Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!netsys!ziggy!scotty
From: scotty@ziggy.UUCP (Scott Drysdale)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: MIDI Questions ..
Keywords: Who, what, when, where, and how?
Message-ID: <146@ziggy.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jan 89 01:20:53 GMT
References: <10294@shamash.cdc.com> <540@amanpt1.zone1.com>
Reply-To: scotty@ziggy.UUCP (Scott Drysdale)
Organization: Un*x Link,Frederick Md.
Lines: 54

In article <540@amanpt1.zone1.com> mrr@amanpt1.zone1.com (Mark Rinfret) writes:
>In article <10294@shamash.cdc.com>, jwabik@shamash.cdc.com (Jeff Wabik) writes:
>> 	2) What software is cool?  I've heard Deluxe Music Construction
>> 	   Set is funky.  I saw the MIDI software flow thru .binaries.
>
>DMCS is a nice scoring package, but its MIDI user interface stinks. I can
>provide details if you want.  DMCS is the only scoring package I use since
>I haven't seen anything better.  

DMCS does have a few bugs, most of which can be worked around.  all is not
lost - read on.

>
>Open question to other net.readers: 
>Are there any good _configurable_ patch editors out there?  I have a Casio
>CZ-1 (superset of the the CZ-101, CZ-1000, CZ-3000 family) which is not
>supported in any commercially available software.  If I can buy a truly
>configurable patch editor (editable sysex codes, etc.) I won't have to 
>finish writing mine :-).
>
>> 	   last week, but haven't played yet ..  I'd like to be able 
>> 	   to "program" a complicated score (like 4 voices, or more) 
>> 	   from the (musical) keyboard, then play back on either Amy
>> 	   or the Casio .. 
>
>Forget DMCS on this one.  I'm not aware of a good alternative, though.
>As I understand it, you can record "tracks" of information with several
>of the sequencer products available (see below), but none of them provide
>a scoring interface.

try the DMCS-SoundScape combination.  soundscape is a "midi studio" type
program which allows you to route various midi sources around to
destinations and perform lots of operations on the midi stream.  with
DMCS and soundscape present in the system, DMCS will start up soundscape
and appear as a midi source in the soundscape patch panel.  from there, 
you can have dmcs play your score into soundscape's midi recorder and then
edit the midi data and add events DMCS can't.  you can also use a utility
which comes with soundscape to convert recorded midi data to DMCS scores,
with control over quantization of midi event duration to note length.  of
course, some stuff is lost in the translation, but it's probably easier than
trying to write things down while fooling around at the keyboard.  soundscape
also allows you to write your own source/destination modules in C and
will install them in the patch panel so they can be used like any other
soundscape source/dest.  this is useful for doing things like reserving a
section of your keyboard for switching patches in a synth by converting the
reserved keys to different midi events.  i wrote a module which allows the
keyboard to be split at as many arbitrary places as you like and allows the
split regions to be sent to one or more different midi channels.
soundscape is relatively easy to use (i got it recording/playing back without
reading the manual).  it will work with just about any midi interface for
the amiga that plugs into the serial port (i built one out of about $15 worth
of common parts).  it seems to be pretty much bug free, too.  check it out.

  --Scotty