which is best for music Atari or Amiga

[gertsy]

Oldfield didn't actually compose Amarok on the Amiga. He used it to quickly lay down idea tracks early or before a session and then followed the storyboard in a conventional way. I think he once related to Amarok as a long series of Jam sessions.
So the Amiga was a handy tool for indirect composition. From memory he used to do the same task on paper. Collecting ideas for a multitrack storyboard and noting them down sequentially (left to right) on paper.

[gertsy]

I know he did another album around the same time as Amarok called, Heaven's Open. Aside from the contractual shadow at the time, the last instrumental track on that album is heavily sequenced by Atari I think. Lots of samples as well.

[gertsy]

Hi and I too am not totally convinced  as Mike Oldfield surely knew what he had used ,I half hope he did use the Atari but as with  jare michael jare there's plenty to show he used the Atari ,no mistake ,I would love to know the real answer ,best wishes Brian.

He did say he used Amiga. For concept sketching. Never said he used it for recording composition.

[gertsy]

Hi this is perfectly true because I cant find any thing where he actually said he recorded with the Amiga ,but just as a matter of interest did you ever make music using the Atari st  or use the Atari as a way of controlling music in any way ,best wishes Brian.:lol::lol:

No Atari here I'm afraid.
The machines I've used for midi include:
86-89 c128 in 64 mode. I can't remember the midi sequencing software but it came with the midi interface.
89-97 Amiga 2000 with Dr T's Tiger Cub, Music X and later Bars and Pipes
94-99 PC with Korg AG-10 and Trax software. Also used the Amiga up until 97.
99-09 PC with SBLive, AG-10, and Studio 5 + Cakewalk 7-8.
Since 2010 I use a PC with USB Module and Sonar X1 DAW

[gertsy]

....
I, myself, have a Casio CZ-101 synth, which I have had since the late 1980's.  I got it in order to add another 4 channels to the 4 built-in to the Amiga for a grand total of 8 channels.  I mixed the Amiga and Casio channels with a Radio Shack mixer before outputting them to my amplifier.  Had a nice mix of Amiga Sampled sounds and the warm Synth sounds of the Casio.  Composed quite a lot of tunes with this setup:  Deluxe Music, ECE MIDI, Amiga 2000, Casio CZ-101, Sharp Receiver/Amp, Radio Shack mixer and a CZ Librarian/Bank Loader called CZAR.  Never could figure out the Trackers though one day I hope to (OctaMED Sound Studio).  Would also like to learn Bar's N Pipes as well.

I think a lot of people had similar setups at the time. I used a DX27 and an RZ-1 Drum machine to do the same; Extend the Amiga sample set. But I used Tiger Cub and Bars&Pipes. I dabbled with Trackers and Midi but found it too constraining.

[gertsy]

Wow what a post. I've always envied the DX-7 because I had a 27 of course. I wonder how much and how available the TX-7 sound module is?

[gertsy]

Interestingly on investigating the DX 7 and variants I came across FM7 from Native Instruments, an ASIO compliant Soft synth that does all the DXs in software and multi-voice. The demo on their web page sounded great. The really interesting part is it's now disappeared off their website entirely. Was there Wednesday and gone Thursday. Yamaha  flexing copyright/brand protection?

[gertsy]

It's been superseded by FM8.

Yes realised that on investigation.  But I swear I got onto the website the other night and saw the FM7 product, demos and the screen shots. Black/brown console with green tic tac buttons; The memories.  And the patch set was all the DX range patches. Couldn't see this on the FM8. Perhaps I was using an old browser version that showed me the old site....  

Anyhows, it bought back memories of me recording my drum machine patterns into the Amiga 2000 (Tiger Cub) and playing them back into my DX27 instruments.  Arrh when I had time to experiment.

Saw quite a few DX7s on SMeebay.  Just don't have the room.  Already have a good quality weighted keys Roland midi controller keyboard.  So a soft synch is the best option.  Especially since I upgraded my Sonar to X3 for my B'day.



@commodoreJohn.  I saw/heard the same thing with SB Live EMU Sound fonts vs my little Korg module.  Chalk and cheese.  Cheese being the Soundfonts. I found individually the patches sounded great but in the context of a piece they were all over the place.

[gertsy]

Korg AG-10. Audio Gallery. Great GM sounds for 1994. Still have it. It's been through many computers.

[gertsy]

A-EON has OctaMED SoundStudio back in development. How about a Minimig based embedded device with built in MIDI and improved audio capabilities (higher res, many more channels, many audio in and outs, buildt in mixing and effects?), booting directly into OctaMED SoundStudio. Is that a sellable product?

Potentially if its aligned to classic synths and their re-releases. GM (and variant) capabilities plus Sys-ex support for multiple devices...
 but most of that capability is software. I suppose the many outs could be a selling point.  Add a SID socket and access to it and you could have a handy retro sound setup.  Dreaming again...