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‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

theguardian.com

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Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#31

Post by foobarian »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #20
TacticalCoder wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup indeed... The Amiga was the better machine but when a guy would come up with a ST and hook its Roland or Moog synth through the MIDI port, we were in awe! Interestingly enough for the ST had no fan, it's been used for a very long time in some recording studio (where they liked silent recording equipment). To my surprise I saw an ST still in use well into the 2000s. > But, if you wanted to sample on the Amiga, you…

Honestly, while the Amiga was a better graphics and sound machine and was better for games and some early video and digital audio stuff (trackers, etc.) -- the ST had a better "productivity" story. 640x400 paperwhite monochrome monitor + MIDI ports + MSDOS-compatible floppy format. High resolution on Amiga was interlaced and required a scan doubler to be tolerable. Reading MSDOS formatted floppies required special so…

It's funny you mention this, where I grew up the ST was known exactly as a DAW because of the built-in MIDI ports. But more interestingly the Amigas were super popular as broadcast TV workstations because they had some kind of v-sync functionality built-in that made it possible to overlay graphics on the TV signal. A bunch of local TV stations had tell-tale Amiga graphics in their transitions / credits messages / news overlays. The ST kids always lamented the lack of this because it made it impossible for the ST to be used this way (never mind the worse graphics capabilities).

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#32

Post by greenn »

rbongers wrote: post #28

If you'd like to hear more Amiga music, there is one channel I enjoy that puts out a lot of great mixes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQnWIt2N1hnWszI2d-j-6Aw

Great collection, this channel is what got me into Amiga music. One late work night a coworker and I played these mixes in the office!

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#33

Post by Kim_Bruning »

I haven't seen it mentioned here, but Bassoon Tracker is a web-based tracker that can play most old MOD, XM, etc files: https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/

There's a few demo-mods along the left side, several mod archives listed in the File menu, and you can load your own as well.

That and I figured out you can actually use it to compose your own tracks if you like, just like the old days!

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#34

Post by AaronM »

foobarian wrote: post #31
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, while the Amiga was a better graphics and sound machine and was better for games and some early video and digital audio stuff (trackers, etc.) -- the ST had a better "productivity" story. 640x400 paperwhite monochrome monitor + MIDI ports + MSDOS-compatible floppy format. High resolution on Amiga was interlaced and required a scan doubler to be tolerable. Reading MSDOS formatted floppies required special so…

It's funny you mention this, where I grew up the ST was known exactly as a DAW because of the built-in MIDI ports. But more interestingly the Amigas were super popular as broadcast TV workstations because they had some kind of v-sync functionality built-in that made it possible to overlay graphics on the TV signal. A bunch of local TV stations had tell-tale Amiga graphics in their transitions / credits messages / new…

With the Amiga it is possible to use an external clock source as the system clock and to switch the video chip horizontal and vertical sync pins to inputs so they can come from external source instead of internal system clock based sync generator.

The addition of the Amiga toaster, meant that Amiga saw use in the TV and Movie Industry in the late 80's and 90's. A number of high profile projects used the Amiga.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Toaster

Here's a listing of some of the famous uses of the Amiga https://www.amigareport.com/ar134/p1-12.html

Some notable ones, were Babylon 5, Titanic,

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#35

Post by pflanze »

There's a nice clip "Retro Jungle Production With Pete Cannon" from 2020 where he showcases both the Atari ST with MIDI and the Amiga with the OctaMED tracker, and is getting an LP pressed with some new Jungle of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDn7ZDcx9w0 (https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/retro-jungle-product...)

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#36

Post by pjbk »

I was delighted to discover "Bars and Pipes" which was a very well designed software for comping and far superior than using trackers. Even the earlier versions of Cakewalk on the PC were still missing some of the interesting features that made you productive in BnP. To this day some people still fire up BnP and use it to create music!

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#37

Post by LocalH »

AaronM wrote: post #34
foobarian wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny you mention this, where I grew up the ST was known exactly as a DAW because of the built-in MIDI ports. But more interestingly the Amigas were super popular as broadcast TV workstations because they had some kind of v-sync functionality built-in that made it possible to overlay graphics on the TV signal. A bunch of local TV stations had tell-tale Amiga graphics in their transitions / credits messages / new…

With the Amiga it is possible to use an external clock source as the system clock and to switch the video chip horizontal and vertical sync pins to inputs so they can come from external source instead of internal system clock based sync generator. The addition of the Amiga toaster, meant that Amiga saw use in the TV and Movie Industry in the late 80's and 90's. A number of high profile projects used the Amiga. https:…

I actually remember crashing my uncle’s A2000 more than once by feeding a raw VCR signal into the genlock and seeking the tape too fast. It would screw up the timings going into the vertical blank

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#39

Post by Braini »

mastazi wrote: post #10

I used to make music on the Amiga. There is one aspect that the article doesn't explain too well - what allowed the Amiga to flourish as a music making platform, is that it had onboard audio which was much more capable than most other computers of the time, thanks to Paula, which allowed multi channel, high sample rate audio playback [1] These hardware capabilites in turn allowed the development of the Amiga music so…

Offtopic regarding [1]

I just love these websites which mimic the Amiga UI or at least show the mouse pointer, instant nostalgia kick. For example also the amigalove forum.

Re: ‘It was the poor man’s studio’: how Amiga computers reprogrammed modern music

#40

Post by mister_tee »

Bradlinc wrote: post #15

Is there anything that the original Amiga hardware can do that can't be done in an emulator?

this is probably cheating-it's beyond "original Amiga hardware"-but there were various expansion boards like the Video Toaster which did video switching and effects, and later editing.

I was originally going to suggest the Amiga's video genlock that enabled products like the Toaster, but it looks like WinUAE can simulate genlock via an external AVI file.

disclaimer: was not an Amiga user or analog video professional; some of that might not be totally accurate or use the correct terms. And iiuc, the 1000/500 series for example didn't have the expansion capabilities of the 2000.

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