:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Volume 2 - Issue 3 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 29 January 1993 :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI :: :: EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER :: :: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE :: :: :: :: Published and Copyright ˝ 1993 by Atari Corporation :: :: """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: Editor ............................................... Travis Guy :: :: Assistant Editor ............................... Ron Robinson :: :: Assistant Editor ........................... Albert Dayes :: :: Assistant Editor ................... Andreas Barbiero :: :: News Editor ................................ Lyre :: :: Editor-at-Large ................... Ed Krimen :: :: Hardware Editor ......... Britton Robbins :: :: :: :: Contributors :: :: """""""""""" :: :: John J. Lehett Timothy Wilson :: :: :: :: :: :: Editorial Advisory Board :: :: """""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: President, Atari Corporation........................Sam Tramiel :: :: Director of Application Software...................Bill Rehbock :: :: Director, Computer Marketing ........................Don Thomas :: :: Director of Communications...........................Bob Brodie :: :: Corporate Director, International Music Markets....James Grunke :: :: Atari Explorer Magazine............................Mike Lindsay :: :: :: :: Telecommunicated to you via: :: :: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: GEnie: AEO.MAG :: :: CompuServe: 70007,3615 :: :: Delphi: ABARBIERO :: :: Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 706 :: :: AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Table of Contents * From the Editors ................................... Finding our stride. * MultiTOS for the 68000 Series ........... Andreas gives some pointers on how Atari's new multitasking OS will run on older STs. * The ALBERT File: Hot NAMM! .......... Albert Dayes visited the 1993 NAMM Show - full of Falcon030s and other new music trends. * Ron's Random Ramblin' ........... Back from Daytona & hitting his marks. * Krimen on GEnie ............... Ed takes a look at a recent topic thread "TOS: Is it properly programmed?" * Atari Explorer - Nov/Dec 1992 TOC ............ "The best magazine in the Atari universe" is back! * Atari Users Online: GEnie .......... GEnie chat from the past two weeks. * Beginner's MIDI ................ How to make your Atari play your synth. * GEnie News ........................... New files & happenings on Atari's Official Online Resource. * An Introduction to UNIX and the Internet .................. Part 2 of 4. * Shutdown ........................ A new online magazine for programmers. --==--==--==--==-- ||| From the Editors ....... Atari Explorer Online: The Next Generation ||| Travis Guy / | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG ------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to another issue of Atari Explorer Online - your guide to The World Atari. In this issue we have an exclusive hands-on report about MultiTOS, and how it works on older machines. Andreas has been testing the latest versions of Atari's new OS on his Mega STe, and he has come up with some interesting conclusions and recommendations for ST owners wanting to take a crack at MTOS. Albert Dayes spent a weekend at the NAMM show and (as you should expect) has quite a bit to say about the experience. The ALBERT File: Hot NAMM is an enjoyable look at the Annual Computer Musicians' Conclave. Ron Robinson is back at home from an enjoyable vacation spent here in sunny, (moderately) tropical Florida! His Random Ramblin' is back in AEO and is not to be missed. Ed Krimen, our Editor-at-Large (Hey! I resemble that remark!) introduces his series - a thoughtful look at a subject raised on GEnie. Ed's opening article deals with the supposedly inefficient TOS. TOS isn't "feeble" as many would have you believe. Our issue rounds out with John J. Lehett's article on MIDI for Total Beginners (I needed to read that!) and part 2 of Tim Wilson's UNIX and the Internet tutorial (I needed to read that, too). Interspersed with all of that are Lyre's GEnie Users Online feature (which shows off again only a tiny bit of the wealth of information to be found in the Atari ST RoundTable), GEnie's STRT news regular, and the Table of Contents for the November/December Atari Explorer Magazine. Yes, Explorer is back. The first Lindsay/Meer issue is in the mail, and the Jan/Feb issue should be distributed RSN. The Jan/Feb issue (a special Atari Artist look at music) appeared at NAMM, and was well received by the crowds. If you don't receive Atari Explorer Magazine yet, you'll find a subscription coupon in this AEO. Use it. While two months is not enough time to build a real tradition, tradition around here holds that this is the place where the captions for our Snapshot Specials can be found. Well, this issue holds a real treat. Three compressed monochrome Degas screens of MultiTOS in action on a Mega STe, and a TT030 medium resolution GIF showing the 16 color icons: INSTALL.PC3: The initial MultiTOS Install Dialog (yes, in a window). DEVICE_U.PC3: MultiTOS installs a U: device (like a virtual drive) that you can use to monitor processes, pipe activity, and even other drives! DTOPINWW.PC3: An AES 4 Desktop directory window opened over a WordWriter ST window. Note the Desktop menu bar shows, indicating that the Desktop is the active process in this shot. WordWriter ST sits comfortably in the background, awaiting its turn. MTOS_TT.GIF: This shot shows off the 16 color icons, as well as three applications running at once: Atari's Landmine, Talking Clockż, and Calendar/Appointment Book. Note with special care the Desk Accessory menu at the left. Yes! There's more than 6 DAs installed. Even more interesting, under the DA listing is a list of running programs (the arrow menu slot there allows the program names to be scrolled if there's not enough room to display them all. Cool.). All of these snapshots were tested with GEMView - a great SHAREWARE utility that you can pick up off of GEnie. Check out the Shutdown for news of an open house this last weekend in January as well as news of a NEW online magazine to debut next month! Astute observers of our masthead will note some changes. Gone after a one issue stint as Software Editor, is Doyle Helms. Doyle and a buddy are starting a Photo CD business (and having to use a 486 clone) and couldn't devote enough time to his AEO duties. Good Luck, Doyle! Signing on as Hardware Editor is Britton Robbins. His and Ed Krimen's bios follow. (for those of you who want to maintain a complete set of AEO Editors' Bios) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// AEO.4 - Britton Robbins =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Hello, my name is Britton Robbins. I have been working with computers since the old Radio Shack TRS-80 first came out. I worked for a government contractor as a systems engineer shortly after the IBM PC came out. I started my experience with Atari computers with a 600XL which I really loved. (Great Games!) When I heard about the 520ST it sounded too good to be true. I purchased one shortly after they were released. Since then, I have either owned or used extensively a variety of computers including; Atari 520STE, Atari MEGA ST2, Atari TT, Macintosh, IBM PC clone 386; Xerox 6085 Workstation. I have spent a lot of time studying computer hardware and architecture. I currently work for Xerox Corporation as a service engineer. The views I express here are my own and do not in any way represent the views of or an endorsement by Xerox Corporation. On a lighter note, I use my Atari computers for desktop publishing, telecommunications, budgeting, and writing and playing original music. (oh, and a game every now and then) To be honest, I play most of my video games on the Sega Genesis & Sega CD. I'm hoping the Jaguar comes out soon and blows Sega and Nintendo out of the water. Lastly, I am the new VP of the Bay Area Atari Users Group. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// AEO.5 - Ed Krimen =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= I have always believed that computer networks such as GEnie are absolutely the best place to find answers for your questions about the ST. Whether you're having problems with your hard drive or trying to find a special graphics program, no place can answer your question more definitively than the ST Roundtable on GEnie. The wide breadth of knowledge that the users, the sysops, the developers, and the Atari employees possess goes largely untapped except to those who frequent the ST RT regularly. Unfortunately, many ST users don't have the luxury to comb the entire RT daily. That's where I come in. For over a year, I've been capturing the majority of GEnie messages that would interest the general ST user and reprinting the more informative ones each week in my Perusing GEnie column in Z*Net. I plan to continue to do this on a bi-weekly basis. On the alternative weeks, Atari Explorer Online will publish a feature column in which I will present to you a special series of messages found on GEnie. Each series will cover a single topic, not a variety of topics like I covered in Z*Net. Moreover, this new column will be presented in a more traditional fashion, including my comments and viewpoints on certain items. Although the ST market isn't as large as we all would hope, I find that I can offer substantial contributions to the ST community in order to help spread news and information about our beloved computers. My contributions can help others who aren't able to participate on GEnie regularly. There's a lot of good software and hardware out there that many people don't know about; with regular columns and feature articles, I hope to pass this news on to others. I suppose I'll tell you a little about myself. I've been an ST user since 1988 and an Atari user since the 2600 game system days. In 1991, I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in Information and Communication Studies from California State University, Chico. I studied Telecommunications (mass media, radio and television broadcasting) with an emphasis in computer graphics. After receiving my degree, I spent a year producing training videos for a large California workers' compensation insurance company. At this time, I'm searching for a job in the computer and video industries. I also play basketball twice a week. Thanks guys. And now, on with the show! --==--==--==--==-- ||| MultiTOS for the 68000 series STs ||| By: Andreas Barbiero / | \ Delphi: ABARBIERO GEnie: AEO.2 ----------------------------------- //// Get A Falcon030 Desktop on your ST The power of being able to run more than one program at once is something we all have needed (or wanted) at one time or another. Being able to have access to secondary programs at the same time as you work in a particular program, while they all execute their tasks without your attendance, _and_ being able to have programs talk to one another through the use of pipes and shared data is just a few of the ways that MultiTOS can multiply your productivity. It takes a great deal of computing power and software balancing to juggle more than one program at once, especially when two programs have to have access to the same resources at the same time. Not only do the system requirements increase with this type of tasking, but a wholly new system for organizing, keeping track, and prioritizing these processes is needed. MultiTOS attempts this feat, and still manages to present us with a familiar, yet more polished interface. A little while back AEO included some screenshots of the Falcon030 desktop complete with 3D buttons and window gadgets, 16 color animated icons, and other enhancements. You will still need a Falcon030 to get a DSP chip (and the myriad of hardware enhancments), but now you can get the Falcon030 desktop on your ST/TT030 with MultiTOS. //// System Needs MultiTOS is not just a new TOS revision, like TOS 1.4 or 2.06, but is a disk-based system which will require a more robust system than a stock 520ST will be able to provide. For starters, 4 megs is absolute minimum to allow MTOS to run, and be able to load programs in on top of it. You could load the MTOS kernel into a 2 meg computer, but you would not want to work in such tight confines, as the remaining room will be nearly useless. You will also need a hard drive, as there is about 900K of data and files that you will need access to, not to mention the storage needs of the programs you are trying to run under MTOS. Unfortunatly, this may leave most ST users out of the picture. If you have any processor intensive applications running under a 8MHz 68000, "slow" will be a kind word. A MSTe boosts the abilities, but a Falcon030 or a TT030 is exactly what MTOS was designed to run on, and on these computers, it runs without any of the limitations of the ST. This may seem to be dissapointing, but when the power of a system is increased as much as MTOS increases a 68030, older technology just is not able to keep up. After all, we are talking a chip designed around 15 years ago - you can't expect it to compete forever. The Atari ST still remains a viable computer while '286s and other processors of that era are truly obsolete. I remember when I made that jump from a 48K Atari 800 to my first 520ST, I was stunned at the thought of programs that would take up more than 500K! AES 4, the heart of the new desktop, is included with MultiTOS. This is highly similar to Falcon030 GEM. The 3D desktop works in all resolutions, and the 16 color icons are really nice. Unfortunately on a ST, they are limited to 320X200. If you are lucky enough to have a TT030, the 640X480 mode is really nice, especially with the added features present with a 68030 chip. What about the ST? What can we do? The Mega STe is cheap, and the AlberTT graphics card from Dover Research is now under $300. This card will give a MSTe or a TT 1024X768 with 16 colors. Compatability is outstanding. The AlberTT emulates the ST low screen using the original VDI, but at a higher resolution. Combine this with a decent 14" or a 17" monitor, and a real powerhouse opens up. The additional speed of a 16MHz 68000 is noticable, and really keeps things moving. Even on a monochrome ST system (with enough memory), the ST system is slow, but usable. Determining whether or not the added flexibility is worth the added overhead and cost is up to you! There are other options available: the Turbo 25MHz accelerator is a nice boost to the standard ST, And the TurboRAM RAM expansion is the only way to break the 4 megabyte limitation on an ST. But these upgrades might be up to half the cost of buying a TT030, never mind a Falcon030, or the same as buying a Mega STe. //// What to Run? Finding out what will run, and what won't, on the ST/MTOS combo is the biggest factor here, as the software which will run sucessfully on this system will have to be particularly clean. Even the simplest non-standard software will refuse to run, and without the 68030's built in memory protection, a crash will probably bring the whole system down. For the sake of fairness, and not to mislead anyone, I will add the following. With a 68000 based computer, you are taking chances with MTOS. It WILL run on your ST, but the lack of speed and memory protection will cause weird problems. One program might run just fine with everything else, then later on you load up another application, and BANG, you have a crash, all because of some spurious data written somewhere or left behind. Does this mean don't use it? No. Just don't spend 10 hours on your doctorate thesis without saving, then when you experience a crash, get mad at me! Terminal programs are particularly touchy. Aladdin works under MultiTOS, but won't let the system go while it is connected, making the other processes inaccessable. You have access to the desk dropdown menus, but cannot switch out of it to another program! As far as word processors go, Word Writer ST works well, in fact I am using it right now, under MultiTOS, with several other programs loaded into the background. You can run TOS applications with a program, MINIWIN included in the release version of MTOS. I am compiling a list of software which works and will be including the list with operating hints it in another article, which will be released similtanious with MTOS. In the meantime, experiment with your favorite software, and let the author know if it doesn't work. If you registered your software, or bought the software, they should be willing to attempt a fix. No matter how much work is put into MTOS, if the programmer breaks the rules no-one can prevent bombs. This is why memory protection is important. On a TT030 or Falcon030, if you get a bomb from a non-MTOS aware program, the whole system won't lock up like it will on an ST. Commercial software is being upgraded to work under MultiTOS and should be available soon. Watch AEO for updates. This is not a bulletproof system for the ST, but it is interesting, and if you are remotely interested in what the power of MultiTOS on a 68030 can do for you, or want to get a head start on learning how to use the Falcon030, try it out! AEO will publish more information when MTOS arrives, helping you to use it, and to answer your questions. --==--==--==--==-- ||| The ALBERT File: Hot NAMM! ||| By: Albert Dayes / | \ CompuServe: 70007, 3615 GEnie: AEO.1 -------------------------------------------------------------------- /*********************************************************************** Title: namm.doc Created: January 15, 1993 Last Modified: January 28, 1993 Purpose: A Guide to the recent NAMM (January 15-18, 1993) show with highlights from the Atari Exhibits. Author: Albert Dayes ***********************************************************************/ HH HH OOOOOO TTTTTT NN NN A MM MM MM MM !! HH HH O O TT NNN NN A A MMM MMM MMM MMM !! HHHHHH O O TT NNNN NN AAAAA MM M MM MM M MM !! HH HH O O TT NN NNNN A A MM MM MM MM HH HH OOOOOO TT NN NN A A MM MM MM MM @@ ======================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1) NAMM - what is it? 2) The Arena 3) The Bud Lite Girls 4) The Atari Throne Room 5) The Video 6) The Speakers 7) Atari's Concert Series 8) What is new from Atari music/MIDI developers? 9) The person who started it all 10) It's Alive 11) Same Make Same Model 12) The Presentation 13) Virtual Reality Mixer 14) Glossary of Terms 15) Additional Sources of Information =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 1) NAMM - What is it? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NAMM stands for the National Association of Music Merchants is a trade show that is not open to the public. As COMDEX caters to the computer dealer NAMM caters to the music dealer. Many different topics are covered in the seminars at NAMM shows. From music education, how to generate better sales, music month, computers and music and new developments in music technology. In 1901 a group of piano merchants formed an association to ensure the credibility, integrity, professionalism and overall well-being of the industry. They realized that as an association - putting self interests aside - they could accomplish things that they could not achieve by themselves. The association evolved over time and expanded its scope. Music retailers and manufacturers representing every product category were brought in as members. The mission of the National Association of Music Merchants - "To unify and strengthen the music products industry and increase the number of active music makers" - traces it roots back to the original founding of the Association in 1901. NAMM's four major areas of concentration are Membership Services, Educational Activities, Trade Shows and Marked Development. In addition, NAMM annually funds worth- while projects that are beneficial to the entire industry and have the potential of significantly impacting long-term future of the industry. [ from Page 6: Winter NAMM 1993, Directory ] |-------| | | | | | | <----- California, USA | | \ \ \ \ \ \ Pacific \ * <============ NAMM show in Anaheim Ocean \ \ ------- NAMM consists of the Anaheim Convention Center (Five halls [A-E] plus the Arena) and the hotel Anaheim Marriott. This year hall E was used for registration rather than the Arena. [E][D][C][B][A](ARENA) [ ANAHEIM MARRIOTT ] |--------------------| |------------------| convention center hotel The NAMM show is the place where your ears and eyes are opened to new and exciting things in the world of music. New products, prices and people dominate the landscape as you are drawn to the pulsating beat coming from the Arena. / --------- \ / \ / \ A R E N A <================= Entrance (badge required) \ / \ / \ --------- / =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 2) "The Arena" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A distant light beckons as you walk, hypnotized, towards the resounding pulsed sound. Its low frequency changes character as you emerge into the arena itself and you are immediately dazzled by the lights. Flashing lights in perfect sync with the beat guide you towards a booth. The booth is a mini dance hall with lights and sounds all under the control of a computer. It is like a miniature cave and you soon forget your surroundings as you become immersed into your new environment. The arena is home to companies demonstrating lighting and sound equipment. Some booths were giving away "tokens" so everyone would know that one had been to their booth. One company was giving away chemical lights (green in color) that one could wear or attach to a briefcase. Some people had fun with these and attached them to their foreheads. It was very comical watching people walking around with these glowing green dots on their heads. As one turns towards the first hall (Hall A) the sound recedes quickly as you exit into a quieter part of the show. Walking through booths filled with sheet music, drum sticks, and cables, one can relax (a little) and continue investigating. [--------------] | | | HALL A |------ | <======== from the Arena [--------------]------ One of the nice aspects of NAMM is the mini concerts one is treated to in the different booths. A voice solo in one, flutes in another, and many other events. They happen all the time so one can just walk around and listen and then follow the sound to a concert in progress. Electric Guitars always seem to generate crowds very quickly - almost like flash floods in the desert. Some of the music vendors next door to some of the guitar vendors lost their crowds the instant the first guitar chord was sounded. [---------------] | | | HALL B |-- | <=========== from Hall A [---------------]-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 3) "The Bud Lite Girls" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= There is always something new and interesting to see at these shows and this one is no exception. Once I was walking in an aisle and suddenly the crowd just stopped moving - for no apparent reason. In this case it was the "Bud Lite Girls" making their second annual appearance. The BL Girls just stand in an aisle giving out stickers and people stop to take pictures of them. Or with them. Therefore the obvious slowing. This also happens at other booths when a musical celebrity appears and either gives a mini concert or autographs posters. Some of the most important booths carry the single product that is very important to anyone walking around NAMM - a plastic bag! When one starts grabbing large amounts of literature for later reading, plastic bags become a must have item. [------------------] | | | HALL C |---- | <================== from Hall B [------------------]---- | 2 | | 0 | | 0 | | 4 | ----- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 4) "The Atari Throne Room" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Having a room off the main hall is very beneficial. Noise control is the most important aspect which helps keeps the prospective music dealer focused on the product being demonstrated. On Friday morning I was greeted by James Grunke (Corporate Director, International Music Markets, at Atari) and Annette. In a few moments an Atari press conference was to start and I did not want to miss it. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 5) "The Video" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The lights dimmed, a music video was played on a large screen (not large, HUGE! Some said it was 40 inches). "Waiting for You" was the name of the song and it was all done on the Falcon030. Marcia's vocals for this song were actually recorded to the hard disk before anything else (as were the accompanying visuals). The remaining instrumentation was added afterwards, synched to the hard drive via D2D's desk accessory. The original "after hours" feel of the song has been retained for the first verse and chorus, but then Cubase was used to remix the remainder for a house/dance groove. The video was genlocked to a Falcon030 which was generating the video titling in real time. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 6) "The Speakers" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= At the conference, James Grunke spoke about the merits of the Atari Falcon030 and its new potential for the music industry. He pointed out that the Falcon030s should be shipping in quantity in six to eight weeks. Bill Rehbock spoke next with regards to technical aspects of the Falcon030 and how it will work. Also discussed was the great cooperation between third party developers - among themselves and with Atari. Then music software and hardware developers were given a few minutes each to talk about their products, or the FALCON, or both. ==> D2D D2D and the 4-track direct to disk recorder program (4T/FX) for exclusive use on the FALCON is currently shipping. FALCON D2D will be bundled with every FALCON030. Also hardware products that provide different clock rates for 44.1 and 48kHz clocks for CD and DAT sample rates respectively. Hardware that gives 4 professional ins/outs, AES/EBU interfaces and more, was also discussed. Barefoot Software and D2D/Singular Solutions are working together to provide MIDI sequencing and digital audio on the Falcon. This is a brand new announcement but not the first time they have worked together before. D2D c/o Digital I/O 2554 Lincoln Blvd Suite 122 Marina Del Ray, CA 90291 USA (310)-398-3993 ==> Steinberg/Jones Cubase v3.0 is their current offering for MIDI sequencing and notation. Also Cubase Audio is in the works and it will work with the Yamaha direct to disk recorder hardware. Steinberg/Jones 17700 Raymer ST Suite 1001 Northridge, CA 91325 USA (818)-993-4091 (818)-701-7452 (fax) ==> E-magic/C-Lab E-magic (partly owned by Ensoniq) took over C-Lab and will continue supporting Notator for the Atari ST. An upgrade for the product is planned for the 2nd quarter of 1993. Also, a new hardware key will have some useful function to it. Also, it will allow both Notator and other C-Lab products to share the same key. A new product called Notator Logic was also announced. E-magic/C-Lab 155 Great Valley Parkway Malvern, PA 19355 USA (215)-647-3930 (215)-647-8908 (fax) ==> Dynatech Spoke about their data storage products available for musicians and Atari computers. These include CD-ROM drives, hard drives and other optical media. Dynatek 15 Tangiers Road, Toronto Ontario, Canada M3J 2b1 (416)-636-3000 (416)-636-3011 (fax) ==> Motorola Talked about the advances of the new Atari Falcon030 and how it brings down the cost of powerful chips so everyone can afford one - these chips being the Motorola 68030 CPU and the 56001 DSP (Digital Signal Processor). 6501 William Cannon Drive West Austin, TX 78735 USA (512)-891-2039 (512)-891-2947 (fax) ==> AMEK Spoke about their console automation hardware/software. This reduces the traditional costs from $250,000 to around $30,000. A great example of Power Without the Price. This is approximately 8 times cheaper than the normal price for console automation. Amek/TAC US Operations 10815 Burbank Blvd North Hollywood, CA 91601 USA (818)-508-9788 (818)-508-8619 (fax) ==> YAMAHA Talked about their new hard disk recording system and its use on the Atari ST in conjunction with Cubase Audio. This unit is the CBX-D5 which controls digital multi-track recordings, analog-to-digital and digital to analog conversions, digital audio routing, digital signal processing, and digital equalization, MIDI, digital ins/outs and more. I also enjoyed their ad in the January 15, 1993 Up Beat Daily (the official NAMM publication, page 2) The new Yamaha CBX-D5 Digital Recording Processor, developed in Cooperation with premier hardware and software designers throughout the world, can be immediately interfaced with the most popular and affordable computers being used today. This impressive list includes Atari (ST, TT and the new Falcon).... Yamaha Corp of America PO Box 6600 Buena Park, CA 90622 USA (714)-522-9011 ==> Digital F/X The Digital Master EX (a 4 track professional direct to disk recorder) is currently shipping. Digital Master EX has 4 professional ins/outs, SMPTE sync, digital i/o support, sample rates from 15kHz to 48kHz, 4 tracks with 16 virtual tracks available. Also an announcement of a software only version for use on the Atari Falcon030. Digital F/X 755 Ravendale Drive Mountain View, CA 94043 USA (800)-274-4339 (415)-961-2800 (415)-961-6990 FAX ==> Other developers spoke as well but are not mentioned here. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 7) "Atari's Concert series" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Every few hours a music/MIDI developer would give a concert demonstrating their software/hardware combination. The two I went to were very entertaining. ==< Digital F/X using Digital Master EX > "Clinton raps Bush" Basically they took phrases from the political speeches that both Clinton and Bush made and put them into a rap song. It was very comical to say the least. After showing that, they created a rap song on the fly demonstrating the capabilities of Digital Master EX virtual tracks. The editing software is very quick on performing edits. It works very well with SMPTE too. It's been shipping for quite a while already. ==< D2D demonstration > "Waiting for You" They played several songs with the Atari Falcon030 providing real time effects for the guitar and some with direct from disk playback of digital audio at the same time. It was also synched to video via SMPTE time code for some parts as well. Paul Wiffen of D2D played the guitar and explained how the Falcon030 in conjunction with the software controlled everything. Also playing keyboards was Jeff Naideau of Barefoot software. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 8) "What is new from Atari music/MIDI Developers?" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Atari Explorer Magazine (print version) NAMM issue (Jan/Feb 1993) contains more detailed information on many of these products mentioned here and quite a few others. So be sure to watch for that issue when it becomes available. Copies were distributed at the NAMM show. ==> Codehead Software MIDI Spy is about to ship and it is a very exciting new product. Once it is loaded it stays completely in the background. You can play anything on the keyboard and MIDI Spy saves them. You can also specify which keyboard events (just like HotWire) to perform certain things. In addition, MIDI Spy can watch for MIDI events and perform different things like start or end record mode and start or end play mode. It reads/writes standard MIDI files so you can load the sequences back into your favorite sequencer and play away. A demo is available from Codehead and possibly some of the on-line services. This one has very great potential!!!!! They were also showing MIDIMax. CodeHead Software PO Box 74090 Los Angeles, CA, 90004 (213)-386-5735 (213)-386-5789 (fax) ==> Barefoot Software A update to SMPTE-TRAK and EDIT-TRAK to the Platinum Line gives a tiled look rather than full screen look. Also many of the features that would only work on a single item will work on any group of items. For example, one can take several channels and "tie" them together. You can then move a slider to change the fader for the whole group. Many of the features work in a similar manner which is makes it much nicer to work with. The Platinum version is currently shipping. Also they are selling Gen Edit v2.0, Ludwig, Ez-Score+, Hybri-Switch, the MIDIPlexer, and the Smpte-Mate hardware. Also they announced an agreement with D2D that will bring MIDI sequencing and digital audio together on a Falcon030. Barefoot Software 19865 Covello Street Canoga Park, CA 91306 USA (818)-727-7143 (818)-727-0632 (fax) ==> Take Note Software Take Note version 2.0 is for ear training and much more. It has over 30 scales, and has a staff, piano keyboard and guitar on the screen at the same time. So one can see how it relates to both of these instruments very easily. It also supports MIDI, and one can control many of the functions via MIDI as well. Take Note Software 285 Divisadero #3 San Francisco, CA 94117 USA (415)-431-9495 ==> Oktal Their new program Multitude (3 versions Intro, Pro and Pro/Notation) is a new sequencer for the Atari ST. It features 256 tracks, 768ppq and several levels of undo (up to 99). One feature that is nice about the undo is that one can choose the specific event that they wish to undo. To pick a certain item, a selector box comes up and one clicks on the item and that is all. It's quite nice without having to resort to losing all of your work - just undo a single item far down on the list. Shipping is scheduled in the first quarter of 1993. Oktal 315 East Rene-Levesque Boul Suite 110, Montreal Quebec, Canada (514)-844-3428 GEnie: O.OKTAL ==> Chro_Magic software innovations. Guitaristics version 1.92 is a guitar instruction program. Pianistics version 1.10 is keyboard instruction tool. Pianistics Encyclopedia features everything in Pianistics but includes a pattern practice mode. It will select a portion of a piece and then allow one to practice on that section. Also a new program is under development called Pianistics Professor which is a beginners introduction to music. Demos are available. Chro_MAGIC Software Innovations 516 North Jackson Joplin, MO, 64801 USA (417)-623-7393 ==> MGI Had two guitar programs for the Atari. These were unique in that they used digitized guitar samples that are played out of the normal STe's sound hardware. It sounds quite impressive considering it's only using 8-bit samples. One is for scales and the other individual chords or notes. Both of these allow one to create their own lessons so one's creativity is not limited. Both of these programs will be available in the first quarter of 1993. They will cost $99 each. It will be distributed in the USA by Thinkware. MGI soft 8000 Munich 90 Auerfldstr 22 Germany 089-4486509 089-4801182 (fax) ==> Hotz Instrument Technology This software really isn't new - it's been shown at a few previous NAMM shows, but in conjunction with the Hotz Box. The Hotz MIDI translator software (separately) sells for approximately $300. Hotz Instruments Technology PO Box 828 Newbury Park, CA 91319 USA (805)-492-5553 (805)-493-4650 (fax) ==> Akai/IMC They were showing sample editing tools for the Akai family of samplers. Three programs in a new line of software called Sample Tools. Also includes the unique capability to read Roland formatted SCSI media for samples. Of course, AKAI samples can be read without any problem. Polystar - realtime wave editor and librarian for Akai samplers. Parastar - realtime parameter and sample editor for Akai samplers. Wavestar - realtime wave editor for all samplers SDS (sample dump standard). All of these products should be shipping during the first quarter of 1993. Akai/IMC PO BOX 2344 Fort Worth, TX 76113 USA (817)-336-5114 There are probably some developers that have been missed in this short list of developers. If anyone knows of anyone please forward the information to AEO so it can be included later on. Dr. T had a separate booth showing their Omega sequencer software for the Atari ST. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 9) "The person who started it all" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= At the 1983 NAMM show, MIDI sequencing was first introduced to the world on the Atari 8-bit computer with software from Hybrid Arts. While I was at the Digital F/X booth, Chez Bridges said, "Look! Here is the man who started it all." There he was Bob Moore himself. It was nice to be able to talk to the person who brought this entire industry to life - all on an Atari computer. In case one is not familiar with Hybrid Arts, it was split into two companies. Barefoot Software handles the MIDI software end, and Digital FX handles the Digital Audio recording end. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 10) "It's Alive" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= At the Motorola booth (an Atari Falcon030 was running there too) I had the opportunity to talk to some of engineering staff about the different applications one can do with the 56K DSP. It is quite amazing all the free example code to do different things (with the DSP) that is currently available. This nice thing about shows like this is one can get literature and talk to an expert all in one place. They also had example circuitry of the new AES/EBU chip wired in conjunction with the 56K DSP in a glass case. Brent Karley - he works mainly in the audio area of DSP operation of Motorola - provided some very interested insight into how these products work. There was quite a few different spec sheets available, no user manuals for the 56K this year however. There was a sheet where one can select all the literature, books he/she wanted and have them mailed to you if needed. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 11) "Same Make - Same Model" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= At the Digital F/X booth a voice said "same make - same model"... it was the T2 (Terminator II - Judgement Day) demo. It looks very familiar - I think it is the same one Lexicor had running on a Falcon030 at the Glendale Atari show. The audio/video in this case was on an SGI (Silicon Graphics, Unix Workstation) and the sound was outstanding. The SGI uses a Motorola 56K DSP just like the Falcon030. Also the speakers helped too... they were only $2000 EACH! Surprisingly it was quite small. The whole file is supposed to be under 2 megabytes in size for all the audio and video. Suspected compression used is MPEG. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 12) The Presentation =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Atari's overall presentation was outstanding and very professional. There were quite a few Atari machines running outside of the main Atari booth (16 developer sub-stations). The third party developers did an excellent job of providing the necessary materials and answering questions in a very detailed manner. These third party developers helped Atari promote a very professional and polished image. The rest of the show was basically nothing really outstanding as such, but there are an increasing number of direct to disk recorders coming out. It seems like the Atari Falcon030 will be perfectly positioned to join this group. Most of the enhancements (in the non-Atari realm) seem to be in the evolutionary stage rather than revolutionary stage. I was amazed at how many people could recognize the name Falcon030 already. Atari has to have done a good job in that department. The other major announcement was that Creative Labs (makers of Sound Blaster cards for the PC) has bought out E-MU systems. E-MU makes several high quality MIDI instruments and has a quite a few popular samplers like the E-III and Proteus. This show, as someone else said, is, "Like a large party." Everywhere you turn there is someone you know from an AES show, a previous NAMM show, or other event. One would be walking in an aisle and then someone would say "Hey aren't you so and so?" Also saw quite a few ads for the Compuserve MIDI FORUMS in the different booths as well. Being the Atari Explorer on-line representative on Compuserve, I knew some of the organizations/people at the booths from conversations online. It's great to finally be able to match the face to CIS number. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 13) Virtual Reality Mixer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= While I was talking to Chez Bridges (of Digital F/X) a person came up and started conversation about mixing. Basically, David Gibson (of the California Recording Institute) uses a 3D concept to think about the whole abstract process. Think of a large 3-dimensional cube as a large open space. Place two speakers on both sides and a few floating sphere-like objects at different distances away from the front. Each object represents an element of music. The speakers represent volume - by moving them forward, the sound gets louder. Moving backward into the distance makes the sound softer. Moving them up or down changes the tonality of the sound. All elements of music (i.e., phrasing, harmony, melody, etc) are all represented with a sphere. By moving all of these elements around, one can duplicate any mix in a completely visual way. David teaches these concepts currently but would like to enhance them using a computer. Using a computer with virtual reality, one would be able to grab any of the elements using a "power glove" like device and move them around. So one could actively participate in the mixing process by being able to grab the speaker and move it up or down and hear the associated changes in the sound in real time. Chez and I agreed that this is definitely the most interesting idea to come out of the Winter 1993 NAMM show. This could be a very interesting application on the Atari Falcon030 too. For more information: California Recording Institute 970 O'Brien Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415)-324-0464 ========================================================================= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 14) Glossary of Terms ( not a complete list ) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ADC = Analog to Digital Converter - converts analog audio electrical voltages into a corresponding stream of binary digits. ADSR = Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release (4 stage envelop). AES = Audio Engineering Society. CHANNEL = (1) In MIDI, one of 16 data messages used in routing mIDI information. (2) In Audio, a discrete signal path. DAC = Digital to Analog Converter (reverse of ADC). EBU = European Broadcasting Union. FILTER = Eliminates certain frequencies from an audio signal. HERTZ = Frequency unit measurement ( 1 cycle per second = 1 hz ). MIDI = Musical Instrument Digital Interface - standard for data exchange between music instruments and computers, etc. NAMM = National Association of Music Merchants. SAMPLE = A digitally encoded and stored representation of a waveform. SAMPLE RATE = The number of samples per second. Also can be considered Sample frequency. SMPTE = Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. This is usually thought of in sense of SMPTE timecode. Basically, it allows video tape/audio tape to be given a unique address for each frame. This address is usually expressed in the form of Hours, Minutes, Seconds, and Frames (HH:MM:SS:FF). So one can have certain events triggered at certain addresses on the tape. These events can be anything from mIDI, lighting, samplers, etc. S/P DIF = Sony/Philips Digital Interchange Format. This allows for two channels of 16-bit audio data in one direction over a single cable. WAVEFORM = (1) A periodic pattern of air movement which, in the audio spectrum, produces sound. (2) An analog or digital representation thereof. ======================================================================== =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// 15) Additional Sources of Information (not a complete list) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Audio Engineering Society (AES) 60 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10165-2520 USA Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave PO BOX 3427 Sunnyvale, CA 94088 (408)-745-2000 International MIDI Association 5316 West 57th Street Los Angeles, CA 90056 USA (310)-649-6434 (310)-215-3380 (FAX) NAMM 5140 Avenida Encinas Carlsbad, CA 92008 (800)-767-6266 (619)-438-8001 (619)-438-7327 (fax) NAMM-TV News 25 Willowdale Ave Port Washington, NY 11050 USA (516)-767-2500 (516)-767-9335 (FAX) thinKware 130 9th Street #303 San Francisco, CA 94103 (800)-369-6191 (415)-255-2091 (415)-255-6199 (fax) --==--==--==--==-- ||| Ron's Random Ramblins ............................. 28 January, 1993 ||| By: Ron Robinson / | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.1 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Falcon030 Goes on Tour """""""""""""""""""""" One of our local Atari developers kindly volunteered to "computer sit" the loaner Falcon030 while we were vacationing - not much arm twisting required on this request. Being the super type of person most Atari developers are, over the holidays he was nice enough to demo the computer at not just one, but two user's group meetings. Post meeting reports indicate the high level of interest in the Falcon030 was reflected in the size of attendance at the user's group meetings. The demos attracted more people to the meetings than have been seen in the St. Louis area Atari meetings for several years. The reactions I have heard were all very positive with particular attention paid to video and sound quality. We may be hearing developers using the term "Falcon030 compliant" once the Falcon030 appears. This means the program works in the Falcon030 ST compatibility modes but the advanced Falcon030 features may not yet be fully supported. It will take a little time for developers to update their programs to take advantage of all the new Falcon030 hardware and features. There are now several more graphics applications that are Falcon "compliant." A couple of local developers were provided the opportunity to spend some time with the Falcon030 to do a little testing while awaiting their developer units. Again, everyone was very pleased with what they found. Changes required to get things running on the Falcon were generally simple (like not expecting to find 14 megs of ST RAM or the new graphics modes), and a great deal of excitement was expressed over how "fun" it would be exploring all the new graphics modes. Perhaps the best sign was their reluctance to walk away from the computer - good thing I have a fiercely loyal pit bull . A rumor circulating indicating there might be a problem with the Falcon030 due to overheating is absolutely *untrue* with the Falcon on this end. This Falcon runs cooler than an STe, perhaps cooler than any previous Atari console unit. The Falcon030 includes a fan that draws cool air from under the computer and exhausts the air out of the top. In fact, I doubt the Falcon would need the fan in normal room environment. So much for rumor reports.... Lynx Crashes in Daytona - Driver OK """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" During time trials for the 24 hours of Daytona, one of the team nephews racing a Lynx Checkered Flag had trouble negotiating an infield hairpin turn and his Lynx went flying into the wall. The driver survived suffering little more than a short term stream of big alligator tears, but the Lynx was not salvageable. A quick call to Atari Headquarters and a replacement "special offer" unit was air shipped and arrived before the following weekend in time for the main race. I hope everyone interested the Atari "Lynxmas" special had a chance to take advantage of the deal. The Atari 800 number was great and delivery was fast. Let's hope there is news the Atari order line will continue for those who are not near a dealer, or for those who need a replacement race car quick! Data Rescue Takes Out the Trash """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Data Rescue is a set of utilities that take the software "trash can" concept introduced on the Apple Macintosh to a new and highly useful level in allowing the recovery of deleted files from your drives. The program offers two strategies for protecting your data and intelligently deleting old or excess data from your drives. The first option keeps track of the data you delete from your drive in a special file that can later be used to help undelete the file. The advantage of this technique is it takes very little additional disk space. The disadvantage is if you write to the drive after deleting the file, you may lose your data. A more extensive level of protection is provided by the program in the form of saving files as they are deleted to a special folder. The problem with this technique _could_ be the fact that if you do not delete anything your drive will rapidly fill with garbage. Don't worry! Data Rescue is smarter than the average trash can utility. Data Rescue can be told to automatically delete files from the rescue folder based on several configurable options: the disk space remaining on your drive, by limiting the size of your rescue folder to a reasonable amount of disk space, how long ago the file was deleted or if the file has been archived (backed up). Data Rescue is a very useful utility and well worth checking out if your time or data is valuable to you. --Trace Technologies (713) 771-1403. Gemulator Slices and Dices (but no RS 232) """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" This PC based Atari ST emulator continues to get smaller, better and faster. The latest beta version features much faster print speed under PageStream and very smooth mouse operation. Less memory is required to run the program and hard disk support continues to improve. I wouldn't recommend anyone get rid of their ST and use this program to run their ST software on the PC - but if you need some level of Atari applications compatibility at work, or know someone who has moved on the PC world and misses the great easy to use ST desktop - they may find this product fills their needs. If you have problems running software on Gemulator - pay attention to the information in the read-me file - the developer knows what he is talking about. Oh yes, I really would like to see RS 232 support on this critter so the MSDOS'ers can use a decent version of Aladdin on GEnie :-) --Purple Mountain Computers (206) 747- 1519 --Branch Always Software (206) 885-5893. Syquest 44/88 """""""""""""" A new version of the popular Syquest removable media SCSI hard drive has been announced by SyDOS. The "SYDOS 88 Extra" can read and write to both 44M and 88M Syquest Winchester removable media cartridges. Registered users of existing "SyDOS 88" (SyDOS packaged SCSI drives - *** NOT SyQuest bare drives ***) will be able to upgrade to the new drive at a cost not yet formally set ($175 to $225). Check with your dealer for details. --SyDOS (407) 998-5400. "SyDOS Puma" PC to ST Conversion """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Speaking of Syquest, if you are electronically gifted enough to mount your own hard drives in a case and cable them up, and you are interested in a Syquest drive at a good price - check out the "SyDOS Puma" series. The prepackage SyDOS drives are intended for the PC market as a parallel port backup device. They include a Centronix SCSI adaptor and the PC software to use it. The interesting part is the 88 meg version of this drive mounted in a case with power supply and one 88 meg cartridge (and PC SCSI adaptor) is commonly available for under $500. I have seen it as low as $449 at on sale at BizMart. Converting this drive for standard SCSI use is a simple matter of buying a standard 50 pin DIP to SCSI connector, opening the case, unplugging the PC Centronix/SCSI cable, plugging in the 50 pin DIP/SCSI cable and putting the cover back on. The drive can then be used on the ST with the ICD Link, or directly connected to the TT030 or Falcon030. Of course you can revert back to the PC SCSI interface if ever needed. I'll bet you can figure out how I learned of the above SyDOS deal now - eh? Verbose Mode Off """""""""""""""" I hope the new year is off to a good start for all of you. Atari and the Falcon030 were a big hit at NAMM. Issues of Atari Explorer Magazine are in the mail. Several exciting new products are about to be announced that will please most anyone who owns an Atari computer. Back in the real world, the United States has a new president who is sure to bring change to all across the globe. I hope everyone will support President Clinton in they way we would like to be supported given the same immense task. Please don't forget the brave crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger who gave their lives in the interest of advancing our knowledge of the universe and remember the lessons in the management of technology this tragedy taught us. --==--==--==--==-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- --==--==-- CompuServe Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- -- -- -- To sign up for CompuServe service, call (voice call) (800) 848-8199. -- -- Ask for operator #198. You will be sent a $15.00 value CIS membership -- -- kit for free. -- -- -- -- --==--==-- CompuServe Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --==--==--==--==-- ||| Krimen on GEnie ............. Is TOS as well programmed as it can be? ||| By: Ed Krimen / | \ GEnie: AEO.5 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Many of you are familiar with screen accelerators such as Warp 9 from Codehead Technologies. This product's main feature is a screen accelerator which effectively speeds up your screen display. With it installed in your AUTO folder, items on your screen, such as text, windows, and dialog boxes, are drawn much more quickly than if Warp 9 wasn't installed. The program works by intercepting certain TOS screen functions and replacing them (not with Folgers crystals, but) with its own, optimized routines - thereby making screen redraws much, much quicker. The difference between having Warp 9 installed and not installed is like night and day; windows snap open and snap close; drop-down menus strike like lightning - instead of sliding down the screen like molasses. The difference is extraordinarily dramatic. A recent thread (or series) of messages in GEnie's Atari ST Roundtable enlightened us to the presumption that if Warp 9 can speed up TOS's graphics routines so well, then TOS must contain some pretty poor code. It all started with Steve Johnson's post in Category 32 ("CodeHead Software"), Topic 31 ("Warp 9, the Accelerator"), Message 139; the thread continues to message 155. Steve writes: I was showing Warp 9 to my brother (a professional programmer and Mac owner) and he said something I hadn't really thought about. If Warp 9 speeds up routines as much as it does, doesn't that mean the original TOS code is pretty terrible? Is Atari NOT improving the code themselves for fear of scaring more developers away (i.e., since third-party developers have POPULAR products that 'fix' TOS's inadequacies, Atari doesn't want to 'step on their toes')? It would certainly seem that way, wouldn't it? Sounds like a plausible theory. John Eidsvoog from Codehead Technologies jumped into the foray with some informative words to share. John is half of the Codehead group; Charles F. Johnson is the other member. Recall that Codehead Technologies is the developer that continues to update and support Warp 9. (I should also point out that Warp 9 used to be called Quick ST and was developed by Darek Mihocka of Branch Always Software. Darek decided to dedicate himself to other projects, so he sold Warp 9 to the Codeheads.) In any case, on the subject of TOS's inefficiency, John Eidsvoog replies: Yes, the code in the OS is inefficient. Atari has done some (a little) toward improving the efficiency of graphics routines, but they have not actually recoded it in assembly language (it's still almost all in C [I think]). Well, at least now we have some confirmation from someone who's meddled around Atari's code. If you are unaware of the products Codehead offers, they range from desktop enhancement products (like Hotwire, Maxifile, MultiDesk), to G+Plus (a GDOS replacement), to an entire disk of useful utilities called Codehead Utilities, to imported word processors and graphics applications, and of course, Warp 9. Codehead has been around the Atari market a long time and I suspect that they'll be around for a long time to come. As you can see from the variety of products that they offer, they know what they're doing when they talk code. As their slogan states, Codehead Technologies is "the cure for the common code." Later, John goes into a little more detail about TOS's inefficiencies, and confesses: But to be fair to Atari, many of the things which Warp 9 does simply have no place in an operating system. Warp 9 takes a lot of short cuts, and also duplicates sections of code with small changes to make specific routines for specific cases. An OS must be robust and generic in order to be completely flexible and bug-free. Warp 9 is specific (fairly robust and only partially generic) and has squeezed almost every last drop out of the OS's wet rag. It seems now that TOS isn't so bad after all. TOS isn't slow because it's been neglected entirely by Atari's programmers - there's actually some purpose to its "inefficiency." In order to be flexible, bug-free, and compatible with a wide range of software, TOS must be generic yet solid. I guess that being slow and large isn't so bad after all. To ease a little more guilt off of TOS's shoulders, John Trautschold mentions the memory limitations that TOS must maintain. TOS is limited to a set amount of ROM in each computer that it runs in. That limits just how much Atari can do to speed up its own operating system. Programs like Warp 9 do take up a considerable chunk of memory, and that same amount of ROM just isn't available in the system. TOS 1.0 to 1.62 is 192K of ROM. TOS 2.06 is 256K and TOS 3.06 is 512K. TOS 1.x is packed to the brim with code. In the beginning, Atari even had to make some shortcuts in order to get it all to fit in there. Adding code to speed some of the screen routines would have been unthinkable. For example, Warp 9 occupies about 70K of RAM. John T. adds: As new releases of TOS appear, Atari has made improvements in the speed of the VDI. I recall a rather significant improvement between TOS 1.0 and 1.04. There were also a few enhancements when converting to 1.62, etc. TOS 2.06/3.06 also brought some significant increases in screen speed. Sure, they weren't the speed of Warp 9, but they were noticeably faster than their predecessors. On the other side of the spectrum ("Sherman, set the Way-Back machine..."), Kenne Estes remembered a big jump from disk TOS to ROM TOS. Keep in mind that TOS upgrades include not only screen acceleration, but other enhancements as well, such as acceleration for storage devices, user interface features, compatibility code, and support for exciting new features. Screen redraw speed is just one small portion of code that must be maintained and upgraded. Chris Oates introduced an interesting perspective from the Macintosh platform. He said: And then there are all of the programmers I know who always go direct-to-screen on the Mac because Quickdraw is so inefficient. It's not just Atari. Apparently, when Quickdraw first came out, some user re-wrote it since it was so horrible, and called it "Quickerdraw." Apple bought the code and made that official, but one wonders why they didn't do it right in the first place. All this and there isn't a Warp9 available for the Mac either. I think we've got it pretty good. In addition to Chris' comments, I've read some very provocative posts on GEnie from Dave Small, in regards to some of the atrocious coding that Apple does. Dave Small is the genius behind the Spectre GCR, a Macintosh emulator for the ST. He's spent the last several years living inside Apple's code, successfully hacking it so it the ST will understand it. Chris' and Dave's comments suggest that "inefficient" code is not only synonymous with Atari's TOS, but with Apple's coding as well. I wouldn't be surprised to hear the same about other computer platforms. One last noteworthy point on this subject was made by Wayne Watson, who gave a good reason why most of TOS is written in C instead of the faster assembly language. He writes: Plus, according to Atari, a lot of stuff will remain in C because all they have to do is recompile for 030, 040, or whatever. If it is done in assembly, there is a lot more work involved. C is a very portable computer language, meaning that code can be written to work on more than one computer or CPU with very few changes. Assembly on the other hand is very machine-specific, which is one of the reasons why it's so fast. References have been made to indicate that some of TOS is written in assembly, but a lot of it is still C because it must be generic, as we described above. Therefore, some of TOS's routines can be written for an STE, which runs on a 68000 CPU, and Atari can still use the same code on a TT030 or Falcon030 with a 68030. If they were going to use assembly language, they might have to rewrite the code for each unique processor. In the original message that started this thread, Steve Johnson touched on a theory that's worth repeating. He says, "Is Atari NOT improving the code themselves for fear of scaring more developers away (i.e., since third-party developers have POPULAR products that 'fix' TOS's inadequacies, Atari doesn't want to 'step on their toes')?" That's certainly a legitimate argument, and regardless of all the reasons discussed in this article explaining why TOS is written the way it is, there are still some marketing decisions that should be kept in mind. Sure, Atari could purchase the rights to Warp 9, NeoDesk, Universal Item Selector III, G+Plus, MultiDesk Deluxe, and all of the other wonderful utilities we love to have on our boot disks, and include them in TOS 5.0. But what must be understood is that if Atari bought all of these great utilities, some of these developers might not be with us. Developers make their money off of selling products, not licensing them to the computer manufacturer. Moreover, TOS upgrades don't come overnight. There have been many times that the CodeHeads have released an upgrade to one of their products on GEnie one night, only to have another upgrade follow it a day or two later. By =not= licensing these utilities, Atari can keep developers supporting their own products better than Atari could upgrade and maintain them if it owned the rights to them. Just like on every other computer platform, users like to stuff their boot disks with unique utilities to enhance the performance and enjoy their computers. Warp 9 is just one example of a utility which accelerates screen redraw performance. You should see my AUTO folder: Warp 9, XBoot, Data Rescue, Data Diet, GEM Sound, AUX Init, Formdoit, Universal Item Selector, DC Shower, Serial Fix, DC FKeys, and NeoDesk. I don't think you want me to list my desk accessories. I've got 65 of them; 59 are installed in MultiDesk Deluxe. --==--==--==--==-- ||| Atari Explorer - November/December 1992 Table of Contents ||| / | \ GEnie: EXPLORER --------------------------------------------------------- A T A R I E X P L O R E R M A G A Z I N E Volume 7, Issue 6 C O N T E N T S November/December 1992 -------------------------------------------------------------------- /// FEATURES ````````````` <> Atari Falcon030 - U.S. debut /// REVIEWS ```````````` <> Migraph PS-400 Wand - A full range hand scanner with optional document feeder and the latest version of Touch-Up. <> G-Man v3.0 - GDOS setup and management has never been easier. <> The Link - Now ICD lets you connect SCSI devices to any ST. <> Gemulator v1.00 - Emulator runs ST software on an IBM PC. <> GenEdit v2.0 - Barefoot's powerful MIDI Editor/Librarian. <> Tune-Up your Hard Drive - a feature by feature comparison of the two best choices for keeping your data safe. -- Hard Disk Sentry v1.3 -- Diamond Edge /// ENTERTAINMENT ````````````````` <> The Lynx Line - Clayton Walnum reviews Pinball Jam and Shadow of the Beast plus Electrocop hints and more! /// PORTFOLIO `````````````` <> The Portfoilo Files - Answers to the most common Portfoilo questions. /// SPECIAL INTEREST ````````````````````` <> Three Books for Coders - From GFA Assembly to the AES, these books cover it. <> The Atari Clipboard - How to best use the Clipboard in your programs. /// DEPARTMENTS ```````````````` <> Editor's Page <> Atari World News <> Question Mark <> Advertiser Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE! """""""""""""""""""""""" VISA/MASTERCARD orders call (218) 723-9477 Subscribe today and get every issue of the only official Atari magazine delivered right to your door! [] YES!, I want to save up to 30% over newsstand price on Atari Explorer Magazine. Please send me: [] 1 year (6 issues) for just $19.95 - I SAVE 16% [] 3 years (18 issues) for just $49.95 - I SAVE 30% [] Payment enclosed [] Charge my VISA/MC [] Bill me later ______________________________________________________________ NAME RJRGE-AEO0203 ______________________________________________________________ ADDRESS ______________________________________________________________ CITY STATE ZIP ______________________________________________________________ CARD # EXP. DATE ATARI EXPLORER MAGAZINE P.O. BOX 6488 DULUTH, MN 55806 (218) 723-9477 Newsstand price $23.70 per year. Canada add $5.00 per 6 issues. Foreign add $10.00 per 6 isues. U.S. funds only. Canadian GST included. Please allow 60 days for shipment of first issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advertising Director: Darren R. Meer - (408) 745-2134 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . --==--==--==--==-- ||| Atari Users Online: GEnie ||| Compiled by: Lyre / | \ GEnie: AEO.3 ------------------------- Welcome to the latest installment of Atari Users Online: GEnie! As always, here is the latest and greatest comments from Atari developers and users on various topics for the computer we all use. These messages are taken from the bulletin board "as is"; except for possible editing to totally remove extraneous comments and excessive blank lines in a message. This should not alter the meaning of any message posted, but it does make things a bit easier to read. If you would like to see your comments posted here, all you have to do is post a message to any of the topics in the bulletin board. As the AEO staff reads these messages, interesting and informative posts are earmarked for inclusion in the latest issue. You don't need to write perfectly (as regards to grammer or spelling), but you do need to be able to get your point across. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ For those of you who are using Cal by Bill Aycock, here is a little snippet - just in case you've wondered why CalShow didn't work with the latest version of the program. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 2, Topic 3 Message 151 Sun Jan 24, 1993 W.FREEMAN8 [BILL] at 15:30 EST I have just installed Cal 6.3a and Calshow 6.2 doesn't seem to work with it. Any suggestions for a fix? ------------ Category 2, Topic 3 Message 153 Mon Jan 25, 1993 G.FUHRMAN [gnox] at 06:06 EST Bill, You need CalShow 6.3. I gather you skipped from Cal 6.2 to 6.3a? Looks like you'll have to download the LZH for Cal 6.3. The database format changed with 6.3. gnox ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Uh oh, I've always hated this when I've done this myself. Maybe something similiar has happened to you? Well if it has, here are some messages that might help you out of a jam. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 2, Topic 42 Message 1 Sat Jan 23, 1993 C.WORTON at 01:44 EST Help! In error, I deleted a folder and a few files from my word processing document folder. While not crucial, I'd like to recover them if possible. It's my understanding that in the FAT there is a listing of all the files and folders, with a code indicating whether or not the disk space allocated to them is available for writing. Deleting a file doesn't physically erase it, it just changes this code; the OS then writes over whatever parts it finds most convenient, whenever subsequent saves are made. At least, thats my understanding. What I don't know is how to find that FAT entry, and what value I should set the 'switch' to (or even where the 'switch' is located!). I believe that the files and folders ought to be recoverable, as long as I don't save anything to the hard drive. I don't know whether I can use the other logical drives safely, or whether I must avoid all saves to the hard drive until I resolve this. The folders/files I deleted were on drive D, in a folder called Document. I don't know whether I must avoid the entire drive, just drive D, or just folder Document in order to be able to recover the data safely. To play it safe, I'm avoiding the drive entirely, which puts me back in the realm of the floppy. Yechh. Can anyone please lead me, step by step, through the correct procedure to restore an accidentally deleted file and folder? I used the desktop garbage can (TOS 1.4) to delete the folder and files. If there's any PD software I should have (like a sector editor) perhaps someone could make some specific recommendations? Thanks for your help - I appreciate it! Regards, Charlie ------------ Category 2, Topic 42 Message 3 Sat Jan 23, 1993 J.MEEHAN3 [>> Joe M << ] at 09:22 EST Charlie, Un-deleting files and folders is a rather complex job to do by editing a fat table unless you are at least in speaking terms with fat tables to start with. I suggest you get a un-delete utility, there are a number of them some better than others. I should also add that if you have saved any other file to that disk your chances of being able to un-delete the file(s) are reduced with each save. However you seem to know this. >> Joe M << ------------ Category 2, Topic 42 Message 4 Sat Jan 23, 1993 ST.LOU [Lou Rocha] at 11:52 EST Charlie... MAKE SURE you DON'T save files to that disk/partition or the deleted file spaces will be overwritten. Run.. don't walk... and buy Diamond Edge. It's undelete works real well if the files were not fragmented. ------------ Category 2, Topic 42 Message 8 Sat Jan 23, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] at 19:27 EST Do you mean this file? 2154 UNDELETE.ARC X S.L.WILSON 870220 28980 635 2 Desc: Recovers deleted files There is also: 18183 UNERASE.ARC X GREG.B 910206 13860 683 2 Desc: restore deleted files ------------ Category 2, Topic 42 Message 14 Sun Jan 24, 1993 EXPLORER.1 [] Ron [] at 16:56 EST Charlie - Diamond Edge and Data Rescue are both great commercial utilities for recovering erased files. DiamondEdge includes many very useful hard drive utilities. Data Rescue is more specialized for the task in that it will also save copies of erased files in a special folder and automaticaly delete them at a time interval you specify. Both products are highly recommended. Ron @ Atari Explorer Magazine ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Now here was something that I personally found interesting while reading all of these messages. It seems that a lot of information is available if you just know how to access it. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 4, Topic 1 Message 24 Fri Jan 22, 1993 J.HICKEY6 at 10:06 EST Does anyone out there know if a 9 track, 6250 bpi drive has been used with the ST or TT computers? I am currently using DbMan on a TT for a large(110 MB) County voter registration data base, which I originally rented($50) from the county on mainframe tape(6250 BPI). Also, the County Assessor offers similar tapes for rent and the U.S. Postal Service provides 9-digit ZIP info in the same format. BYTE magazine has ads for such tape drives for use on you know what platform. Vendors are Overland Data, Qualstar and Laguna Data Systems. Jack Hickey ------------ Category 4, Topic 1 Message 27 Thu Jan 28, 1993 D.BECKEMEYER [David @ BDT] at 02:53 EST Jack, you could connect a 9-track 1/2" reel-to-reel tape drive to your Atari ST/TT using an ICD Link or other ST host adapter and the Beckemeyer SCSI Tape Kit software drivers. I know it works because I have done it. However, 9- track 1/2" tapes are not the easiest to work with and are expensive. There are data conversion services that can convert the tape to a more handy format, like 250MB QIC (quarter-inch-tape), or even 8mm. An 8mm 2.3GB drive won't cost any more than a 1/2" 9-track drive and the media is a lot cheaper and smaller. Check the back of Byte again for data conversion services. Contact me in e-mail or at 510-530-9637 for more info on the SCSI Tape Kit. ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ And inbetween the two messages above, another conversational thread began - an it was just as interesting! Obviously, I'm hanging out in the wrong topics! ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 4, Topic 1 Message 25 Sat Jan 23, 1993 T.DODGE at 02:50 EST two more cents. RLL drive encoding is at 26 sectors per track. IDE drives are 16 bit, although there are a few 8 bit like the Segate 351-X. SCSI II standard allows for 56 devices. As for the data transfer rate I am not sure that it is defined in the standard but to the limitations of the electronics. I know that a 16 bit Ultrastor SCSI controller can do a burst cycle at 33Mb/sec and a sustained 20Mb/sec, while many other controllers hover around thhe 5-10Mb/sec range. Drives are plentiful at the 10Mb/sec range and are going up. The SCSI III interface allows for something neat, more than one computer attached to one drive and a cable length in meters(I forgot how many, but it is a considerable distance if you remember the 18" atari drive cable.) There are a number of IDE low level formatting utilities currently available. And while IDE drives usually only allow for a MASTER/SLAVE (computer people are REALLY lonely) configuration, the makers of the Summit 305 IDE tape drive attaches as the 3rd device, and it is a very fast pc tape backup for around $300. As for what drive to go with??? Stick to SCSI, by far the better choice for the power user. The drive can always be used on another machine if you ever decide that you need to move on/up, while IDE is limited outside of the pc areana. that's all Tom Dodge MegaComputers ------------ Category 4, Topic 1 Message 26 Sat Jan 23, 1993 DOUG.W [ICD RT] at 14:57 EST Tom, SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 allow up to 8 devices on the SCSI bus at one time. This can be any combination of devices, including multiple computers, hard drives, optical drives, scanners, etc. SCSI-2 specifies a maximum cable length (for Single-Ended SCSI) of 6 meters. BTW, complete copies of the SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 specifications are available for downloading from the ICD RoundTable. --Doug @ ICD ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Have you wondered how you can improve your Bubble Jet printer quality? Well, the answer might be in the paper you print on. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 4, Topic 5 Message 39 Wed Jan 20, 1993 R.BROWN30 at 00:52 EST Regarding the BJ and PageStream. There are several Bubblejet-specific drivers that deliver absolutely outstanding results. I've never used an Epson driver with my BJ-10e (it was built before the 10-ex, and therefore no Epson mode), but the BJ-10e driver for PageStream 2 delivers _laser_, not near laser quality, but only when (**NOTE**) printed on: Strathmore Legacy Pen Plotter Paper, Product # 01-075, which is a coated, premium, extra white, bleedproof (_no_ fuzziness, _ever_) paper which I've tested personally in 20% and 99% humidity climates (same results either case). Caveat 1: This paper is premium, 250 sheets sell for about $9.00, but then, other coated papers, like LaserEdge, sell for 2.5 to 3 times the price. BTW- Legacy Pen Plotter is better than LaserEdge on the BJ. Caveat 2: This paper is coated, meaning _don't touch until dry_! The ink takes +/- 5 to 25 seconds to dry, but you will _instantly_ get used to it, as your PageStream output will, for the most part, fool any observer, even laser printer owners, that you printed via laser. You may, in fact, have you spit on the page or otherwise try to smear the ink to prove it's a BJ to a laser owner! Caveat 3: This paper is no good for Deskjets, except color mode on the HP500C. For Deskjets, LaserEdge HR-10 and HR-20 are better choices. *** A DEAL *** If anyone wants to drop me an address via e-mail, I'll send out a Legacy Pen Plotter sample for you to try on your BJ, but please post your results here! (Offer expires at my discretion, but I've had few takers as of yet, so feel free for now.) If you're using _any_ other paper (I know a BJ10 will print on cut up grocery bags- I've done it) you are probably missing the boat, at least by a little. In California, you can get Legacy Pen Plotter Paper via special order at: Bush's Stationers < I don't know if they'll ship... 6440 Bellingham Avenue but it's worth asking, I suppose. North Hollywood, CA 91606 818-766-7117 Some of this is repetitious, sorry, but it's important! --Richard Brown Read GEnie Lamp ST! ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Personally, I don't know how he does it. But each and every time that Charles Smeton of NewStar Technology Management (the developer of Straight FAX!) posts a message, I learn something new. So take a look at this message - maybe you will also learn something new. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 4, Topic 24 Message 178 Fri Jan 22, 1993 C.S.SMETON [STraight FAX] at 23:09 EST To: B.BEAUCHEA, We hope to support the new Migraph PS-400 Wand Scanner in the future. It is possible that it may be supported via Scan Lite from Dr. Bobware in a future release of the Scan Lite desk accessory. I would suggest that you contact Dr. Bobware about the status of Scan Lite. The PS-400 uses the same cartridge interface as the Migraph hand scanner, as such it should not be alot different from the hand scanner to support. Thanks Charles Smeton NewSTar Technology Management To: D.KELLER14 It is possible that the pocket FAX Modem that you have is either a Send FAX or a Class 1 Send/Receive FAX Modem. The STraight FAX! currently supports Send FAX and Class 2 FAX Send/Receive Modems. We are working on Class 1 support at this time and expect to support it sometime later this year (March time frame). Below is a technical release that NewSTar has written that explains how to determine the type of FAX Modem that you have. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAX Modem Identification There are currently three standards in place for external FAX Modems: Send FAX - Based on Sierra Semiconductor Send FAX Standard Class 1 - EIA/TIA Standard approved in 1990. Class 2 - Initial draft of EIA/TIA Standard proposed in 1990, this standard was modified and later approved in 1992. The approved version will be called Class 2.0 and there should be products that support Class 2.0 later in 1993. Many companies (Rockwell International, Sierra Semiconductor and Exar Corporation) did not wait for the updated Class 2 to be approved and released products based on the initial draft of Class 2. The Class 1 and Class 2 standards define the communication between a FAX Modem and a computer via an RS-232 serial interface. Class 1 and Class 2 should not be confused with Group III, which is an international FAX standard that all of the above types of FAX Modems and normal FAX Machines must follow in order to be able to communicate. The type of FAX Modem can be determined by connecting the FAX Modem to a computer (i.e. ST/TT/Falcon) via an RS-232 port and using a terminal program (i.e. Flash, Flash II, Stalker 3, Interlink, etc.) to manually enter AT commands which are sent to the FAX Modem. The following commands should be followed by a carriage return. If an ERROR response is returned, try the command again. Normally the FAX Modem will echo each character typed back to the computer (i.e. Full Duplex Mode). Most of the following commands will return a response from the FAX Modem after the carriage return is entered then issue an OK response. Determine type of FAX Modem: AT+FCLASS=? Response will be: 0,1 Modem is a data modem and a Class 1 FAX Modem 0,2 Modem is a data modem and a Class 2 FAX Modem 0,1,2 Modem is a data modem and a Class 1 and Class 2 FAX Modem Determine FAX Modem Chipset Manufacturer (Class 2 Only): AT+FMFR? Response will be name of FAX Modem Chipset Manufacturer, i.e. ROCKWELL, SIERRA, EXAR, etc. Determine FAX Modem Model (Class 2 Only): AT+FMDL? The response will be the model number of the FAX Modem or the chipset in the FAX Modem. Determine Firmware Revision of FAX Modem (Class 2 Only): AT+FREV? Response will be firmware revision identification, this may be the same or similar response that the ATI3 command returns. Determine the Size of the FAX Modem Internal buffer (Class 2 Only): AT+FBUF? The response will be 4 numbers, separated by commas. The first number is the size of the buffer in bytes. There are a number of FAX Modems that the STraight FAX! support, including models from Supra, Practical Peripherals, Zoom Telephonics, Best Data Products, GVC, etc. Charles Smeton NewSTar Technology Management ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ If you have been wondering how to purchase the AlberTT or Isac graphics cards, Jay from Dover Research Corp posted this information. It also includes a brief comment about problems with Mega ST2's. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 4, Topic 28 Message 62 Fri Jan 22, 1993 J.CRASWELL at 23:13 EST Ta Dah! I RETURN Bearing good wishes for those of you who have kept the faith! And kept me from vegging out too much on my many other projects. I hope everyone is having good luck with the AlberTTs and ISACs. I am very happy that the new price is getting so many of you to "jump in" to the High res jungle. Lets hope that this keeps up! Hey I might even be able to afford to check on more than once a year! By the way there were several requests on how to order?!? Thats one question I know the answer too! (612) 492-3913 Call Days or Evenings. I'm central standard time and looking forward to talking to you. We take VISA and Master Card. Cash also! . Yes I've checked out the 2 Meg ST ram bug a little more and it appears that its a "semi" thought out error trap "SEMI" Because its not so great that it does not tell you about it! I guess the fact that the card has 400K of Screen ram and uses quite a bit of ST ram is the reason (excuse) that it won't operate. Sorry bout that folks! But thanks for the help in finding this weird problems solution. When I get some time I will drag out the code for the 030 version of the ISAC driver. I believe that some changes are in order (ie Monochrome) Talk to you all again soon.... I hope I hope. ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Looking for information on the status of MegaCheck? Well, look no farther. Here is some information posted by. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 128 Mon Jan 18, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 00:47 EST Hi Jack, Version 2.0 is coming along very well. Alpha-testing has been going very smoothly, although I am going to have to make some adjustments to several of the dialogs to get it to look a little "cleaner" in medium resolution (some of the panel buttons are running up against other panel buttons due to the lower resolution). Have spent the last week fine-tuning medium res and I should have it wrapped up in the next couple of days. I must say that estimating projects is an art that I have yet to master because I have grossly underestimated the time required by version 2 when I said November 1st. Oh well, that seems to happen at a lot of companies. Anyway, I would say that a SAFE release would be first quarter of this year. The only thing is that Bob has had some unexpected duties come up that is going to disallow him from being able to continue working on the manual enough to get it completed on time. I am going to finish it and he will typeset it on Calamus SL. It will be printed on an HP LaserJet IV at 600 dpi (with Resolution Enhancement) which should make for a nice looking manual. One other thing, we will be closed from January 27th through February 7th, and will re-open February 8th. Oh, the tentative upgrade price is going to be $29 plus a small shipping fee, depending on how heavy the manual turns out, since that price does include the brand new 3-ring bound manual (with a slipcase like LDW Power) but will probably be about $5, so $34 with shipping. This price is practically set in stone. We have already looked into production costs and it looks like we'll be able to pull this off at the low $29. Hi Dom, Well, we have never had a transfer of ownership, but I suppose leave me an E- Mail message telling me who the previous owner was and I'll leave you instructions from there... - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 129 Mon Jan 25, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:24 EST Hi all, just taking a break to say that medium res took a lot of work to get to look exactly right, and still needs a few finishing touches. I hate to let this go with less than perfect cosmetics. Basically, just a few of the dialog buttons are too close together (i.e. edges touching) when scaled in medium res. Shouldn't take but another night or two to touch 'e'em up. I'll be leaving for Switzerland for 13 days Tuesday night. Looking forward to the trip a lot and hope to see one or two Atari's over there. At any rate, it will probably not delay the project any since Bob will be working (and hopefully finishing) the manual while I'm gone. I'm going to leave a copy of the program to my main beta-tester so that he'll have a list of bugs (hopefully he won't have any!) to fix when I come back. After that, I'll pass out a demo copy to others who requested to beta-test and, depending on how that all goes, will release the product a couple of weeks after that. We just got our HP LaserJet IV printer which will be printing our manuals at 600x600dpi, so it should look pretty decent. Later, Chris ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Do you need a driver for the JRI color board? Well, this message tells you where to find one - in the GEnie file library of course! ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 7, Topic 30 Message 99 Sun Jan 17, 1993 J.THOMAS12 [JT] at 03:17 EST For those that need a driver for their JRI boards, there was one loaded on Genie awhile back, its name is EPD10, and i've found it to work on my 4meg 520STm w/JRI color board very well. ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Are you using DigiPlay Plus? Well then, this comment from Sean at Two Worlds Software is definitely of interest to you. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 10, Topic 2 Message 8 Sat Jan 23, 1993 S.DOUGHERTY1 [Sean@TWS] at 13:57 EST The new version of DigiPlay Plus (version 1.8) will be made available shortly which will add TT & MegaSTe compatibility. More info on this as I can be sure of it... Sean Dougherty Two Worlds Software ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ We all know that Atari excels when it comes to music and MIDI. Appearently, some other people think so too. Take a look at this message from John King Tarpinian of AtariUser Magazine and you'll see what I mean. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 11, Topic 9 Message 7 Sun Jan 17, 1993 JOHN.KING.T [JOHN KING T] (Forwarded) I am happy to announce that James K. Grunke, Corporate Director of International Music Markets for Atari was elected to the five member Executive Board of the MMA, Midi Music Association. James was elected over representatives from IBM and Mac. Just about everybody in the music industry has stopped by the ATARI booth. Yesterday, one hour before the show opens, Thomas Dolby came strolling into the booth. Thank goodness he was followed by Jay Patton of ATARI. Dolby was very interested in what the FALCON and the D2D system by Digital I/O could do. Again, once I have had time to rest I'll post more. I will be available to talk about NAMM at the Wednesday night GEnie Atari RTC. I may be repeating myself but ATARI was the ONLY computer company to have a booth at NAMM. IBM, not there. MAC, who are they? John King Tarpinian Assistant Editor AtariUser Magazine ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Looking to change over to a 1.44 High Density disk drive? Well, there are a few things to keep in mind. Bill at Atari is kind enough to let us know this information. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 14, Topic 4 Message 169 Sat Jan 23, 1993 B.HYUN2 [berto] at 02:30 EST I need to replace the internal floppy drive that came with my ST 1040. what kind of drive is compatible with the ST? can I just get any IBM compatible drive? does it need to be a 720K drive or can I stick a 1.44 Meg drive (even though my ST can only access 720-800K)? Thank you in advance for any help. ------------ Category 14, Topic 4 Message 174 Wed Jan 27, 1993 B.REHBOCK [BILL@ATARI] at 12:40 EST Just a little background on AJAX (Atari's High Density Floppy Controller)... The original WD1772 (720k) floppy controller operated supplied by an 8MHz clock. AJAX is 100% compatible to a WD1772 when supplied an 8MHz clock. To handle 1.44MB floppies, AJAX requires a 16MHz clock instead of the normal 8. Falcons, TTs, and MegaSTEs can supply AJAX with either speeed clock. The bios (in TOS 2.06 and up) is in charge of which clock gets used. Combo(tm) (or Combel(tm)) actually handle the physical switch of the clock, depending on what the bios instructs. An off-the-shelf 1040STE isn't set up the same way as the above-mentioned models and won't handle 1.44 drives without additional modification other than AJAX. There are some third party kits that add an AJAX _and_ correctly supply it with the necessary 8MHz clock, but I am not sure who they are. -Bill@Atari ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Is the serial port on your TT030 or Mega STe pooping out when you want to party? Well, it might be due to a program you are running. Take a look at these messages. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 17, Topic 3 Message 24 Tue Jan 19, 1993 E.KRIMEN [Ed Krimen] at 01:33 EST Unfortunately, Serial Fix 1.1 disables the second (and I think third and fourth) modem ports on the TT and Mega STE. Therefore, I don't regularly use SerialFix. Apparently, Bill Penner has been working on a new version. I recently sent him e-mail to remind him. ------------ Category 17, Topic 3 Message 28 Wed Jan 20, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 03:42 EST Ed, Thanks for the report on what Serial Fix 1.1 was doing to my ports! Now I know I was not going crazy! Al ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Hmmmmm... I wonder what Lexicor is up to with this little tease. I guess we'd all better watch Babylon 5 to find out. It also looks like Lexicor is getting closer to releasing a new product - CyberColor. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 25, Topic 2 Message 159 Sat Jan 16, 1993 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 22:58 EST Does Lexicor know that they have been discussed in the Babylon 5 category in SFRT1? ------------ Category 25, Topic 2 Message 161 Mon Jan 18, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] at 00:32 EST When the show premears read all the credits......you may get a BIG....SURPRISE........wink! Lee ------------ Category 25, Topic 2 Message 183 Mon Jan 25, 1993 LEXICOR [Lee] at 23:52 EST H.G.Wells We will be releaseing "CyberColor" very soon. This program was written by John Stanford. it is a vertual Pain program which allow the user to load a cyber sculpt object and then paint on it's surface in that ever resolution and color configuration it is running in. The program is more than a face color changer how ever. the secons main feature is what makes it so powerfull. You can subdevide the exicting faces, which if done properlt allows the user to do a higher detail painting in any given area with out increasing the total number of faces skyward. Try thinking about the wood fish I did, with basic color patterns on it in any colors, then map a transparent scale pattern over the base colors! does this sound like transluciense? (spl?) Once you get the knack of undercoloring or underpainting you will begin to see some of the possibilities! price information will be posted next week. Lee ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Are you using Phoenix? Have you wondered about whether or not to use the "Allocate TT RAM" flag? Well, here is your answer. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 25, Topic 20 Message 134 Sun Jan 17, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John@Lexicor] at 22:47 EST An FPU on a mega STe will NOT cut your rendering time in half. I don't know what the actual figure is, but that is way off. D.Helmick: The ALLOCATE TT RAM flag causes programs to fetch any memory it allocates from TT ram instead of ST ram. The TT can access fast ram much quicker than ST ram. However some programs won't work with this flag set - particulary ones which directly access screen memory. There is not an option for setting how much ram it will allocate. The program will draw whatever memory it needs from TT ram instead of ST ram. This flag has no effect with Phoenix as it uses its own memory handler to enable it to use both TT and ST ram. John ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Now this is strange. If anyone else has seen this happen on their system, I'm sure you will be glad for this message from CodeHead Tech. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 32, Topic 2 Message 191 Fri Jan 15, 1993 G.FUHRMAN [gnox] at 05:18 EST One thing I've been meaning to ask about for months now ... my Hotwire autorun program, Calshow 6.3, always runs exactly as it should, but always appears in a window with a title bar that reads EDGE.PRG (?!) - anybody know what could be causing that? gnox ------------ Category 32, Topic 2 Message 193 Fri Jan 15, 1993 CODEHEAD [Charles] at 11:29 EST gnox, Under some circumstances, the system will put the wrong name at the top of the screen when HotWire autoloads a program. (The reason is very technical and involved...) It doesn't cause any problem, as you've already discovered. - Charles @ CodeHead Tech Friday, January 15, 1993 8:25 am ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ If you are having trouble with Gem Sound and are also using MultiDesk Deluxe, these messages from both John Eidsvoog and Charles F. Johnson of CodeHead Technologies should clear everything up for you. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 32, Topic 31 Message 57 Sun Jan 24, 1993 CODEHEAD [Charles] at 18:10 EST Jim & Mike, OK, here's the word on gemsound. The problem between Warp 9 and gemsound is due to the fact that gemsound fails to follow the trap #2 protocol documented in our "A Programmer's 11 Commandments for Vector Stealing," which has been around for almost 3 years now. (Sigh.) But there is a way to make Warp 9 and gemsound coexist. NOTE: this conflict has nothing to do with the order of the programs in your AUTO folder! The key is the order in which the gemsound CPX and the Warp 9 Control Panel run. The gemsound CPX must run BEFORE the Warp 9 Control Panel - - which means that XCONTROL.ACC must run before the WARP9_CP.ACC, since it's XCONTROL that loads the gemsound CPX. The best way to ensure this is to use MultiDesk Deluxe and load both XCONTROL and WARP9_CP as resident accessories, with XCONTROL loading first. When things are set up this way, gemsound will work just fine. If you don't use MultiDesk Deluxe it may not be possible to force XCONTROL to load before WARP9_CP, since the GEM desktop has its own inscrutable methods of starting up DAs -- they don't necessarily start up in the same order in which they load. You _must_ load the Warp 9 Control Panel accessory in order to use gemsound successfully, and it has to run after XCONTROL. - Charles @ CodeHead Tech Sunday, January 24, 1993 2:59 pm ------------ Category 32, Topic 31 Message 58 Sun Jan 24, 1993 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 18:59 EST I just did some further testing with Gemsound and the Warp 9 CP. In an attempt to get them to install in the correct order without MultiDesk's help, I installed them as the only two accessories. Gemsound was moved to the first CPX in the directory, making it the first CPX to show up in XControl and presumably the first CPX to be initialized. XControl.ACC and Warp9_CP.ACC were the only two ACCs installed and XControl was first in the directory. All this means is that GEM loads and calls XControl before Warp9 CP. But ACCs are called in a round-robin manner and there's no way to know at which time through the event loop any particular ACC does its "stuff". Because XControl makes a lot of AES calls before it starts calling its CPXes, it's already too late by the time Gemsound.CPX loads and Warp 9 CP has already done it's thing. This makes Gemsound fail and there's nothing that can be done to fix it without using MultiDesk. MultiDesk has special code to insure that its ACCs are called _after_ all of the other ACCs have initialized. It then loads and fully executes each of its resident ACCs in the order you've chosen. This assures that XControl runs _before_ Warp 9, whether XControl is in its own menu slot, or it's a resident ACC loaded into MultiDesk _before_ Warp 9. So much for my "monthly" explanation of how this works. If you want Gemsound to work with Warp 9, you _must_ use MultiDesk. John ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Oh, haven't you heard? There is a new Freeware program from John Eidsvoog called Applier. Well, in case you have not heard of it, here is a message that says things nicely. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 32, Topic 34 Message 8 Sat Jan 23, 1993 J.THAYNE [J.G. Thayne] at 20:31 EST Gordon: As a user of APPLIER and one that is also working on the same idea for my own reasons. I did bring up the ideas, kinda. :) The power of APPLIER (IMHO) is, as the name implies, is the ability to 'expand' the abilities of the installed applications feature of GEM and HOTWIRE. The major drawback of installed applications is that you can only pass the filename to the application. Now, with APPLIER, you can send just about any command line that you want to the application via APPLIER, which gives you all the power that we have been missing. I would suggest that you use similar keys for similar functions, such as John has suggested, so as SHIFT would 'list' and archive, CONTROL would 'extract' and ALTERNATE would 'test' an archive. There are many other things that you could use it for as well, but the power increases when you couple it with HOTWIRE! If you have problems remembering the keys, then you could just put notes on the HOTWIRE menu. The downside is that you would have to have this HOT menu as the current HOT menu, and use the RUN icon or by double clicking on the document with MAXIFILE via HOTWIRE. You could also use the old stand-by method that we have been using ... cheat sheets. (grin) ------------ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Have you considered purchasing Diamond Edge by Oregon Research? Well, in case you haven't made up yout mind as of yet, here are a few messages which might help you come to a decision. ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Category 33, Topic 2 Message 88 Mon Jan 18, 1993 JWC-OEO [Jon] at 22:12 EST Bob, Thanks! The SCSI info restore function of EDGE just saved my bacon (105 mb, thick cut). I'm delighted! I'm also a typical Atari user so I have to make just one comment... After casting about for a bit trying to figure out what to do when my hard disk stopped booting, I suddenly thought "SCSI INFO". I loaded my Edge Emergency disk, ran EDGE, and selected Restore SCSI Info. I followed the prompts and then (sound of complex dialog box poping up) found myself in what I later figured out was the Partition Dialog. I decided I'd better look at the manual, turned to section 6.2, read the instructions, but found that they do not give any hint that this dialog will appear. I selected "Install only" because it seemed the safest thing to do, and my hard disk was back in service. Later I searched the manual, found a picture of the dialog, and was able to confirm that I had made the right choice. Anyway, it would have been better if section 6.2 had mentioned that the dialog would show up during the restore and referred me to section 3.4.2 for an explaination of it. Jon ------------ Category 33, Topic 2 Message 89 Wed Jan 20, 1993 TQUINN [Terry~Sysop] at 10:20 EST I have encountered something weird with Diamond Back II (and only this program as far as I can tell) a couple of times the past couple of weeks. The keyboard has gone to sleep a couple of times in the middle of a backup! All of a sudden, the computer won't register any keypresses or mousemoves or any other form of input. If I do a cold reboot, everything is fine all of a sudden except I have to repeat the backup. Does anybody have any ideas? ------------ Category 33, Topic 2 Message 90 Thu Jan 21, 1993 ORA.TECH at 00:37 EST Thanks for the feedback Jon. Terry, An old Mega of mine started acting like that just before the keyboard chip went to the big IC in the sky. Best regards, Bob@ORA ------------ --==--==--==--==-- ||| Beginner's MIDI ... A computer, a synth, two MIDI cables - now what? ||| John J. Lehett / | \ Internet: JJL101@PSUVM.PSU.EDU GEnie: AEO.8 Delphi: JLEHETT -------------------------------------------------------------------- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Playing MIDI files on YOUR keyboard! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Do you have a MIDI capable keyboard or synth that you simply haven't bothered to hook up to your Atari yet? Or you've tried, but are unable to get it to produce anything that could be considered 'music'? If so, read on! This article will attempt to get you up and running with the most important basic information on using you keyboard and Atari in tandem. Since there are so many keyboards and synths out there, I will attempt to be as general as possible. This will inevitably mean that by following these tidbits of knowledge, you will not get the most out of your keyboard, but will hopefully make you more comfortable learning about this very enjoyable pastime. First a bit about myself. I am admittedly not a MIDI expert, but have been in and out of the MIDI amateur arena for many years. My current synth is a Kawai K4, but I have previously owned a Casio CT-670, and other consumer model keyboards. This article does not assume anything about one's playing skills, but will focus on getting your MIDI-capable keyboard to play back many of the standard MIDI files out there. The only things we will be assuming about your MIDI keyboard is that it is multi-timbrel, in other words, that it can play more than one 'instrument sound' at once, and that in can accept PROGRAM CHANGE MIDI events. This information should be easily found in the keyboard's manual. Note: if your keyboard is not multi-timbrel, you can still follow along and make use of the MIDI files, however only one instrument will be heard. With that out of the way, lets start on the path to hearing some tunes! //// Step 1: Hooking up the Keyboard and the Atari Perhaps the easiest part of the procedure... one simply needs to purchase a pair of standard MIDI cables, available at nearly every music store. Connect each cable to run from the Atari MIDI ports to the keyboard's MIDI ports, while making sure that each cable connects like this: MIDI in <---> MIDI out MIDI out <---> MIDI in //// Step 2: Get some sequencing software There are many sequencers available for the Atari ST, ranging from Public Domain, to relatively expensive professional commercial programs. If you have never used one before, and can stand putting up with a few bugs here and there, I would recommend Alchemie Jr. It is a shareware product (although the authors have been unreachable as far as I have tried) and available on most of the on-line services, and other such software libraries. Whatever your choice of sequencer, the most useful feature that you will be looking for is the ability to view the MIDI 'events' list. These events include the note-on, note-off, program (patch) changes, hold, volume and controller messages that actually get sent to you MIDI keyboard. More information on these events later in this article. //// Step 3: Get some MIDI song files These are somewhat harder to find for pop tunes, as the copyright issue on them is still somewhat murky. But many classical sequences and original sequences are available in most software libraries also. You will want to look for SMF's (Standard MIDI Files). These files most often end with a .MID filetype to distinguish them from the proprietary formats many sequencers possess. Most sequencers allow the importing of SMF files, thereby allowing a cross-platform usability. The majority of SMF's are one of two types. One is the MT-32, a sound module that has been around for quite some type, and the other is GS, a General MIDI Standard file. Since many keyboards today do not follow these standards 'out-of-the-box', we will attempt to take any of these other standard files, and with a little editing, play them on whichever model keyboard you own. //// Step 4: Using the Standard MIDI Files Load up the sequencer you have chosen, and import (or load, depending on the sequencer) the Standard MIDI File you have chosen to work on. Now choose the option in the sequencer to view the MIDI-events, which will look something like the following: Trk Position CH Message Parameter 010 0000/00/00 04 Control 007 096 Volume MSB 001 0001/02/02 05 Program 002 003 0010/01/00 02 Note on C#4 063 000 00126 The note-on and note-off events are the messages that get sent to the keyboard to actually play the notes. The PROGRAM CHANGE messages are those that inform the keyboard to play a certain patch, or instrument sound for those notes on that particular MIDI channel or track. The other MIDI messages that you may see may be ignored for now. Most MIDI keyboards will simply ignore those messages (such as CONTROL, PITCH BEND etc) that it does not understand. We are primarily concerned with the PROGRAM CHANGE messages. Most of these messages will be at the very beginning of the MIDI file. However, depending on the complexity of the song you have chosen, they may be scattered throughout the file. If this is the case, most sequencers allow you to filter out events that you are viewing. Filtering out all but the PROGRAM CHANGE events will greatly simplify your hunting for these types of messages. Attached to the end of this article is the standard patch sets for the GS and MT-32 files. If the individual tracks of the MIDI file are not labelled such as piano or muted guitar, you will have to compare the PROGRAM CHANGE message you see in the events list to the tables for that particular MIDI file type. One thing to note here is that very often the actual PROGRAM CHANGE number you see in the events list is 1 less than the value seen in the tables below (ONLY for the Instrument patch changes, not for the percussion lists). This is due to the fact that MIDI message parameters normally range from 0-127, while the patches in the tables below go from 1 to 128. Once you have spotted a PROGRAM CHANGE event, use the sequencers editing capability to change the parameter number for the event. Look up, via the tables below, the 'instrument' sound that is supposed to be played. Then, refer to your particular keyboards sounds, and select the one that is closest to it, i.e., Grand Piano can simply be replaced with any piano sound you have on your particular keyboard. In your keyboards manual, you should find the information on what PROGRAM CHANGE message is needed to switch to a particular sound. Simply replace the old number with the one that refers to the sound for your keyboard. example: GS MIDI file shows -> 001 0001/02/02 05 PROGRAM 003 and your own keyboard's Electric Grand Piano sound is accessed through PROGRAM 012, change to -> 001 0001/02/02 05 PROGRAM 012 Don't worry if you can't seem to find a certain instrument sound on your keyboard, just come as close to possible. If nothing seems to come close at all, we'll just not play that particular track, as will be explained below. Now proceed to viewing the 'tracks' in the sequencer. The 'tracks' are usually used to separate the difference instrument sounds from one another. These sounds will also normally be assigned to separate MIDI channels. Depending on your keyboard, you may be able to play on 1-16 MIDI channels at once. Most sequencers will allow you to individually mute tracks. Through the events list, find out which MIDI channel each track is playing its notes on. If your keyboard is not capable of playing on that particular MIDI channel, mute the track. The percussion track is normally played through MIDI channel 10. Look over the percussion maps below, and see how closely they approximate the drum section on your machine. If they are close, most drum tracks should sound just fine. If they are very different, and you wish to play the drum tracks, you have some more editing to do, otherwise mute the drum track. You will have to compare the drum note sound for each time it is played in the MIDI file, to the comparable one on you keyboard and adjust the note in the MIDI events list of the sequencer. This process is often made much easier in many sequencers, in that they allow you to change all notes (of one drum sound) to the one that corresponds to your keyboard. For the beginning MIDI person, this process can be frustrating and agonizing, but armed with the drum mappings below, and getting familiar with your sequencer can go a long way to transforming the drum sounds into something that actually sounds pleasing on your keyboard. Now you should be ready to go! Hit play in the sequencer, and see what you have got. //// Step 5: Fine (and Coarse) Tuning Hopefully the sounds emanating from your keyboard sound like music. If not, do not despair... there are many problems that can creep in, and here is where we'll try to correct those. If you hear a lot of the notes stopping abruptly while they sound like they should still be playing, the most likely cause is that you have over-stepped the polyphony of your keyboard. Each keyboard has a maximum number of sounds that it can play at the same time. If the keyboard receives more notes than it can handle, it will usually stop some of the currently playing notes in order to play those it has just been requested to play. To solve this problem, mute another track or two, and try again. If some of the sounds are much louder and over-powering the others, there are couple of different possibilities. First, if your keyboard is capable of receiving VOLUME messages, and you see such messages in the MIDI events list in the sequencer, you may attempt to adjust the parameters to those events to raise or lower the volume for that particular sound. Second, if your keyboard does not recognize such messages, it may simply be the case that some of the instruments you have chosen to play on your keyboard are simply built into it at a louder volume. You might try changing the PROGRAM CHANGE message to those sounds to a different sound on your keyboard. If this persists, you might try eliminating the VOLUME messages altogether from the MIDI file. If you only hear one type of sound (e.g., only a piano), you may have the MIDI mode on the keyboard set incorrectly. Many keyboards need to be placed in multi-timbrel mode, so that more than one instrument sound can play at once. For this type of problem, consult you keyboard manual to determine the appropriate MIDI mode. If you can make out the notes to the song, but can tell that the instruments being played are not at all what they should be, you may be experiencing the 1-off of PROGRAM CHANGES to Patch Numbers as stated above. Should this effect happen, it is wise to trust the Track Names that appear in your sequencer over the patch numbers themselves. The best way to sort out these sound problems is to mute all but one track, and then proceed to change the patch change number in the events list, until it sounds good to you. One very important point to remember, is that if you do not have a MT-32 or General MIDI compatible synth (as explained in the tables below), the MIDI files you attempt to play will not sound exactly like they should. By using the information presented here, and with experimenting on your own keyboard you should be able to reproduce reasonable facsimiles of the the songs. More than anything, have fun! Throw in a spacy type sound where a string section should be, or a ethnic instrument where a classical piano should be. Sometimes the results are unexpected and very pleasing. //// Step 6: Spicing it up As you may have noticed throughout this article, the most common method of overcoming problems has been to mute a track, or eliminate some MIDI messages. This method will allow you to get the basic form of what the author of the MIDI file intended. Once you have 1 or more tracks sounding good to you, save your work, then start adding in the tracks that you may have muted. Experiment with the sequencers ability to force a certain track to play on a MIDI channel that is currently not in use, and that your keyboard is able to play on. Edit back into the file some of the CONTROL messages that you may have deleted before. Above all, be patient with this process. If all else fails, mute all the tracks, then ONE-BY-ONE, play each track through your keyboard, making adjustments until that one track sounds acceptable. Then attempt to play two tracks at once, editing as necessary, etc, until you have as much of the MIDI file being played as possible. At this point, you're on your own. You might try adding keyboard tracks of your own, or copying an exact replica of a track and play it an octave up or down, or with a completely different instrument. //// Step 7: All done? Having edited the MIDI file, you should then save all the work you have done. You may save the file in the sequencer's format you are currently using, or export it in a SMF format for use in almost all sequencers. Whichever you choose, as long as you do not change the set up of your MIDI keyboard, the song you have just saved will play back with the same sounds as it did after your editing. **** TABLE 1 - General MIDI Instrument Patch Map **** (groups sounds into sixteen families, w/8 instruments in each family) Prog# Instrument Prog# Instrument (1-8 PIANO) (9-16 CHROM PERCUSSION) 1 Acoustic Grand 9 Celesta 2 Bright Acoustic 10 Glockenspiel 3 Electric Grand 11 Music Box 4 Honky-Tonk 12 Vibraphone 5 Electric Piano 1 13 Marimba 6 Electric Piano 2 14 Xylophone 7 Harpsichord 15 Tubular Bells 8 Clav 16 Dulcimer (17-24 ORGAN) (25-32 GUITAR) 17 Drawbar Organ 25 Acoustic Guitar(nylon) 18 Percussive Organ 26 Acoustic Guitar(steel) 19 Rock Organ 27 Electric Guitar(jazz) 20 Church Organ 28 Electric Guitar(clean) 21 Reed Organ 29 Electric Guitar(muted) 22 Accordian 30 Overdriven Guitar 23 Harmonica 31 Distortion Guitar 24 Tango Accordian 32 Guitar Harmonics (33-40 BASS) (41-48 STRINGS) 33 Acoustic Bass 41 Violin 34 Electric Bass(finger) 42 Viola 35 Electric Bass(pick) 43 Cello 36 Fretless Bass 44 Contrabass 37 Slap Bass 1 45 Tremolo Strings 38 Slap Bass 2 46 Pizzicato Strings 39 Synth Bass 1 47 Orchestral Strings 40 Synth Bass 2 48 Timpani (49-56 ENSEMBLE) (57-64 BRASS) 49 String Ensemble 1 57 Trumpet 50 String Ensemble 2 58 Trombone 51 SynthStrings 1 59 Tuba 52 SynthStrings 2 60 Muted Trumpet 53 Choir Aahs 61 French Horn 54 Voice Oohs 62 Brass Section 55 Synth Voice 63 SynthBrass 1 56 Orchestra Hit 64 SynthBrass 2 (65-72 REED) (73-80 PIPE) 65 Soprano Sax 73 Piccolo 66 Alto Sax 74 Flute 67 Tenor Sax 75 Recorder 68 Baritone Sax 76 Pan Flute 69 Oboe 77 Blown Bottle 70 English Horn 78 Skakuhachi 71 Bassoon 79 Whistle 72 Clarinet 80 Ocarina (81-88 SYNTH LEAD) (89-96 SYNTH PAD) 81 Lead 1 (square) 89 Pad 1 (new age) 82 Lead 2 (sawtooth) 90 Pad 2 (warm) 83 Lead 3 (calliope) 91 Pad 3 (polysynth) 84 Lead 4 (chiff) 92 Pad 4 (choir) 85 Lead 5 (charang) 93 Pad 5 (bowed) 86 Lead 6 (voice) 94 Pad 6 (metallic) 87 Lead 7 (fifths) 95 Pad 7 (halo) 88 Lead 8 (bass+lead) 96 Pad 8 (sweep) (97-104 SYNTH EFFECTS) (105-112 ETHNIC) 97 FX 1 (rain) 105 Sitar 98 FX 2 (soundtrack) 106 Banjo 99 FX 3 (crystal) 107 Shamisen 100 FX 4 (atmosphere) 108 Koto 101 FX 5 (brightness) 109 Kalimba 102 FX 6 (goblins) 110 Bagpipe 103 FX 7 (echoes) 111 Fiddle 104 FX 8 (sci-fi) 112 Shanai (113-120 PERCUSSIVE) (121-128 SOUND EFFECTS) 113 Tinkle Bell 121 Guitar Fret Noise 114 Agogo 122 Breath Noise 115 Steel Drums 123 Seashore 116 Woodblock 124 Bird Tweet 117 Taiko Drum 125 Telephone Ring 118 Melodic Tom 126 Helicopter 119 Synth Drum 127 Applause 120 Reverse Cymbal 128 Gunshot **** TABLE 2 - General MIDI Percussion Key Map **** (assigns drum sounds to note numbers. MIDI Channel 10 is for percussion) MIDI Drum Sound MIDI Drum Sound Key Key 35 Acoustic Bass Drum 59 Ride Cymbal 2 36 Bass Drum 1 60 Hi Bongo 37 Side Stick 61 Low Bongo 38 Acoustic Snare 62 Mute Hi Conga 39 Hand Clap 63 Open Hi Conga 40 Electric Snare 64 Low Conga 41 Low Floor Tom 65 High Timbale 42 Closed Hi-Hat 66 Low Timbale 43 High Floor Tom 67 High Agogo 44 Pedal Hi-Hat 68 Low Agogo 45 Low Tom 69 Cabasa 46 Open Hi-Hat 70 Maracas 47 Low-Mid Tom 71 Short Whistle 48 Hi-Mid Tom 72 Long Whistle 49 Crash Cymbal 1 73 Short Guiro 50 High Tom 74 Long Guiro 51 Ride Cymbal 1 75 Claves 52 Chinese Cymbal 76 Hi Wood Block 53 Ride Bell 77 Low Wood Block 54 Tamborine 78 Mute Cuica 55 Splash Cymbal 79 Open Cuica 56 Cowbell 80 Mute Triangle 57 Crash Cymbal 2 81 Open Triangle 58 Vibraslap **** TABLE 3 - MT-32 Instrument Patch Map **** Program Instrument Program Instrument # # PIANO BASS 1 Acou Piano 1 65 Acou Base 1 2 Acou Piano 2 66 Acou Base 2 3 Acou Piano 3 67 Elec Bass 1 4 Elec Piano 1 68 Elec Bass 2 5 Elec Piano 2 69 Slap Bass 1 6 Elec Piano 3 70 Slap Bass 2 7 Elec Piano 4 71 Fretless 1 8 Honkytonk 72 Fretless 2 ORGAN WIND 1 9 Elec Org 1 73 Flute 1 10 Elec Org 2 74 Flute 2 11 Elec Org 3 75 Piccolo 1 12 Elec Org 4 76 Piccolo 2 13 Pipe Org 1 77 Recorder 14 Pipe Org 2 78 Pan Pipes 15 Pipe Org 3 16 Accordion WIND 2 79 Sax 1 KEYBRD 80 Sax 2 17 Harpsi 1 81 Sax 3 18 Harpsi 2 82 Sax 4 19 Harpsi 3 83 Clarinet 1 20 Clavi 1 84 Clarinet 2 21 Clavi 2 85 Oboe 22 Clavi 3 86 Engl horn 23 Celesta 1 87 Bassoon 24 Celesta 2 88 Harmonica S-BRASS BRASS 25 Syn Brass 1 89 Trumpet 1 26 Syn Brass 2 90 Trumpet 2 27 Syn Brass 3 91 Trombone 1 28 Syn Brass 4 92 Trombone 2 93 Fr Horn 1 SYNBASS 94 Fr Horn 2 29 Syn Bass 1 95 Tuba 30 Syn Bass 2 96 Brs Sect 1 31 Syn Bass 3 97 Brs Sect 2 32 Syn Bass 4 MALLET SYNTH 1 98 Vibe 1 33 Fantasy 99 Vibe 2 34 Harmo Pan 100 Syn Mallet 35 Chorale 101 Windbell 36 Glasses 102 Glock 37 Soundtrack 103 Tube Bell 38 Atmosphere 104 Xylophone 39 Warm Bell 105 Marimba 40 Funny Vox SPECIAL SYNTH 2 106 Koto 41 Echo Bell 107 Sho 42 Ice Rain 108 Shakuhachi 43 Oboe 2001 109 Whistle 1 44 Echo Pan 110 Whistle 2 45 Doctor Solo 111 Bottleblow 46 Schooldaze 112 Breathpipe 47 Bellsinger 48 Square Wave PERCUSN 113 Timpani STRINGS 114 Melodic Tom 49 Str Sect 1 115 Deep Snare 50 Str Sect 2 116 Elec Perc 1 51 Str Sect 3 117 Elec Perc 2 52 Pizzicato 118 Taiko 53 Violin 1 119 Taiko Rim 54 Violin 2 120 Cymbal 55 Cello 1 121 Castanets 56 Cello 2 122 Triangle 57 Contrabass 58 Harp 1 EFFECTS 59 Harp 2 123 Orch Hit 124 Telephone GUITAR 125 Bird Tweet 60 Guitar 1 126 One Note Jam 61 Guitar 2 127 Water Bells 62 Elec Gtr 1 63 Elec Gtr 2 64 Sitar **** TABLE 4 - MT-32 Percussion Key Map **** MIDI Drum Sound MIDI Drum Sound Key Key 23 Elec SD 66 Lo Timable 35 Acou BD 67 Hi Agogo 36 Acou BD 68 Lo Agogo 37 Rim Shot 69 Cabasa 38 Acou SD 70 Maraca 39 Hand Clap 71 Samba WhisS 40 S. Drum 2 72 Samba WhisL 41 Acou LT 73 Quijada 42 Closed HH 74 Cup Mute 43 Acou LT 75 Claves 44 Open HH 2 76 Brush 1 45 Acou MT 77 Brush 2 46 Open HH 1 78 Castanets 48 Acou HT 80 Triangle 49 Crash Cym 81 HPich Tom1 50 Acou HT 82 Wood Block 51 Ride Cym 83 Bell 52 China Cym 84 B. Drum 3 53 Cup 85 B. Drum 4 54 Tamborine 86 B. Drum 4 55 Splash Cym 87 B. Drum 5 56 Cowbell 88 B. Drum 6 57 CrCym Mute 89 L. Tom 3 58 S. Drum 3 90 C. Hi Hat 2 59 RiCym Mute 91 M. Tom 3 60 High Bongo 93 H. Tom 3 61 Low Bongo 95 NativDrum1 62 MtHi Conga 96 NativDrum2 63 High Conga 97 NativDrum3 64 Low Conga 123 Acou MT 65 Hi Timbale --==--==--==--==-- ||| ||| GEnie Atari ST RoundTable News / | \ Courtesy: GEnie ------------------------------ Atari Roundtable Weekly News 1.4 = DARLAH'S TREAT = This month's Darlah's Treat [p 475;9] is a complete working Mono demo of Calligrapher 3, the next generation of the ultimate writing machine from CodeHead Technologies and Working Title. Calligrapher 3 no longer requires the installation of GDOS or G+Plus. The Demo includes a thorough walk-through of all features plus a listing of new features and upgrade procedure. This Treat runs in Monochrome To run this treat in COLOR check out Treat II [p 475;10]. Product support is available in the Atari Bulletin Board, Category 32, Topic 32. = REALTIME CONFERENCES = = Scheduled Wednesday RTC Guests = Have an idea for an Realtime Conference? Wish to promote a product, show or service? Atari Roundtable Realtime Conference provides an excellent platform for announcements and discussions. Contact RTC$, for requirements and information on holding formal RTCs. We also capture and edit the formal conferences and uploads them into the Atari RT's Library for you. = Monday Realtime Conference = Stop in for Monday's Desktop Publishing Realtime Conferences. Hosted by Lou Rocha with regular guests dealing with all aspects of DTP and associated topics. = Atari ST Help Desk = Atari ST Roundtable holds a Sunday Help Desk to answer your questions on GEnie, Atari ST Roundtable and the line of Atari computers. Stop in and ask questions or just visit the Atari RT staff and users. The Help Desk starts at 9:00 pm EST Sunday on page 475;2. = RTC Transcripts = -------------------------------------------------- 27339 IAAD_RTC.ARC X BRIAN.H 930115 17152 120 13 Desc: IAAD RTC 13 Jan 93 27268 BRODIE4.ARC X ST.LOU 930109 17152 656 13 Desc: Falcon 030 and Software News! -------------------------------------------------- For Realtime Conference inquires and comments contact: RTC$ = LIBRARY = Last Week's Top Downloaded Programs/Utilities: --------------------------------------------------- 27392 GVIEW213.LZH X OUTRIDER 930120 406528 194 28 Desc: GEM-View 2.13 - Now Saves GIFs! 27382 FRACLAND.ZIP X JLHOFFMAN 930118 69248 105 28 Desc: Generate 3D fractal mountains 27350 SYQ_BACK.LZH X LARRY.D 930116 21376 103 2 Desc: SyQuest Incremental Backup/Restore 27348 EXPAND14.LZH X A.CULLUM1 930116 25344 89 2 Desc: Expand-o-matic shell, version 1.4 27439 LBJRB175.LZH X J.THAYNE 930123 26752 68 2 Desc: Label Maker JRB ver 1.75 (c) 1990 27435 DSP11.LZH X K.LORD 930123 37632 60 29 Desc: DSP.PRG version 1.1 --------------------------------------------------- Last Week's New Demos: --------------------------------------------------- 27452 URW_SLM3.LZH X CODEHEAD 930124 130816 5 10 Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for SLM printer 27428 URWDJET3.LZH X CODEHEAD 930122 141952 25 10 Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for Desk Jets 27423 URWHPLJ3.LZH X CODEHEAD 930122 132992 15 10 Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for HP LaserJet 27418 URWBJET3.LZH X CODEHEAD 930122 74880 6 10 Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for Bubble Jets 27414 URW24PN3.LZH X CODEHEAD 930122 51712 17 10 Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for 24-Pin Ptrs 27413 URW9PIN3.LZH X CODEHEAD 930122 85248 4 10 Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for 9-Pin Ptrs. 27389 CAL3MEDM.LZH X J.EIDSVOOG1 930119 39040 115 10 Desc: Cal 3 Demo Files for Medium Res 27336 CAL3DEMO.TOS X J.EIDSVOOG1 930115 375168 546 10 Desc: Mono Demo version of Calligrapher 3! --------------------------------------------------- Last Week's Press Releases in the Library --------------------------------------------------- 27462 SHOW.ASC X B.WELSCH 930124 1536 11 14 Desc: Press release for KC AtariFest 27396 UG_FFD.TXT X PMC.INC 930120 2176 80 14 Desc: Special for User Groups 27385 HOWDY.TXT X A.STUDER1 930119 2176 22 14 Desc: SAC Expo Advertisement for 3/13-3/14 --------------------------------------------------- Contact: LIBRARY$ --==--==--==--==-- --==--==--==--==-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- --==--==-- GEnie Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- -- -- -- 1. Set your communications software for half duplex (local echo) -- -- at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud. -- -- -- -- 2. Dial toll free: 1-800-638-8369 (or in Canada, 1-800-387-8330). -- -- Upon connection, enter HHH. -- -- -- -- 3. At the U# prompt, enter XTX99436,GENIE then press . -- -- -- -- 4. Have a major credit card ready. In the U.S., you may also use -- -- your checking account number. -- -- -- -- For more information in the United States or Canada, call 1-800- -- -- 638-9636 or write: GEnie, c/o GE Information Services, P.O. Box -- -- 6403, Rockville, MD 20850-1785. -- -- -- -- --==--==-- Atari's Official On-line Resource! --==--==-- -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --==--==--==--==-- ||| A Beginner's Guide to UNIX and the Internet - Part 2 ||| By: Timothy Wilson / | \ Internet: WILSONT@RAHUL.NET GEnie: AEO.8 ---------------------------------------------------- A beginner's guide to UNIX, and the Internet. How it applies to the Atari world, and other tricks, tips, places, services, and files of interest. Chapter 2. Some more miscellaneous UNIX thingies and the quickest e-mail you'll ever see. Well, we've went over simple file management, now let's take a look at some other UNIX utilities and commands that come in handy. I assume you have an account by now. So let's try a few things. ------------ unix% uptime 12:09pm up 11 days, 17:52, 10 users, load average: 0.21, 0.06, 0.01 unix% ------------ Basically what this command does is check to see how busy stuff is. We can see there are 10 users, while the system was restarted 11 days and 17 hours ago. The load average is a gauge of how busy the system is - the higher the number, the slower performance. It's the average number of processes started in the recent past. If there is a high load average, it might be better to call back. "High load average" is relative - 2 or 3 on a SUN 4.1 is nothing to worry about. 2 or 3 on a old sequent is a nightmare. Gee, there is 10 other users on! let's see who they are. -------------- unix%users wilsont geroga harlock picard aml mbison smithk jones valamah root unix% --------------- Names like this are login names, sometimes you can pick your own and sometimes the system administrator (sysadmin) picks it for you. Sometimes your social security number is in there (ws432282) or, like mine, my last name and a first letter of my first name. At my site I could pick whatever I wanted to. But I stuck with my college login: 'wilsont' As long as it's not obscene, it's probably ok. Login names are important for mail... the second part of this chapter. We can even tell what these other people are doing. Let's take a look. ---------------- unix% w 12:12pm up 11 days, 17:55, 10 users, load average 0.20, 0.09, 0.10 User tty login@ idle JCPU PCPU what wilsont tty1 12:06pm w geroga ttya :20 00:20 rn harlock tty3 1:00 01:15 nn rec.arts.anime picard ttyz :35 00:01 sz enterprise.gif mbison tty4 :02 02:00 telnet 123.23.12.19 2300 etc..... ------------------ It's pretty self explanatory. I learned a bunch by simply watching a screen like this and doing 'man' on everything that everyone else was doing. You don't have to since you're reading this wonderful UNIX tutorial.... :) JCPU is the total time used by that person. (for each of his processes) PCPU is the total time for all processes. (this is a strange CPU relative time) We can write a quick note to any of the people on the users list. ------------- unix% write harlock Hey! What's up?? ^D **** (Press control-D here )***** EOT unix% ------------- Here's the procedure: write message line message line message line.... etc, etc. Ctrl-D when done. The other user gets the lines as you press return. An incoming message looks like this: -------------- message from wilsont tty1 at 12:20:23 Hey! What's up?? EOT unix% -------------- However, if you don't want to be bugged by people paging you like this, use: ------------ unix% mesg n ------------ This shuts off 'write' messages. For a more interactive conversation, try: --------------- unix% talk harlock --------------- (the screen splits in two and waits for the other guy to connect) harlock gets: ---------------- Message from talk daemon: Talk requested by wilsont@bolero.rahul.net respond with: talk wilsont@bolero.rahul.net unix% ----------------- All harlock really needs to type is: talk wilsont. Since we're both on the same computer, it's implied. All of these only work with what's going on at your 'site' or computer system. That means it's time for another concept, the site address. Each system on the internet can be 'addressed' by a 32 bit number. Sort of like the number up on that 'w' list above... see it next to the 'telnet'? that's called an IP address. its expressed as 4 8-bit numbers separated by periods. Followed by an optional 'port'. Programs running on a UNIX machine can attach themselves to a port, and receive data through it, via a programming construct called a 'socket'. It gets really technical from there, so I won't go any further with sockets, I'm just letting you know in case you run across it. I'll bet you're wondering if you have to start remembering a bunch of numbers to use the internet. The answer is probably no. Most UNIX machines are connected to a "Name server". From what I understand, your system sends a english name to this server, and gets back the IP address that it can use. It's all transparent anyways. Some examples of a few sites I've had accounts on at: prism.cs.orst.edu rahul.net holonet.net That's a lot easier to remember than 192.32.128.34! The names can be a source of information in themselves. Take a look at the first one: prism.cs.orst.edu. You can sort of read it backwards and tell where its from. .edu <---- Usually means a college or other 'educational' institution. Other types: .com= Commercial sites such as hp or sun. .org= An organization .net= I figure these are simply net access sites, with no relation to the others. .gov= Government sites, like NASA .mil= Military sites, usually restricted .orst <---- orst= Oregon State. Other examples: colostate, colorado state. sun, apple, compuserve, aol (American Online) .cs <---- cs= Computer Science. Other examples: ece = electrical engineering sun = a Sun workstation group. Usually this is a department name. prism <---- The actual computer name. These names can get pretty wild as there's a bunch of bored sysadmins out there with nothing better to do but name the machines. :) Prism happens to be an apollo graphics workstation. (hence the name, meaning lots of colors) If you know someone's address and they are on at the time, you can interactively talk with: ------------- unix% talk login@computer.department.site.network ------------- I talk to my friend in colorado all the time, for the price of a local call! To end the talk session, press ctrl-C. === Remember, if you need more nitty gritty info, use: man === If you want to know if someone else is on at another site try: ------------ unix% rusers sitename (gives a user list of a remote site) or unix% finger login@sitename (gives detailed info on that person) ------------- Now, onto the fastest e-mail you've ever seen! Internet Global Electronic Mail. Unlike the US postal service, internet mail gets where it's going quickly. Mail can be delivered across the country in a matter of a few minutes. There are lots of ways to send mail. We'll start out with 'mail', it's simple, and not very powerful, but good for quick notes. The format is: ------------------ unix% mail login@site address an example of a mail: unix% mail wilsont@rahul.net Subject: test (Note: you might not get a subject line) this is a test... unix% ------------------ Ctrl-D is a general "I'm done typing my message now!" command. Two ctrl-C's in mail will cancel the letter. You can enter into an editor, by typing on a blank line: ~vi (There are lots of editors out there, the 'man' pages are excellent for learning how to use them. I won't cover editors here, but here are some editor names: vi, emacs, mg. mg or emacs is a good start, vi is for die hard UNIX people) This doesn't mean you will be put in the editor 'vi', it simply activates the 'visual' editor that's been defined somewhere in your setup. Once you learn how to use an editor, you can edit your setup. I guess I'll write an appendix or something for this type of thing. After you exit your editor, you'll still have to press ctrl-D to send this mail. You can also make a letter with an editor beforehand. Just simply put the lines: To: login@sitename Subject: at the top, and use: --------------- unix% send filename --------------- 'Send' looks in the file you gave it for the header line (To: ) and sends the message to that person. If 'send' isn't available, you can do this: ---------------- unix% mail login@sitename < filename ---------------- This is a feature of UNIX called redirection, but when it is used in this manner it puts a file 'into' a command instead of sending the output of a command to a file. (like we did in chapter one) This file doesn't have to have the To: line because 'mail' will take care of it. A handy dandy mailer is elm. elm is an all in one reader and sender of mail. It uses your terminal (VT100 and the like) to display stuff real pretty on the screen. Type 'elm' alone on the command line and you'll get a screen showing what's in your mailbox, and a list of commands, elm is really simple and much easier to use than most BBS mailers! Typing 'mail' all alone will also get you a list of mail in your mail box. A list of commands can be seen with '?' I'm assuming you've BBS'ed before, that's why I'm sort of rushing through mail. Just stick with elm and you'll hate going to anything else. I wonder how the online networks can get away with line editors! If you have problems... mail me! ------------------- unix% mail wilsont@rahul.net Subject: Help!! my site doesn't have elm... what do I do? EOT unix% -------------------- I expect all of you to send me mail. At least just say Hi. Oh.. the request line CC: means carbon copy. You can send mail to multiple people, just separate the addresses with a space. Well, that covers communication between two people, next chapter we'll go get some files from Atari Archive, the internet repository of atari stuff. Feel free to mail me at: wilsont@rahul.net or Snail Mail: 17405 Kincaid Rd. San Jose, CA 95140 Oh yeah... 'write' only works on the same machine, it can't cross that boundary. If you're wondering when these articles start discussing Atari related internet stuff, that'll be the next two chapters. I couldn't just dump you guys n' gals at a UNIX prompt and hope for the best. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// part 2 of UNIX site list: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= name ----------> DIAL n' CERF or DIAL n' CERF AYC dialup --------> contact for number area codes ----> 213, 310, 510, 619, 714, 818 local access --> CA: Westwood, Oakland, San Diego, Irvine, Pasadena fees ----------> $5/hour ($3/hour on weekend) + $20/month + $50 startup or $250/month voice ---------> 800-876-2373 or 619-455-3900 name ----------> DIAL n' CERF USA dialup --------> contact for number area codes ----> 800 local access --> anywhere (800) service is available fees ----------> $10/hour ($8/hour on weekend) + $20/month voice ---------> 800-876-2373 or 619-455-3900 name ----------> Express Access - Online Communications Service dialup --------> 301-220-0462, 410-766-1855 'new' area codes ----> 202, 301, 410, 703 local access --> Northern VA, Baltimore MD, Washington DC fees ----------> $25/month or $250/year voice ---------> 301-220-2020 name ----------> Halcyon dialup --------> (206) 382-6245 'bbs', 8N1 area codes ----> 206 local access --> Seattle, WA fees ----------> $15/month or $150/year + $10 startup voice ---------> 206-426-9298 << holonet >> name ----------> HoloNet dialup --------> (510) 704-1058 area codes ----> 510, PDN local access --> Berkeley, CA fees ----------> $2/hour off-peak, $4/hour peak; $6/month or $60/year minimum voice ---------> 510-704-0160 name ----------> UK PC User Group dialup --------> +44 (0)81 863 6646 area codes ----> +44 (0)81 local access --> London, England fees ----------> GBPounds 15.50/month or 160/year + 10 startup (no time charges) voice ---------> +44 (0)81 863 6646 name ----------> The IDS World Network dialup --------> (401) 884-9002, (401) 785-1067 area codes ----> 401 local access --> East Greenwich, RI; northern RI fees ----------> $10/month or $50/half year or $100/year voice ---------> 401-884-7856 name ----------> The John von Neumann Computer Network - Dialin' Tiger dialup --------> contact for number area codes ----> 201, 203, 215, 401, 516, 609, 908 local access --> Princeton & Newark, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Garden City, NY; Bridgeport, New Haven, & Storrs, CT; Providence, RI fees ----------> $99/month + $99 startup (PC or Mac SLIP software included. Shell is additional $21/month) voice ---------> (800) 35-TIGER, (609) 258-2400 name ----------> The John von Neumann Computer Network - Tiger Mail & Dialin' Terminal dialup --------> contact for number area codes ----> 800 local access --> anywhere (800) service is available fees ----------> $19/month + $10/hour + $36 startup (PC or Mac SLIP software included) voice ---------> (800) 35-TIGER, (609) 258-2400 name ----------> Merit Network, Inc. -- MichNet project dialup --------> contact for number or telnet hermes.merit.edu or ftp nic.merit.edu:/michnet/how.to.get.connected/*.nos area codes ----> 313, 517, 616, 906, PDN local access --> Michigan; Boston, MA; Wash. DC fees ----------> $35/month + $40 signup voice ---------> 313-764-9430 There's one more part to this list - in the next chapter. --==--==--==--==-- ||| ||| Shutdown ............................ Power off, EXIT, BYE, Logoff / | \ ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ Mid Cities Computer - located at 9406 Flower Street, Bellflower, California - are having an Open House Jan 30th. Representatives from Barefoot Software (formerly Hybrid Arts), Cubase, CodeHead Technologies, Education Software, and Lexicor Software will be attending. But even better, some of these great developers will be bringing their Falcon030's along! So, if you are in the Southern California area this weekend, you might want to stop by and take a look. Vox Populi Vox Dei! Atari Explorer Online is expanding! We are in the process of forming a sister online magazine: Atari Explorer Online - Programmer's Journal. This will be a monthly publication dealing solely with programming problems, and will include lots of source code, and even a program or two along the way. Albert Dayes (CompuServe: 70007,3615 GEnie: AEO.1) will be your host for AEO-PJ; look for more information about this new venture in the coming week. As always, we encourage submissions for AEO and AEO-PJ. Use any of our online addresses to contact us. Or drop us a note in our topic area on GEnie: Category 15, Topic 20. It looks like an exciting month is breaking... in many ways. Take care. Until the next issue of AEO, I remain, Your Editor Travis Guy --==--==--==--==-- (This issue printed on recycled photons) --==--==--==--==-- Atari Explorer Online Magazine is a bi-weekly publication covering the Atari computer community. Material published in this issue may be reprinted under the following terms only: articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of each article reprinted. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the beginning of the article, to registered Atari user groups and not for profit publications. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of Atari Corporation. --==--==--==--==-- Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation. ST, Mega ST, STE, Mega STE, TT030, Atari Falcon030, TOS, MultiTOS, NewDesk, BLiTTER, Atari Lynx, Atari Portfolio, and the Atari Fuji are all trademarks of Atari Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned in this issue belong to their respective owners. --==--==--==--==-- Atari Explorer Online Magazine "The Official Atari Online Journal" Copyright ˝ 1993, Atari Computer Corporation * * * * * * * * * * * * :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: A E O ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Volume 2 - Issue 3 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 29 January 1993 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::