"Old School MIDI Bragging Contests"

[James Steele]

Just had an interesting interaction with someone. It's always fun when there's the discussion of just WHEN one started with computer based recording... aka MIDI sequencing to us "mature" folks. Had a discussion with a guy, online, and mentioned that I favored DP and started with it back when it was Performer and ran on a Mac Plus. So he comes back with, well... I go back before that... had Cakewalk 1.0 and it ran off a floppy. So then I tell him, yep... I started on a PC running DOS 1.0 and had been using Robert Keller's 48 Track PC with was strictly event list editing only and you got 48 MIDI tracks. I used an MPU-401. Cakewalk 1.0 came out later and it actually had a piano roll view, which wasn't truly a graphic display... it used ASCII characters to "fake it." Back then to do graphics you had to put the CGA card into graphics mode and you got four... count 'em... FOUR COLORS: white, black, pink, and cyan.... unless you were fortunate to be one of the first people to get an EGA... and later VGA card....

Yep... gotta run... gonna go sit out on the porch and talk about the early days of MIDI with the youngin's...

[bayswater]

There's no impressing them. I was showing a 14 year old who wants to get into composition how to get started with DP. He thought it was all pretty obvious. I started with MasterTracks on an Atari ST when it was first released but returned it because it couldn't correctly quantize to triplets. Could Performer 1.0 do that?

[monkey man]

Edit Track on an ATARI.

1987, so I was late to the party.

[cuttime]

See my avatar. People are still saying that the Atari MIDI bus is the most accurate of all when people are still complaining about latency and timing. Mine went to the thrift store about 3 years ago. YMMV.

[HCMarkus]

Opcode's "Sequencer" on the original 128k Mac that had been expanded to 512k "Fat Mac" status.

Sequencer was pretty great... until you added the second and third tracks, at which time its timing went straight in the toilet. Then somebody gave me a Performer v 1.x floppy and I was very pleased to discover its rock solid MIDI timing.

Slaved that Mac to my 8 Track Reel to Reel with Opcode's Timecode Machine, which performed much better than "Sequencer".

Back to the porch.

[monkey man]

Yup, the Atari featured MROS - Music Real-time Operating System, created by Steinberg, which ensured rock-solid MIDI timing, running in the background:

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010 ... atari-ste/

[stubbsonic]

I started with MasterTracks on an Atari ST when it was first released but returned it because it couldn't correctly quantize to triplets.

MasterTracks & Atari ST was my first setup, too. I don't recall that triplet limitation. It is almost comical that in 2022, we still see various rhythm software that doesn't offer triplets. My misty, halcyon memories of working with MasterTracks are that it was pleasant and fun. Memory is funny that way.

I also had an Alesis MMT-8 at some point. Anyone remember those?

[bayswater]

MasterTracks & Atari ST was my first setup, too. I don't recall that triplet limitation.

No doubt it was a bug or user error. But when I took it back to the local music store, their MIDI guy couldn’t get it to work either. They were more annoyed that I was, and gave me an even swap for Dr. T KCS II. That did stuff I still don’t see in current DAWs. I’d probably still be using it if he had added audio.

[cuttime]

If anyone wants to revive an Atari, I am surprised to see this site is still active. Sadly, Tim is not.

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/mirr ... ndex-1.htm

[waterstrum]

Southworth "Total Music" on 128k Mac.
It was a total mess.
The manual had a quote, "Just remember, the pioneers are the guys with arrows in their backs"
Didn't inspire confidence.

[labman]

Southworth Total Music here too, with Jambox thing for interface. Still have the orig Mac 512k

[stubbsonic]

There could even be a sub-forum called "Relics" where DP users wax nostalgic and pointlessly opine about older gear & software.

I'd probably enjoy watching some YouTube vids of someone editing with some of these old programs (as we used to call them).

I'd start a thread called "get off my lawn": Remember when "dongle" referred to any functionless, port-occupying copy-protection lump, and not just an adapter?

[bayswater]

There could even be a sub-forum called "Relics" where DP users wax nostalgic and pointlessly opine about older gear & software.

I notice you still have a K2500 in your signature. I can beat that — I have a K2000.

[monkey man]

Roland A-50
Yamaha P50m
Yamaha VL70m

[bkshepard]

Yeah, well, I used to record MIDI events by carving them in my bedpost. Oh wait, maybe that wasn't MIDI events!