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TidBITS#176/10-May-93
=====================

 We present the first of our three-part look at MIDI on the
   Macintosh, so pay attention if you've ever wondered about
   music on the Mac. This week also brings the release of the
   latest and greatest version of Easy View, a look at a strange
   modem problem and its solution, and the scoop on how an FPU
   (floating point unit or math coprocessor) interacts with the
   LC III. Finally, information on how to get a free Microsoft
   Mail to SMTP gateway.

 Copyright 1990-1993 Adam & Tonya Engst. Non-profit, non-commercial
   publications may reprint articles if full credit is given. Other
   publications please contact us. We do not guarantee the accuracy
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Topics:
    MailBITS/10-May-93
    LC III/FPU Issues
    Easy View 2.32 Released
    Modem Follies
    MIDI and the Macintosh - Part I
    Reviews/10-May-93

[Archived as /info-mac/digest/tb/tidbits-176.etx; 29K]


MailBITS/10-May-93
------------------
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**Information Electronics** followed up on their recent
  announcement of a new SMTP mail gateway for Microsoft Mail with
  word that a limited-time evaluation version of the gateway is
  available for download, free of charge, from their support
  bulletin board. IE's FirstClass server can be reached at 607/868-
  3393. The demo software expires on 17-May-93. Jeff Parker,
  Information Electronics -- [e-mail]


**Double-sided Printing** -- Several people wrote to warn against
  printing on the back of already-printed sheets of paper, as
  recommended in TidBITS #175_. Joe Gurman relayed information from
  a repair person who claimed that some high-speed printers (the one
  in question was an older Ricoh engine used in the Talaris 1590
  printstation) were more likely to jam when using reused paper
  because of changes in the paper when it was exposed to the high
  heat in the laser engine the first time through.

  Another reader claimed that some laser printers contaminate the
  paper with small quantities of fuser oil, and reusing printed
  paper can cause this contaminant to migrate to places it doesn't
  belong, such as the rollers that grab the paper. If anyone knows
  for sure about this issue (in other words, if you're a printer
  repair person or printer engineer, not just relaying a possible
  computer legend) please let us know and we'll try to settle this
  issue once and for all. In the meantime, if you wish to play it
  safe, check with your printer manufacturer.


LC III/FPU Issues
-----------------
  A friend from Apple writes to clarify the LC III/FPU issue raised
  a while back in TidBITS #169_.

  I understand the following to be the case:

* If there is no FPU on the motherboard, and none on the card, no
  problem.

* If there is no FPU on the motherboard, and there is one on the
  card, the system uses the one on the card, albeit at 16 MHz.

* If there is an FPU on the motherboard, and there is none on the
  card, the system uses the one on the motherboard, at 25 MHz.

* If there is an FPU on the motherboard, and there is one on the
  card, the system uses the one on the motherboard, at 25 MHz.

  The FPU on the motherboard, since it is physically linked to the
  CPU, takes priority, in a manner of speaking. Removing a 16 MHz
  FPU from a PDS card and placing it in the 25 MHz socket on the
  motherboard will likely cause unexpected results. The 16 MHz part
  will probably crash the system. In other words - DON'T DO IT!

  If an LC card with an FPU crashes an LC III, I would first look at
  other incompatibilities with the card by contacting the vendor. I
  contacted Technology Works, whose cards for the LC that include an
  FPU will work in the LC III, but the software for the cards is not
  yet ready. I imagine the case is similar with cards from other
  companies.

  Information from:
    Pythaeus


Easy View 2.32 Released
-----------------------
  I recently uploaded Easy View 2.32, the latest version of Akif
  Eyler's free structured text file browser. Easy View recognizes
  the following formats:

* setext, including TidBITS
* Info-Mac, comp.sys.mac.programmer, or similar digests
* Mail collections: Internet, Navigator, Notebook, etc.
* Text with "simple" format
* Dictionaries
* Plain text

  However, there's nothing new in that list - I just wanted to grab
  the interest of people who haven't yet come out from under their
  rocks to try Easy View. It's a wonderful program, and if you can
  spare a few floppy disks, you can download all the issues of
  TidBITS from sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the info-mac/digest/tb
  directory and browse through them with Easy View instead of asking
  me about that article that might have been in TidBITS about a
  month ago that was something do with conflicts between video cards
  and certain phases of the moon. Hey, all I do is search in Easy
  View. Back issues are easy to get, so give Easy View a try.

  The basic principle is that you pop straight text files into a
  folder with an Easy View view (they used to be called indexes);
  then you can add those files to the view. The most common problems
  people have are with non-text files and not putting the text files
  in the same folder as the view.

  You can download the latest version of Easy View from the usual
  spots, including America Online in the Macintosh Hardware New
  Files library, ZiffNet/Mac in the ZMC:DOWNTECH #0 library as
  EASYVW.SIT, CompuServe in the CIS:MACAPP #2 library as EV232.SIT,
  and on sumex-aim.stanford.edu for anonymous FTP as:

    /info-mac/app/easy-view-232.hqx

  Note that the file hasn't appeared on CompuServe or the Internet
  as I write this, so I can't be absolutely sure about the locations
  or filenames for those last two sites.


New Features
  Easy View 2.32 has a spate of new features, including the ability
  to open the text file you are viewing in the application that
  created it using Apple events under System 7. I haven't the
  foggiest idea if this works under System 6, but I don't think it
  could, so add it to your list of reasons to upgrade. This feature
  works by sending a message to the Finder, telling the Finder to
  open that document with the application that created it. In my
  case that's Nisus, so it works like a charm, but if you don't have
  Nisus, or your email program assigns another creator code to the
  text file when you download, another application will open. If you
  don't have the appropriate application, the Finder will complain.
  In that case, get one of those drag & drop applications (they
  usually work under System 6 too) that can change the file type and
  creator of a bunch of files (I think one is called BunchTyper and
  another is FileTyper).

  Many people complained about Easy View's case-sensitivity in the
  past. I guess sensitive programs went out with in the 1980s, and
  Akif has obliged by adding a filter feature (yes, much like a
  filter feeder) that provides case-insensitive searches along with
  the ability to ignore diacritical marks. That's important to Akif
  because he deals with script systems and text in Turkish. Also to
  satisfy complainers, Akif added a "Search from top" option in the
  Find dialog that does what it says. Without that option checked,
  Easy View searches from the current location on down, which is
  more efficient if you know where to start.

  Aesthetics are possible in Easy View 2.32 as well, as Akif
  supports the font styles (**bold**, ~italic~, and _underline_ )
  that have existed in setext since the beginning. I don't use a lot
  of them, since it's poor practice to overuse emphasis in text, but
  they do come in handy at times, and you can define your own
  settings for each setext style. If you turn styles on (it's a
  simple toggle) and copy some styled text, the clipboard contents
  are also styled, so applications that support styled clipboards
  will retain the appropriate styles when you paste. However, I must
  warn you that Easy View has had occasional problems with styles,
  so if you experience any, shut off styles and see if the problems
  go away. If not, then tell Akif. We were unable to isolate the
  sporadic problems with styles in beta testing. The styles feature
  is still an experiment, and isn't fully supported, so you won't be
  able to print styled text, text-selection may misbehave, and word
  wrap may not work right. The solution is simple in all cases -
  shut the styles off. Styles also reduce performance, so shut them
  off during extensive searches.

  Text scrolling now works correctly so Easy View retains an overlap
  with the previous window. Without that overlap, it was easy to get
  lost while reading in Easy View; the overlap provides a context
  switch between screens of text.

  Finally, Easy View can now use the Finder's temporary memory for
  parsing under System 7, so you may be able to get away with
  allocating less memory to Easy View. I still up the default by a
  couple of hundred K, but I use Easy View to view many megabytes of
  archived email and discussions.

  Once again, kudos and thanks to Akif for making my life easier,
  and I certainly hope you can all use Easy View to make your lives
  easier too.


Modem Follies
-------------
  by Mark H. Anbinder, Contributing Editor -- [e-mail]

  Are you experiencing strange line-noise problems with your modem
  sometimes, but not all the time? I'd like to share a recent
  experience and perhaps spare some of you the full agony of
  troubleshooting such a problem.

  One of my fellow user-group members and a user of my bulletin
  board, Memory Alpha, had been complaining that he could call
  CompuServe when his PowerBook's PowerPort/Gold modem was hooked to
  his upstairs phone jack, but when he plugged the PowerPort/Gold
  into his downstairs phone jack, his connections always failed; the
  screen quickly filled with garbage. Neither Global Village (the
  PowerPort's manufacturer) nor I could come up with any reason that
  he should reliably see such different results using two different
  jacks on the same phone line.

  After I offered a few suggestions via email, none of which helped,
  I decided to visit and try to analyze the problem directly.
  Naturally, when we sat down so he could demonstrate the problem at
  his downstairs phone jack, we connected to CompuServe just fine.

  Figuring that this was an intermittent problem (despite his
  insistence to the contrary), I fiddled a bit, and showed him how
  to activate the modem's error correction from within CompuServe's
  Navigator software. This, I felt, should help even if the problem
  returned. (Ithaca is lucky enough to have a local CompuServe
  access number equipped with a high-speed modem and error
  correction.) Not wanting to give up without seeing the problem at
  all, we tried from the upstairs jack. Worked fine. We then
  returned downstairs... and suddenly saw exactly the problem he'd
  been describing!

  What had changed? We realized that, after our brief experiment
  upstairs, we'd left the telephone plugged in. Some further
  experimentation proved that, as long as that phone wasn't plugged
  in, the modem worked fine either upstairs or downstairs. With the
  phone plugged in, though, we were reliably unable to get a
  connection from the downstairs jack.

  The moral of this story? Well, despite all reason, it seems that
  sometimes other devices on the line interfere with your modem
  connection, even when the devices are on-hook and seemingly
  inactive. Most likely the problem is due to the fact that this is
  an electronic phone, which draws a little bit of power from the
  line even when it's not "doing" anything. Before tossing your
  modem in the junk-heap or angrily exchanging it for another brand,
  you'll want to check your wiring and try temporarily removing
  phones or other devices from the line.


MIDI and the Macintosh - Part I
-------------------------------
  by Shekhar Govind -- [e-mail]
  Technical editing by Craig O'Donnell -- [e-mail]
                   and Nick Rothwell -- [e-mail]

  This Mac-MIDI musical offering is organized in three movements, an
  introduction and discussion of MIDI, a look at MIDI software on
  the Macintosh, and finally, some information on MIDI hardware,
  some of it specific to the Mac. We'll look at each movement in a
  separate issue of TidBITS, so make sure to check out the next two
  issues.

1. Introduction to MIDI
    The Antecedents
    The Effects
    How MIDI Works
    MIDI and General MIDI
    Further Readings
2. MIDI software for the Macintosh
    Applications Software
    Additional System Software
    Gooey Crimes
3. MIDI Hardware
    Interface
    Macs
    Controllers
    Samplers and Synthesizers
    Coda


Introduction to MIDI
  Picture yourself as a musician, composing and arranging each part
  of, say a quartet, printing the sheet music, playing, and
  flawlessly recording (in CD quality, of course) the entire
  performance. Did we mention you could do all this by yourself on
  your Mac? You are the publisher, the composer, the band, the
  conductor, and the sound engineer - all rolled into one. As Zonker
  Harris would say "Imagine!" If you'd rather live the scenario than
  imagine it, step into the world of MIDI where you can spend as
  little as $600 or so for software, an interface, and a used
  synthesizer, or as much as $50,000 for a complete MIDI-based
  production studio.

  The MIDI specification (MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital
  Interface) enables synthesizers, sequencers, personal computers,
  drum machines, etc. to interconnect through a standard protocol
  via an inexpensive serial hardware interface. Even though the
  operating system within each device may be different, MIDI gives
  musicians "plug and play" synth-computer communication as easily
  as LocalTalk lets Mac owners connect a few Macs and a laser
  printer. Any MIDI-savvy musical instrument can connect to a Mac
  (or for that matter, to any other PC) with a MIDI interface
  attached to the serial port. With so-called "sequencing" software
  running on the Mac, a musical piece played on the instrument will
  be faithfully "recorded" on the Mac for editing and playback. (As
  explained later, the sequencer does not record the audio sound; it
  records performance information only.)


The Antecedents
  It is important to remember that MIDI was created to simplify live
  performances. During the 1981 fall convention of the Audio
  Engineering Society, Dave Smith and Chet Wood, two engineers from
  the synthesizer manufacturer Sequential Circuits (creators of the
  popular Prophet-5 synthesizer) proposed an industry standard for
  an electronic musical instrument interface. The idea was that
  performers should not have to create custom cables and devices to
  connect synthesizers. Instead, they should be able to "plug and
  play" with units from different manufacturers. (This was not the
  case before, when Moog synthesizers could not talk to ARP 2600s
  and neither would talk to Buchla Music Boxes.) Dubbed the
  Universal Synthesizer Interface (USI), this draft proposal was
  modified by the techies of various synthesizer manufacturers
  (Oberheim, Roland, Korg, Yamaha, and others of their ilk). A
  consensus was orchestrated on the revised proposal and in late
  1982 (drum-rolls please) the first set of universal MIDI
  specifications was adopted.


The Effect
  MIDI turned into an unanticipated success, rocketing sales in the
  synthesizer category to the top of the musical instrument industry
  within a few years. New companies like Opcode and Digidesign
  appeared overnight in what had previously been a sedate and
  technophobic industry. In the early 1970s the best-selling
  synthesizer keyboard (the MiniMoog) sold only about 12,000 units,
  and in the late 1970s the best seller (the Korg Poly6) sold some
  100,000 units; the best seller during the dawn of the MIDI age,
  the Yamaha DX7, combined new sounds and MIDI to sell at least
  triple the previous record (exact numbers are hard to find).


How MIDI Works
  MIDI translates a predefined set of performance events at one
  instrument, called the master controller, into digital messages
  that are sent to other devices over a low-speed serial link
  operating at 31.25 kbps - about twice the speed of a v.32bis
  modem. To make it easy to keep musical information going where it
  should, these events are encoded on any of 16 independent logical
  channels within the MIDI data stream.

  A synthesizer receiving this incoming data stream responds by
  playing music. Imagine playing a series of half-note C major
  chords on Middle C on a DX7 synthesizer wired to one or more other
  synthesizers. In this case, the receiving MIDI device plays a
  matching chord in perfect synchronization with the DX7. But (and
  this is a big but) the receiving instrument may use a different
  instrument sound, or "patch" (a patch being a particular synth
  voice - grand piano, hot guitar, sax, viola, what have you),
  depending on its settings. The chord is the same, but the
  generated sounds within each synthesizer may differ. In other
  words, MIDI keeps track of the performance events, and not the
  audio sounds. Further, a MIDI keyboard can control a number of
  sound-producing synthesizers without any computers involved, and
  without any recording of the digital data.

  As an example, consider a DX7 wired up to a Sound Canvas which is
  in turn wired to a Proteus. (Sound Canvas and Proteus are "sound
  modules" or electronic musical instruments with a synthesizer's
  sounds/circuitry but without the keyboard.) The musician plays a
  half-note C4 series on the DX7 keyboard (which could be patched to
  sound like a piano.) Notes, timing, and other performance
  information is transmitted to the keyboard-less Sound Canvas and
  Proteus sound modules (which could be patched as, say an organ and
  strings respectively).

  Schematically, it would look like:

   DX7 - MIDI cable -> Sound Canvas - MIDI cable -> Proteus (master)
 plays C4                plays C4                     plays C4
 as piano                as organ                     as strings

  The two sound modules play the same chord as the DX7; but the
  actual sounds generated within each module use a different
  instrument sound, or patch.

  People did pre-MIDI data recording and editing with special
  hardware. Some of the most sophisticated pre-MIDI systems came
  from Sequential and Oberheim and consisted of keyboards, drum
  machines and a hardware recorder (called a "sequencer") connected
  by proprietary data links and cabling. Around the same time
  Fairlight and PPG offered integrated systems controlled by a piano
  keyboard, keypad, and CRT.

  Here is an example of a simple Mac-based MIDI setup. A MIDI
  keyboard (we'll stick with the DX7) interfaces to a Mac serial
  port with a $60 MIDI interface and two MIDI cables, one from the
  keyboard's MIDI output to the interface input, and one from the
  interface output to the keyboard's MIDI input. The MIDI data links
  are unidirectional to keep everything simple and inexpensive.
  Schematically, MIDI data travels like this:

DX7 output>->MIDI cable 1>->interface in
                            interface port<->serial cable<->Mac port
DX7 input<--<MIDI cable 2<-<interface out

  The two MIDI data links convert to a bidirectional serial signal
  inside the MIDI interface.

  Consider this. You launch an inexpensive sequencer program like
  Opcode's EZVision and tell it to record incoming MIDI data. When
  you play a note on the synth, a message is sent to the Mac
  identifying the key, how hard you struck it, for what duration
  held it down, etc. The software stores this information. Once you
  play the music and all performance information has been recorded,
  you can edit individual musical events on the screen in much the
  same way you edit text in a word processor.

  To reiterate, a MIDI sequencer file is only performance
  information, not the sounds themselves. The universal
  standardization of MIDI has made it possible to use software
  sequencers instead of the earlier proprietary hardware sequencers.

  If the sequencer software is a high-end package, sheet music can
  be displayed on screen, and printed from the MIDI "sequence" file.
  The MIDI performance data can be edited, looped, reversed, the
  tempo can be changed for playback, and the entire piece can be
  transposed to different keys. In short, the data can be processed
  separately and in a more innovative manner compared to anything in
  the audio domain. Finally, the file may be resent as MIDI commands
  back to the synth for flawless playback.

  One showcase MIDI music CD is "Switched-on Bach 2000." Wendy
  Carlos's re-recording for the 25th anniversary of the hit
  classic(al) album "Switched-on Bach" was produced on a Mac IIfx.
  Wendy Carlos owns a stunning array of advanced synth gear,
  however, so remember that the Mac isn't making the sounds; the
  synthesizers are.


MIDI and General MIDI
  MIDI commands are 8-bit binary serial messages with 16 encoded
  channels. A master keyboard, one cable, and a slave device make up
  the simplest possible MIDI network. Once a computer is connected
  to the MIDI network, messages can be captured by a sequencing
  program and saved as a Standard MIDI file, a cross-platform
  standard. This means that MIDI music is, to a certain extent,
  device-independent. A Standard MIDI file played on Synth A and
  recorded on a Mac can play back on Synth B which is connected to a
  PC clone.

  While most synths respond to the complete set of MIDI commands, a
  few older (and cheaper) models don't. Many of the latest
  generation of synths understand "General MIDI," a new subset of
  MIDI specifications from the MIDI Manufacturers' Association. In a
  nutshell, General MIDI specifies a few hundred consistent
  instrument sounds which all General MIDI synthesizers can play.

  Why the need for General MIDI? Well, to start with, for years and
  years, synth manufacturers invented their own "map" of sounds, or
  voices. As an example, a Roland synth and a Korg synth would both
  have a Grand Piano as one of the instruments they could emulate.
  However, the "address" of the Grand Piano in the ROM would be
  different for the two synths - or put another way, the two synths
  would assign different patch numbers to the Grand Piano sound.

  Furthermore, one synth might have 48 different Grand Piano sounds
  and another might have four. An expensive synth might have 256
  pre-programmed patches and a cheap one, 32.

  This free-for-all made it impossible to take a fully-orchestrated
  MIDI file from a Korg M1, load it into a computer, and play the
  music as the composer intended on a Proteus from E-Mu. You'd get
  music all right, but instead of violins during the intro, you
  might hear a flute. For the music to sound as originally intended,
  someone would have to revoice (or "repatch") the arrangement for
  the new output device.

  So we lied to you a little bit before. MIDI files aren't strictly
  device-independent when it comes to playing the **original**
  sounds. General MIDI solves this because within a certain subset
  of MIDI, it specifies instruments which all synthesizers can
  share. Of course, any manufacturer is free to go beyond General
  MIDI.

  To use MIDI in multimedia, and to put MIDI chips on sound cards,
  there has to be agreement on what sound is assigned to which patch
  number. Remember, MIDI is tone-deaf and doesn't know a Hammond
  Organ from a Tam-Tam. MIDI just broadcasts signals such as: "Yo!
  Synth on Channel 1! Set Patch 45! Now play these chords!"
  Unfortunately, with complex orchestrations, the results can be
  unintentionally hilarious. A piece of well-crafted music ends up
  sounding more like the Portsmouth Sinfonia, Spike Jones, or Peter
  Schickele.

  General MIDI also answers a question that's a shade more esoteric
  - "What do I do with the drumkit?" (Musicians who play live would
  probably phrase this as "What the h*** do I do with the drummer?")
  In MIDI, a couple of drumkits may be contained in a single patch
  with individual drums and cymbals assigned to different notes on
  the piano keyboard. For example, a drum patch on your keyboard
  might map C2 to bass drum, C#2 to a rim shot, D2 to a snare drum,
  E# to a china cymbal etc.. (Yes, you can play drums from the
  keyboard!) Different drumkits could be different patches. You
  might have:

     Patch #     Type of Drumkit
        45       light jazz kit
        46       rock kit
        47       electronic rock kit
        48       orchestral percussion

  A synth needs to listen for drum commands on a given MIDI channel
  so that the notes come out as hi-hat and snare instead of as
  flugelhorn notes. We have already discussed that General MIDI
  specifies a standard patch number for a particular instrument
  (including drums). But which of the 16 possible channels could
  possibly be broadcasting the drum events? Well, prior to General
  MIDI there was no default channel number for drums that everyone
  agreed on. Now there is - Channel 10 is reserved for drums.

  In a certain sense, General MIDI restricts MIDI in that it makes
  demands of the instruments to conform to a limited set of sounds
  and a minimum capability. It is not necessarily the future of MIDI
  and synthesis; it is merely the lowest common denominator for
  people who want to orchestrate music for a predefined palette of
  sounds. General MIDI music can be ported as MIDI files and will
  continue to sound similar on different hardware setups (for
  example, for multimedia applications) without requiring patch
  remapping.

  The MIDI specification can be purchased from International MIDI
  Association (which is just that - a worldwide MIDI user group)
  with offices at:

    International MIDI Association
    1185 Hartsook Street
    North Hollywood, CA 91607

  Other technical information about MIDI is available on the
  Internet via FTP from, among other places, <ucsd.edu> and
  <louie.udel.edu>.


Further Readings
  Don't be lulled into a false sense of complacency. Like any
  computer communications language, MIDI becomes complex once you
  move beyond a simple setup with a couple of synths and a Mac.
  (Just as integrating Macintoshes into a PC network is more
  challenging than setting up a couple of computers at home with
  System 7 File Sharing.)

  For further edification, you may want to delve into some MIDI
  reference books. Steve De Furia has authored (and coauthored)
  several informative general and Mac-specific MIDI books. Keyboard
  Magazine has published several useful volumes and "Special Focus
  Guides" for a detailed look at MIDI and synth basics. Craig
  Anderton's readable "MIDI for Musicians" is a classic. Most
  libraries (and fine bookstores) offer at least a dozen other
  publications about using MIDI and creating MIDI software. Like
  most things technical, MIDI is a moving target and new books
  appear each year.

  Tune in next week for a look at MIDI software for the Macintosh.


Reviews/10-May-93
-----------------

* MacWEEK -- 03-May-93, Vol. 7, #18
    HP LaserJet 4Si MX -- pg. 63
    Tempo II Plus 3.0 -- pg. 64
    General MIDI Modules -- pg. 68
      SoundCanvas SC-55
      Yamaha TG100
    Apple Adjustable Keyboard -- pg. 69
    Safe & Sound -- pg. 69


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