Advice on composing music

[Karlos]

@mooncloud

Okay, I'm getting there! How about, in terms of memory, if I whack in an 'Amiga A600/A1200 2.5’’ IDE Hard Drive - 2160MB (2.16GB)' - as I've heard about. Only about £10. Of course I then need an A600 or A1200 - but as they are cheap, I don't mind as much. more......

An A1200 with a hard drive is a much better starting position:

You'll start with at least version 3.0 of the operating system which opens up more software options.

The A1200 comes with a 2MB of RAM (called Chip RAM as it is shared between the CPU and the sound / graphics chips) as opposed to the 0.5MB or 1MB an A500 typically has. Chip RAM is important for many older music packages as this is where the sound samples are held during music playback. Note that OctaMED SoundStudio is not restricted to using only Chip RAM for sound samples, you can use as much memory as you have fitted. And speaking of memory...

The CPU in the stock A1200 is 2-3x faster than the one in the stock A500. Just adding more memory to the A1200 (via the trapdoor slot) can double that too. The reason for this is that in a Chip RAM only A1200, the CPU has to share access to the memory with the sound and graphics chips. This  basically slows the CPU down since it has to wait for the graphics/sound chips to have their share, which is usually 50% of the time (or more). So just adding 4MB of memory to the trapdoor not only gives you 3x more memory than you had to start with but can double the performance to :-)

However, it doesn't stop there. Many cards exist for the trapdoor slot that add not only more memory, but an even faster CPU to start with. If you get a 50MHz 68030, you can happily use OctaMED soundstudio with 16 sound channels at once and have enough CPU power left to comfortably use the system. With a 25MHz 68040 I've had 32 sound channels without problems, and that's good for making some noise :-D

Also, a faster CPU in your A1200 with a hard drive gives you more scope for mixing your finished many-channel song to hard drive for, perhaps burning to a CD later? :-)

[mooncloud]

Absolutley brilliant!!!!!!!

I have learnt so much in the past hour or so. It would have taken me ages otherwise.

I conclude that an A1200 would be best, with a possible upgrade - OctiMed for music composing and samples downloaded off the Aminet site (for example) using a PC/Amiga emulating program.

I'm on my way!!

And all I wanted to do originally was play games!  :lol:

[mooncloud]

Thanks, Karlos. I'm on it!!!!!!!!

[Tomas]

This sampler business.........what exactly does a sampler allow you to do? - bearing in mind I don't play any instruments. I'm thinking that you hook up a keyboard, for example, to your Amiga...??

It is a device that let you record a small audio clip onto your amiga, so that you can use it a as a sample. You can for example record a dogs bark, piano or whatever you want and use it as a instrument in a tracker program like octamed.

[Tomas]

Of course I then need an A600 or A1200 - but as they are cheap, I don't mind as much. I can always sell the A500, even thought I just got it! Should have thought about this a little more......

If you are planning to buy a new Amiga, then you should definitely go for the a1200 and not the a600. The stock a1200 comes with more ram as default and you can also buy a model which already includes a hard drive. The a1200 also has faster cpu, better graphic card and is more expandable than both the a500 and the a600.

What would be the best, is to get an already expanded a1200 with cdrom and such. I am sure you find a bunch of those on the ebay. The a4000 and a3000 is also a great choice, though probably more expensive than the a1200.

An a1200 is probably easier to get than a hd and ram upgrade for the a500 anyways, so i think you should definitely go with an a1200, a4000 or a3000.

You can however nicely use the a500 with octamed, as long as you dont use a bunch of big samples and use more than 4 audio channels.

Though a1200 is much more capable in most areas, but it should not stop you from using your a500 in the meantime. :-)

[mooncloud]

Thanks, Tomas. Great advice!