New to AMIGA sound

[zipstor]

Hi there,

I wish to use an AMIGA in my live setup for a specific task. I will build a midi interface myself as it is very easy to find plans.

But I would probably need some advise on what machine I should get as I wish to use Octamed tracker. Is a 500 ok? Or a 600? I have heard of that lowpass filter thing to wire manually, so what is it of that?

Thanks in advance.

z:/crtx

[fishy_fiz]

Personally Id probably got the A600 option (or an a500+), for the sole reason of there being more available chipram (1Meg vs 2Meg). Additionally Id advise on a harddrive as well (which is part of the reason I suggested an A600..... cheaper and easier to install a hdd in an a600 than an a500).

While not as important as the former 2 an accelerator definately would be worth looking into as well. Yes you ca do without it, but a little extra grunt ontop of a stock a500/a600 is definately worthwhile when it comes to audio work.

[zipstor]

Thanks so much for your reply,

So an Amiga 600 is best because it will accept a HD. What kind of hard drive will work? And what kind of accelerator, where would I find such a thing?

I know I can find an A600 on ebay but the rest.....

[bbond007]

if you want an accelerator it would be best to get a 1200 which is really designed for expansion as it has a trapdoor option.

Perhaps you don't even need one as it is over twice the speed of the 600.

You can get the ACA 630 for the 600, however I was reading that many 600s need to have the CPU reflowed to work correctly with the ACA. Seems that the original C= soldering process was not very good.

[fishy_fiz]

A standard 2.5 inch ide drive (ala laptop harddrive) should be fine. Just be aware that drives beyond 6 or 7 gig can have problems with needing additional power. There are exceptions, and ways to get around it, but depending on your needs that may suffice anyway.
As for an accelerator, my 1st thought would be one of the ACA630 cards, but Im not sure if anyone still has stock (to be honest though Ive not really looked into it). I dont want to exclude any amiga dealers here, but Amigakit seems to be one of the bigger places these days. I believe maybe Versilla is still around too. Sorry I cant be more specific here, but Ive never really had a need to use these places and am just going by what I read on forums. Im sure someone else may be able to fill in some details here.
Additionally there's also Amibay, which is a nice resource for amiga gear, albiet often difficult to be 1st in line to purchase.

Depending on your needs however an accelerator may not even be necessary. Perhaps see how you go with an a600 with a small harddrive (should be able to get one for under $10 for testing purposes from somewhere) first and see if that fulfills your needs?

[drHirudo]

Personally Id probably got the A600 option (or an a500+), for the sole reason of there being more available chipram (1Meg vs 2Meg). Additionally Id advise on a harddrive as well (which is part of the reason I suggested an A600..... cheaper and easier to install a hdd in an a600 than an a500).

I had Amiga 600 with accelerator and Hard Drive back in 1999 and it was overheating too fast, that it forced me to place the harddrive outside of the machine, but it was still overheating with 68030 CPU inside.

The A600 also had problems with slower serial bus when using resolution with higher depth (32 colors and above). I don't know if it will affect the MIDI, as the MIDI speed is not that fast anyway. There are some serial.device replacements on Aminet, but they did not help much. I still wanted to use Amiga back then, so I bought Amiga 1200 that solved most of my A600 troubles, with the price of being able to watch AGA demos and play AGA games. Also Digibooster does not work on 68000, but works on Amiga 1200.

[runequester]

In most cases the cost difference between a stock 1200 and a 600 wont be that significant. The 1200 comes with 2 megs of RAM already, and its much easier to find additional hardware for it.

[XDelusion]

First and foremost. What sort of samples do you plan to use with OctaMED?

Short small ones or large long ones? 8-bit or 16-bit.

[Lockon_15]

You'll have to spare some serious time finding both A600 and ACA630 accelerator since those stuff are badly wanted. A bog standard A500 is way more common to find and perhaps a better choice since newly developed ACA520 accelerator is coming up for Christmass ! Just to note it will also have same if not better mass storage solution right on board alongside a fair chunk of RAM, perhaps fitting your MIDI ideas. Otherwise, go for 1200 which has much shorter and cheaper upgrade path.

[XDelusion]

You'll have to spare some serious time finding both A600 and ACA630 accelerator since those stuff are badly wanted. A bog standard A500 is way more common to find and perhaps a better choice since newly developed ACA520 accelerator is coming up for Christmass ! Just to note it will also have same if not better mass storage solution right on board alongside a fair chunk of RAM, perhaps fitting your MIDI ideas. Otherwise, go for 1200 which has much shorter and cheaper upgrade path.

Hardly...

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=1003


And PAL 600's are a dime a dozen.

I second the 1200 idea though, unless he wants to restrict space used, in which case the A600 wins all around.

[zipstor]

I wish to use octamed for only short 8bit samples. Kick drums only.

Would just a 500/600 do the job with no extension?

1200's are really expensive here in Australia on ebay, around $400.. a 500 is only about $60..

[fishy_fiz]

Ah, another Aussie. I pretty much never meet other Amiga ppl "in the wild" here, but if amiga forums are any indication there's quite a number of us here still  

I do in part agree with others here in that an a1200 is probably the best and cheapest solution if you require a little bit of expanding (I paid $120 for my a1200 here in Aus. not so long ago, so they can be found for ok prices if youre lucky). By the sound of things you may get by with a stock a500 or a600 (although Id still get a harddrive myself if you get an a600, especially seeing as thier only worth pocket change). I guess the problem is that you wont know if you need more until you purchase something. By this time you may find out that the machine youve bought isnt enough for what you need, making it either redundant, or a pricier option vs. something you could have bought at the start.

The acclerator doesnt sound like its something you'll need from what youve said so far though, in which case Id go for the a600 for reasons I mentioned earlier (easy to add cheap harddrive and 2meg chipram (more ram for storing samples).
Yes there is a new a500 accelerator coming up, but do you really want to buy a machine based on what might appear for it some time down the track, or would you rather buy something now? (rhetorical)