Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    The only Amiga-based MIDI software I am aware of is The Music Studio
    by Activision (not really useful as MIDI software; see my comments
    on it elsewhere in this conference) and the Mimetics SoundScape
    system.  I have had the Mimetics sampler for about two months (I quickly
    judged it useless for my purposes, as it was functionally deficient
    and bugridden, and what's more, it now appears to be totally broken;
    whether this is a hardware or software problem remains to be seen,
    but as it's useless when it's "working", I'm not in much of a hurry
    to figure out what went wrong).  My first impression of the SoundScape
    system is not overwhelming.  It's just basic stuff, and I haven't
    been able to make *its* sampler work (presumably it's the same software
    as the standalone sampler), and for the time being my Roland MC500
    is far more functional and reliable.  I will file a full report
    after I've had a chance to spend some real time working with
    SoundScape.  At this point, though, I'll have to say I'm still waiting
    for some decent Amiga MIDI software.  I fear I'm going to end up
    writing my own, a task I do not look forward to after 25 years in
    the programming business.  Electronic Arts' Deluxe Music remains
    to be seen.
    
    len.
    

    I also have the SoundScape sampler and sequencer.   I find the
    sampler quite acceptable for my purposes, although the samples
    I get with it are a little noisy.  The sequencer, on the other 
    hand, is the most unstable software I've ever used in my thirteen
    years of involvement with computers.  I often need to boot the
    Amiga three or four times just to get the software loaded.  After that, I'm
    lucky if the software runs for more than fifteen minutes or so
    without dying.   Sometimes it dies while it is seemingly inactive.
    It almost always dies when I edit a sequence of note data.
    
    I think this software was not stable enough to be released yet.
    However, the design doesn't seem to be that bad to me.  Mimetics,
    who sells SoundScape, supposedly will be selling an updated version
    sometime; that version may well be usable.   The version I have
    is V1.1-1; I obviously can't recommend buying that version.
    
    Supposedly, other music software from other vendors
    is due out by Christmas; I'm not sure of the year.  

    Does anyone know the exact handshaking protocol for MIDI??  I just
    bought a MIDI interface for my Mirage and Amiga, and wanted to write
    software that could transfer samples to/from the computer.  Also,
    does anyone have ANY sample MIDI source code.  Any help would be
    greatly appreciated.
    
    Derek

    The details of the protocol are much too long to type in, even if
    I could remember them!  The documentation for your Mirage should
    describe as much of MIDI as the device implements.  You can get
    a full MIDI specification from the International MIDI Association.
    
    For lots more information on using MIDI to interface between a
    computer and a music synthesizer, see the Computer Music conference.
    Type <Select> to add it to your notebook--it is on NOVA::COMMUSIC.
        John Sauter

    There's also a good article on MIDI in _Computer Music Journal_
    vol 9 #4 (Winter 1985). A bit dated, perhaps, but well written
    and offers good insights. The magazine is in the Mill 'brary.