-four 128-byte mini-samples (for which there is a nifty little editor), can produce many interesting effects including a lot of C64 type sounds (I've been told this method is similar to the C64 SID's programming). These instruments have the advantage of very small size (around 1/2k for most). The language can also be applied to regular sampled sounds, allowing for complex enveloping and other effects. Overall with MED 3.0, I see much more attention paid to very precise details of the sound, such as in the speed settings (see below). 2. Sample editor! And a very nice one. People have said that it doesn't give Audio Master anything to worry about, but for most needs of sample- editing it actually does things somewhat better than Audio Master. To wit: range selection. Why doesn't Audio Master let me select an exact range? I have to guess from the screen, or go to full-zoom mode and then drag around (very slow). MED, at last, offers an editor which, among other things, lets you input numbers directly for perfect fine adjustments. (I realize some other editors also do this, but it's still a VERY useful feature.) Also, a very nice touch: by holding the Shift key one can adjust just one end of the range with the mouse. This is oodles better than Audio Master, where one click totally elimiates the range you just set; so if you are painstakingly moving from one end to the other and miss or drop the mouse, you must start over. Anyway. Med also allows you to assign the sample's loop points to the range, so you have this fine control over looping as well. Special effects are also available: transpose, echo, mix, ramp, etc. And they are lightning fast compared to Audio Master. I don't know why this is; maybe MED takes a few short cuts in the computations that may compromise sam- ple integrity, but I certainly haven't noticed any loss of quality. I'm not going to say that this editor is better than Audio Master 'cause people will start looking at me funny, but for basic sample needs it is much easier, and it is right there in the program. It certainly is full-featured enough for all my uses and less aggravating. (I can't comment on the digitizer as I haven't tried it yet, but it doesn't, unfortunately but expectedly, work with Perfect Sound 3.0. This is due to PS3.0's hardware doing its gain in software rather than hardware, and MED doesn't support the needed signals. (I personally think that it's a bad move on SunRize's part, since it makes PS3.0 incompatible with many other pieces of software too.)) 3. New speed method. There are now two speed settings and corresponding commands; one is the same as before, going from 16-240, and sets the speed with which the CIAB timer produces timing pulses (if I understand the docs right). The other, going from 1-32, sets the number of pulses which pass between notes. The point of this is: That is the way NoiseTracker sets its tempos. So, we now have perfect NoiseTracker emulation, at least in speed; set the main speed to 33 and let the NT-mod change the secondary speed, and you'll have the exact speed of NT. (Note: I've discovered that this is in fact the PAL speed setting. On an NTSC machine, playing NTSC songs, this should instead be set to 38. For those of you familiar with Module Master, 33 is the equivilant to clicking the PAL button, 38 without setting it.) For 'normal' (ie, non-NT) songs, this will normally be set to 6 and the tempo adjusted with the main adjust. (Further note: MED will automatically convert NT-mod tempo settings to the secondary control on loading, and set the main tempo to 33.) 4. New Sample-list requestor. Now it goes on the bottom part of the screen where the note-display or synth or sample editors go, so it's MUCH larger and easier to use. 5. Many, many other new features, most small but nice: one can add comments to songs; one can select whether the note between A and C is a 'B' or an 'H' (finally!); one can set the auto-advance when entering notes to go right (or left, actually) instead of down on command-numbers, _very_ nice for entering songs; one can close the workbench screen for more chip mem; the file reques- tor, while still small, has options for selecting from assigns, devices or files and no longer makes you wait until it's finished reading a directory; there's a new sideways scrolling note display; ranges for cutting, pasting etc. can be selecting by click-dragging the mouse (!); Shift-#key note/command entries can now be ranges of data instead of just one line; one can enter chords by holding down all the notes desired, the notes will go in left-to- right on whatever tracks you select; auto-spacing is now definable, not just jumping by twos; the number pad can control either instrument or (de)select tracks; tracks can also be (de)selected by just clicking on them with the mouse; most of the gadgets (such as the panel-selecters) are somewhat larger now; some new MIDI features I don't really know about; a song timer in the corner of the screen; and on and on and on... I guess you could say I'm impressed. Even with a few bugs (which I'm sure will be cleaned up soon enough), it's the best Tracker of its kind I've seen; so many features to use! People will still complain about some NoiseTracker- modules not loading correctly, but in most cases I'm pretty sure its the module at fault and not MED; and at any rate, MED isn't _supposed_ to be a Noise- Tracker module player (although it comes pretty darned close now!), but is in fact a step beyond them all. I'm STILL amazed (even more so now) that this is freeware. Give it a shot, and happy Tracking! Enjoy! Ceej aka Chris Hillery ceej@rpi.edu MED 3.00 is available for anonymous FTP from ab20.larc.nasa.gov. Path: incoming/amiga/MUSIC/MED30.lzh