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From: C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU (Baird McIntosh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.audio
Subject: Re: MED 3.00 Review
Message-ID: <910323.001209.CST.C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU>
Date: 23 Mar 91 06:12:09 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Synthy EuroTechnoWack Beat, Inc.
Lines: 55

That was a fairly comprehensive review.  Well done!  If I were to expand on
the feature list I would say this about MED 3.00:

1.  Hold/Decay commands look very powerful for creating expressive music
    with precise note durations.  This is also good for simulating different
    playing styles like legato and staccato.  Also, good substitute for
    what was previously done with volume slides (command 'C' and/or 'D').

2.  Synth sounds are pretty simple yet very flexible.  They sound mainly
    C-64ish (but I like C-64 sound).  Now if someone could duplicate the
    Analog synths from Sonix (wow)...

3.  Well organized interface.  Virtually bugless; for the average user there
    are no GURUs and multitasking is the normal, clean Amiga way. (by this
    I mean there are front/back gadgets and Amiga-M/N work as well)

4.  Has new note-activated play/record.  That is, you set this playback type
    and then the song starts when you enter the next note.  This is good for
    improvising and playing along where you want to record on the first beat.

There are many more great features, but you're tired of the good points,
right?  What would be nice for MED in the future?

1!  It would be neat if MED saved the half-step transpose figure as well as
    the hold/decay defaults for an instrument in the Sample List (as is
    already done with the loop points).

2!  If it is feasible, a medium-resolution screen would offer more room for
    menus, filenames, and editting (because of 80 columns).  Currently,
    MED uses a lo-res screen (as do most Trackers, I believe).

3!  This is a major compatibility issue, but I always thought it'd be neat
    if you could address separate tracks in the play list.  There might be
    four separate track-play lists (one per Amiga voice) instead of the
    the current block-oriented play list.  This would be more like a
    MIDI sequencing package, I guess.  Probably difficult to implement at
    this point.

4!  The graphic equalizer (or whatever it's called) E1 in the Play menu--
    do all of those 'bands' ever light up?  I think that this display is
    too wide (too many bands) as only the left-most 5 or 6 bands ever move.
    I don't use that display much, though.

5!  Finally, here's an easier one:  make the MEDPlayer controllable
    via the Shell and/or ARexx.  Allow me to load a song into memory,
    then do something else (start an animation or display a picture),
    then send MEDPlayer the 'play' command and it starts the song.
    The buttons for Load, Play/Stop, and Cont are on the MEDPlayer's
    window; I just want to control those functions via scripts.  Finally,
    add a file requestor and the ability to play MED songs (using the
    MED_Paths file in current directory or s: ).

| Baird McIntosh | c503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu <-or-> c503719@umcvmb.bitnet |
|        "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."             |
|        "Let's go!"              LEMMINGS             "Oh no!"             |