which is best for music Atari or Amiga

[mrmoonlight]

Hi I already own a really good Amiga 1200 and a nice little Amiga 600 ,but I am very tempted to buy a Atari st  just for the devil of it and was wondering if any one uses one now and could say  which is best for music Atari or Amiga,,best wishes Brian.

[bloodline]

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!

In 1987, I might be tempted to use an Arari... In 2014, the Atari is just a door stop.

[Kesa]

There was some talk before about the Falcon being the preferred music tool of the time. A quick look at the specs confirms this:

Falcon: 16-bit with 8 stereo channels.

Amiga1200: 8-bit with 4 stereo channels.

I don't know much about Atari's though. I'm just looking at the specs. I think Bloodline might know.

*EDIT: shhit he already posted.

[Thorham]

which is best for music Atari or Amiga

Depends. Amiga if you need to play the music directly on the computer, Atari if you don't need play the music directly on the computer.

Basically Amigas have better audio capabilities and Atari STs have better software. The Atari's built in MIDI port isn't so important here, because you can add one to an Amiga.

[bloodline]

There was some talk before about the Falcon being the preferred music tool of the time. A quick look at the specs confirms this:

Falcon: 16-bit with 8 stereo channels.

Amiga1200: 8-bit with 4 stereo channels.

I don't know much about Atari's though. I'm just looking at the specs. I think Bloodline might know.

*EDIT: shhit he already posted.

The Falcon was a better machine for 1993, but I took the OP's question as looking at the machines now.

Back in the day, the Atari had better MIDI support and consequently more mature software. The Falcon just added good quality Audio to that.

Now, the cheapest PC/Mac will have better quality Audio, better software (for free), and better support for modern instruments (which tend to use USB over MIDI ports) than any Atari.

The Amiga on the other hand, can have a cheap MIDI box added, has some interesting software (some find these strange packages very creative, myself included) and still as a unique audio sound that can't be reproduced easily on modern hardware.


And yes. I will always throw my tuppence in a music thread

-edit- for the record I do actually have an Atari ST here, but I'm only keeping it around so I can see AROS run on it one day hahaha

[mrmoonlight]

Hi I already own a really good Amiga 1200 and a nice little Amiga 600 ,but I am very tempted to buy a Atari st just for the devil of it and was wondering if any one uses one now and could say which is best for music Atari or Amiga,,best wishes Brian.

Hi I have just read this about how the Atari st was musically tight with its midi arrangements ,{
The winner?
The Atari STe:
The Atari STe is monochrome in 640×480 max res, 8mhz, yes, 8mhz motorola 68000 processor, with 720k floppy drive and no hard drive, external mouse and monitor, a space hog. Doesn?t make noise though.
The timing is super tight with drums, if you put the drums on midi channel 1 and bass on midi 2, and put the hardware for the drums and bass 1 and 2 on the midi out chain, the drums and bass will be super tight. You can throw 170 bpm 32nd and 64th notes at it and doesn?t choke. It?s amazing.
If you are doing aggressive electronic, high temp, or glitchy stuff with hardware, these are the best sequencers. No PC or modern MAC can match it.
How tight is the Atari STe?
Tight to 1ms.  of course this must be talking 20 yrs ago

[Kesa]

Quoting one self is the first sign of madness. Just sayin...

[bloodline]

Hi I have just read this about how the Atari st was musically tight with its midi arrangements ,{
The winner?
The Atari STe:
The Atari STe is monochrome in 640×480 max res, 8mhz, yes, 8mhz motorola 68000 processor, with 720k floppy drive and no hard drive, external mouse and monitor, a space hog. Doesn?t make noise though.
The timing is super tight with drums, if you put the drums on midi channel 1 and bass on midi 2, and put the hardware for the drums and bass 1 and 2 on the midi out chain, the drums and bass will be super tight. You can throw 170 bpm 32nd and 64th notes at it and doesn?t choke. It?s amazing.
If you are doing aggressive electronic, high temp, or glitchy stuff with hardware, these are the best sequencers. No PC or modern MAC can match it.
How tight is the Atari STe?
Tight to 1ms.  of course this must be talking 20 yrs ago

If you want tight sequencing, you probably won't be using MIDI

To be honest, the human ear can't really determine any discrepancy below about 12ms, and at high tempo it is even less sensitive. A modern PC/Mac would easily be able to get timings in at, or under, 5ms using USB2 or FireWire interfaces.

-edit- I would note that back in the day, latency of up to 100ms could be found at the end of long MIDI chains... It was awful, every device on the line would add a bit of lag... And the bit rate was only 32k, so long MIDI messages would cause delays on the bus... Thankfully MIDI over USB has basically solved that

[mrmoonlight]

Quoting one self is the first sign of madness. Just sayin...

LOL I wonder what the second sigh is ?

[nicholas]

You could always use the superior ST software to control your Amiga by MIDI.

You'd get the best of both worlds then.

[mrmoonlight]

Hi Bloodline ,thanks for your help my friend ,I never thought it would be so complicated lol  and I know the Atari is dated but I would like to try some thing a little different from todays music which to me has become totally dull and lacks imagine nation or it might be me ,hence the dabble with the Atari ,just my thoughts .

[mrmoonlight]

You could always use the superior ST software to control your Amiga by MIDI.

You'd get the best of both worlds then.

 Hi and thank you ,and that's not a bad idea .

[bloodline]

Hi Bloodline ,thanks for your help my friend ,I never thought it would be so complicated lol  and I know the Atari is dated but I would like to try some thing a little different from todays music which to me has become totally dull and lacks imagine nation or it might be me ,hence the dabble with the Atari ,just my thoughts .

Well, Atari music software was always written for trained musicians... So wouldn't allow for the creatively that comes with ignorance

As for what the Atari would actually output... Unless you have some interesting and unusual MIDI kit to hook it up to... Then you aren't going to making any noise at all!

Music now has been commoditised, most people just want to hear something that sounds like what they have already heard, they don't have the same relationship with music that we would have had many years ago. Music is easy to get and free. There is no discovery or investment from the audience, hence little incentive for creativity by the artists.

Back on topic, you are far more likely to make something unusual and exciting with the Amiga, which will not try and force traditional music values upon your work,than you can with an Atari.

[Ral-Clan]

I've also heard about the Atari having very tight MIDI timing, and I've even heard some people complain about Amiga's sloppy MIDI timing.

But seriously - I have been using Amiga's for MIDI for years and have never noticed any MIDI timing issues - even on dense MIDI arrangements.

People always say that the Atari had better MIDI software - but I don't see how this could be the case as it didn't have the best MIDI sequencer software EVER made: Bars & Pipes.

Only the Amiga has/had that - and it even works well under UAE.

I've never seen any MIDI-only sequencing software that can compare with the ease of use, flexibility and power of Bars & Pipes.

[bloodline]

Ral-clan is quite right, Atari music software didn't really get much love after the early 90's... Mostly just updates and bug fixes to existing software, from Steinberg etc...