Ultra Noob Questions: Round 3

[athleos]

All having to do with music and related to the 600XL.

 

1. is it possible to get Raster Music Tracker or any tracker onto a cartridge or 5.25 floppy and is it even possible to run RMT or any other tracker on an Atari8 or just the sound files?

2. once booted on the 600XL, is it possible to have RMT's MIDI capabilities utilize the Wizztronics MIDImax(for sync, not much else)?

3. is it possible for a noob like me, (once i've got a grasp on BASIC), to write a program that would utilize: Dual POKEYs, the MIDImax and some sort of GUI that i could use to write music, play it with the 600XL and send sync via the MIDImax to other instruments?

 

i know this is an insanely out there group of questions but i would really like to learn this stuff. my 600XL is the only atari8 i have and it has a gumby board in it.

 

thanks in advance to anyone who has any info.

Edited April 21, 2008 by athleos

[analmux]

RMT: the tracker only runs on PC, not on a8 itself. So, no chance for a floppy or cartridge.

[Heaven/TQA]

and 600xl will be hard as well as it has only 16k ram...

 

what about Music Pro Tracker? (MPT) or Theta Music Tracker? (TMC) which are native atari trackers?

[athleos]

and 600xl will be hard as well as it has only 16k ram...

 

what about Music Pro Tracker? (MPT) or Theta Music Tracker? (TMC) which are native atari trackers?

do either of these support a second POKEY and/or some sort of MIDI? i'm sort of desperate to find a way to use my 600XL as a standalone "instrument." also, i have the 64k ram upgrade, i don't know if that helps... i modded it so that i could use a portable LCD screen with it and it has two audio jacks for each POKEY. by MPT were you meaning Multi-Pro-Tracker?

[edit] i just found a site that said both programs support dual POKEYs. now i need to find out about MIDI and getting one of them onto a floppy or cart...

Edited April 21, 2008 by athleos

[athleos]

upon further investigation i found this: "Midi-Mate" and "Midi-Track" by Hybrid Arts on the atari FAQ at atarimania.com. it says that this software is compatable with my MIDImax by wizztronics (which i do have the software for, but it doesn't do what i need). now the question is, are either of these programs actual trackers? MIDI-track sounds promising... ?

[athleos]

OK... better and less vague question. will APE, sio2usb and a 8Mbit flash cart be the best way for me to "test" trackers etc. on my 600XL (with 64K ram)? AND, will the APE software that i can download from atarimax.com allow me to copy these programs to floppy with my 1050 disk drive? thanks. sorry for being annoying...

[charliecron]

Yes, APE and sio2usb (I imagine your talking about the Atarimax adapter) will allow you to copy most software to the flashcart, or a 1050.

 

You can test the trackers though with just APE, sio2usb, and your 600XL.

 

Charlie

[athleos]

Yes, APE and sio2usb (I imagine your talking about the Atarimax adapter) will allow you to copy most software to the flashcart, or a 1050.

 

You can test the trackers though with just APE, sio2usb, and your 600XL.

 

Charlie

thanks so much for the reply. i want to eventually just use my 600XL and its peripherals without a PC so that's why i'm so curious about all this. would my 600XL be able to run say, theta music composer from an 8 Mbit cart or would i have to save it to a floppy from my PC?

 

[edit] also, are the SS-DD type 5.25" floppy disks the ones i want for my 1050? i know that HD type disks won't work so i figured DD was what i wanted but i don't know what SS means.

Edited April 23, 2008 by athleos

[charliecron]

Yes, if you want to run standalone, a flashcart and 1050 will be fine, and you can likely run the music composer from either.

 

The perl scripts that create the 'flasher' program creates a bootable ATR disk image, At some point it needs to come from a PC. I imagine it would be fine to copy that flasher image down to a real floppy disk and use that to program the flashcart. But for an 8mit flashcart, which can hold more than a floppy disk, you would likely need to use the PC.

 

There are a couple different ways to burn a flashcart. You can put multiple singe executables (exe, com, xex, all the same) on the cart, or you can burn a "disk image". Your limited to one disk image though (I think) So, putting a disk image on an 8mb cart would be a wasting a lot of space on the cart, better off going with the 1mb cart for that.

 

And I believe theres another way, that uses neither a single executable loaded from the menu, or a disk image. They look like and and load like a real cart, I don't know how they do that.

 

Charlie

[+Guitarman]

also, are the SS-DD type 5.25" floppy disks the ones i want for my 1050? i know that HD type disks won't work so i figured DD was what i wanted but i don't know what SS means.

 

 

You need to use SS/DD or DS/DD. SS/DD = Single Side/Double Density. DS/DD = Double Side/Double Density.

 

Most use the DS/DD, even though the 1050 is a single side drive. That way you can notch the opposite edge of the disk and use both sides (flippy disk). Also, the 1050 only formats Enhanced Density, which is less than full DD, unless you put a upgrade like the US Doubler or Happy, which will give it full DD format (but still single side). If you have a XF551 drive, it is a true DS/DD drive and will allow you to use the full disk without turning over, though it wouldn't be totally readable in a 1050.

[athleos]

you guys are awesome!!! thanks so much for the info. i think i know enough now to get going!! i hope i can handle this. it's been sooo long since i've used floppy's and BASIC... i'm sure i'll have more questions at some point. thanks again!!!