| M@ilbox
Getting started
with MIDI
HI
. JUST STARTIN UP IN THE ATARI WORLD, I HAVE
AN ATARI 1040 STE 4MEG RUNIN NOTATOR SL ,ALSO
HAVE A ROLAND TR-707 DRUM MACHINE AND
A AKAI S900 AND BEHRINGER COMPOSER PRO ,ELECTRIX
MO-FX,SAMSON SERVO AMP, ALESIS 3630 COMPRESSOR
, VESTAX THREE CHANEL MIXER.BUT I DONT NO WHERE
TO START FOUR EXAMPLE WHERE DO I PLUG IT ALL
IN ? AND DO I NEED ANYTHING ELSE LIKE A MIDI
KEYBOARD OF SOME SORT . I LOVE MUSIC AND WANT
TO TRY IT OUT FOUR MY SELF I HAVE BEEN A BED
ROOM DJ FOUR 10 YEARS AND LOVE THE DANCE MUSIC
DRUM +BASS BIG BEAT FAT BOY SLIM AKA NORMAN
COOK TYPE OF MUSIC CAN U HELP OR POINT ME IN
RIGHT DIRECTION .THANK YOU MR SILVESTRI
Tim Conrardy
replies:
Hi Mr Silvestri
Sounds like you
are off to a good start with Notator and a 4
MB Atari. As you mention Fat Boy Slim,
I hear he still uses Notator on an Atari, so
you are in good company. However according to
your list, you mention many fine modules, but
no MIDI keyboard controller. I would suggest
getting a simple "dummy" MIDI controller.
That is, it does not generate sound, only on
and off notes. These are available for pretty
cheap, depending on how many features you want.
Some are small and are meant for computer music.
Some are much larger if you require piano action
and 88 keys.
For hookups,
make sure all the audio outputs of the modules
are going to your mixer. Depending if you mixer
has effect send and return, this is where you
would plug in all your effects units. You can
also try dedicating an effects module to a MIDI
module, so you can get different types of effects
for each module you have. To do this, simply
take the audio output of the MIDI module to
the audio input of the effects unit, and then
plug the effects audio output directly into
the mixer.
Now for the MIDI
part. Master MIDI keyboard controller MIDI Out to
the Atari MIDI In. Atari MIDI Out to the
Akai S900 MIDI In. The Akai S900 MIDI Thru to
the Roland TR-707 MIDI In.
If you get any
other modules, basically you are doing a chain
effect: MIDI Thru from first module to MIDI
in on the next. MIDI Thru (again) on the second
module to the MIDI In of the next, and so on.
You can hook up a lot of modules this way, but
not too many otherwise you might get hanging
notes. You only use the MIDI Out of the module
if you are going to get patch information from
the module (System Exclusive).
Now you are ready
to Rock and Rap!
I would also
suggest looking into the new tools available
for the Atari platform that would help in creating
drum and bass type of styles. These include
AEX (the Tangerine Dream Machine), Pulsar, ISEQ,
Tunesmith, MIDI Arpeggiator (Electronic Cow)
and much more. These programs emulate the analog
sequencer style, however with intellegence.
Using these programs does not require a MIDI
keyboard controller, so you might want to start
here until you can obtain your keyboard. More
information on these programs on my web site.
Be sure to read my download FAQ page first so
you know how to get these excellent programs
into your Atari. A further note: you might be
able to run these "tools" at the same
time as Notator with the help of the "SoftLink"
program from the Notator package. You can even
record what they do right into Notator as well!
Also for Notator,
I would suggest joining the Notator forum at
http://www.notator.org.
Notator is a big program and this group
can really help! There is also the Atari-MIDI
forum as well, so lots of support here on Planet
Atari!
Tim's Atari MIDI
World
http://tamw.atari-users.net
Atari-MIDI Forum
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/atari-midi
Hotz Translator
Forum
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midi-translator/
Atari to PC file
transfer
Dear
Matthew,
I just read
your most interesting article "Festive
Networking by Jerry Martin".
I wonder if
Jerry or someone you know could help me out
regarding how to transfer files from my Atari
1040STe to my Dell PC. I wish to
let you know that as I have been a musician
all my life I was one of the first to use Sequencing
and Notation software in Australia.
The only computer
that had such software then was the Atari 1040
& 520 Notwithstanding
all the sequencing and notation software available
for pc's these days - NOTHING! still comes close
with what you can do on a 1040ST!! - I've tried
them all.
I'm not too
much into sequencing BUT I do a lot of work
on Notation as I write music arrangements as
part of my profession. I have written 1000's
of arrangements and I have saved them as MIDI
files and also as IMG files which I then import
into other graphic/publishing programs such
as Photoshop/PageMaker, Quark etc on my Dell
so as I can then create PDF files for distribution
and sale on my web site.
The Atari
1040STe first descent sequencer was made by
Steinberg but it was terrible as a Notation
program. Then came CLAB NOTATOR - THE GREATEST
MUSIC PROGRAM EVER MADE. - Still used by great
movie score composers and arrangers. It happens
to be the best sequencer and notator still to
this very day!!
Now - back
to my 1000's of IMG files sitting on my TWO
HARD DISKS on my Atari 1040STe - on an average
- each image is from 600kb to 1MG - and
although I've tried copying to floppy and then
loading to my Dell from the floppy - it is time
consuming and at the most I rarely fit more
than one file at a time on a floppy disk.
So therefore
I'm trying to find a way of transferring the
files across to the Dell PC.
I have an
RS232 NULL MODEM (I really don't know what it
is- someone said if I got one of these I could
use it to transfer the files !!!)
Hope to hear
from you soon if you can help
Love your
newsletters - thanks.
Bye
Enzo Giribaldi
Musical Director:
Aida Music P/L
My One Man
Band Web Site
http://ozziecom.com/onemanband/
My Sheet Music
Web Site
http://www.pip.com.au/~ausmusic/index.html
My Personal
Web Site
http://ozziecom.com/eg/
Jerry Martin
replies:
I'm glad you liked the article.
Well you'll be glad to hear that you don't need
to go to anything as extensive as in the article
to transfer your files. I will have to warn
you however, and Matthew could probably confirm
this, that the 1040STE is limited to a maximum
transfer rate of 19,200 bps over the serial port.
From experience that means you can expect to
transfer about 1 KB/sec or 15 minutes per Megabyte
(all very rough and approximate).
Anyway, here
are the steps. I presume the RS232 null modem
you mention is a cable which will plug into
your modem port on the back of the STE and into
one of the serial ports (sometimes marked COM)
on the back of the PC. The Atari uses a 25-pin
port whereas most PCs use 9-pin ports. Don't
let this put you off - usually the cables come
with both connectors on either end, if not you
might need to purchase an adapter either for
the PC or the Atari.
Once the cable
is firmly plugged in you need software to make
them "talk" to each other. On the PC side you
can use the in-built program called Hyperterminal.
You will find it by clicking on the Start menu
and going to Programs>Accessories>Communications.
On the Atari
side you will also need a communications (comms)
program. The best is undoubtedly "Connect"
now available as freeware. Download it from:
http://www.oelwein.de/philipp/personalien/downloads/conn95de.lzh
This is a German
distribution so you will also need to download:
http://www.oelwein.de/philipp/personalien/downloads/c95rsc_e.zip
This is the English
resource file which you copy to the Connect
directory when you have extracted the first
archive. Also in the first archive is a little
program to give you a registration key to use the
software - although freeware, the key mechanism
is still intact so you simply generate your
own key!
Once you have
Connect up and running and registered it's time
to configure the ports.
On the PC side
- when Hyperterminal starts it usually asks
for a name for the connection. Choose a name,
such as "Atari". In the next dialog
you need to choose your connection type. From
the drop-down list near the bottom of the dialog
you will be able to choose from your available
modems and serial ports. Chose the COM port
to which you have connected the cable. Set the
transfer rate (bits per second) to 19,200, the
parity to "none", the stop bits to
"1" and the flow control to "hardware".
Once you click
OK you should be looking at a blank terminal
window.
Go over to the
Atari and start Connect. Bring up the port options
dialog box using [Alternate]+[P]. Choose the Port Modem
1 and set the rest of the parameters to the
same as for the PC connection (hardware flow
control is listed as RTS/CTS on the Atari).
Once you click
OK on this box you are back at a blank terminal
window on the Atari. Test the connection by
typing a few letters - they should appear on
your Dell screen.
Before going
any further let's save this set-up - on the Atari,
within the terminal window, use the Setup menu
and chose "Save setup" give a name
ending in ".SET" for the details.
Then go to the main menu bar and choose Options/Save
options. And give the name "CONNECT.OPT"
On the PC side,
just close the Hyperterminal window and it should
ask you to save settings. Choose OK. If you
go to Start>Programs>Accessories>Communications>Hyperterminal
you should see a shortcut listed there with
the name "Atari" if that is what you
chose in the very first step.
Basically that's
all you need to do to get the connection up
and running.
Now, as the connection
is not very fast, it's better to ZIP the files
on the Atari before sending them over. Use STZip
available from:
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/atari/archivers/stzip26.tos
To send the files,
open the terminals and type a few letters on
either machine to make sure they appear on the
screen of the other - this confirms you have
a connection. To choose where downloaded files
will appear, click on the "receive file"
icon on the PC toolbar. Choose a directory, make
sure the protocol is set to "Zmodem with
crash recovery". Click on Close.
On the Atari,
use the menu within the terminal window and
choose the menu option Terminal/File transfer
(or press [Alternate]+[F]). Just make sure the options
are as follows:
- Transfer
program - intern
- Autostart
- on
Transfer parameters:
- Zmodem
- No escapes
- 1,024 byte
blocks
- binary files
- ask user
- crc32
And none of the
check boxes should be selected.
If you had to
change any of the above options I would advise
you to save your new settings using the method
described earlier.
Finally we get
to business. Go to Misc/Upload or press [Alternate]+[Shift]+[U]
and choose the ZIP or IMG file you want to send.
Click OK and if all is in order, the file should
start transferring and the PC should show a
progress bar. That's pretty
much it - repeat as necessary!
Like I warned,
this will be a bit on the slow side, but it's
less arduous than floppy disks and you can say
ZIP up a few hundred files and transfer them
overnight.
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