M@ilbox
No such thing as a dumb question... I have an Atari
1040ST that I really like and I am interested
in using it as a musical platform for both editing
of scores and creation of new music. I
am puzzled by the MIDI portion of the machine
though, and perhaps that is why this may be
a stupid question: Is there a way
or a piece of software which allows for playing
of MIDI tracks/sequences/compositions on the
internal speaker?
For a followup,
if the answer to that is no, what would be a
decent piece of software for composing original
music using differently voiced instruments which
DOES permit output through the internal speaker??? I have a basic 3 part scoring application
now but am not overly impressed with the beeps
which it emits, and I have heard much better
effects out of said speaker.
Is my goal hopeless
here?
Steve Souther,
USA
Tim Conrardy
replies Yes, there are several
applications. One is Dr T's Tiger Cub. It
allows you to play samples using the internal
sound on the ST. As a matter of fact,
the program actually comes with the samples!
The program is an excellent sequencer
with lots of editing capability. KCS' little
brother, so to speak.
Another is
MUSIC*MICRO By Ron Recker. Apparently it
started as a tracker editing program and
then MIDI was added to it, thus expanding
it into a hybrid tracker/MIDI application.
Within the program is also an editor for
the ST sound chip with an excellent graphic
interface. Ron has also provided a HTML
manual created from the original documentation
as well as utilities to use with the program.
Both of these
are avialble on the software page at TAMW
(http://tamw.atari-users.net) under sequencers.
Shiuming
Lai replies The ST computers don't
have internal speakers, what you are
referring to is the in-built sound generation
capabilities, which inevitably emanate from
a television or monitor speaker in most
cases. Certainly there are many programs
available for generating sound straight
from the box, the most popular (and best
sounding) ones being based on sampled sound,
the various so-called tracker mod formats.
These are generally not compatible with
MIDI. There are ways of making the
ST play MIDI song data without using real outboard
MIDI sound modules, the most well-known
being EPSS from Unit 17 of Sweden, for STE
and TT (using their 8-bit stereo DMA sound)
but ultimately, none of these methods can
create the sophistication and resolution
of sound available from a real dedicated
sound module. That's the whole idea of MIDI,
taking the burden of sound synthesis away
from the host system, leaving it to do less
strenuous tasks such as sequencing.
If you still
really want to use an Atari computer as
a sound source (and why not, it's cool),
then beg, steal or borrow a Falcon030, buy
a copy of ACE MIDI from http://nb.atari.org
and slave it to your ST via MIDI, then enjoy
the lush analogue style sounds ACE can produce.
![[Divider]](images/divide.gif)
Didot Pro
- no shortcuts I found your article about making Calamus fonts with Didot Pro.
Now that it
seems to be that we are the last two Didot users - perhaps you can help
me:
When starting Didot Pro (orig. Version 4.141) an errorscreen
appears: "DIDOT.HLP not found or defected-shortcuts not
possible", everything else is working fine.
I used Didot on my Falcon
for a long time (incl. shortcuts), but after I made a big HD-crash i had to
install my software again and now this error occures.
There is really
no DIDOT.HLP file in the DIDOT.CFG folder, but there are
"DEUTSCH.HLP;ENGLISH.HLP;FRENCH.HLP and ITALIANO.HLP". Renaming any of them
to "DIDOT.HLP" don't change anything, pressing ALT+CTRL+SHIFT L for setting
new shortcut don't work and I can't find any solutions in the
manual.
Please tell me if I have to set any special start-parameters
or please mail the missing "DIDOT.HLP" file (if you can find it).
I
hope you can help.
Lars Schmidbauer,
Germany
![[Divider]](images/divide.gif)
Bargain Ataris Hi
where is this shop that has ST for sale at £25
Martin Stevens
Shiuming
Lai replies What,
and let you clear out my secret supply?!
Seriously, that's about the going rate for
used STs at any junk emporium (I'm talking about
unchecked machines piled together like scrap
here), you could probably spend that much
just travelling to a specific shop. My local
music store doesn't discriminate between
Atari models, you buy the stuff as seen, so it
pays to know what you're looking at. I expect
Thomas Wellicome will be even more tight-lipped
about where he bought a full working TT030
for £23, the jammy sod...
![[Divider]](images/divide.gif)
The documentation
for Atari games I had both an Atari 800
and an Atari St during the 80's. I now
have a couple of atari emulators running under
Win XP pro, and have even found copies of some
of my favorite games from those years. But
guess what! I don't remember the instructions
for the games, and the downloaded software does
not come with the software. I gave away
my atari materials long ago.
Article idea.
Is there an archive for the old game manuals
someplace? Assuming that scanning the
old manuals for distribution on-line would be
somewhat expensive, for a reasonable price,
I suspect there is a market for the material
on an on-line distribution basis.
Any ideas about
where one would go to find such a treasure trove?
Bob
Matthew Preston
replies You're in luck as most of it has already been done. Take a look
at Atariage.com, they have manuals for everything from the Atari 2600
to Jaguar in HTML format to read in your web browser.
Shiuming
Lai replies I think the best and
most enjoyable games are those which don't
need instructions! However, you've touched
on a valid issue, one that along with the
games themselves is very much in a grey
area. Manuals that accompany games are also
subject to copyright law, the problem is,
like the games, most of the original publishers
(remember, we're talking of the '80s, a
time when there was a huge proliferation
of small, independent publishers) have
long since disappeared, and getting permission
to reproduce any portion of the software
packages is practically impossible. I've
heard of at least one company though, which
has painstakingly traced the original authors
and publishers of selected Atari 8-bit computer games,
for permission to release them on
cartridge format compilations. It's good
to see the hard work was successful.
TXG replies Look at AtariAge.com,
there are manuals. MyAtari is better used for reviews of games but not a database for
manuals.
![[Divider]](images/divide.gif)
ST games under
emulation I hv a 1040ST w/o hard drive
and the floppies are mostly worn out by now
I found some Windows Emulators that can play
some of the games in my collections I wish to
know which emulator is the better one. can u
advise?
Mr. K. T. Yeo,
Malaysia
Shiuming
Lai replies The "best"
emulator for a given task, like just about any product, is the one that works for you.
STeem and SainT are the two most popular
ones at the moment, they are also still
actively developed and I think the majority
of users use them for running games. As
they are both also free, it does no harm
to have both installed on the same system.
One may be more compatible on some software
than the other and vice-versa. Keep reading
MyAtari magazine because we'll be reporting
on emulation from time to time, we have
a resident expert in this area, Matthew
Preston.
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