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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

1028.0. "Non-DMCS instruments?" by LOWLIF::DAVIS (That's not a BUG, it's a FEATURE!) Fri Jan 01 1988 13:24

I just got Deluxe Music Construction Set last night and already have a little
question for you all.  Does anyone have any extra instruments?  I tried to 
play the songs from the MVCAD3 archives, but they aren't at their best with
the default instruments.

I'd appreciate any pointers or suggestions.  Thanks...

						...richard
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1028.1MVCAD3::BAEDERSun Jan 03 1988 21:0714
    Most of my instruments are NOT PD...they came from Instant Music,
    or the "rock & roll" disk...so sorry, but can't post them...in fact,
    I haven't seen many PD instruments, but I'll look, and see about
    posting some of them (I think I have one or two)
    
    as for the sound with the defaults...Use some sort of dump program,
    or type opt H, or the ZAP editor, etc...DMCS store the instrument
    names in IFF style near the end of the piece...At least this can
    give a clue as to the type of instrument the "author" meant...and
    its a whole lot more info than DMCS will give you...(Cant find all
    instruments...can you say BRAIN DEAD...I thought you could...;-)
    
    scott.
    
1028.2Just a thoughtHAZEL::MELLITZMon Jan 04 1988 13:244
    By any chance will "Instant Music" play DMCS songs?
    
    ... Rich
    
1028.3LOWLIF::DAVISThat's not a BUG, it's a FEATURE!Tue Jan 05 1988 15:599
re < Note 1028.1 by MVCAD3::BAEDER >

>    Most of my instruments are NOT PD...they came from Instant Music,
>    or the "rock & roll" disk...

Do you mean that DMCS will actually load instruments from Instant Music or
do you play the songs with another player?

						...richard
1028.4exitMVCAD3::BAEDERWed Jan 06 1988 20:4138
    instruments are pretty compatible..ie plain 8svx (??) IFF format,
    so yes, any IM instrument will work ok with DMCS or Sonix.  BUT
    Sonix has made some extensions to the IFF format instruments, so
    while they can load them, it modifies them, so in general SONIX
    instruments are not IFF, so not useable in DMCS or IM.
    
    so...the general scenario is as follows....
    
    		SONG FORMAT		INSTRUMENT FORMAT
    
    DMCS	DMCS or SMUS		8SVX
    
    IM		SMUS			8SVX
    
    SONIX	SMUS			RFF (extended IFF 8SVX)
    
    Note, Sonix, since it allows mods to the basic instrument, can add
    all kinds of neat extensions, etc., even the use of digitized samples.
    This is why there are some AMAZING Sonix demos (thriller, etc.).
    But this also limits the usefullness as a "real" music documentation
    program (ie written scores), since the digitized "note" shows up
    as a single whole note on the staff.  Also, any change to the timing
    (beats/min) or pitch, will affect the sample play time, and through
    the whole thing out of wack.
    
    But on the otherhand, DMCS uses only simple IFF instruments, and
    has some problems of its own.  While it can play SMUS (IFF) songs,
    it has some limitations on instrument changes, etc.  And IM is great
    for mouse jam, but difficult to really make it play songs (at least
    for me)
    
    Anyway, enough rambling for now...but I'd be more than happy to
    continue this discussion re music programs...What I'd really like
    is something that has all the good features of DMCS,SONIX,IM,etc...
    (I can dream, can't I???...:-)
    
    scott.
    
1028.5LOWLIF::DAVISThat's not a BUG, it's a FEATURE!Thu Jan 07 1988 14:2113
Hi Scott,
  Thanks for the info.  It sounds like I should check out Instant Music for
starters.  Do you think the IM instruments sound better than some of the
DMCS ones?  I feel like some of the DMCS instruments leave a little to be
desired.  The piano, for example, sounds too..."plunky".  Plunky???  Well,
something like that anyway...   
  Also, my wife and I both like music and are trying to put in some of our
favorites.  Would you be interested in adding them to [AMIGA.DMCS] when we
get them done?  I don't have the disk space here in K.C. to spare.

				Well, suppose I should get to work now,

				...richard
1028.6MVCAD3::BAEDERFri Jan 08 1988 02:1312
    sure, just let me know if/when you get something on-line that needs
    a home...(at least till the disk gets too full, and the boss finds
    out...;-)
    
    as for sound,  I agree that some of the instruments leave something
    to be desired...sorry, but I don't have a good answer for that one.
    I usually just try to find something else.
    
    good luck with finding better instruments, and keep us posted...
    
    scott.
    
1028.7LSIN utilityLOWLIF::DAVISThat's not a BUG, it's a FEATURE!Tue Jan 12 1988 05:5411
I'v found a utility that displays information about DMCS instrument and song
files as well as some SMUS songs.  It is located at:

			MDKCSW::DUA2:[DAVIS.AMIGA]LSIN
			MDKCSW::DUA2:[DAVIS.AMIGA]LSIN.DOC

It's really handy for times when DMCS says that it can't find all the inst-
ruments it wants.  At least this utility displays the names and origins of
the expected instruments to give you some idea what you can substitute!

						...richard
1028.8PD Instrument files on-line MVCAD3::user0:[amiga.dmcs.iff]MVCAD3::BAEDERSat Jan 16 1988 19:2021
    Well, found a little hack utility on Genie last week that converts
    the sound samples from the demo disk (a very early dealer demo,
    and also available as amicus #10 ??)...anyway...this week I converted
    them...still not the greatest sounding, but they are PD.  There
    are also a bunch of "strange" sounds, like pigs, car horns, etc.
    that I also converted...
    
    They are in mvcad3::user0:[amiga.dmcs.iff]
    
    Note:  they are a full disk worth (almost!)...and many of them dont
    compress verymuch with arc, so I'm just leaving them as is...
    
    I'll also uplaod the program, since it may be of some interest...but
    it didnt do the "scaling" properly...for that I ZAP'ed the files
    by hand to patch the number of samples per cycle...it needs to be
    a power of 2, feel free to change it to raise/lower the pitch by
    an octave....for more info ...see the IFF specs on 8SVX sampled
    sounds....
    
    enjoy...scott.