Martin Russ delivers another bulletin from the Mac music world.
If this month's Apple Notes seems a little breathless, then blame it on the series of three disasters which have afflicted me in the past two weeks. I have had a computer virus infestation, serious trouble with my backup system (I use a removable hard disk), and a major medical emergency. Hopefully, life can now return to something like normal.
Namm News
The main NAMM Show report elsewhere in this issue contains lots of information about a wide range of new releases and updates, but here's some additional Mac‑specific news:
Opcode's Vision product will have three implementations from April (contact MCMXCIX on 071 258 3454):
- Vision 2.0, the sequencer, now with grey‑scale 3D windows, phrase and notation displays (about £350).
- Studio Vision AV, which will use an AV Mac's audio facilities or Apple Sound Manager 3.0 compatibility to provide MIDI and audio tracks (about £500).
- Studio Vision Pro, which supports the digital audio plug‑in cards from people like Digidesign... (about £600).
Opcode's MIDI Translator I and II interfaces are now joined by the Pro version. £129.95 buys you a 2 In, 6 Out device which can use both serial ports and so provides up to 32 simultaneous MIDI channels. TSC are running a special limited period offer where you can upgrade from either of the existing models to the new Pro version for about £60. Contact TSC on 071 258 3454.
Opcode's Open MIDI System V2.0 is apparently being beta‑tested at the moment, and should be here soon. Parallel developments with the FreeMIDI System from Mark Of The Unicorn promise to make the mid‑90s a busy (and potentially very confusing) time for Mac MIDI users. The demise of the UK MIDI Association leaves UK hi‑tech musicians at a serious disadvantage with MIDI‑related topics like these — perhaps we need a 'MIDI Notes' column in SOS?
Hypercolourcard!
Last month's rumour about an imminent colour version of HyperCard turned into fact just after we went to press. HyperCard 2.2 may only be a small increment in number terms (2.1 to 2.2), but lots has changed — for many programs this would now be hailed as HyperCard 3.0.
Colour support is one of the obvious enhancements, and it has been added as those 'power‑user firendly' XCMDs, in much the same way as the many existing colourisers. Although this takes advantage of the way that you can add your own code resources to HyperCard, it does mean that the new colour facilities are not well integrated with the rest of the monochrome editing environment. Colour PICTs, buttons and fields let you ruin or enhance your stacks with either carefully chosen or garish hues, although the resulting drop in speed may mean that older Macs will begin to feel slow.
Below the surface there are minor additions to the HyperTalk language, including pop‑up menu buttons and the 'OK' and 'Cancel' buttons that you find in dialogue boxes. One of the major additions is support for the Open Scripting Architecture (OSA), which means that AppleScript (amongst other scripting languages) can be used to control not only HyperCard itself, but also to control and communicate with other applications. HyperCard's easy to use programming environment coupled with AppleScript's 'readable' language should make it possible for any hi‑tech musician to develop their own customisation for OSA‑compatible sequencers. Using HyperCard to hold pre‑recorded (or scripted) sequences of actions (called 'macros') should make many of the most time‑consuming tasks much easier. I will be following this up in the coming months by looking at OSA‑compliance in music software and scripting in more detail.
Mac News In Brief
- With lots of sample libraries appearing on CD‑ROM, now should be a good time to take advantage of the low price on the double‑speed, multi‑session Apple CD300 and 'direct to TV and computer' Apple Power CD. prices, for both are hovering just under £200, but stocks are limited. Apple are reputedly making a loss on items such as these, and the strategy seems to be to kick‑start CD‑ROMs into mass ownership. I paid almost twice this amount for my CD drive only six months ago, so the word 'bargain' might be appropriate — shop around for the best mix of price versus quality of supplier.
- The Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) might sound like some sort of Film Club, but it is an umbrella term for a set of international standards covering the audio and video coding of Movies. MPEG has become synonymous with MPEG‑1 coding, which forms the basis of the Reel Magic and Mason cards for the Mac, as well as the Philip's CDi digital video system, and even the Video On Demand (interactive TV down your telephone wires) system which British Telecom is rumoured to be launching soon. Full‑motion, full‑screen video with hi‑fi sound quality, and without the jerkiness or blockiness of current QuickTime, are all destined to change the way that CDs, computers and TV are perceived.
- Todd Rundgren has been making CD‑ROMs for several years now. Peter Gabriel has even managed to get his Xplora 1 CD‑ROM featured in the Sunday Times. So David Bowie and numerous other musicians are about to be joined in the interactive multimedia world by fellow Mac enthusiast Pete Townsend, whose Tommy CD‑ROM is due for release later this year. Multimedia combined with a 'deaf, dumb and blind kid' (aka Tommy) should make an interesting contrast! Presumably, the baked beans will pour out of the slot in the front of the CD‑ROM?
- Continuing this month's unplanned CD‑ROM theme, several cult classics from the past are about to be released on interactive Mac media. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and other comic book characters feature on Ron Mann's Comic Book Confidential CD‑ROM. Contact KimTec on 0202 888873 for more details.
- Apple continues to sell more machines, but also to make less profit on them. Aggressive pricing means that Macs are now priced comparably (or lower) than approximately equivalent PC‑compatibles, and Apple seem to be selling lots of them — over a million units were shipped in the last quarter of 1993. Apple's share of the world computer market was 11% in 1993, which puts them in the top three suppliers of computers.
Troubleshooting
Last month's column featured one paragraph entitled 'Troubleshooting', and then went on to describe how to solve problems when installing custom icons. If this whetted your appetite for more serious Mac problem‑solving, then here's a quick set of guidelines which may help you. I have assumed that you are running System 7.1, the current Mac operating system.
- Examine the System Folder, particularly Control Panels and Extensions folders. The basic rule here is that 'less = better'! All those neat screen‑savers, clocks in the menu bar, silly noises and other fun add‑ons may be entertaining, but they may also cause problems. If you need useful gadgets like colour resolution switchers (I use Andrew Welch's excellent ColourSwitch 1.01: shareware $10) check for incompatibility first, by running 'before and after' tests as you add each extra program. Adding lots of gadgets at once is a recipe for trouble. (ColourSwitch and similar utility programs allow direct choice of colour modes...)
- Check for Viruses. The excellent freeware program Disinfectant continues to improve (V3.3 is the latest I have seen) and is essential insurance against a virus attack, provided you remember to run a check on your disks every so often — how about now?
- MIDI Manager — heavy on CPU power and often unnecessary; you need to be very careful in your use of this Apple MIDI driver. Slow Macs used with simple 'standard interfaces' and basic sequencer packages probably don't need any added loading, whilst fast Macs with multi‑port interfaces usually use the specialist drivers supplied by the interface or sequencer manufacturers. Read your MIDI equipment manuals carefully to make sure that you know what is happening and how to set up your Mac — it can markedly affect the efficiency of your MIDI setup.
- Fonts and Scrapbook. Freeing up RAM memory can also help the performance of your Mac music system. Try removing unused fonts from the System Folder — the Mac will stop you from throwing away anything essential, and most applications have the fonts they need embedded inside the program. You should also try to keep your Scrapbook tidy. I looked at mine recently and discovered to my horror that it was hogging over 1.5 Mb. Problems with low memory can produce all sorts of mysterious symptoms, so a little bit of housekeeping can work wonders.
- Backups. A little nagging on my part about making regular backups can help you recover from a disaster situation. Hard disks can and do fail in spectacular and sometimes irretrievable ways. Is your music saved only on your hard disk? If so, start worrying now and do something about it!
Please Register!
I have had appeals from the representatives of several different manufacturers, all asking owners of Mac MIDI music software to register with them. With the ongoing developments in Macs, MIDI and software technology, you definitely need to ensure that you are in direct contact with the manufacturer, so let them know who you are. Filling in Registration Forms can even be rewarding — I have received free footswitches, videos, and even support software so far!