Labels:text | screenshot | font OCR: AM/FM ** Where is the PC today? Ok, I admit it. I've got a PC. Yep, it's right there, next to my trusty Amiga on the desk - a PC and an Amiga, side by side. Why? Am I not an Amiga freak? Oh yes, very much SO, but one of my jobs is being a writer/reviewer for the magazine MegaByte, which covers both PC and Amiga, SO to be able to try out new music soft- and hardware for the PC as well as the Amiga, I naturally also need to have a PC. Terrible, I know, but look ask yourself this: If I considered the PC any better than the Amiga, would I still be editing AM/FM for the Amiga and not for the PC? Nope. Ok, since there's a lot of interest in the matter of "which is the best" of the computers, I thought I'd try to use some of my insight to let the Amiga fans know exactly where the PC is today - in terms of sound and music, I mean. (Who cares about boring stuff like graphics, animation, text processing etc. ?? - not me, anyway! ). My job for the magazine MegaByte is very nice in many ways; one of them being the fact that I get to try out all the latest sound- and music-gear for both the PC and the Amiga; I get to follow the market very closely, and at all time keep up with what's the hottest and the best around at the moment. Lately, I've been testing and reviewing sound cards both for the Amiga and the PC; as well as great sequencer-programmes for both machines. The fact that I get to know "both sides" of the story very well, has made me just shake my head at the many "computer best. wars" going on; people arguing about which computer is the I find it simply ridiculous, and I never involve myself in these discussions. How often do you see owners of different types of cars arguing about which car is the best, trying to say as much nasty stuff as possible about the other guy's car, and maybe even ruin a friendship over different types of cars ?? Not that often, no. Then why do owners of different types of computers do it ?? Beats me - maybe it's because they're generally at least 10 years younger than the car owners? I don't know - what I DO know is that I find it silly. The different types of computers obviously have different qualities, and perhaps more importantly, different prices. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I thought I would take this opportunity to let you know where the PC stands today as far as sound and music goes. As you probably all know, a PC in itself can't make any more noise than a very pathetic little beep, from a built-in speaker. So in a basic PC, I think it's safe to say that you don't get neither sound nor music - at all. However, there are sound cards. And more sound cards. The sound cards are without doubt the hottest thing on the PC scene right now. There are a vast number of different sound cards; many of them trying to follow various "standards" for sound reproduction; like the Soundblaster standard, the General MIDI standard, the AdLib standard, etc. etc. These sound cards are simply tiny little synthesizers (you can call them that), which you fit into a slot inside your PC, and take out the audio from a little plug at the back. Software like games etc. can then utilise this sound card, if it's supported by the software in question, that is. Since there are so many different sound cards, this can be a problem for the PC owners - often, before starting to play a game, they must go through various setup-screens, where they set up the audio- and video- equipment they have available. Then, if all goes well, the game will look and sound as good as your equipment allows. Which is a good idea, really. Unfortunately, this sometimes causes problems, because all the different standards aren't always compatible, and the type of sound card that you happen to own, may not be supported by the game you bought . The PC sound cards took the big move into 16-bit audio about a year ago. Since then, millions and millions of 16-bit sound cards have been sold. The two most popular of these, the SoundBlaster 16 (SB16) and the Gravis Ultra Sound (GUS). These cards combine fairly good sound quality (better than Amiga, I'm afraid) for a, well, let's say, * fairly* reasonable price. The GUS is an extremely popular card; probably the best selling PC sound card at the moment. It costs about 130 pounds, and offers 16-bit playback of sound, but only 8-bit recording. In other words, it can PLAY 16-bit sound files with "not too far from CD quality" sound; however, it can RECORD sound only in 8-bit; i.e. just like any standard Amiga without any extra hardware. There are also better cards available. There's the SoundBlaster AWE32 (no, it's not 32-bit, it's just in the name), and there's the AudioTrix Pro, both of which are full 16-bit, and can actually record and play back audio in full, true, CD- quality sound. But these cards costs a lot of money; the AudioTrix being the cheapest of these is at 295 US Dollars. These cards also have 128 preset synth- sounds stored on the card itself. These sounds are laid out in the "General MIDI" standard, which is a kind of standard set of sounds which must all sound almost alike and be stored in the same order etc ., so that music which is made with General MIDI support on one synth can also be played back on a totally different synth, and sound reasonably much like the original - IF that other synth also supports the General MIDI standard. As for me personally, I *HATE* General MIDI, because in reality, the sounds are never the same anyway - the strings on one synth or sound card can be very much different to that of another synth or sound card - and the only thing you achieve with this is the fact that people who listen to your music on different equipment, THINK that they're hearing it the way it was supposed to sound - because they have General MIDI. But I have, after trying out several different sound cards etc ., concluded with the fact that the song can be *recognizeable* when played back on different equipment, yes, but does NOT sound like it was supposed to. Anyway . I was lucky enough to actually be GIVEN an AudioTrix Pro (they used some of my music as demonstration for the card, so they gave me one, as a return favour), and sure enough, the sound quality is excellent on recording and playback of sound. The General MIDI sound set is also very nice, and some of the drum sounds are good too. The software, however, is a bit on the weak side. I mean, not the special AudioTrix Pro software, or the special GUS software, but the PC sound and music software in general. Sure, there are the professional MIDI sequencers, like CakeWalk and Cubase, but these are more aimed at using professional studio equipment too - not for using just what you can squeeze out of the PC and a sound card. I'm of course talking about a PC "ProTracker" or "OctaMED" thing - one you can use to make really kicking music without any external synthesizers There ARE some "trackers" available; and I've seen and tried a few of them, but none of them, as far as I've seen, get even close to the power and innovation of ProTracker or OctaMED. So w it do musicttt the PC owners do? Exactly - they play back If you take a look into the PC Public Domain world, take a look around the various music libraries etc ., you will see that at least 95% of the music you find, have been made on the Amiga. The PCs have for a long time already been able to play "our" MOD. files, and the "sport" of the PC Public Domain scene these days is to try to get your sound card to play back Amiga music as closely as possible to the original. I'm not kidding you, I'm on the inside of this scene myself - I've seen it. If you visit a BBS for PCs with lots of music etc ., try downloading a few songs, and you will see that all of them (well, practically) are made on the Amiga. Is it that the Amiga owners are more creative? That it's the Amiga folks that actually MAKE the music, and the PC owners are left to sitting back and listening in awe, impressed of their own sound card, and how well it can play back this music, that was composed and produced by an Amiga enthusiast with his trusty Amiga computer? You know what? It certainly looks like it. Ok, it'd be wrong of me to give you the wrong ideas here. The fact is, that the PCs have a vast range of various sound cards, many of which surpasses the Amiga in sound quality. You can also get 16-bit sound cards for the Amiga (for example Toccata or WaveTools), but they are much more expensive than their PC equivalents, AND the PC sound cards in this price range are also most often equipped with 128 built-in General MIDI sounds. Those are the facts - and technically, yes, the PC has surpassed the Amiga in sound quality. So - what are they using it for? Well, as I've mentioned above, some of the PC games have quite nice sound and music these days; if you have a good sound card AND the software in question supports your sound card. The game XWING on the PC, complete with a 16-bit General MIDI version of the Star Wars soundtrack really does sound very impressive - I admit it. But where's the music scene? There isn't any! You know, the kind of fresh, funky, fabulous, freakydeaky, pumping, raw, funny, impressive music that we've all learned to love as part of the Amiga scene - composed by people who are one of US, another talented musician sweating over those tracks and blocks of OctaMED and creating something really stunning, considering the hardware limitation. There's SOMETHING about this, which appeals to us all. As for the PC scene, there is no such thing, what so ever. That's why I LOVE the Amiga scene, and pray to God that someone will give us cheaper 16-bit sound AND the software to make music for it; before the PC's start to sound like 3.000 pound synthesizers! Bjorn A. Lynne
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