Re: How to Create Music for the IIgs

[philip@utstat.toronto.edu (Philip McDunnough)]

In article <1993May21.015637.15122@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> edb143s@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Xiphoid) writes:

[Back to music on the GS...]
>
>Interested in composing Tracker-Style music manually on the gs eh??  I wish you luck!  I recommend SoundSmith for writing tracker-style music; not because I
>think it's particularily good, but because you really have no other choice.  
>Getting an instruction manual for SoundSmith is another matter though.  I
>haven't as yet seen any that are available.  But through years of trial-and-error I have gained a reasonable understanding of the program and have composed 
>many demo-style songs.  I find SoundSmith lacks many features I'd like to see 
>implemented, but it is still possible to compose some wicked music on it if you
>have patience and an imaginative style of composing.  If you really want some
>sort of manual, and if others express a genuine interest, I will consider
>writing a manual for SoundSmith, as I've given lectures to the Apple Users
>Society Of Melbourne (ausom) gs sig on how to use the program.  Interested?
>Mail me back if you are!

The GS could do with a Pinball GS program and some sense of unity to the sound/
music situation.
 
Soundsmith et al is not, in my know opinion, the way to go. The way to go is
via midi. Now, there's not a great deal of support for midi on the GS, but
it does exist in bits and pieces.
 
(1) MusicWriter GS is a notation program with a minor sequencer. It is quite 
    a powerful program, is still supported, and can import midi files. It
    also has an instrument designer program which is most interesting.
 
(2) USE is a sound editor which has a great deal of promise, at least from 
what I have seen of it.
 
(3) Musix is a sound conversion program. It is apparently still being developed
but if it is ever finished, it will translate a lot of different music 
formats.
 
(3) Diversi-Tune-> someone should simply ask Bill Basham for permission to
    add a midi export and more instruments to this program, if he can't find
    the time. This is one of the better programs around for music, and you
    are left with that mechanical metronome playing so common in midi 
    circles.
 
In short, we need
 
(1) A Great Pinball GS program (with a contruction set)
(2) A sound conversion utility which is complete.
(3) A music converstion utility which is complete.
(4) A basic sequencer which will save standard midi files.
 
It's nice to have mod playing utilities. But you know my feelings about 
this type of musical format.

-- 
Philip McDunnough
University of Toronto
philip@utstat.toronto.edu
[Where sheep may safely graze...]