EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 59, Issue 03 This issue's topics: Dr. T's Beyond (10 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1993 11:10:59 EST From: JOHN ALBERT PINION Subject: Dr. T's Beyond Just thought this was interesting: When sequencing with Dr. T's Beyond 2.0 (under system 7.1) (on a Performa 200/(Classic II)), leaving the Memory window top-most (selected) (under Windows menu), Beyond allows background processing (I am listening to it while typeing this, logged onto our Vax, now.) Otherwise, changing programs stops Beyond. Do other sequencers do background processing? Does anyone else have any interesting experience or tips for using Beyond? John P. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1993 12:35:01 -0500 From: William Matthews Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond Well, for me, Beyond 2.1 on a Quadra 700 under System 7.1 seems to crash the whole machine when I so much as try to move another window on the screen. Hmmmm. Have I done something wrong? The program M, however, is running in the background as I type this to OUR mainframe. Yrs, Bill Matthews wmatthew@abacus.bates.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 17:58:05 -0500 From: not Robert Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond > Just thought this was interesting: When sequencing with Dr. T's > Beyond 2.0 (under system 7.1) (on a Performa 200/(Classic II)), leaving > the Memory window top-most (selected) (under Windows menu), > Beyond allows background processing (I am listening to it while > typeing this, logged onto our Vax, now.) Otherwise, changing programs stops > Beyond. Do other sequencers do background processing? Cubase, which beyond is heavily based on, does, as does Vision... as far as i know, Performer is the only purportedly good Mac sequencer that cannot (or so i'm told by a friend / performer fan who of course added, "why would you want your sequencer to run in the background?" duh) ;-) bobby i find that vision will slack on the midi clocks if a screen saver is running but the actual note output remains sync'd -- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 10:52:38 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond >Performer is the only purportedly good Mac sequencer that >cannot Yes it can. It's nothing to do with the sequencer, it's all to do with the mess over arbitration and sharing of the port hardware. Given a multi-client MIDI system, there's no problem. Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 12:40:37 -0500 From: not Robert Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond > >Performer is the only purportedly good Mac sequencer that > >cannot (run sequences in the background) > > Yes it can. It's nothing to do with the sequencer, it's all to do with the > mess over arbitration and sharing of the port hardware. Given a > multi-client MIDI system, there's no problem. pardon my french, but, what the *(&%^$ are you talking about? please, define "multi-client MIDI system" 'cuz as far as i know we are talking about 1 user and 1 Macintosh CPU, not a mac network or a mac full of radius rockets or similar multi-CPU setups and the question is if one can run other applications in the foreground without affecting the sequencer's playback by simply switching applications via standard sys 7.1 techniques: the Finder menu or clicking on another apps' window so, either you can switch to another app or not and the person who wrote the message did it with Beyond, i do it with Vision and i've been told be a Performer owner and salesman that Performer does not. if it does, a simple, "version XXX does" would be an appropriate response. -- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 14:49:39 EST From: JOHN ALBERT PINION Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond Since I started this all, I wanted to comment that Beyond 2.3 seems to play sequences in the background ONLY if the Memory window is uppermost. I could not get the demo version of Beyond 3.? to play in the background at all. I was not using Apple's Midi-Manager either time, but I think this doesn't matter. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 14:39:19 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond >pardon my french, but, what the *(&%^$ are you talking about? Pardon me: some explanation for the hard-of-thinking: >please, define "multi-client MIDI system" 'cuz as far as i know we are >talking about 1 user and 1 Macintosh CPU, not a mac network or a mac full >of radius rockets or similar multi-CPU setups You don't know what a "client" is: I'll tell you. A client is something which requires services. a Multi-client system is one which can offer services to several clients at once. In the Mac world, MacTCP is a good example: incoming mail, outgoing mail, news, FTP at the same time from different applications. >if it does, a simple, "version XXX does" would be an appropriate response. Wrong. A simple "version XXX does" would be inappropriate. If a sequencer is running under MIDI Manager or OMS (which is multi-client (see above)) then there is no contention with other programs and it can happily run as a background task without any change in functionality. If it's *not* running under such a system then it's talking to the hardware directly. In such a case the program is expected to release control of the hardware when going to the background in case some other application wants to use it (in the foreground). Hence, a sequencer cannot run in the background; it cannot require access to the hardware. So there isn't a simple answer to your question. How about asking a more intelligent question? Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 11:02:53 EST From: JOHN ALBERT PINION Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond Nick, I asked the question, but didn't write the flame. Thanks for the info! John Pinion ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 15:31:41 -0500 From: not Robert Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond > >if it does, a simple, "version XXX does" would be an appropriate response. > > Wrong. A simple "version XXX does" would be inappropriate. If a sequencer > is running under MIDI Manager or OMS (which is multi-client (see above)) > then there is no contention with other programs and it can happily run as a > background task without any change in functionality. If it's *not* running > under such a system then it's talking to the hardware directly. In such a > case the program is expected to release control of the hardware when going > to the background in case some other application wants to use it (in the > foreground). Hence, a sequencer cannot run in the background; it cannot > require access to the hardware. > > So there isn't a simple answer to your question. How about asking a more > intelligent question? why don't we talk about scheduling algorithms and semaphores while we're at it? i'm sure you've impressed all readers with your vociferous response. congradulations. unfortunately, all anyone else really cared about was which sequencers will continue to play in the background -- the Finder *user* definition as in, the program whose icon is showing at the upper right corner of the screen in the menu bar is in the foreground, all others are in the background -- the simple minded definition that we all use in day to day speech. you know, like, "printing in the background" gosh, we're so intellectually vacant your brain must hurt thinking down to our level... please, accept my apology bobby ps to the other readers: i think cubase will play in the background, too -- the demo at the store seemed to have such an option. sorry for my stupid questions and answers -- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 16:36:16 -0600 From: Arne Claassen ISE Subject: Re: Dr. T's Beyond > > > >if it does, a simple, "version XXX does" would be an appropriate response. > > > > Wrong. A simple "version XXX does" would be inappropriate. If a sequencer > > is running under MIDI Manager or OMS (which is multi-client (see above)) > > then there is no contention with other programs and it can happily run as a > > background task without any change in functionality. If it's *not* running > > under such a system then it's talking to the hardware directly. In such a > > case the program is expected to release control of the hardware when going > > to the background in case some other application wants to use it (in the > > foreground). Hence, a sequencer cannot run in the background; it cannot > > require access to the hardware. > > > > So there isn't a simple answer to your question. How about asking a more > > intelligent question? > > > why don't we talk about scheduling algorithms and semaphores while we're > at it? i'm sure you've impressed all readers with your vociferous > response. congradulations. unfortunately, all anyone else really cared > about was which sequencers will continue to play in the background -- the > Finder *user* definition as in, the program whose icon is showing at the > upper right corner of the screen in the menu bar is in the foreground, all > others are in the background -- the simple minded definition that we all > use in day to day speech. you know, like, "printing in the background" gosh, > we're so intellectually vacant your brain must hurt thinking down to our > level... please, accept my apology > > bobby > > ps > to the other readers: i think cubase will play in the background, too -- > the demo at the store seemed to have such an option. sorry for my stupid > questions and answers I don't think that Nick's answer was techno-babble. A simple version number or simply sasying it's not the foreground application will not do with that the garbage one has to dig through to get OMS or MidiManager to work with other applications in the same environment. Just because you can get it to it it one way doesn't mean that it'll work with another combination. And i still can't get Appletalk to go away, damn it... -- Arne F. Claassen |"In cows we trust | EPS Classic * D4 | E pluribus Moo" | Mac Centris 650 | | ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************