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From: bruce@wucfua.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: Macintosh and MIDI recording, Ensoniq Mirage MASOS
Message-ID: <160@wucfua.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Jul-86 18:49:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: wucfua.160
Posted: Tue Jul 22 18:49:55 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Jul-86 04:46:42 EDT
References: <5481@lanl.ARPA>
Reply-To: bruce@wucs.UUCP (Bruce McDiffett)
Distribution: net
Organization: Washington U. in St. Louis
Lines: 34
Keywords: Music MIDI Sampling Sequencers
Summary: Check out Total Music, Performer+Pro Composer, Sound Designer

Hey, line eater!  You talkin' to me?  Oh yeah?  Well, suck on this! 

The two best sequencer programs I've seen for the Mac are Total Music,
from Southworth Music Systems, and Performer, from Mark of the Unicorn.
Both programs are excellent.  But they approach the problem slightly
differently.  Performer is strictly a sequencer/recorder/editor - it
depends on the companion package Professional Composer for transcription.
Total Music performs all four functions.  You'll have to decide for
yourself which approach you prefer.  Total Music doesn't so some things
as well as the team of Performer/Pro Composer, but then again it doesn't
cost as much (Pro Composer lists at $495, Performer at $295, Total Music
at $295).

As far as sound editors for sampling machines (including the Mirage),
the best stuff going right now is Sound Designer, from Digidesign.  This
program is *hot.*  It allows you to do visual waveform editing, digital
mixing, EQ, FFT's, and even limited additive synthesis on the Mac, then
load the sounds back into your sampler.  It can also be used to swap
sounds between different machines - if you have Sound Designer for the
Mirage, and your pal has it for the Prophet 2000, you can exchange
samples, since both programs store sample data in "Sound Designer format."
But each version of the program only knows how to talk to its flavor
of synth, so you need two versions to really swap sounds.  Sound
Designer for the Mirage lists for $395 ($495 for the Prophet, $995
for the Emulator II).  There are currently demo copies of the Mirage
and Prophet versions on Delphi in Music City.  You can probably
get a demo disk from Digidesign as well.

Bruce McDiffett
..!{ihnp4,seismo}!wucs!bruce

"You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!"

Disclaimer:  Who needs a disclaimer?  These are *facts*! :-)