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From: page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Midi and the Amiga
Message-ID: <1696@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu>
Date: Fri, 18-Sep-87 12:15:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulowell.1696
Posted: Fri Sep 18 12:15:08 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 04:07:32 EDT
References: <862@hou2f.UUCP>
Reply-To: page@swan.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Department of MIDI
Lines: 69
Keywords: MIDI, Amiga, Soundscape

I somewhat agree about the Amiga MIDI scene -- we're fighting what
appears to be an uphill battle.  There are some things, however,
that can be done.

We can't ignore the 'image' aspect.  When the Amiga gets bad press
about the timestamp problem, everyone suffers.  Two things can help
here:

First, let people (developers) know how to use the existing OS,
drivers, etc, to get data from the serial port without dropping data.

Second, have a serial.device that can (optionally) timestamp events.
Having a midi.device would work too, but why not hack the serial
driver to do it?  It's not a lot of work.

Third, make the serial port a DMA device.  Much harder, I know...

------------

OK, so now that we've tackled the technical aspect, we need to get
software out to the marketplace.

#define SOAPBOX_MODE 1         /* true if we're on the soapbox */

First and foremost, the Amiga (to get noticed) has to have at least
one fantastic music package that's not available anywhere else.
Having an Amiga port of every other music package makes the Amiga
a 'me too' music machine.

Look at this: musicians buy Macs because they want to run Personal
Composer, they buy PC's to run Texture, and ST's so they can run
Dr. T's KCS.  They don't give a damn about the hardware or the OS;
they want to run the software package.

On, the Amiga, Soundscape is the answer.  OK, OK, it has problems,
including bugs, terrible docs, and terrible user interface.  But these
are all being worked on, and should be solved RSN.

I say it's the answer because Soundscape is a MULTITASKING,
MESSAGE-PASSING MUSIC OPERATING SYSTEM.  That idea is powerful as the
Amiga itself, and Mimetics has not done that idea justice in its
marketing.

The hooks into this OS make it inherently extensible AND individually
customizable.  Mimetics needs to publicly release the specs for the
Soundscape data structures and library calls, so more third-party
(read: public domain) software/utilities can get written for it.
It means we can have something as powerful as Texture, KCS and/or
Personal Composer, even the best of all of them, without having
to buy a new machine, or reboot the machine to run the new package,
or deal with differing data file formats between the packages.

I don't want to sound like I'm doing for marketing for Mimetics,
but I can't understand why this package has not gotten wider
attention.  Since SOME (not all) the Soundscape specs are available,
including soundscape.h, we should be seeing more software that
hooks into the package, but nobody is ... yet.  The music standard
for the Amiga seems to be DMCS, which is a really nice hobbyist
music package but is unusable for pro or semi-pro work.

#undef SOAPBOX_MODE

I hope Soundscape catches on, and more software is written for it,
else I'm afraid Mimetics will port it to Multifinder or OS/2 and
the Amiga will have yet another 'me-too' music package.

..Bob, the frustrated musician
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.   page@ulowell.{uucp,edu,csnet}