which is best for music Atari or Amiga

[Linde]

That's an easy question to answer now, as the Amiga has a distinctive and unique grungy 8bit audio ability, the Atari only really had MIDI capability. Any modern computer will have infinitely better midi capability (most midi is sent via USB now), and also better software than any Atari... But I can still throw some Audio through my A1200 and use it as an FX box!

To be perfectly fair, the weird combination of sporting an at at the time quite primitive YM2149 together with the comparably modern 68k affords the Atari ST to have a quite unique and grungy sound of its own that I would say surpasses the Amiga by far in the qualities you mention.

[Linde]

Each to their own here, I find the YM2149 absolutely horrific. Though, I was able to easily reproduced a YM2149 like sound using Logic Pro X's built in Retro Synth for a friend who does like the sound.

The whole Atari ST sound palette isn't something you can easily capture in something that isn't specifically made for the purpose. Check this out.

I don't think you can you reasonably argue for the Atari ST sound being less distinct, unique and grungy than the Paula sound.

Back on topic, none of the Professional Music packages on the Atari wasted time with the Atari's internal audio hardware.

Back on topic? I think the above is highly relevant to the discussion. Whether the software is "professional" or not has nothing to do with the topic. As you said, the only reasonable use of these machines at this point is for whatever unique characteristics they had.

And no, the Atari ST isn't a "museum piece", people still use it for music.

[Linde]

Urgh! Sounds like a fax machine.

My argument isn't about it being good or bad. For the record, I like it and Stu does draw crowds, but I'm arguing for its merits from the given set of parameters of being unique, distinct and grungy.