| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 99.1 | | SAUTER::SAUTER | | Tue May 21 1985 20:36 | 11 |
| I am only familiar with relatively expensive ways of making music, so my
advice may not be optimal. There is a MIDI interface you can get for an
IBM PC. It would probably need to be modified to work on the Rainbow. Once
you had that you could get a MIDI-compatible synthesizer and some software
to run it. You would need source code for the software, since it will probably
require small changes to work on the Rainbow.
Somehow that doesn't sound very practical. Why do you want to use a Rainbow?
There is a synthesizer called the Six-Track that contains its own sequencer
and makes some interesting music.
John Sauter
|
| 99.2 | | GWEN::LUGRIN | | Wed May 22 1985 15:45 | 11 |
| I want to use a Rainbow because I have one... I probably should have bought
an IBM compatible, but...
And I am a LOT better in software than in music. So I am interested in
writting software which may help me playing with sounds. I surely will
have more flexibility if I can put some software of my own in the system.
How much is "rather expensive"? What is the price of a MIDI syntheziser,
or of the one with internal "programming"?
Jean-Marc Lugrin
|
| 99.3 | | SAUTER::SAUTER | | Wed May 22 1985 17:14 | 5 |
| The market is evolving very fast, and my memory isn't too good, so this price
may not be very accurate. I suspect the six-track is selling for somewhere
around $1000 to $2000. Does anybody have price information that is more
reliable than mine?
John Sauter
|
| 99.4 | | DARTS::RICH | | Thu May 23 1985 15:41 | 21 |
| Let me suggest an alternative. When I was in the Rainbow group, we purchased
a device from VOTRAX incorporated called (I believe ) now type-and-talk.
Besides converting asscii text to voice (a la the DECtalk) it also had a
three voice synthesizer with fairly simple set of options (attack, envelope,
etc.) I was able to program it to speak french (german was tough because
no "ch" sound) and produce credible three voice songs, such as "OVER the
Rainbow" (get it? :-))
The good news is it was around $300 aand uses the comm port or printer port.
The bad news is I do not know if it is still available. You can check by
going dirrect to the company.
VOTRAX INC.
1394 Rankin
Troy Michigan 48083
800-521-1350
This is hardly professional level synthesis, but might be just what you are
looking for to get started. << Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute. Bonne
chance!>>
|
| 99.5 | | REX::SIMONE | | Tue May 28 1985 01:12 | 10 |
| I recall talking to a salesman at LaSalle Music in Watertown, who mentioned
that an RS232 to MIDI converter was finally available. It cost about $600
but it had some interesting standalone features (sequencer etc.) to justify
the pricetag.
I think that this would be the easiest way to interface to a rainbow. If
I find out anything more concrete, I'll post it here (i.e. Manufacturer,
"real" price, more detailed list of functions).
Guido
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| 99.6 | | GWEN::LUGRIN | | Thu May 30 1985 16:51 | 1 |
| Thank you for your information. I'll put a reply if I buy something. jm
|
| 99.7 | | LATOUR::MCARLETON | | Thu Jun 06 1985 21:30 | 13 |
| It may be cheaper to start over with new hardware. I bought a YAMAHA CX5M
Music Computer (See my note on it in this file ~69?). It goes for $469 without
a musical keyboard. You will also need the Music Macro program for $50 if
you plan to use it without a keyboard. The major drawback of this system
is that you have to program in BASIC (What I would give for a C compiler
for this machine). The BASIC that it has is very good and the Music Macro
program gives you may callable routines to drive the synth. Most of the
other software and hardware is designed for the pro musican and consists
of sequencers and such. I think that the CX5M is the best system for the
software hacker to make music on.
Mike.
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