CompuServe Thread

Forum unknown · Audiophile

#Music Studio/IFF

7 messages in this thread
#44850From: Dec 21, 1986 1:01 AM
Actually you should get the new De Music from EA. It's quite nice, and apart from a couple of bugs on the MIDI-IN module, it seems quite solid. There is also a PD utility floating around called "MS2SMUS" which converts Music Studio Files to SMUS format which Deluxe Music can read just fine. SO LONG MIMETICS !!!! <grin>
#44968From: Steven BennettDec 21, 1986 6:36 PM
Your comment reminded me of another pet peeve of mine which I hated in Music Studio, which DMCS faithfully reproduced… No stereo. Zip. Nada. Notes are apparently placed on whichever random channel is available, ruining any possibility of a stereo effect. (For a really good example of what you can do with stereo, listen to the Mindwalker endgame music in mono, then switch to stereo. Really neat effect.)
#44985From: Dec 21, 1986 8:24 PM
Steve; M'thinks you might be missing the point here someplace. with IFF format you can specify the proper channel the instrument uses. Music Studio doesn't count yet because they haven't released their IFF utility. But using IFF instruments which have designated channels, you can get stereo. I also have a feeling the DMCS was intended to be a serious compsition tool as opposed to a performing tool. Running DMCS out one channel and a MIDI device out the other saves on the amount of Amps you have to buy. Stan
#45061From: Steven BennettDec 22, 1986 9:43 AM
By "channel", I am referring to the actual physical D/A port used for generating the music. IFF allows one to specify TRAK, but has no requirements that a particular trak be played on a particular channel. With MIDI, this is the case. With the Amiga's internal channels, it uses the channel allocation mechanism to get a free channel whenever it needs to play a note. While this is very nice for keeping other Amiga programs using the sound stuff happy, it makes stereo sound impossible. since there is no way to determine which channel any particular note will be on. The proper method of accessing sound channels is to allocate them and NOT free them up, but rather keep the priority set appropriately and check to see if the channel was stolen before playing any note. This way, you can force notes to particular channels, and retain a stereo effect. But it makes note handling that much more difficult. –>Steve Bennett
#45061From: Steven BennettDec 22, 1986 9:43 AM
By "channel", I am referring to the actual physical D/A port used for generating the music. IFF allows one to specify TRAK, but has no requirements that a particular trak be played on a particular channel. With MIDI, this is the case. With the Amiga's internal channels, it uses the channel allocation mechanism to get a free channel whenever it needs to play a note. While this is very nice for keeping other Amiga programs using the sound stuff happy, it makes stereo sound impossible. since there is no way to determine which channel any particular note will be on. The proper method of accessing sound channels is to allocate them and NOT free them up, but rather keep the priority set appropriately and check to see if the channel was stolen before playing any note. This way, you can force notes to particular channels, and retain a stereo effect. But it makes note handling that much more difficult. –>Steve Bennett
#44985From: Dec 21, 1986 8:24 PM
Steve; M'thinks you might be missing the point here someplace. with IFF format you can specify the proper channel the instrument uses. Music Studio doesn't count yet because they haven't released their IFF utility. But using IFF instruments which have designated channels, you can get stereo. I also have a feeling the DMCS was intended to be a serious compsition tool as opposed to a performing tool. Running DMCS out one channel and a MIDI device out the other saves on the amount of Amps you have to buy. Stan
#44968From: Steven BennettDec 21, 1986 6:36 PM
Your comment reminded me of another pet peeve of mine which I hated in Music Studio, which DMCS faithfully reproduced… No stereo. Zip. Nada. Notes are apparently placed on whichever random channel is available, ruining any possibility of a stereo effect. (For a really good example of what you can do with stereo, listen to the Mindwalker endgame music in mono, then switch to stereo. Really neat effect.)