Hint for better Diode at MIDI in

[stryd_one]

I'd be careful about referring to amiga in the past tense around him ;)

[madox]

I'd be careful about referring to amiga in the past tense around him ;)

:)

I still stay in touch with folks at amiga.org, myself. Don't use Amigas any more, though. Still a lot to like about the design, though. The new incarnations are a bit too hard to justify, for what they do, to get my $ and commitment, though.

[lylehaze]

Yes,

I AM an Amigan

I currently run OS4.0 on a Micro-AOne.

Financially I'm not up to 4.1 or a SAM board (yet).

I maintain CAMD.library for the new OS, and I also

wrote the USB MIDI driver for it.

I've been playing since Soundscape on an A1000. :-)

The new OS is very Amiga-Like, and a LOT of fun to

play with. Having unlimited MIDI I/O really helps!

Have Fun,

LyleHaze

[madox]

I AM an Amigan

8)

I couldn't afford to stay involved. Does your Miggy do everything you want from a computer? Is it good for a DAW?

edit - Actually, I think the real thing that killed it for me, was the constantly disappointing behaviour of Amiga Inc.

[lylehaze]

"I couldn't afford to stay involved."

I can't either. But I do anyway. :-)

"Does your Miggy do everything you want from a computer?"

Not even close. The browser is outdated, many modern websites will not load at all. But it is still the computer that I enjoy using the most. I guess we'll call that the "Amiga Factor".

"Is it good for a DAW?"

At this time, the USB stack does not support Isochronous transfers, which includes streaming audio by USB. A few of us were discussing this just a few weeks ago. So our current audio technology is limited to whatever your sound card and AHI can support. If we get support for isochronous transfers at some future time, I have volunteered to write the USB drivers, and so encourage others to write the higher level sound programs.

We do have some pretty cool audio software, but in my opinion we need to support more devices than we have available now.

MIDI, on the other hand, is well supported, and the addition of USB MIDI support has added a LOT of functionality to programs like Bars&Pipes, Horny, and other sequencers. I also like the ability to easily whip up just about anything I want for MIDI work.

This machine currently has 11 MIDI IN ports, 12 MIDI OUT ports, and is what windows folks might call "fully multiclient compatible". CAMD let's me connect and route all the MIDI signals I might ever need. It makes playing with the MIDIBox a lot easier too.

"Constantly disappointing behavior of Amiga Inc."

Absolutely, and they are still at it. The OS is complete, but the lawsuit is still going on. Hyperion have decided to sell the OS as they wish anyway, and I wish them all the rewards that they can find, the OS is truly amazing, and "Amiga-Like", all at the same time. Now that new hardware is available(Google "ACube SAM440"), it is possible to "buy in". The cost is a bit high, but it will never get the cost savings of mass production.

There is no logical reason to buy into the new Amigas, but if you remember what they once were, you would be thrilled to see what they are today. It's not about logic, it's about fun. :-)

LyleHaze

This reply was composed on an AmigaOne running OS4.0

[madox]

Hi LyleHaze,

Thanks for hashing out your experience with the Amiga. I have watched a fair few demos of OS4 on youtube, and I do think it is pretty impressive. I have always liked the responsiveness of Amiga systems. Not meaning to get into a red/blue thing either, but I think MOS looks pretty decent too.

I still stay in touch with most of the Amiga news. I still like the Amiga user community too - there is a lot of good will there, and a great creative intellect. Somehow I find it easier to stay in touch with the news, now that I am no longer an Amiga user - less connected to the disappointment, and still able to get some level of appreciation from the achievements, without spending any money.

Cheers

[TheAncientOne]

Like someone said earlier - it's the capacitance.

The guy states he was using over the spec cables, and the variation in input capacitance of the earlier optos was not nice - Sharp PC900 datasheet quotes 30pF typical, 250pF max - that's a hell of a variation.

Better trick is to replace the opto with a more modern, faster one.

And what was his big deal about MIDI repeaters, that's like 10 cheap parts on a bit of perfboard, and a very small wallwart supply. The TTL output is a bit of a red herring too, the predominant MIDI output impedance is usually the 200 Ohm resistors. A soggy supply and cheap high capacitance cables might be to blame though. I stuck a capacitance meter on some cheapo MIDI cables a while back. I can't remember the result, but they sucked.

Once again I'll recommend Hinton Instruments site for a wealth of MIDI data. The two little boxes with connectors and BNC sockets for checking the signal quality with a scope are well worth making.

As they say in physics, about Finagle's laws:

1) Adjusting your data to fit the universe (Common)

2) Adjusting the universe to fit your data (Rare)

The guy was making another attempt to adjust the MIDI universe. Doomed! I tell you, Doomed!