Apple II Music & Sound Conference October 24, 1990 10pm ET Subject: Beginning music Forum Leader: Joyce Madden (AFL JoyceM) AFC Eddie Lindsay asked me to send him a midi file I converted from mac, so I did that. He thinks there might still be some mac stuff on it. AFL JoyceM Do you have a Mac also? AFC Eddie No, but a few days ago I played with the new Mac IISi - Wow! Built in digitizing a multi-tasking. AFL JoyceM Yep...I looked at them too...but I really don't need a Mac, my GS is just fine. AFC Eddie In the music area, the main thing Macs have is great sound library and editing software. AFL JoyceM Yep....we need editing software too....a librarian and editor. :) AFC Eddie I'm gonna try talking Lindsay into doing it! AFL JoyceM David, anything we can help you with? DavidI6 Not really, just stopped by to see what was going on. AFC Eddie Dave, do you do music stuff on your computer? AFL JoyceM This will be a beginner chat, but we sure are open to other ideas or whatever you want to discuss. DavidI6 I downloaded SoundSmith, and other than that I use sounds in Hyperstudio. AFC Eddie Gene, congratulations on a great job with Cosmocade! AFL JoyceM David, do you use other music programs or create your own songs/sounds? AFC Eddie Cosmocade, a great shareware game with great music by AFA Gene! DavidI6 I want to get some sheet music to use in SoundSmith, and I digitize for Hyperstudio DanW190 Some great music is in Cosmocade (especially Calibus) and also in the new DreamGraphics Demo. First soundsmith guitar solo I've ever heard! AFL JoyceM David, a great source for sheet music is from your local library. ScottW25 Hey Dudes whats up! Just got done downloading Poms 50! AFA Gene Thanks for the good word, Dan :) DanW190 There'll be a new demo coming within a few days that has some pretty cool soundsmith music.. you should look for that (nudge nudge) DavidI6 I go to the Univ. of FLA, and even their music library doesn't have new sheets. ScottW25 DanW190, cool, I love totally cool demos with soundsmith music and FTA stuff! AFC Eddie There's a magazine you can subscribe to called sheetmusic. It has classics, standards, pop stuff, etc. AFL JoyceM Sheet Music magazine is pretty good, doesn't always have the most current songs...but good. Can get it for Standard Piano/Organ or Advanced. ScottW25 I wish Soundsmith was easier to program! DanW190 Soundsmith isn't THAT hard..just takes some getting used to. AFC Eddie Soundsmith will be easeier when a MIDI capable version finally comes out! DanW190 I want some decent, LASTING instruments for it though. :P ScottW25 Cool, thanks Dan!! DanW190 Lots of songs I hear or I'm working on have instruments that should go : "toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooone" when instead they go.. "tone" :) AFL JoyceM Dan, you mentioned a new demo...what is it? DanW190 Joyce; I can't say until it's released... but check in a few days in AGR for a new demo that does feature soundsmith music, along with some graphical "tricks" :) ScottW25 I got Sonic Blaster, should I have paid the few more dollars for the MIDI thing ELECTMUSIC Naa.. Scot I have AA... and NEVER use the MIDI thing :) ScottW25 Cool!! AFC Eddie If you're serious about MIDI, it's Mastertracks and Musicwriter! ScottW25 I mainly download sound stuff, like SS songs!! ELECTMUSIC I do like the small mixer though :) AFA Gene Scott: the MIDI thing on AA is incompatible with some of the most popular programs, too. ScottW25 What exactly is Master tracks?? How much? DanW190 Scott; get DreamGraphix demo 3; that has some GREAT ss music in it! dg demo 3.. yes. Go into AGR/software libraries/new files. You'll see it DanW190 Master tracks = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ AFC Eddie It's a pro sequencer with up to 64 tracks. Two versions: ScottW25 Is it on AOL? AFC Eddie a demo is! AFL JoyceM Parik, any word on a new version of SoundSmith? Especially with MIDI? AFC Eddie The "Junior" version is less expensive than the pro version, but still allows great sequencing and some editing. DanW190 You've got me, Joyce! I sent huibert an additional $20 a coupla months ago and I haven't heard anything :( Someone said he moved or something..? ScottW25 I waiting for the best version, and a paycheck, if I get a job! AFL JoyceM Thanks, Dan. Nuzz Is anyone doing anything BESIDES demos AFL JoyceM Parik, any word on a new MIDI version of SoundSmith? AFA Parik ack, not yet. DanW190 Scott; any possibility of Brian somehow coming up with a way to play that awesome Cosmocade music with BGsound ? (no) :) DanW190 Mike; yes. There's a soundsmith player program under development; actually I think someone else is also doing one, so I can't say anything else about it. Mr Toaster What's new and improved tonight? AFC Eddie Mr Toaster often pops up! AFC JohnC I just used AudioZap it plays SS, HyperStudio, etc files AFC Eddie Audiozap plays Soundsmith? Mr Toaster I'm still upset that I didn't win the free time, Joyce. AFL JoyceM But you did, Mr Toaster. Did you not get your one hour? Mr Toaster Really? Let me check my bill... Mr Toaster YEAH!!! So I did place after all? AFL JoyceM You were tied for 3rd. Mr Toaster Good. I'm running out of my VISA credit limit anyway. AFC JohnC Yes Eddie AFL JoyceM Mike, do you want to talk about your upcoming program? AFC Eddie What new program, Mike? Nuzz Well, we will have a MidiSynth Song disk with Xcmds for ALL HYperMedia programs. AFC Eddie Sounds interesting. Tell me more! Nuzz Lotsa neat samples Mr Toaster BTW, which program is it that lets you do sounds over AO? I think I downloaded it, but my System Disk 5.0.2 crashed and I am frantically trying to get another copy. AFL JoyceM AFC Eddie Is that like instruments for use with SynthLAB? Nuzz Songs and instruments AFC Eddie Where and when? Nuzz Not for a few month yet, where?--Mail order, etc How much ...bout $25 Mail order AFC Eddie Not Bad! AFL JoyceM Mike, what will it be called? AFC JohnC Mike do you have a release date for the tools? Nuzz LOL Joyce thats a good question. Un-named as of yet AFL JoyceM Also, we will need SynthLAB and the new Tool to use? Nuzz Tools should be in APDA any day now Mr Toaster Joyce, do you have SoundMaster installed now? I'd be curious to hear it. AFL JoyceM I do, Mr Toaster....{S A2} AFC JohnC Hey Mike ...How about Boink for a title Nuzz We will supply the tool, you don't need SynthLab to play our songs we will supply 2 players AFC JohnC Great.....on the player and the tools Mr Toaster ?? {S A2} Was I supposed to hear something? AFL JoyceM How then could we 'write' more songs for our use with your program, Mike? Nuzz You can use SynthLab to create songs. THey will work there also AFA Gene Toaster: She just played a sound of a bunch of people screaming "Apple II," I believe. Only if you have the A2 soundfile and Soundmaster, Toaster. AFL JoyceM Mr Toaster Aahh, that explains it. I don't. Yet. AFC JohnC Boy you folks are talking about writing songs and I can't even find middle C AFL JoyceM Mike, why two players? Nuzz If these go over good, I might be tempted to write a more elaborate program to write songs AFL Marty AFC Eddie?? AFL JoyceM John, Middle C is the white key in the middle of the keyboard :) AFC Eddie Used to be EdwardRo! Nuzz Joyce, we plan to cover ALL Hypermedia prOgrams AFC Eddie Thanks! AFA Gene Let me introduce yoooz: Marty, meet Eddie our new consultant. :) AFA Parik (just a note...someone left me a note a while back asking for ss and midisynth source, I gave it to them and they said its for a free hstudio xcmd) AFL JoyceM Ah, Marty....meet Ed our newest AMS consultant :) AFC JohnC lol Joyce...but it ain't that color on this IIGS.....:) AFL Marty Excellent! Welcome to the team! Mr Toaster (I must admit, I'm lost. I just STARTED playing w/ IIGS music three weeks ago. LindsayGS Mike - sorry I missed the beginning - what is about to be released? Mr Toaster I do have a copy of Music Writer tho. AFL JoyceM Mr Toaster, we are here to help you....what questions do yo have? What music programs do you now use or want to use and why? AFA Gene Toaster... do you have Modulae? AFC Eddie Toast, do you have a MIDI synthesizer? AFA Gene Toast, do you know do you know do you know??? :) Mr Toaster No. No. No. well, maybe. AFA Gene LOL Toast:) ELECTMUSIC Joyce... has MusicWriter 2.0 been released yet... AFL JoyceM No, Greg...the bug hasn't been fixed yet :( ELECTMUSIC Do you know what the bug is? AFL JoyceM AFL JoyceM Kenneth (Mr Toaster), what do you want to do with the music? Mr Toaster I don't know. Have fun. Do really wild things. Laugh lots. What is Modulae? AFA Gene Toast: Modulae will show you what is possible when you combine IIgs SoundSmith with a program. The effect is mahvelous. The music in modulae was done in SoundSmith, and it's WILD. Mr Toaster I do have SoundSmith now. Really nifty. Can you use SoundSmith to create music w/o MIDI? I can't afford a MIDI card. AFA Gene [Toast: get "main modulae song" and "jcd megablaster" for SoundSmith ;)) ] AFL JoyceM BTW, our Music/Song contest for November and December will be limited to Holiday songs...should really show what people can do with SoundSmith :) AFA Gene Yes, Toast, in fact SS does not support MIDI (yet). It is however quite mundane writing music in the SS "spreadsheet" format. ELECTMUSIC Anyone have any thoughts on the new Macs??? Mr Toaster I had heard of JCD MegaBlaster AFL Marty New Macs... {S Yawn} AFC Eddie Hope they flop! LindsayGS Yeah, greg, they're advertising the heck out of 'em ELECTMUSIC Sorry... I am the redesigned Macs AFC Eddie Supposedly selling, tho. Mr Toaster Spreadsheet? All I managed to do with it was playback sounds and echo. ELECTMUSIC Sure seems Like Apple is betting the whole ball of wax on them AFA Gene Are you interested in writing music or just listening, toast? AFC Eddie You are the redesigned Macs, ELECTMUSIC? AFA Gene Apple sure knows how to market a computer WHEN THEY WANT TO. Mr Toaster Some o' both. Mainly listening, since I can't digitize. Mr Toaster Amen, Gene AFA Gene Don't worry about digitizing; samples in songs are rarely used cuz they take up too much memory. Do you have any other music programs? ELECTMUSIC I still haven't read a REAL review of them yet! Mr Toaster Lots o' hype with the new Macs. Didn't see anything new 4 A2. AFA Gene Hey, hype sells. Mr Toaster I have MusicWriter - Professional Edition (32 staves). AFA Gene Yowowowow. I don't suppose you have a transwarp? Mr Toaster Can I convert those files to something I can play on SoundSmith? NO. I WANT ONE!! AFC Eddie Toast, that's a heck of a tool if you write music! AFA Gene (Nope, no such converter is currenytly avaialble) AFL JoyceM Mr Toaster, a new version 2.0 of MW will soon be released. We had Pygraphics here last month. AFA Gene I suggest you get your MusicWriter upgraded to the new release. Then you can use it to do some music writing (SS is VEEERRRY hard to get used to in writing) Mr Toaster Great. I also don't have a hard drive. :SOB: AFA Gene Don't worry, i don't have one either. :) Mr Toaster (though I will remedy that at the nearest opportunity.) AFC Eddie Take it from Gene. He really is a SS expert, if you listen to his stuff! AFA Gene Not really SS, eddie. ;) Mr Toaster How refreshing. Kinda makes it hard to use InitSound though. AFL JoyceM Gene is also an expert with MusicStudio. SoftDisk GS 13 has some of his great songs :) AFC Eddie Also some of the older issues too, right? AFL JoyceM Yep Mr Toaster Okay, quick survey. What is the best IIGS music program on the market now? AFA Gene Music Studio (IMHO) although MANY will disagree AFL JoyceM MusicStudio AFC Eddie For what purpose? ELECTMUSIC Depends Mr Toaster Overall. Mr Toaster Playback, ease of use, flexibility, power. AFC Eddie Combination of Mastertracks and Musicwriter, with Instrumen Designer, the possibilities for creativity are endless! Mr Toaster Whatever else. AFA Gene I think Greg's "depends" is the most accurate answer. Unfortunately. :| Mr Toaster Great. MegaBux. ELECTMUSIC GMTA Gene Mr Toaster AFA Gene Toaster, I think your MusicWriter, although very powerful in the notation dept., will annoy you when it comes to speed, ease of use, etc. every program has advantages and drawbacks. Music Studio is just kinda "neutral" if ya know what I mean. AFL JoyceM For a basic yet powerful program that let's you use MIDI if you have it, Music Studio is the best for oveall fun and instant success :) ELECTMUSIC Now if ya want to talk about the BEST MUSIC COMPUTER - No QUESTION.... THE APPLE GS Mr Toaster One at a time, please!! :) Nuzz I like Instant Success Mr Toaster I dunno...Have you heard the Amiga? IIGS is great though. Kicks Mac in the dirt. AFC Eddie Except for MIDI. ELECTMUSIC Toaster .... have ya heard the new MIDI Tools for the GS yet? Mr Toaster I don't have MIDI. Ergo... Unless they are of other use. I wish I did. While I'm at it, give me $100,000 as well. AFA Gene Okay if I slip out a bit early tonight? I want to run thru the msg bases. ELECTMUSIC The Tool is the next generation for Music and Sound on the GS AFC Eddie Soon, Lindsay will have the GS caught up with the Mac in the MIDI Dept.! AFL JoyceM Toaster, when you bought MusicWriter, what did you intend on using it for? Mr Toaster Not sure... actually, my father purchased it for use in his work. (writing) excuse, composition. LindsayGS I just figured out how to use 640 dithered colors yesterday AFC Eddie With MIDI, Lindsay? Mr Toaster That's another area where I need help. Graphics. I'm new at that too. LindsayGS I made a really nice color DOC wave map of the instruments in SL Mr Toaster Well, actually not as new as with music. I have Paintworks Plus, and I've been around the block with it a few times. LindsayGS You guys will see it when it actually does something Mr Toaster Is there a good freeware or shareware paint prog. on AO? Anyone? Anyone? LindsayGS Parik and Mike have helped me a lot getting the tool going AFL JoyceM Toaster....do you want to write songs or just play what we have available? AFA Parik We didn't help, we just agreed that you have problems :) AFC Eddie So what else is new? Mr Toaster Mainly play your stuff. But also play around with it. LindsayGS You guys gotta try playnote - it don't work!- you can make it work with midimessage though AFL JoyceM Then, I still think that MusicStudio is the best program for that. IMHO AFA Parik There are lotsa good shareware paint progs, visit the graphics forum on Friday nite at 10:00 pm to learn more. Mr Toaster I can't afford 25 min. downloads for songs though. Too bad music is so large memory wise. Do they have CheapPaint? AFC Eddie There's also DT Paint, a NDA AFL JoyceM Toaster, we are thinking of putting together some music disks to give away at our weekly meetings...do you think that is a good idea? Mr Toaster Wunderbar. Maaaaahvelous. Nuzz If PlayNote doesn't work, that would be a real BIGGIE BUG LindsayGS I'm telling you guys - it doesn't - (until you tell me different) Mr Toaster I think I dwnlded DT painter b4 my SysDisk crashed. I'm still reeling. LindsayGS I can play seqs just fine Mr Toaster (What do you mean by give away music disks?) AFL JoyceM Lindsay is PlaySong for programming or run directly with SynthLAB? AFL JoyceM We are thinking of putting together some song disks to give away at our chats as prizes. LindsayGS Joyce - Playnote is a command executed by Tool 35 (midisynth) Mr Toaster Oh, you mean mailed to the winner? Or loser? AFL JoyceM Yes, Toaster. Mr Toaster Or neither? LindsayGS I'm convinced there's a bug in it, but it's not confirmed yet AFL JoyceM LIndsay...so I as a non-programmer wouldn't be involved with Playnote, right? AFC Eddie Toaster prefers digitized poptarts! Mr Toaster When do you normally have the quiz contests? Mr Toaster ::POP:: LindsayGS Not at all, Joyce - at least not directly :) Nuzz Lindsay, you did have a valid Instrument and Channel asaigned, right AFL JoyceM Toaster, whenever...they are randomly done, but well announced. LindsayGS Mike - you don't need a channel assignment, just a DOC Wave and instr (according to Mark) - but yes, I tried all those things Nuzz Well yes, the Instrument is the channel in that case DougB5 Hi Joyce! Does anyone know of a release date for the Midi Synth tool? AFL JoyceM Doug....soon from APDA, but the future for America Online....who knows :( We don't know if America Online or any on-line services will have it in the near future. DougB5 And what does that have to do with Midi Synth? AFL JoyceM No AO is doing great....SynthLab for release here is unknown. AFC Eddie That's bad enough! AFL JoyceM I tried to call Apple today about SL...couldn't get thru. So,I will be getting it thru APDA officially :) AFC Eddie Any word on 5.0.3 or 6.0? Nuzz What's a 6.0 AFL JoyceM Soon, Ed :) on 5.03....but RSN mean, is a good guess :) LindsayGS Mike - GSOS 6.0 AFC Eddie RSN? AFL JoyceM RSN = Real Soon Now Nuzz There is no such thing as GSOS 6.0 AFC Eddie Never? AFL JoyceM I have confirmed that Passport will be with us on November 21st. LindsayGS That's what he meant, whether it exists, or not AFC Eddie What did you mean, Lindsay? LindsayGS Ed - it's what I meant, too - it's just that all I ever heard were rumors.. Nuzz And that is all it is Rumors..... AFL JoyceM Well,....the witching our is upon us....and we can discuss rumors until you know what thaws........so, let's call it an evening. LindsayGS How can you be so sure, Mike - heard the end of the apple line? Nuzz End of the Apple line... Never... BUt I haven't heard of any 6.0 from anyone. Period AFL JoyceM Night all and Thanks... America Online - 1990