[Coco] Drivewire VHD's

[Bill Pierce]

The oly problem with what you are suggesting is that there are quite a few Lyra / Ultimuse files that were created with "oddball" synths. To set up proper filters, one would have to aquire the original manual and midi spec for each synth. You can guess at the instrument by it's name and get pretty good results but some still sound wierd. Also, each manufacturer used it's own code sequences for doing effects (reverb, chorus, tremelo, pitch wheel ect) I would really like to have these collections in GM for my own purposes as I actually use a lot of them in my studio. I do not even use Drivewire to send my Midi data from my Coco, I use the Coco Midi Pak as my "Studio" computer isn't connected to my Coco with Drivewire, only Midi. I have an older computer I use for the drivewire host running Windows Server 2003. That makes it a little easier to run the emulators when I need them as well. It's pretty much dedicated to the Coco disks and emulators. I have a ton of virtual instruments on my "Studio" PC that are amazing in thier reproduction of the real instruments. Some with sample libraries a large as 100 gig, so it gets picky about too many processes running in the background. It's much easier for me to access them in GM format. Don't get me wrong, your work with the Midi implementation of Drivewire has been excellent. I just use GM as a general rule as I have no "real" keys anymore and GM is supported by almost every sound module/keyboard/soundcard made past 1988 or 89? Whenever it was that the MIDI Association decided that all MIDI "players" would support GM.

To give you a good example... If I uploaded all the Lyra / Umuse3 stuff that I sequenced back in the 80s-90s, it was all done on a Kawia MS-710 and a Yamaha PSR-500. None of which there are filters for. A lot of these files use BOTH keybaords at the same time with program changes, channel hopping, and effects being turned on and off throughout the music. To set up filters for these would be a little different... I just convert to GM as I know the settings for these keys by heart. I also pretty much know the the settings for most of the keys people were using in the 80s like the Casio CZ-101 and the whole Yamaha PSR series. These were inexspensive keys in the 80s-90 so they were real popular to the Midi hobbiest who didn't want to spend thousands on a keyboard just to play mdi songs on thier Coco. Also Secondcity Software (Ultimuse) and Speech Systems/Rulaford Research (Lyra, CoCoMidi Pro) sold these through Rainbow magazine as well.


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




-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 1:04 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] Drivewire VHD's


On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 11:25 AM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>I have to convert them to General Midi so they will play on most modern PCs 
hrough Drivewire. I know Aaron has provided Drivewire with filters for various 
idi keyboards, they still sound better when run straight GM.
To clarify, I have given Drivewire the ability to convert instruments
nto GM on the fly, and provided some guesses at what filters for
arious keyboards might want to use based solely on the descriptions
f their instruments in their manuals, which is definitely not going
o give great results.
These were just examples and were never meant to be final. I have
lways hoped someone with access to the original instrument or better
nformation would improve them.  They are simple text found in the
onfig file, ready for anyone to make better, add new filters for your
wn devices, tailored to your own taste, etc.
If you could simply change the filters to do the same mappings your
onversion does, then we could have dynamic and instant translation of
very song output from every program without having to convert
nything.
-Aaron
--
oco mailing list
oco at maltedmedia.com
ttp://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco