EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 60, Issue 03 This issue's topics: a possibly stupid question about midimanager (7 messages) a surely stupid question about MOTU/OMS (2 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: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 15:27:09 EST From: Mike Andrec Subject: a possibly stupid question about midimanager Hello all! I am a relative newcomer to the MIDI-world, and have what may be a silly question. I just downloaded a few freely available/public domain/shareware/whatever programs by ftp for the macintosh, and some of them (e.g. CMU Midi Toolkit) seem to require Midi Manager. While I _have_ heard of it and have a good idea of what it does, I have no idea where to get a hold of it. Does it still exist?? Is it free?? Can one get it somewhere on the Internet, or do I have to get it from Apple? (archie and veronica searches haven't yeilded anything for me...) Also, I've heard things about various software being incompatible (if not downright hostile) with Midi Manager and about alternatives to MM being produced by various commercial software developers. What's the deal here?? Is MM becoming obsolete? thanks in advance mike -- |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Michael Andrec andrec@psun.chem.yale.edu | Yale University | Department of Chemistry (203)432-6289 | Lowly graduate student | | ALL OPINIONS ARE MY OWN!!! | (I think...) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 15:06:31 -0600 From: Arne Claassen ISE Subject: Re: a possibly stupid question about midimanager One place i know that you can get MidiManager is to get the Lime demo, which includes MidiManager in its archive. I think you can get Lime either at Umich or Info-mac. MidiManager isn't the greatest. It's by no was OMS. But until OMS 2.0 comes out, most manufacturers aside from Opcode won't support OMS. So for now you may be stuck with MidiManager, unless you have only one application running and can directly hog the printer and modem port. Mileage on MM will surely vary from user to user. -- Arne F. Claassen |"In cows we trust | EPS Classic * D4 | E pluribus Moo" | Mac Centris 650 | | ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 23:57:22 -0500 From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: a possibly stupid question about midimanager Mike Andrec writes: > > Hello all! > > I am a relative newcomer to the MIDI-world, and have what may be a silly > question. I just downloaded a few freely available/public > domain/shareware/whatever programs by ftp for the macintosh, and some of > them (e.g. CMU Midi Toolkit) seem to require Midi Manager. While I _have_ > heard of it and have a good idea of what it does, I have no idea where to get > a hold of it. Does it still exist?? Is it free?? Can one get it somewhere > on the Internet, or do I have to get it from Apple? (archie and veronica > searches haven't yeilded anything for me...) > > Also, I've heard things about various software being incompatible (if not > downright hostile) with Midi Manager and about alternatives to MM being > produced by various commercial software developers. What's the deal here?? > Is MM becoming obsolete? > > thanks in advance > > mike > -- > |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > | Michael Andrec andrec@psun.chem.yale.edu > | Yale University > | Department of Chemistry (203)432-6289 > | Lowly graduate student > | > | ALL OPINIONS ARE MY OWN!!! > | (I think...) > ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 1994 22:18:50 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: a possibly stupid question about midimanager >Mileage on MM will surely vary from user to user. Despite all the criticism I see of it, what it does it does pretty well, and it does have the important advantage of being politically neutral, which OMS obviously isn't (see the recent KEYBOARD article). I run OMS, MIDI Manager and an MTP-II, all tied together using software patchbays, and it does the job, although it's not too tidy. >But until OMS 2.0 comes out, >most manufacturers aside from Opcode won't support OMS. I don't see that OMS 2.0 is going to change that; MOTU are most likely still sending out content-free FreeMIDI booklets. (The race is on: QuadraSynth or FreeMIDI? It'll be close.) Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Jan 1994 20:35:06 -0600 From: Arne Claassen ISE Subject: Re: a possibly stupid question about midimanager > >But until OMS 2.0 comes out, > >most manufacturers aside from Opcode won't support OMS. > > I don't see that OMS 2.0 is going to change that; MOTU are most likely > still sending out content-free FreeMIDI booklets. (The race is on: > QuadraSynth or FreeMIDI? It'll be close.) > > > Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk > CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk Well, aside from the Opcode newsletter is an a mag of shameless self-proclamation, it had a rather lengthy list of people ready to support OMS 2.0 in their software. Pretty much every major company was on the list and i think even Performer was on it (i could be mistaken) But Passport, Steinberg, Digidesign, etc. were there. So maybe FreMIDI is going to be the vote against the system, but OMS is more likely to actually be software for the masses instead of politically-annoyed vapourware. Here's something else: I like the patchbay for MidiManager and the way you can set up midi in's and outs and synch ins and outs between concurrent applications. I understand that OMS 2.0 is presently not designed for something like that. Is that correct? -- Arne F. Claassen |"In cows we trust | EPS Classic * D4 | E pluribus Moo" | Mac Centris 650 | | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 18:06:50 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: a possibly stupid question about midimanager >Pretty much every major company was on the list and i >think even Performer was on it (i could be mistaken) But Passport, Steinberg, >Digidesign, etc. were there. I doubt MOTU will adopt it. Digidesign is a surprise - at one stage they were solidly anti-Opcode and wanted to do development work on MIDI Manager - but I guess there is a certain amount of bed-hopping in this business. >but OMS is more likely to actually be software for the masses >instead of politically-annoyed vapourware. True. MIDI OS wars aside, I happen to swear by OMS, I think it's superb, but I also have to battle with MOTU software and interfaces. (As in any war, it's the civilians who come off worst.) >I understand that OMS 2.0 is presently not designed for something >like that. Is that correct? I thought the point of OMS 2.0 was that it would allow inter-application communication (timebase and data). Timebase comms is probably in since Vision needs that; perhaps data interchange got de-emphasised. Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 12:43:50 -0600 From: Arne Claassen ISE Subject: Re: a possibly stupid question about midimanager > I doubt MOTU will adopt it. Digidesign is a surprise - at one stage they > were solidly anti-Opcode and wanted to do development work on MIDI Manager > - but I guess there is a certain amount of bed-hopping in this business. I think the main reason for the Digidesign jump aboard the OMS-train is the session 8 and their desire to have it used widly, which of course means they would like compatibility with StudioVision. -- Arne F. Claassen |"In cows we trust | EPS Classic * D4 | E pluribus Moo" | Mac Centris 650 | | ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 01:57:18 +0100 From: "K.9 Kai Niggemann" Subject: a surely stupid question about MOTU/OMS >True. MIDI OS wars aside, I happen to swear by OMS, I think it's superb, >but I also have to battle with MOTU software and interfaces. (As in any >war, it's the civilians who come off worst.) Sorry to bother you guys and girls with this, since this is most likely a =46AQ, but what exactly does OMS and MOTU mean? Are these alternatives to MIDI as I know it now? Enhacements? Future plans? Any pointers or replies (via e-mail preferably, so as not to clutter up the list with answers/flames to a most stupid question) would be most (*most*!) appreciated. Greetings, Canine. -- "On the net, no-one can tell you're a dog..." Canine aka Kai Niggemann | talk Administrator of INTERZONE -the smart BBS (+49-234-58 29 56)| - action Part of MacNet(c), FirstClass=E2 Network in Germany | _________ 0 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 23:51:42 -0600 From: Arne Claassen ISE Subject: Re: a surely stupid question about MOTU/OMS > Sorry to bother you guys and girls with this, since this is most likely a > =46AQ, but what exactly does OMS and MOTU mean? > > Are these alternatives to MIDI as I know it now? Enhacements? Future plans? > > Any pointers or replies (via e-mail preferably, so as not to clutter up the > list with answers/flames to a most stupid question) would be most (*most*!) > appreciated. Ok, OMS stands for Open Music System (formerly Opcode Music System) which is a managment utility to interface MIDI programs on a Macintosh Computer with the hardware hooked to the Mac modem and printer ports. This is in addition or replacement of Apple's own (but fairly unsupported ) MidiManager. MOTU stands for Mark of the Unicorn, a company which is a competitor of Opcode, not only in Software, but also in interface hardware. And now also a competitor in Midi Operating Software, which OMS and MidiManager are. Or at least they have spread their hate, by announcing that they will free the world (Macworld) from Opcode's OS oppression and introduce their benign Midi named FreeMIDI, which at this time is vapourware and slowing down any useful development for any end-user out there, while both companies are throwing resources after their version. (Mind you the one that should really be throwing resources, Apple, has no intention to overhaul MidiManager or let someone else do it, since "the user base does not justify the expense") That's my (certainly biased) version about OMS and MOTU. -- Arne F. Claassen |"In cows we trust | EPS Classic * D4 | E pluribus Moo" | Mac Centris 650 | | ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************