MIDI Hardware/Software recommendations?

[Atarieterno]

Thanks for your contribution, Atari74user.

Regarding not investing in recording systems based on Atari: I think it's a good idea, do not buy anything, leave everything to me.

[edingacic]

Yeah, I bet this is fun to use and perhaps if you are searching for a unique sound and those converters sound different then you can use that to flavor your mix. But I have not heard anyone mention those devices having a certain sound so I would not know. Maybe someone with those devices can sample something and post it on somewhere to be heard . If you are not a member of Atari ST musicians network on Facebook you may want to join in. Admin James Wilkinson from the United Kingdom has a lot of those devices for sale currently .....if you feel you want to try them.

[leech]

Part of the fun is getting all the old equipment talking to each other. Yesterday I had the fun of trying to get the Multi CDROM working (extendos detects them all, but then if I'm running Geneva or any of the other startup stuff, it crashes).

[mrbombermillzy]

Ive just managed to dig out and attach my SCSI CD-ROM drive. Havent had time to even fire it up though

Im wanting to use it through plain TOS/GEM. I was going to use CD Writer Suite, however, if you know of a driver that works for this setup I would be interested to know Leech

[leech]

Ive just managed to dig out and attach my SCSI CD-ROM drive. Havent had time to even fire it up though

Im wanting to use it through plain TOS/GEM. I was going to use CD Writer Suite, however, if you know of a driver that works for this setup I would be interested to know Leech

I think the normal setup for this is EXTENDOS / CD Writer.

Still working on getting my TT to work right, definitely detecting each CD in the changer (which is now I-O partitions).

[mrbombermillzy]

Yeah, Im leaning towards setting up a Mega ST4 for best compatibility. I have a MSTE (which I think would have been the best option) but it doesnt want to boot up currently and the TT will probably not work with many of the audio apps I intend to use. (Tried Avalon and Breakthru 2 on it). Im not sure I will get the CBX's going if I cant find a good Cubase crack that works for this equipment. ATM I Cant afford £100> for a used copy with dongle, so will probably stick to Breakthru 2... and use the so called 'bad quality' Replay16 cart!

Didnt realise you had a CD changer

[leech]

[quote="mrbombermillzyDidnt realise you had a CD changer [/quote]
Barely got it off of eBay. I think there are several more on there.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEC-MULTISPIN-4 ... SwEARbCODS

[Atarieterno]

I did not say anything of bad quality of the Replay 16, I just joked when compared with professional recording media and quite expensive in his time.
100 pounds for a Cubas Audio dongle is cheap, you usually find it for 200 (if you find it).
I have only expressed my opinion, I do not want to bother anyone and I say goodbye to this thread. Be happy.

[leech]

I did not say anything of bad quality of the Replay 16, I just joked when compared with professional recording media and quite expensive in his time.
100 pounds for a Cubas Audio dongle is cheap, you usually find it for 200 (if you find it).
I have only expressed my opinion, I do not want to bother anyone and I say goodbye to this thread. Be happy.

Yeah, ~200 is what I paid for mine. CBX's should arrive tomorrow. Still have time until Cubase shows up.

[mrbombermillzy]

Hey Atarieterno, I dont think anyone has said anything to offend? Come back!!

Leech: Well, I did see it for ~£100 a while ago. Should have maybe picked it up then.

Im just not prepared to fork out that sort of money for the wrong version, or if I cant get all the SCSI chain to sing in unison! (Have you seen the CBX manuals requirements?).

Im hoping to get to the equipment rigged up in the next couple of weeks (baby remember? lol) so, will see how it goes, although I dont know how Im going to get round not having a CBX specific version of cubase that works, if thats going to be the case.

[Atari74user]

Actually, so it's interesting when you start thinking about this. People often confuse samplers, digital multi-tracks, D2D recorders (early DAWs) etc...

So when you start to think about it, what did we have similar and better than Replay 16 as out and out samplers with a quality DAC / ADC. That is, something which turns audio into digital straight into memory. At 16-bit for me the list is:

- Pro Series 16 by AVR, the more expensive and similar forerunner to Replay 16
- AS Sound Sampler III, much like Replay 16, however never seen one
- ADAP
- Lynex
- Avalon with 16-bit DAC
- Zero-X, however that's purely a sample editor, and not a sampler

Then we get into D2D recorders, digital multi-tracks:
- ADAS, but not a pure sampler offering D2D. Almost a hybrid of sampler and early DAW
- ADAP II... but again, not pure sampler, again almost a hybrid of sampler and early DAW
- Sound Designer / Sound Designer II, again moreover a sample editor, and Sound Designer II an early DAW, and only tailored for Mega ST
- Hybrid Arts Digital Master, but not strictly a sampler
- Yamaha CBX-3 and 5 with Cubase Audio, but again pure digital multi-track

After this, then the only 16-bit offerings are dedicated to the Falcon. So from the Atari ST options above, for pure samplers, there are not so many at 16-bit. Albeit my opinion, the only sampler options that would hands down be better than Replay 16 are the Lynex, ADAP and Avalon with the the 16-bit DAC, however Avalon is strictly a sampler editor, so not a sampler, the other samplers are similar to that of Replay 16, granted I cannot categorically say they have better DACs or not. The rest are not samplers, or at least not pure samplers, but deal with digital audio in a different way.

All I know is Atarieterno is a lucky man to own an ADAS, definitely on my wants list along with a Lynex.

[mrbombermillzy]

...and dont forget the Starrtrak DSP board for VME TTs!


Im still fascinated by how much music software was available for the ST series. I am still coming across new and interesting programs from years ago. (Algorithmic composition, sample manipulation, etc).

What I would like to do, or see done eventually, is for the Replay16 sampler routines in Breakthru 2 to be re-written with better timing for the TT so the 4 channels dont have to be multiplexed down to 11Khz each, but play simultaneously at 44.1Khz each. (Although this wouldnt be ideal through the mono hpono jack).

Maybe a HQ 16 bit DAC output to 2 phono sockets on one of the TT's output ports would be something good?

As to which was the better sampler... a simple look at the circuit boards should allow us to look up the tech data for the ICs. Did Avalon have a sample replay cart then?

[Atari74user]

...and dont forget the Starrtrak DSP board for VME TTs!

Nice, wasn't aware of that, I think there was also Digital F/X DMEX-4, so little information about this though.

I actually like the Replay 16 and Breakthru 2 combination. I bought both back in the day, and used them. Really nice looking software Breakthru 2. I tend to use Cubase with a few bit's of MIDI gear, as well as a Roland VS for audio needs connected to my Atari, Akai samplers x 2 for sampling, and connect my Falcon to my ST. Some would argue why would you do that, but I like to use the Falcon as a soft synth of sorts.
I do have a CBX-3, but tend to use the VS, I just find it more versatile, as essentially it's a full blown DAW I can connect to my ST.

Avalon was standalone, but Steinberg made a 16-bit D/A which Avalon could output through. It has been on my wants list for a while, and managed to find one fairly recently. Pictures across the net are rubbish, so I will take a pic when I can, but this is the device in question, housed in pretty much the same casing as the Steinberg DMA to SCSI II converter, which is handy for the Yamaha CBXs:

[mrbombermillzy]

Well, like I said, I dont know if I will be able to get the CBX units going with cubase, but Im more than happy to fall back on Breakthru 2 with the Replay 16, along with my SY85. Would have liked the sound to stay all in the Atari, but.. well... we will see.

Similarly to you, I started off with a copy of Sequencer one from an ST Format coverdisk. This was outputting samples through the speaker on my STFM. I then decided to upgrade to a Replay Pro which sampled 8 and played back at 12bit resolution. I then bought Breakthru and the Replay16 (I think there was a bundle deal?) and produced some cool stuff with the aid of a Tascam multitrack tape machine.

I wouldnt mind a picture of the Steinberg DA cart at some point. Cant really see that one in your post!

[leech]

I need to figure out my TT's setup so that I have a working OS. I installed Geneva and Neodesk4, but with the 1024x768 and 256 colors, it's looking pretty ugly. But I guess for cubase I only need higher resolution and monochrome.

[Atari74user]

I am not so close to the TT, but also have Neodesk 4 and Geneva, quite like that combo too. True about Cubase and monochrome.

SY85, nice, I have one of those too, really like that synth / rompler.

I'll try and get a pic up the weekend, away working at the moment.

[leech]

Got the Yamaha CBX-D3s in. Now to get me some SCSI cables. Wonder if with the VME card I can get 1280x1024x2... Will need to play around with it.

[leech]

Got the MIDEX+ in last night, now just waiting for the memory, SCSI cables and Cubase!

[mrbombermillzy]

If you havent done so already, I would plan your SCSI chain too. Cubase CBX (well, the D5 version that I have) requires a certain size max partition and a certain HDD driver.

(512mb if on > TOS 2.x and ICD drivers is one of the 2 choices IIRC).

[leech]

If you havent done so already, I would plan your SCSI chain too. Cubase CBX (well, the D5 version that I have) requires a certain size max partition and a certain HDD driver.

(512mb if on > TOS 2.x and ICD drivers is one of the 2 choices IIRC).

Setup currently (well soon to be).
TT030.
Thunder/Storm with 256MB.
Lightning USB
Spektrum VME graphics card
NEC CDR-C302 (probably should have gotten a burner, but the multi-disk is cool)
Cubase Audio
MIDEX+
2x Yamaha CBX-D3.
Generic Keyboard
Ultra Satan (I have the latest ppera driver currently installed, but I have plenty of SD cards to play with).

I do have a SCSI2SD adapter I can put into it as well.

[leech]

Just waiting on the SCSI cables at this point!

[Kroll]

Hi,

I do not want to start a new thread, I have a problem with running Cubase Audio and Yamaha CBX-D3.
My configuration Atari TT, Cubase audio v. 1.1, Internal and external SCSI hard disk. On my TT I have hard diisk internal (ID0), external SCSI (ID1) and Yamaha CBX-D3 (ID6)
Yamaha CBX is the last device on SCSi chain, and active SCSI terminator.
Everything looks ok, I run HDDriver and after SHDI.PRG from Cubase folder, in this directory I have the file CBX_D3.DLD. After running the file CUBCBX11.PRG receives a message on the screen:

Photo_1.JPG

and then it does not detect CBX-D3

Photo_2.JPG

Of course, everything is connected, if someone has an idea what is wrong, moreover, there are no internal SCSI resistors on the TT mainboard

[mrbombermillzy]

Ok, so firstly, I do not have exactly this setup and secondly, I havent set it up yet, so this advice is a bit less specific than it could be!

With this in mind, here goes:

1. Are both your drives recognised by the TT?
2. Shouldnt at least one of them be attached from the CBX and/or be a higher ID?
3. I remember reading in my D5 manual that the HDD software had to be pretty specific. Are you running the recommended HDD drivers/versions?

SCSI ID and terminations seem to be correct.

@Leech: Hows the setup going? Are you ready to rock? lol

[leech]

I haven't had time to do much, I did test some redraws and such, Cubase on the TT with the Spektrum seems to either look great, or absolutely terrible, dependent upon what phase the moon is at, or the minute of the hour that I start it.

I need to work out all the SCSI connections, last time I was trying, my Ultra Satan died on me. I should probably set up the SCSI2SD card.

[Atarieterno]

...I have a problem with running Cubase Audio and Yamaha CBX-D3.

Hello, dear mate;
I am sad that your configuration does not work, we will continue looking for solutions.
Have you tried renaming the file CBX_D3.DLD to CBX-D3.DLD? The hyphen gave errors to delete the file using TOS 3.06 and maybe you have it renamed.
Before starting Cubase, do you execute SHDI.PRG and recognize all SCSI devices?
My configuration in use is not exactly the same as yours because I use internal IDE, external SCSI and CBX-D5, but I do not want to give bad news, although I inform you that another user experienced a CBX-D5 that could have a latest firmware only for Mac and therefore not compatible with Atari, but that could be a theory, because the CBX-D3 was built later to the D5 and they would all be incompatible with Atari; but Cubase CBX does contemplate both versions D5 and D3.

Greetings.