Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!cbosgd!mandrill!neoucom!wtm 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