DoomMaster's whereabouts

[jeffimix]

I think you can play FF7's music like that... too bad it don't work on WinXP (*looks saddened*)

[Karlos]

locutus wrote:
*looks at his Hardware Yamaha XG Synth PCI board*

i would care to differ about that second comment ;-))))))

Well, Yamaha XG based midi daughterboards do sound very good - much better for musical apps than any soundblaster derivative. I've used DB50XG and SW60 XG in the past and they do stand out for MIDI.

However, my MU100R (once a flagship product but now replaced by the even more powerful MU128) runs rings round both of them - due to the much larger wavetable rom & higher quality samples, 32-part (individually assignable through 2 seperate 16-channel inputs) playback, more advanced filters, greater number of dedicated DSP units, per part EQ etc. Even good old Paula audio sounds great fed through the A/D inputs and processed with the rest of the mix. OctaMED soundstudio is the perfect tool for me in this respect :-)

Lastly, the virtual Accoustic synthesis unit has to be heard to be believed ;-)

[SHADES]

@yogisumo

>>I'm not trying to trash the Atari. I could care less. It just seems to be a little ridiculous to deem a computer to be "designed" for midi because of an extra connector or two on the back of the machine.

Actually, I think Doomy may have to have some credit here. It is well known that because of these extra ports(midi)in the back and year this was all released, made the ATARI the music choice for the time.

Infact, any serious musician with key had one. Cubase was written for and origionally developed for the ATARI and this little computer was considered to be the "Standard" at that time for any serious sequencing and control of midi devices. It's either that or big $$$$$ and I mean big! remeber it's not 2004

Cubase is now written and still WIDLY used but now on PC as MIDI is very common and MIDI 2 is strating to take off as MIDI is too slow and restrictive.

SO really, your just snobbing off the ATARI for having those extra ports is a little short sighted and un informed. But hey!! now you know.

[TjLaZer]

Doomy,

Why do you say that?  Well we both like Amiga and Atari ST computers...

[yogisumo]

   Back when I first started shopping for a computer ( late 80's ), everybody used to tell me that the Mac was "the" midi computer.  I met a couple of people that were talking up the Atari but not many.  I know that I passed it up at the time.  A MacII with 020 and greyscale monitor was @$10,000 Canadian at the time.  The Atari was <$1000 and an Amiga 2000 was @$2000.  A PC(386/EGA) was about $3500.  The choice seemed pretty clear to me.  
   As far as midi, the Amiga wasn't the first choice for a lot of people but it did have some software.  I met a guy in Alberta that was using an Amiga 1000 to run his light show and all his keyboards/drum machines with SoundScape which is how I first knew of the Amiga.  Anyway, I looked at the Atari and I wanted an all around computer that would be good at everything and the midi ports on the Atari weren't enough to convince me to buy one.
   I suppose if low cost midi computer was my primary concern, the Atari might have been a better choice but at the time I was basically taking a break from the music biz.  @5 years on the road was starting to get monotonous.
   It hardly matters now though does it?  Thanks to CommodeDoor, the Ameoba is no longer... and for that matter.. either is the Atari.

[Hammer]

@yogisumo
That would be EPIC(biz entity) in regards to Unreal(product)...

[Wain]

Did you know that you can also hook up a MIDI keyboard to a PCs sound card and most PC games will play the music through it instead of the speakers? It sounds really awesome! The normal sound SFX will still play through the speakers, but the music will be played on the MIDI keyboard. Here's what you do:

I feel I must point out here that while it is true that you can do this (being a musician, I do do this), VERY FEW modern PC games use midi files for their music.  You will mainly see it in Japanese adventure games (Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and most Hentai CD-ROM games) and that's about it unless you look in the public domain gaming world.  However if you have a good quality keyboard I can't recommend doing this enough because when the benefit is there, it is much better.

[Wain]

jeffimix wrote:
I think you can play FF7's music like that... too bad it don't work on WinXP (*looks saddened*)

There's a patch available to run Final Fantasy VII on XP, and it also enables 4x(I think) antialiasing.  It doesn't always work though.  FF 7 is one of the most hardware dependent games released over the past 7 years, there's a LOT of video card and operating system configurations it doesn't like.  Also gotta try win98 compatibilty mode, it works for some people.

[Wain]

General MIDI sucks  Yamaha's XG level 2 MIDI totally "blows the doors off it", but is totally backwards compatible with it at the same time.

errrr...ummm....k.

you do realize that Yamaha's XG is an EXTENSION to GM Midi, and not a replacement or alternative right?

In the end it's just important to remember that being XG or even GM compatible has nothing to do with how good your playback sounds, just whether or not a given MIDI sequence can be played back correctly(which of course could indirectly affect how good something sounds).

[Wain]

I have heard no soundcard that has the quite the clarity of a good quality tonegenerator when it comes to MIDI playback.

/me likes my rackmount.

Apex Pro from AVM Technologies was a Kurzweil synth in soundcard form for ~$200 in 1997...OUTSTANDING MIDI playback, also had a complete instrument editor.

Guillemot also released several high quality sound cards for amateur audiophiles/musicians with high quality MIDI playback also in the same price range, usually with Yamaha chipsets.

Of course Soundblaster is crap, and all of the general gamer sound cards don't have any decent sound generation either, but these cards weren't designed with that in mind, they're more interested in getting higher sample/playback rates with higher s/n ratio.




/me likes my K2600  :-P