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From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Amiga and MIDI
Message-ID: <823@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Dec-87 09:37:32 EST
Article-I.D.: neoucom.823
Posted: Mon Dec  7 09:37:32 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Dec-87 10:32:09 EST
References: <447@nuchat.UUCP> <32160@auc.UUCP> <528@otto.COM> <2094@crash.cts.com>
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 49
Keywords: MIDI Amiga Atari ST
Summary: Midi stuff seems to really hog CPU time
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.amiga:12114 comp.sys.atari.st:6704


<< complaints about midi and terminal sharing same serial port>>

I've used the Amiga midi quite a bit with Deluxe Music Construction
Set (verion 1.2 or whatever it is; had to send in an extra $20 for
the upgrade and no copy-proof), and with Pro Midi Studio (no offer
of a copyable disk).  Both DMCS (a true dinosaur) and Pro Midi
Studio do a pretty good job of thrashing the CPU.

If you expect to do a good job of time-stamping incoming events,
you need to assure very quick response to interrupts from
characters coming in from midi.  Whith the current sophistication
of software, this is tantamount to saying that your midi receive
program should be the only user task running.  Of course, I suppose you
could impose a little priority setting to prevent the terminal
emulator from munging the midi timing.

One thing that would be helpful would be to have a midi.device that
does the time stamping in the interrupt handler itself.  It is my
understanding that is or will soon be avialable in Pro Midi studio.
Such a device handler would alleviate the need from the controlling
program being a hog to assure accurate timing.

There has been a lot of chatter about music-x being pretty neat,
but I haven't seen it yet.

Naturally the Atari STs will suffer from the same technical
problems with midi response as the Amiga.  In the IBM world the
soultion has been to use the Korg MPU interface as an outboard
solution.  Such an outboard solution would probably enhance the
functionality of either the ST or the Amiga, but it does cost
bucks.  I have no involvement with the McIntosh, so I'll leave it
out of the discussion for the moment.

Just having a DIN connector doesn't necessarily imply midi
functionality.  Serious music work requires that connector to have
accurate timing.  Both the Amiga and ST series have about the same
shot at that.  The Amgia has more complication, as it has a
multitasking O/S that opens up the possiblity of shoving matches
twixt programs.  If a multitasking (as opposed to desk acessory)
version of TOS is released*, it will have the same "problems" as the
Amiga requiring programs to be good citizens.

*released meaning that it is announced *and* I can actually
purchase it.  Of course, both Atari and Commodore know more than
a little about the art of vapor ware.


--Bill