Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!ucbvax!STONY-BROOK.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM!ESC
From: ESC@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Eric S. Crawley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: C-lab notator
Message-ID: <19900201194645.7.ESC@DJINN.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>
Date: 1 Feb 90 19:46:00 GMT
References: <5550@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 38


    Date: 1 Feb 90 16:52:10 GMT
    From: ogicse!blake!ramsiri@ucsd.edu  (Enartloc Nhoj)
...

    in updates.  The current version is 2.2 which includes the new

    "Softlink" program- a partitioning/multi-tasking piece of code:
    YOu can create up to 9 separate partitions for GEM or TOS each with
    a virtual desktop...  The "multi-tasking" feature is ONLY with 
    respect to the added ability of NOTOATOR being able to run concurrently
    with a word processor etc.. in other words.. one can have NOTATOR 
    playing sequences in the background while you write a report..
    In addtition, if you have another midi program you like to use..
    NOTATOR can record all midi events being generated by the "other"
    midi program.. that's pretty slick.  ANyway, i don't know how
    good the task switching abilities are.. nor if the "multi-tasking"
    features are reliable...  

I have used the features in "Softlink" and I'm not terribly impressed.  It is
nice to be able to get back to the desktop and run some simple things without
having to exit out of Notator but I have found that I lose certain things when
switching between partitions, like the state of the key click.  Also, I have
yet to find a MIDI program that works with SoftLink.  I didn't expect my
hostile Dr.T patch editors to work but TurboSynth, from Digidesign didn't
work!  I was able to bring up the program and do all the normal operations but
I could not use any MIDI functions in TurboSynth.  I have reported these
problems to Digidesign.  Softlink also requires a minimum of a 2 meg system
and with that you can only have 2 partitions, Notator and one other partition
of around 700KB.  Things are a lot easier with a 4 meg system.

I will say that I have been impressed with the support from Digidesign for
Notator.  I have received several timely updates from them for free or a very
reasonable cost.  The update to 2.2 costs $30 but I did not have to pay for it
since I had reported several bugs that were to be fixed in that release.
However, the most glaring of the bugs, severe timing problems when playing
MIDI format files, is still there.  Sigh, maybe someday I will be able to
import files from other sequencers.