It might be an unorthodox style of musicianship, but anything that adds strings to the Amiga's bow is to be welcomed. Paul Overaa gets tangled up in LOOM...
This month sees the first official release of an Amiga internal sounds algorithmic music composition package called LOOM. Written by Paul Webb, it is being distributed by SeaSoft Computing, and is essentially an object‑oriented package that allows music to be created by assembling objects (notes, chords, arpeggios, drum patterns and so on). Phrases can therefore be built up and manipulated, and all this output can be used as the basis for forming larger sections of music. Objects can themselves be manipulated and transformed by other objects, and indeed much of the power of LOOM comes from its ability to use existing object hierarchies; musical objects defined within the boundaries of other objects.
It's pretty obvious that an immense amount of work has gone into LOOM, but there is one fly in the ointment. The underlying ideas connected with the LOOM system are complex by their very nature, and even the basic themes are not going to be that easily understood by most musicians. Object construction involves things like flowchart‑style algorithm creation, and when you add the use of recursion (a programming technique whereby a routine gets things done by calling itself), the use of networks and the use of generators based on mathematical formulae and so on, I'm sure that many potential users are going to take one look at the manual and the ideas behind the program, and run!
To be fair, I ought to point out that there is some help provided with LOOM — for example, you get around 200 predefined drum patterns, and a whole disk full of predefined object files. But as far as actually using LOOM as an everyday tool for creating music... well, it's going to take quite a lot of effort. The package is going to be great for experimenting with an area that is still on the cutting edge of modern music theory, but given that most musicians want to play music and keep the technical stuff as far into the background as possible, I can't really see LOOM appealing to the masses. Chances are, to get the best from the program, you'll need either to be a programmer in the first place or be particularly interested in algorithmic music composition systems as a subject in its own right.
As far as competition goes — quite simply there isn't any — and there's certainly not been anything like LOOM on the Amiga before. This alone will ensure that the package will create interest amongst Amiga users. The only snag is that the LOOM system is large, and requires a minimum of 4Mb of RAM to run. The current version is available for £30 (+ £1 p&p) and users of earlier, experimental, versions of the program can get the manual and upgrade for £10 (+ £1 p&p). There is also a MIDI version of the program being developed, although a final release date for this has not yet been set. You can obtain more details from SeaSoft Computing, on 01903 850378.
Serial Killers
Over the last year or so there has, for obvious reasons, been a fairly thriving market in second‑hand Amigas. It's not just older machines like the A500 and A500+ that can be picked up; even A1200s and A4000s are being regularly advertised at prices that are about half of the going rate of new machines. One worry that has been voiced in several letters I've received is whether early Amigas such as the A500s and A2000 are suitable for sequencing applications. People have also been worried that because early machines were relatively slow compared to current offerings, there could be MIDI‑specific timing problems.
As far as the speed issues are concerned, it's certainly true that the Amiga's serial device (the piece of software used to provide a high‑level interface for controlling the serial hardware) has improved over the years, but the Amiga's serial chips have always been able to cope perfectly well with the high serial transmission rates (baud) needed for MIDI. More to the point, all commercial sequencers by‑pass the Amiga's serial device software, and control the underlying serial port hardware directly — so they've never been restricted by any serial device software limitations. In short, MIDI timing is rock‑solid, even on old Amigas!
Having said that, it is probably best if old machines, and by that I mean those running Workbench 1.3, are avoided. This isn't because these machines can't be used for serious MIDI work: version 1.6 of the Amiga's Dr T's KCS sequencer, for instance, was powerful enough for serious use and small enough to run on an Amiga with just 1Mb of memory. The trouble is, such early versions of the KCS sequencer just can't be bought these days, and the most recent version (KCS version 3.55) is really aimed at machines that have a couple of megabytes of available memory.
The other reason for steering clear of Workbench 1.3‑based machines is that Workbench 1.3 is now regarded universally as being obsolete. This is because by the time that the subsequent version of the Amiga's Workbench appeared, Release 2 (or Release 2.04 to give it its full name), an awful lot of improvements had been made. Further improvements came with Workbench 3 (which you'll get with all A1200 and A4000 machines). The stopping‑off point as far as second‑hand machines are concerned, however, is this: almost all current Amiga software now regards Workbench 2.04 as the minimum environment that should be available on a machine — so, if you buy an Amiga that doesn't have at least this minimum O/S version, then you'll cut yourself off from a lot of useful software!
While music technology software continues to develop into new areas on other computer platforms, notably digital recording, the Amiga has begun to lag further and further behind in recent months. The announcement publicised in last month's Amiga Notes is typical of the way the market is heading — Blue Ribbon Soundworks, producers of flagship Amiga sequencer Bars&Pipes Professional, have pulled out of Amiga software to concentrate on PC software development. To reflect this shift in the market, we at Sound On Sound have decided to bring the regular Amiga Notes column to an end this month. Nevertheless, we will continue to notify readers of new Amiga releases via our news pages.
Tip Of The Month: Using MIDI Files From Dos Disks
When purchasing MIDI files for the first time from the many suppliers who provide arrangements on DOS‑formatted disks, Amiga users often hit two snags: Firstly, they'll load a MIDI file, only to be told that the file is corrupt or otherwise unreadable. This is invariably the result of incorrect CrossDOS settings — when reading MIDI files from DOS disks using the Amiga, it is essential to turn off the CrossDOS text translation and filtering options!
The second problem involves the doc/text files that come on DOS disks. These do not have icons, so although you'll be able to see the files by using the Workbench Window menu's Show All Files option, you won't be able to read those files by double‑clicking on the 'pseudo‑icons'. The solution in all such cases is to add a real icon to the file. Inside the Workbench Tools drawer (floppy disk‑based users will find this on their Extras3.0 disk) there is a utility called IconEdit that allows you to create new icons.
If you run IconEdit and select Project from the Types menu, then select New from the program's Project menu (clicking on 'Start New' in the requester window that appears) then you'll generate a new default project icon. If you then select Save As, and save the icon file to the same disk and drawer as your docs file, you'll store a permanent copy on disk. (You can, incidentally, use the same name as the file, because IconEdit will automatically add the required .info icon filename extension to the name you supply).
Once the icon is available, select it, and then choose Information from the Workbench Icon menu. In the window that appears, you'll see a box called Default tool. Just enter the name of the editor or file viewer you wish to use, click on the Save gadget, and the next time you double‑click on your new icon, your MIDI song docs file will be automatically loaded into the desired program, ready to view. This works even if you've kept your files on the same DOS disk (rather than copying them to an Amiga disk). In this case, however, you must turn the CrossDOS text translation and filtering options ON in order to view the file!
Amiga News In Brief
- AREXX COMPILER
Horizon Software have just released a new ARexx compiler called Rexecute that can turn your ARexx scripts into a form that can be executed by just double‑clicking on the script's icon. Needless to say, this eliminates the need for messing around with IconX and creating supporting AmigaDOS script files when wanting to run things like OctaMEDPlayer ARexx scripts directly from the Workbench. In addition to this, the Rexecute package provides some high‑powered library facilities which will be of use to many serious ARexx coders. Rexecute costs just £14.95 (including p&p), and is available from Horizon Software. For more details, contact Horizon on 01621 778778. - RBF SOFTWARE JOINS THE SURFERS
With OctaMED Sound Studio now nearing completion, registered OctaMED users seem keen to get the latest info on the new package. Net surfers amongst you may therefore like to know that RBF Software are now on the World Wide Web at:
- GETTING CRAFTY
MIDICraft have just released a couple of MIDI file compilations on Amiga disks. The first, Essential Jarre Vol 1, contains ten of Jean‑Michel Jarre's well known scores (including Oxygene material). The second, Rob Hubbard C64 Classics Vol 1, provides a sort of Amiga musical flashback to the days of the Commodore C64 computer. Each disk costs £12 and comes configured to General MIDI, with all relevant text files listing score and GM details supplied. You can also get the material as Music X performance files, as Bars&Pipes song files, or in DR T's KCS ALL format. MIDICraft, incidentally, are currently developing a MIDI Net CD‑ROM which will contain all kinds of Amiga MIDI software, MIDI and Music X files, and various MIDI tutorials. At the moment, the idea is to bundle it with the Craft Brother's next audio CD album, The Second Coming, which is due to be released in about two months' time. Contact MIDICraft on 01928 563762 for further information!