[Coco] Sound Chaser Multi-Format Music Player BETA

[Bill Pierce]

-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Fri, Jun 29, 2012 11:03 am
Subject: Re: [Coco] Sound Chaser Multi-Format Music Player BETA

>Yes, a previous test session 2-3 months ago worked well, but since none of 
>my stuff was moused in in GM format, the instruments were pretty well mix-
>mastered.

Gene, Sound Chaser has grown tremendously, By using the DW midi, you can filter anything you want, such as re-route program changes, block sysex messages ect. 

>UltimuseIII on the coco3 can actually use more than one output device 
>already, I had assigned (AIR) several of the instruments to the bitbanger, 
>and several to the converted to midi speeds rs232 pack, so at the time I 
>had a cable from the bitbanger plugged into an MT-240, and a cable from the 
>232 pack plugged into a CZ-101, which gave me 4 voices on the mt-240 and 8 
>voices on the CZ-101.  I could make quite a racket that was almost music, 
>the _almost_ because neither of those keyboards did velocity, from their 
>own keyboards or over midi.  Musically that is a huge shortcoming.  But I 
>didn't have the sheckles at the time for a sound canvas let alone a decent 
>Roland keyboard of the day.

I decided not to allow the "dual drivers" on the basis that DW uses the bitbanger. If you send Midi straight down the bitbanger while DW is active, there's no telling what DW would do as Midi is just numerical data and DW would see it as commands and could re-write your VHD. But.. given a way to check for the presence of DW and knowing it's not there, I could activate the serial along with any other driver you choose. I too used to dual drive with Umuse. I had a Kawai MS-710 with 8 voices on the serial and a Yamaha PRS-500 (32 voice multi-timbral) on the hardware. Then a friend brought his 2 keys over and we just jumped them off the "Midi Thrus" and had a whopping good time. Of course Umuse was still only capable of 16 parts at once but it made for some variety in sounds as well as "layers" when we wanted it. Midi will "cascade" using the "Midi Thru" to as many units as the signal will last through. Maybe a slight "delay" as you get further down the line.

>I don't recall that UltiMuseIII even had that capability, does it?

If you are referring to velocity, yes. Ultimuse has several ways to set velocity. There is a master level that controls overall volume, a per part event to set one of 8 vel lvs on a part at any time on a score. an accent (user defined) that would "boost" the current note by x amount, and a cresendo/diminuendo that will raise or lower velocity over xx beats by xx amount. So velocity control is pretty much covered. I do know that Mike only added some of these items in later versions. But some have been there since the first commercial release.

>With modern polyphonic midi devices (and our sound cards too) capable of 16 
>instruments each, it seems that a voice translator to reassign my non-std, 
>non-GM music instruments in the GM map would allow us to more accurately 
>play the music I moused in with such delight when it all actually worked 
>right here in this room nearly 20 years ago, would be a nice facility to 
>have.  Hint...

Using the Drivewire drvr, this is already a reality. You can use filters on the PC end to set anything you want (basically). In Ultimuse itself, there are "quick fixes" that Mike implemented in the later versions that allowed you to "change synths" without re-writing everything. The instrument tables have a save/load function that allow you to create tables for each synth and as long as you assign your instument names to the same slots, just loading a new .ins file changes synths. The percussion table does the same with predefined drum slots. In the last 1 or 2 versions Mike had expanded the instrument table to 64 instruments just to help with this. 

  On the other hand, Sound Chaser is just a player... not an editor. I may create some way to load the ".ins" & ".perc" files for this purpose later, but right now I'm really trying to concentrate on getting all the various players working. I can then start customizing all the params of each player to make them as user compatable as possible.

Also, when I get done with Sound Chaser, I will be working on a new version of Ultimuse and a Midi Map is one of the first items on the list of updates.

Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3 
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
Bill Pierce
ooogalapasooo at aol.com