issue10

EMUSIC-L Digest                                      Volume 51, Issue 10

This issue's topics:
	
	"Quest of the Holly Interface"
	Solaris OS (7 messages)
	SUN I/O - CSOUND (3 messages)

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Date:         Fri, 23 Apr 1993 02:31:19 +0000
From:         David HAUBENSACK 
Subject:      "Quest of the Holly Interface"

Hi,

I'm planing to purchase a MIDI interface for my 486-33 PC running
Cakewalk Win, that offers several INs, several OUTs, 1 midi merge,
at least 2 midi ports, not buggy Windows 3.1 drivers and
compatibility with CakeWin. Does anybody have experience with such
a gear ? Price indications would be also welcome.

Other question: can I find such an interface that would be MPU-
compatible, in order to use it with common PD software and to
write software of my own in C.

David.
---
David Haubensack  e-mail: hbsk@hostsit.cad.cea.fr
C.E.A. Cadarache, DEP/SIT, 13108 ST-PAUL-LEZ-DURANCE
FRANCE (phone: 33-42254292, fax: 33-42257298)

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Date:         Thu, 1 Apr 1993 07:34:05 +0000
From:         Nick Rothwell 
Subject:      Re: Solaris OS

>Does anyone know anything about this computer?

Sounds like the PowerPC to me.

>If so, is it going to be
>something to consider for MIDI and/or DSP?

I have here the Solaris software catalogue. It's 2000 pages long. Number of
MIDI/music products: zero. The machine might be interesting but don't count
on SunSoft or third-party sources to deliver software on the SunOS/Solaris
part of it at least.

(From what I can tell, Solaris stinks. I'm using SunOS4.1 here (and have
used Suns for many years), and it's all the benefits of Unix (joke) with
the crappiest user interface/window system I've ever used. Fine as a UNIX
development platform, but no way a home machine. Besides, where in your
apartment would you want to store the ten feet of manuals?)

                        Nick Rothwell   |   cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk
     CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance   |   cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk

------------------------------
Date:         Thu, 1 Apr 1993 12:59:43 GMT
From:         Martin Rootes 
Subject:      Re: Solaris OS

> I have here the Solaris software catalogue. It's 2000 pages long. Number of
> MIDI/music products: zero. The machine might be interesting but don't count
> on SunSoft or third-party sources to deliver software on the SunOS/Solaris
> part of it at least.
You can get quite a lot of PD music stuff for Unix systems, csound, cmusic,
MuTeX spring to mind.
>
> (From what I can tell, Solaris stinks. I'm using SunOS4.1 here (and have
> used Suns for many years), and it's all the benefits of Unix (joke) with
> the crappiest user interface/window system I've ever used. Fine as a UNIX
> development platform, but no way a home machine. Besides, where in your
> apartment would you want to store the ten feet of manuals?)
I thought this list was about music, not operating systems? SunOS is very good
Unix operating system, it has several interfaces including a crap one (Sunview)
and a good one (Open Windows).

  Martin


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Rootes - Senior Systems Programmer/Analyst, Sheffield Hallam University
Email :         M.Rootes@shu.ac.uk
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------
Date:         Thu, 1 Apr 1993 09:30:55 PST
From:         Casey Dunn 
Subject:      Re: Solaris OS

You said (Re: Re: Solaris OS)
> [stuff deleted]
> I have here the Solaris software catalogue. It's 2000 pages long. Number of
> MIDI/music products: zero. The machine might be interesting but don't count
> on SunSoft or third-party sources to deliver software on the SunOS/Solaris
> part of it at least.

well, two things;
        1) sun is so opportunistic it's funny they didn't include
           Csound!
        2) would people buy them?
  bonus 3) does that catalog contain any non-OpenLook productalia?
>
> (From what I can tell, Solaris stinks. I'm using SunOS4.1 here (and have
> used Suns for many years), and it's all the benefits of Unix (joke) with
> the crappiest user interface/window system I've ever used. Fine as a UNIX
> development platform, but no way a home machine. Besides, where in your
> apartment would you want to store the ten feet of manuals?)
>
>                         Nick Rothwell   |   cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk
>      CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance   |   cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk

Nick, you and I must waddle back and forth between the same computing
environments... one thing I keep finding myself doing is clicking on a
background Mac window and thinking that everything will keep running
in the background...esp disk access.

switch to motif; it's a little better.

------------------------------
Date:         Sat, 3 Apr 1993 09:15:26 +0000
From:         Nick Rothwell 
Subject:      Re: Solaris OS

>You can get quite a lot of PD music stuff for Unix systems, csound, cmusic,
>MuTeX spring to mind.

Music, yes. MIDI, no. For my purposes, and those of many other musicians I
expect, MIDI, SMPTE etc. are important.

>I thought this list was about music, not operating systems?

Yes, but bear in mind that most musicians want machines they can use at
home or in a small studio space, and which are basically plug-and-go. A
SPARCstation arrives in a transit van in about twenty large boxes, half of
which are full of manuals, and in which you will find, after several hours
searching, the actual computer. (And eventually the keyboard.) UNIX
configuration is something else again. My point is that Sun are absolutely
not geared to providing personal machines, and I don't see Solaris
providing anything here. It's not all the fault of UNIX - NeXTStep is, from
what I've seen, quite presentable as a machine to use for
non-propellor-head work.

>SunOS is very good
>Unix operating system, it has several interfaces including a crap one (Sunview)
>and a good one (Open Windows).

I'm using OpenWindows at the moment. Well, I'm trying to. I still think it
stinks. I just cannot imagine anything like a sequencer or a patch
librarian on it that wouldn't be horrible to use, without a lot of redesign
of the interface tools. All the commercial demos I've run on it have had
pretty slow and ugly interfaces, and response has been pretty bad.

                        Nick Rothwell   |   cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk
     CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance   |   cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk

------------------------------
Date:         Sat, 3 Apr 1993 09:15:36 +0000
From:         Nick Rothwell 
Subject:      Re: Solaris OS

>        1) sun is so opportunistic it's funny they didn't include
>           Csound!

Lemme see: [Ooh, ouch, hernia...] No. There's a small section of
multimedia, and a section called "Storage devices and audio." One or two
sound boards, that's it.

>        2) would people buy them?

Nope. Apart from anything else, these things (software specifically) still
have mainframe prices.

>  bonus 3) does that catalog contain any non-OpenLook productalia?

Mostly OpenLook, some of it isn't.

>Nick, you and I must waddle back and forth between the same computing
>environments... one thing I keep finding myself doing is clicking on a
>background Mac window and thinking that everything will keep running
>in the background...esp disk access.

I keep clicking on a background window on this SPARC and find that nothing
happens for several seconds, *apart* from disk access... There's something
to be said for non-preemptive multitasking. (And there's something to be
said or having more that 16M of RAM...) Sorry, but as a home machine or
music platform (for other than development, for which it's excellent), I
don't think that UNIX plus a bolted on student project of a window system
is really what we're after.

                        Nick Rothwell   |   cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk
     CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance   |   cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk

------------------------------
Date:         Sat, 3 Apr 1993 16:25:55 GMT
From:         Greg Lee 
Subject:      Re: Solaris OS

Nick Rothwell (cassiel@CASSIEL.DEMON.CO.UK) wrote:
: >You can get quite a lot of PD music stuff for Unix systems, csound, cmusic,
: >MuTeX spring to mind.
:
: Music, yes. MIDI, no. For my purposes, and those of many other musicians I
: expect, MIDI, SMPTE etc. are important.

Well, it's not much yet, but there's _something_.  You can find a midi file
playing program here:
        tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/sources/usr.bin/adagio03.tar.z

It's batch-oriented, and the i/o routines at present work only for
Linux and a SoundBlaster-type soundcard.  It does provide a rather
awkward way of recording new tracks using a keyboard (if the soundcard
provides a midi input port, as the pas16 does).

I could use some suggestions about the following problem I'm up against
right now in developing this program.  I need a general method, which
can be configured for specific setups, for allocating synth resources
to channels, voices/timbres, and notes.  What I've done up to now is try to
take account of how much the synth I happen to have can handle (a
K1: 8 of 64 voices, 8 notes), and do the leftovers on the internal soundcard.
But that approach is ad hoc, and now I've got another soundcard, so 3
synths to deal with, so I really need a better method.

------------------------------
Date:         Sun, 4 Apr 1993 11:03:00 EDT
From:         Tim Thompson 
Subject:      Re: Solaris OS

> From:    Greg Lee 
> I could use some suggestions about the following problem I'm up against
> right now in developing this program.  I need a general method, which
> can be configured for specific setups, for allocating synth resources

Peter Langston (psl@bellcore.com) was developing a /etc/synthcap format
(analagous to /etc/termcap and /etc/printcap) that was a method for specifying
synth patches and capabilities.  You might check with him to see if what
he came up with looks useful.   ...Tim Thompson...tjt@blink.att.com...

------------------------------
Date:         Tue, 6 Apr 1993 12:35:24 BST
From:         Andy Farnell 
Subject:      Re: SUN I/O - CSOUND

I am looking for a method to get CSOUND sample files (either AIFF or flat
16 bit files) as quickly as possible (ie preferably via SCSI) into an AKAI
S1000 sampler or EMULATOR for auditioning. Does anyone have a program to
run on a SUN that might perform this transfer. Alternatively a program
to convert these files to midi sample dump format might be useful.
Yet another option would be to get a decent 16bit D/A board for the SUN
but I have no knowledge of any sources.

All information greatly appreciated,
A.J Farnell
Computing and Cognition
Bournemouth University

------------------------------
Date:         Tue, 6 Apr 1993 16:24:28 +0000
From:         Ferdinando Villa 
Subject:      Re: SUN I/O - CSOUND

>
>
> I am looking for a method to get CSOUND sample files (either AIFF or flat
> 16 bit files) as quickly as possible (ie preferably via SCSI) into an AKAI
> S1000 sampler or EMULATOR for auditioning. Does anyone have a program to
> run on a SUN that might perform this transfer. Alternatively a program
> to convert these files to midi sample dump format might be useful.
> Yet another option would be to get a decent 16bit D/A board for the SUN
> but I have no knowledge of any sources.
>
> All information greatly appreciated,
> A.J Farnell
> Computing and Cognition
> Bournemouth University
>

I posted a similar question some times ago. As far as I know the only
programs that will allow you to do this are Alchemy and Sound Designer.
I have only seen Alchemy, which works with SCSI and SDS. None of these
are public domain/freeware/shareware. If you happen to find something
else please post your solution.

bye

--
Ferdinando Villa, dr.

Institute of Ecology                     Direct phone: +39-521-905615
University of Parma                               FAX: +39-521-905665
Viale delle Scienze                      e.mail: villa@eagle.bio.unipr.it
43100 Parma, Italy                               villa@sparrow.bio.unipr.it

------------------------------
Date:         Tue, 6 Apr 1993 17:06:31 +0000
From:         Ferdinando Villa 
Subject:      Re: SUN I/O - CSOUND

Sorry, I did not notice you meant software for SUNs... what I suggested
was for Macintosh, as everybody knows. Shame on me.
--
Ferdinando Villa, dr.

Institute of Ecology                     Direct phone: +39-521-905615
University of Parma                               FAX: +39-521-905665
Viale delle Scienze                      e.mail: villa@eagle.bio.unipr.it
43100 Parma, Italy                               villa@sparrow.bio.unipr.it

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End of the EMUSIC-L Digest
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