Amiga MIDI Myth Busting | With special guests

● Support RMC on Patreon: / rmcretro
● Treat me to a Coffee with Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/rmcretro
● MonsterJoysticks: monsterjoysticks.com/RMC
● 1ClickPrint: www.1clickprint.com#RMC
● Patreon: www.patreon.com/user?u=5742562
● Links and Channels featured in this video
MsMadLemon - goo.gl/epPASy
AmigaIreland - goo.gl/aDMpXY
Christian Simpson - / perifractic
ModernVintageGamer - goo.gl/Sb9UWS
I Am Ironclaw - goo.gl/XqEf3S
Architecture - goo.gl/scAigY
Kikencorp - goo.gl/dhWRhi
SimpleThings - goo.gl/sXLUBR
AmigaIreland Podcast - / user-929113742
Amiga Ireland Meetup - amigausers.ie
● Description
Cave Party! Friends of the Cave join me today as we set the record straight on just what the Amiga was capable of when it comes to MIDI. The Atari ST range and later the Falcon became the go to choice for hit record makers and the PC enjoyed MIDI soundtracks in their games, was the Amiga as capable? Let's find out.
● Corrections
At 19:37 I say the MT-32 is "note technically a MIDI device" - I mean "not technically a GENERAL MIDI device". Thanks Simon Donnellan.
● Music
Parasail - Silent Partner
TFB9 - Vibe Tracks
Grasshopper - Quincas Moreira
Hurry Up - Silent Partner
Mantis - Quincas Moreira
Rhythm and Booze by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: www.twinmusicom.org/

[@fromwithinuk]

Myself and Tim Wright used Bars & Pipes Pro on our Amiga 1200s from 1994 to 1999 at Psygnosis for all of our music. That includes all of the big early Playstation games that we worked on like Wipeout, Formula 1, Tenka, Colony Wars. I continued to use it until 2010 when my Amiga hard drive packed in. Still nothing comes anywhere close to Bars & Pipes for MIDI editing.

[@regfenster]

The Amiga was a remarkable machine, so far ahead of the curve when it appeared in the mid eighties, such a crying shame the Commodore never took advantage of that pioneering lead going forward. The last home computer that actually had a soul, and a system that even today although vastly outdated still is relevant with a strong community led scene.

[@LegendaryGauntlet]

I loved your musics ! I still have tapes somewhere that i listened to on my walkman.. Bars & Pipes was a genius piece of software, is there anything close to this on PC ?

[@AshBashVids]

Guillaume M - I'm pretty sure most DAWs today surpass it.

[@peterobinson3678]

Omg... were you 'cold storage on wipeout...?

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

God I loved WipeOut and colony wars. Colony wars was sooo hard to learn to control, but so worth it.

[@ModernVintageGamer]

amazing video ! i'm humbled to be a part of such talented individuals.

[@amerigocosta7452]

If there was an award for the best retro KZbin video of the year, then this would be a serious competitor.

[@RMCRetro]

Amerigo Costa hey thank you that's really nice

[@RMCRetro]

Correction: "MT32 is a pre midi device" should be "MT32 is a pre GENERAL MIDI device" I missed a word on the script! Thank you again to everyone who was involved in this video it was great fun to make. From the highs of hearing our talented musical friends to the lows of me comparing audio devices with flatulence as a test sample, classy. If you would like to share your Amiga MIDI setup then feel free to post a link in the comments to show us what you're up to.

[@straypixel]

RetroManCave I

[@Trancefreakeh]

@RetroManCave : I'm reviving my 2 A500's and am wondering if there's a sound...card...portion...Paula chip PCB thingy modding community for the A500. On a normal PI soundcard for example you could swap capacitors, later on DACs and OpAmps. Is there much to improve on the A500?

[@LasseHuhtala]

One lesser known Tracker with MIDI capability was the CyberTracker. Another tip if you want to get into Amigas and MIDI, but for some reason don't want to, or can't get a hold of an original Amiga, is to get the MIST FPGA, they have a model with built-in MIDI-ports.

[@tosgem]

That's because MIST was made for the Atari scene (the ST in MIST stands for.... guess!), but yes, now that you can run Amiga cores on it it's probably nice for running Amiga midi software

[@VinePest]

"Connect the keyboard directly to your ears". A lovely way of putting it!

[@sonicenergyauthority2338]

Ah, the good ol' days, when I could actually be productive. I ran Dr.T's Keyboard controlled sequencer, along with X-oR, along with a Roland D-110 (a MT-32 originally), Akai AX73, S-700, and it worked brilliantly. As my MIDI kit expanded (Roland D50, JD990, JV880 S750 MKS50 Korg Wavestation) I found the limitation of "only" having 16 channels of MIDI available a problem, so took the "easy" option and went down the PC route.. big mistake. You spend more time configuring the PC set-up than getting work done. I never could seem to get Music X to work that well, it's sysex librarian side of things never seemed to work as it should. I might just bring the Amiga set up back to life (I still have it) inspired by this video.

[@10p6]

Even though Amiga MIDI interfaces were dirt cheap back in the day, the four reasons the ST became the MIDI King are: 1. MIDI was built in. 2. MIDI on the ST worked on a Hardware interrupt so its performance was rock solid unlike the Amiga's Serial and Parallel port MIDI interfaces. 3. The ST's 640 x 400 non interlaced Monochrome 77Hz monitor was a higher resolution and higher refresh than the Amiga could achieve. 4. The ST Cart port allowed for further hardware expand-ability. Now if only Atari had released the STE from day one, and had included an Internal MIDI Header. Hmmm

[@MacMelmac]

Don't forget the software. Steinberg Pro 24 was way ahead of the Amiga MIDI programs.

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

Agreed about the STE but Atari Corp's original plan was to use Atari Inc's AMY sound chip in the ST. AMY would've blown away PAULA and just about everything else. But it had issues. They sold it to Sight+Sound to fix and license back to them. S+S fixed it and then stiffed Atari Corp. Atari Corp tried to get Yamaha to sell them the YM2151 but Yamaha kept it for their own MSX based music computers and would only sell Atari Corp the YM2149. Yamaha had no qualms about selling the separate Atari Games Corp the YM2151 for use in their arcade games so it became standard in their games starting in mid-1984. Considering how damn long we waited for the STE to roll out, it should've had VGA graphics, a much better Yamaha sound chip to complement the STE's DMA audio capabilities, an MMU that could address more than 4MB RAM, a 1.44MB disc drive, and a 68010 or 68020 as the CPU with a socket for a 6888x. Alas...

[@dlfrsilver]

@@TheJeremyHolloway think about it again : the ST was a low cost low range computer, and the YM2151 was the top range high class sound chip of the moment. Yamaha simply refused. It makes no sense to incorporate a top rank sound chip in a low cost/low range machine. On the opposite side, the YM2151 was sold to Atari Games for their Arcade PCB (the high range hardware).

[@dlfrsilver]

@@TheJeremyHolloway Atari Engineers have been unable/incapable to connect and incorporate the AMY chip in the Atari ST. This is why the YM2149 was used.....

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Absolutely awesome and top quality video RetroManCave! Brilliant idea to bring all these awesome channels together! The Amiga dream team! Love you all!

[@KarlHamilton]

For the record, the Amiga CDTV has MIDI ports built in as standard. Nobody seems to know this.

[@RMCRetro]

+Karl Hamilton very good point! Also a sign of how confused Commodore were about just what that system was supposed to be for.

[@KarlHamilton]

Ironically, a rackmounted CDTV would be perfect for a music studio. What could have been :(

[@KarlHamilton]

Also, the only reason the ST has MIDI is because its onboard sound was so shite. It was thought that games would use MIDI sound modules for games. The fact that people used it as a sequencer was just a happy coincidence, it wasn't intended to be so.

[@RetroDawn]

Not true. Leonard Tramiel was excited about all the possibilities for MIDI, which was mainly used for sequencing at that time (and ever), and wanted it built-in. Then came the excuse that you're referring to, that when the Yamaha PSG sound chip was criticized, Atari would respond that that was just to give the basic sound capability (which it was), and that you can supplement it with any MIDI device of your choosing. This was not very practical, since it's a classic chicken and egg problem, and would require games to use MIDI, which required a bit of extra programming, and only those with a MIDI device would be able to make use of it. A small percentage of games did support MIDI, including the fabulous Ultima III and IV, but, sadly, not V and VI (II never had music, and I didn't have music, nor came out for the ST).

[@przemekkobel4874]

@@KarlHamilton Yup, that horrible useless AY clone... kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqKogHyCotqnqq8

[@johnbenard9550]

Never heard of this supposed Myth. Of course, the Amiga could be used for MIDI music. The only advantage the Atari ST had was you did not need to buy a Midi interface.

[@EdgyNumber1]

OctaMED V5 was AWESOME! Very easy to mix MIDI with Amiga samples and synth sounds.

[@JohnLRice]

I first had an Amiga 500 (with an extra floppy drive! ;-) and used Mimetics Soundscape Pro MIDI Studio for MIDI sequencing and I also sync'd it to my Tascam 38 reel to reel deck using a J L Cooper PPS1 smart FSK box so I'd have 7 tracks of audio recording sync'd to the MIDI. Later I got a used Amiga 3000 and a Sunrize AD516 stereo I/O card with Studio 16 software for 2 track audio editing on the Amiga.

[@ZenEmu01]

I think the biggest draw for the ST was Cubase. It is hard to prove or disprove the hardware argument, but the software was very intuitive to use and powerful.

[@daishi5571]

I built several ST/Falcon based music studios for DJ's and musicians, and when I showed them using an Amiga with MIDI other than the software they didn't notice or mention any difference. I know the ST has better timings for the MIDI port but I wonder how the OS makes a difference in the routing of that data.

[@RayBrooks0]

True Junglists use Octamed

[@lactobacillusprime]

Love this co-op video! :) Well done and thoroughly enjoyable!

[@AnimalFacts]

Great work. Being from the US, I moved straight from the C64 to a PC.... but have a fascination with the 68k machines that seemingly dominated the European market in that era. As a teenager, I remember pining over the Amiga, but regrettably never came into possession of this classic.

[@bobankrsmanovic9398]

Never to late to buy one :)

[@AnimalFacts]

Boban Krsmanovic Very true. I love some of the plug and play mods available for them today.

[@MikeyGRetro]

Great video and great guests! Never realised there were games that supported midi on the Amiga. :)

[@alpharoid3358]

Great video! I was ecstatic to hear the "Chinese Dream" MOD that MsMadLemon played and to relive some of the Amiga Noisetracker days. :) I'm almost sure this tune was also in the Team17 game "Full Contact" and that's where I remember it from. Cheers!

[@Arc.hitectureMusic]

Been a recent fan of your channel. I just finally realized I helped contribute to this video! Thanks for posting the link on my channel.

[@GadgetUK164]

Great video!!! Wonderfuly put together with some great guests there! Like an early Christmas present, a bunch of great channels all in one video. I have to admit, I love your high production values, and good choice of content.

[@RMCRetro]

Cheers Gadget glad you enjoy it, also a fan of your work. I'm getting stuck into the NeoGeo vids, a system I really want to get hold of some day

[@GadgetUK164]

Thanks =D The Neo Geo is a great system, but costly regards carts etc and has limited genres of games.

[@RMCRetro]

GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods my bank manager certainly wouldn't like it if I started collecting that's for sure

[@electronash]

RetroManCave Loved this vid. Great collab, and nice to see you on LGR, too. I messed with OctaMED quite a bit in the 90s on my A600. (when OctaMED was on the Amiga Format coverdisk.) I never made any decent tunes, but it was a lot of fun. Also loved Music-X back then.

[@MauroSanna]

Brilliant video! Now, because of you, I want an MT32 to add to my Amiga set up! :D

[@pkaulf]

Good video. I think by far the most successful Amiga MIDI musician has to be Calvin Harris. He made his first album with an A1200, Octamed, an Akai sampler and a synth or two. It's not a great album in my opinion, but hats off to him - look where that got him.

[@wrestletube1]

The most sucessful AMIGA music in the in the UK was anything Jungle and that scene was at 1994 when I was still at school.

[@monsirto]

Investigation of side loading music software for the A500 mini brought me here. Absolutely brilliant reminder about the sequencers I used back in the day! Now to find a source for some software. 🧐

[@sideburn]

I just repaired an Amiga 2000 a friend gave me and realized it’s loaded with a one stop music shop, a sunrize AD516 sampler, a video toaster 4000, and a GVP 030 accelerator plus 14 megs of ram. I just got SoundJam and bars n pipes working. Never knew that Christian from RR worked there. Lots to learn.

[@petersterk245]

I've used Music-X for many years and I also have a MT-32. This video inspired me to set up a studio during the Christmas break and go back in time. Thanks for this video.

[@maverickbna]

I'm an Amiga collector. It's great to see more content like this.

[@arongooch]

Absolutely awesome! And the Pogues, very cool.

[@Atomic_Haggis]

Fantastic show. Thanks for such a showcase of MIDI and the Amiga.

[@RMCRetro]

badreaxion Thanks for watching it was fun to make

[@saarek]

Great one! I must say, I prefer native AMIGA music when it comes to games, but it's wonderful that this little machine can harness MIDI for creating music. Congratulation to everyone involved, I really like these all stars videos.

[@jimsteele9261]

I had a really cheap MIDI interface on my A1000. It was basically just a resistor, a db25 for the serial port and a DIN connector for the MIDI. It was published in one of the Amiga magazines... I think, or maybe aminet. It only did MIDI out, but you could use it for playback with programs like Deluxe Music. Fun Times. :-)

[@mrwibbles20]

Thanks for the video. Takeaways: 1. There were only a handful of games developed for the Amiga that had MIDI music, and they were all by Sierra. 2. If you run games from other systems on the amiga that have MIDI music the application that runs them (in this case ScummVM so not quite emulation) may support native MIDI play of that emulated music. 3. Users of different MIDI supporting software gave demonstrations of how they use or used it. From Miss MadLemon playing something in OctaMED with her keyboard as output, to someone playing something in an Amiga program they used to work on .. on their Apple (?) to the Irish guy playing things on his keyboard and recording them on the Amiga as MIDI tracks in Music X. If I got any of this wrong, people please correct me.

[@TheTurnipKing]

21:55 It's pretty clear why there's such a small list of vintage Amiga games that support external midi: There's nowhere near as big a gap between Paula and the pro synth as there was between ad-lib sound and external midi.

[@RMCRetro]

Yes indeed, we came to the same conclusion, PC Speaker to MT32 was mind blowing but Paula not so much. Hope you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching

[@NightSprinter]

And yeah, just hearing LSL shows why if a game supports the MT-32, you ABSOLUTELY NEED an actual MT-32, MT-100, CM-32L, CM-64, or CM-300. In fact, even the Sierra games generally tend to have custom synth patches for the MT-32. Very rarely would a Sound Canvas's MT-32 mode be usable unless a game just purely used the default instruments.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

The little window in the middle of the SuperJam! interface says "Arexx". I thought that Arexx was one of the greatest ideas ever to come out of the Amiga community, and I wonder why this did not translate into the PC world. So useful!

[@daishi5571]

While it did enjoy a great deal of use on the Amiga It is in fact a product of IBM. Originally REXX (commodore got it in a cross licensing agreement) used predominantly on IBM Mainframes & OS/2 (it was available on other OS's). I think that the reason it didn't take off on the PC was due to how ppl used it for many years. Even when multitasking was available it just wasn't stable and it was still used more like a single app OS because of that.

[@namakudamono]

Great video folks! I really enjoyed seeing OctaMED 4 being used for MIDI. Many years ago, I wrote and recorded a piece of GCSE music coursework on my 1200 using OctaMED 5 with a combination of MIDI and native Amiga sounds (mainly the drum tracks that I sampled myself using a Technosound Turbo II). I believe I received an A-grade, however I doubt there are any recordings of this track remaining, unfortunately.

[@MrMaxaMan]

What a great video, that was a pleasure to watch.

[@Smartphonekanalen]

Awesome! Great cooperation with known Amiga geeks. :)

[@CrisBlyth]

What a fantastic video ! :) Maddi is such a lovely guest also !

[@RMCRetro]

Yes indeed, lovely retro folk sharing their passion, this was great fun to make.

[@amigacoverdisk]

Great video, thanks!

[@kgbstudio]

LOVE THE PARASOL STARS BOSS TUNE! GREAT VID

[@hurricanewinzz]

Octamed :D Teijo Kinnunen with that classic psygnosis flute ooooh so nice send chills

[@JohnAnderson4242]

So good ! OSS forever! I really like playing into OSS from MIDI keyboard, it works pretty well I thought.

[@WilliamWusikKalfelz]

Thank you so much for this video, lovely.

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks for watching!

[@delgibbonsmusic]

Sounds a bit like Outrun Magical Sound Shower😁🔊 Used to love amiga trackers. Very cool.

[@poseidonswe]

Amazing useful and instructive!

[@rimmersbryggeri]

That bubby music kind of uses the bassline from Lambada.

[@TwoWholeWorms]

Not just the bassline. :) It's a long-acknowledged 'tribute' to the song. :p

[@wrestletube1]

That Bubby Rainbow Islands 2 - Parasel Stars track It's a wild west song call blah blah blah in the Sky actually. The blah Blah Blah is for thr word I can't remember was also remade in Back to the Future 3 as well in a more native form to the original as it was remade in wild west format.

[@wrestletube1]

I messed up by saying the entire lot is Raiders or Riders in the Sky. I since listened to the other track I forgot about. The track I was on about definitely did feature though where it has a slight break in the Lambarda in the Sky I shall call it that's where the whip from the other track comes in.

[@BigStickyNugs]

I used to control my AKAI s3000 using midi and octamed absolutely fine with no problems.

[@smiljanicn]

You can also use any synth/rack module that supports General MIDI for playing games music on Amiga midi. For example, on my Kurzweil k2661, there is option to force general midi instruments from 0-128 patch numbers and then use it to play SCUMM VM games. Cheap but more powerful alternative would be also, Roland JV-1010, Super JV-1080 (my personal favorite, own 3 of these), Sound Canvas Models, lots of old Korgs.

[@CasualCommodore]

Very interesting. Especially the games part! Never knew non-PC games supported MIDI. And many interesting accents in this video.. :)

[@RMCRetro]

The Amiga love knows no borders :D

[@daishi5571]

Not as much love in USA :-(

[@CasualCommodore]

I know, it's kinda sad. But there IS love. If you didn't know it, check the channel "The Guru Meditation" here on KZbin. Based in New York City.

[@apple_m2_delight]

the reason why amiga was never used primarily for music production is simple: it didn't have a high memory out of the box, unlike its competitor

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

Seems that today is "my favorite KZbinrs guest starring on my other favorite channels" day :)

[@DarrenCoull]

Great collab! Always thought MIDI was under-utilised for games!

[@MrAndroidData]

@18:20. love that an amiga tells a mac what to do

[@NozomuYume]

The Amiga's serial port was designed from day 1 to support MIDI. You actually don't need a fancy box, just a simple rewired cable to make the most basic MIDI interface possible. Honestly I don't understand why C= didn't include MIDI ports as it would have only added a few cents to the cost and eliminated one of the ST's advantages. (the only downside being that you couldn't use the serial port if MIDI ports were in use).

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

It wouldn't have eliminated all of the ST's advantages in MIDI. The ST had much better timing for MIDI than the Amiga had. Or even modern systems.

[@RetroBoxRoom]

This really interested me in what software to actually use for MIDI on the Amiga. I've got some MIDI devices for the Amiga, but I've not really used them, because my Amiga is in bits, waiting for a Vampire V4 card. LOL

[@merlinathrawes6191]

I had one of those Midimasters! Memories! Ahhh, I can die happy.

[@cant1rac]

very nice video, Atari ruled the roost in music, not because computers like the amiga or acorn were or were not capable. relying on internally computer generated sounds the Amiga is clearly better. but when working with multiple layered tracks from external instruments through midi its slightly better latency and greater support put the Atari ahead. i have both, i hate the debate of which was better, i see them as pretty much equal. they out did each other in different areas. its which one is the best machine for what you want to do ? video production and arcade scrolling games get an amiga, non arcade style games and music production get a ST they could do every thing the other could do, just their was a advantage using one system over the other in key areas. midi on the amiga and St, really comes down to what style of music your making, if you just need a keyboard to generate all your sound from the computers sound chip then Amiga is the best option, more than that its the ST.

[@x7heDeviLx]

Dude the Drink next to the electronics, is killing my ocd. Im so Scared. lol Also love the content as always.

[@kjakobsen]

The Amiga computers was amazing. I really miss them.

[@SebastianSnoeck]

Before using an Atati st infused amiga's octamed pro with juno 106 , juno 2 , jd800 , r70 , tr909 ... and amiga samples with my perfect sound 3 cartridge sampler

[@3dmaster205]

Your sound card sounds better than Amiga onboard, but it's very tinny; I can see some people prefer the onboard Amiga because of that. As for sound effects, the massive advantage you had on the PC: you can install both a Sound Card (mostly Sound Blaster) and have an MT-32 on the side, and most games, except for the very earliest ones; allowed you to separately pick the sound effects device and the music/midi device. So brilliant digital sound effects, and brilliant midi music at the same time. Of course you needed a lot a money to burn for that option. But today, you can experience that brilliance thanks to emulation!

[@judgewest2000]

I now feel Christmasy

[@nathanlopes1327]

Almost a "Grab a cup of tea or a beer, if that's more your thing..."

[@RMCRetro]

Hehe where does that quote come from?

[@shadowkat1010]

Green Ham Gaming, start of every video.

[@RMCRetro]

Ah nice, I didn't know that channel but they have a new sub now

[@nathanlopes1327]

I'ts a catchphrase by the host of GreenHamGaming: Tim James

[@beetooex]

I need to see an Amiga smoking a cigarette

[@lowpinglag]

That tune at 8:30 pure gold.

[@asleeponthetoilet5505]

I don't know about the earlier versions of OctaMED and MED, but OctaMED Soundstudio supported the full MIDI CC list, though I remember some of them being a pain to setup to work as needed

[@JoeBetro]

Thank you! 🎶

[@eviltwin2322]

Ah, the nostalgia of seeing MusicX in action! I still have loads of pieces of awful music I tried to compose in it! I ran a Yamaha (PSS 780 I think) keyboard via a tiny midi interphase that was very similar to your KA12. If I remember right it was made by Omega Projects, the makers of the Amiga Sound Booster. The keyboard wasn't GM, though, so selecting the right program change was a real lottery!

[@frankowalker4662]

I've got MIDI Quest for the Amiga, but I've never had a MIDI interface, which I could realy do with. Instead I have my Casio keyboard and Yamaha drum machine plugged into the MIDI port on my 128K Spectrum +2. LOL. I could'nt find any software that uses the 128's MIDI, so I had to write my own.

[@RDJ134]

i bought a Amiga 1200 back in the day just for using it with a MIDI box to use it with my Akai S950 Sampler, Keyboard and some other Stuff. That whas before i stepped over to a hardware MIDI sequencer. Still regret selling my Amiga 1200 and my 500.

[@regfenster]

You are not the only one, I was a big user of pro-Tracker and samplers in the early 90's alongside a few friends, even produced a few white labels during the rave scene circa 1990/91, great memories.

[@Ichinin]

I had two friends who were into Midi music (with keyboards and everything) both had a parallel port midi interface that worked with no problem at all, you had to run a patch for programs like Sonix, but i don't remember them complaining about it being hard to get midi running on the Amiga.

[@spindreams]

I purchased Music-X when it was released and spent my teens at my computer with a Kawai K1 2 synth and some other kit to create amazing (I thought at the time) music. Only sequencer that comes close now to Music-X for just pure creative ease, is in my opinion FLstudio which is my DAW of choice now.

[@CampervanCookout]

I have a like new Microdeal Pro interface in box with disc and manual. Worth keeping hold of?

[@haezeematera6624]

Interesting but sorry for Amiga fan boys but when it comes to the music scene, Atari made history ! Music history ! Herbie Hancock, Daft punk jean Michel Jarre, Beastie boys it would take a day and a half to list all the legends that used Atari's for music production. Sure Amiga were as Goliath was stronger ! But David made history because of is genius... The built in midi on the Atari inspired generations and all the pro tools cubase Ableton are just a legacy, without forgetting one of the oldest and still used protocol named MIDI !!! Glory to Atari !!!

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

Both Atari Inc and Tramiel's successor Atari Corp grasped the importance of MIDI early on. Had Atari Inc continued, they would've released a MIDI card for the 1090 Expansion Chassis for the XL computers. But even so, the 8-bit Ataris had external MIDI adapters available even before Atari Corp's ST computers hit the market and became the official MIDI computer...

[@jaykay5486]

Is there a way to midi sync Octamed with Ableton, I read it goes out of time, is there nothing that can go between to keep the timing

[@RobA500]

I played about with midi on the Amiga quite a bit years ago. What amazed me was when comparing my Amiga to WindowsXP for simple midi playback on a Yamaha MU10 General Midi XG module the Amiga won as all the windows players fail to set up the XG voices so tunes that use them sounded wrong. The Yamaha demo tune Cybergate being a prime example, a techno style tune that uses a squeaky door sound from the start but when played by Windows come out as a saxophone. Good old play midi on the Amiga plays it as it should sound. Sadly players on AmigaOS 4 suffer the same way as Windows.

[@dorsetengineering]

Every time I listen to early jungle/breakbeat hardcore, I picture the octamed notes flashing past on the screen...

[@retrocomputingwizard]

To clarify correct terminology - MT-32 was designed before "General MIDI" - which was a standardized list of bank and program numbers/sounds/names - was added to the MIDI specification.

[@alobosk]

I used Dr. T KCS 3.5 on the 500, then an app called Sequencer One (came on a UK magazine) and when I got my first 2000 with HD and '030, B&P Pro. I hated all of them. They were so incapable compared to anything like Opcode Vision, Master Tracks Pro, Performer or even Cakewalk, but I still loved my Amiga.

[@rolandexclusive6306]

how did you plug the amas into the side of your amiga? i only have ports on the back of mine, means my amas is in a really annoying position all the time

[@vresi]

5:19 I love watching people knowing what they do, do things.

[@Gunstarrhero1]

is it possible to patch over from the amiga and a midi controller to the awe32 in a "bitch box" ie: a dos box? and output audio and sfx through the awe32? i was thinking, what about a driver that sends midi to the awe32, and sfx info to it, so we can listen to both. maybe use paula to send sfx instructions? making midi native, such as: redicrecting all sound output through a driver to midi patch out, no matter what amiga game uses paula, the awe32 or midi device could become instruct to playout midi instruments through patch. and as for sfx, seeing as those are just software bytes or instructions sent to paula, why no direct them to the awe32 then patch them over to 220h for sfx output?

[@nightbirdds]

To be fair, Sierra did a rather good job on the Amiga itself, so while the MT32 sounds nice, I can't say I'd have been disappointed to have played them on the Amiga's own sound driver.

[@RMCRetro]

You're right it's not like the leap from PC Speaker or AdLib to MT-32 on the PC that's for sure

[@jensrobot]

Great video, but hey what about midi input/output latency? I know the st is extremely low, and i always wondered about the amigas

[@codsallbob]

First computer I made music on was an Amiga, used Noise Tracker or Sound Tracker can't quite remember. I do however remember having a unit I plugged in the back that I could then plug into my stereo and sample off it. Great days, went from that to Fruity Loops on a PC and now I use Ableton on my Mac Book Pro. Another interesting video Mr Retro Man Cave! Thanks.

[@RMCRetro]

Rob Brawn StereoMaster or TechnoSound Turbo perhaps, there were a few sample units you could get for the Amiga. Suddenly you're listening to every song you hear for short loops you can rip right?!

[@codsallbob]

RetroManCave, Stereo master rings a bell. How's the Atari Lynx coming on? Looking forward to pt2

[@RMCRetro]

Rob Brawn parts arrived today to it will be the next release!

[@codsallbob]

RetroManCave wow!! Stereo master it was, just seeing the box bring back great memories! So nostalgic. www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/media/download_photos/stereomaster_1_big.jpg

[@LoopyLucy95]

Pre Perifractic Chris had me shook! xD

[@AndrewErwin73]

Can I just say... the facial hair is top notch. So jealous of you, my friend.

[@RMCRetro]

Haha thanks friend. And I was going to give it a trim today. I'll give it a few more days

[@no1spod]

Great video, really enjoyed it just one little thing I think you misspoke at the 19:37 mark about the mt32, it's pre General MIDI, it's for sure a MIDI device.

[@RMCRetro]

Well spotted, General MIDI and not plain Midi. Glad you enjoyed the rest of the video! I've added the correction to the description.

[@yorgle]

Just spinning up my A2000 (which i just got repaired, etc) and I remembered that i have two (TWO!) midi interfaces for Amigas that I've accumulated over the years. I think i have one for Mac SE somewhere too... anyway, I also have a Roland Sound Canvas, MT-32, D-110, and a Yamaha piano... i guess it's time for me to spin up an Amiga Midi system! :D

[@peterobinson3678]

You 'Savagely Heinmanned' those myths... :p

[@musiclabmn]

I still use my A500 with Dr T's and Music-X in my little retro home studio, always preferred it over my 1040ST.

[@betterbeavailable]

Finn's were at the top of their game with Amiga software like this Octamed.

[@monsirto]

The ST is superior from a clock and midi control perspective. In the box? Amiga wins hands down.

[@DEFGI]

Nice bit of the pogues in there

[@danaadalaide5648]

I used OctaMED SoundStudio to write music using both the internal 4 sampled voices and an external MC-303 device via midi, it was quite difficult to control filters etc. with NRPNs but it was possible!

[@smiljanicn]

What is Chris Simpson using as midi attached in the back of that A500+ ?

[@reggiep75]

Reminds me of the good old days in the early 90's of making all sorts of trashy sample tracks and me and a mate made a series of tracks that had loads of whistly samples as clear Amiga samples were hard to get unless they were synthesised or taken from a PC wave file and converted. There was no filters or decent EQ in them days so we had to live with the crap samples haha. Another thing I used to do was load up a game, play it a little, do a soft reset and used a program (I think it was called Hunter III) that could scan the memory and I'd find all sorts of game samples and save them off, edit them in OctaMED and use them myself in my own tunes. I then moved onto MIDI sequencing with another mate who used an A600 and some retro synths and drum machines to make some acid type music. Since the early 2000's it's been Reason and a few other programs but I still love my Amiga tunes days.

[@zyborg47]

My mate used to use Dr T sequencer on an Amiga 500

[@Markkg1]

I remember using amigas linked to A Boss Dr synth, a strange little drum machine into a 8 into 4 into 2 studio mixer... Funny thing is i cant play an instrement (especially keyboard). but i used to write music in Deluxe music construction 2 (sheet notation). Then export it as a GM midii file. Unfortunatly Dmusic. didn't have the fine midi controls.. so i used to import the midi files into music X or octa med.. to add the pitch bends.... Edit the way the notes were played (attack And Sustain). Patch and change the instruments... Had a few offers to play with a few bands.. but as i couldn't do live stuff . always had to bow out...

[@quadrant2005]

The music at 7min is Lambada the forbidden dance

[@hadessuk]

Did MsMadLemon play the intro to the Lambada?

[@wrestletube1]

The more faithful to the original piece Blah Blah Blah in the Sky AMIGA cover. Back to the Future 3 version. Blah Blah Blah is because I forgot the 1st word to the name of the 75RPM vinyl I watched. But it's an imporant key fact though because it means Lambada is a ripoff in it's own right. kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4HZh6ahnrKXbdU