From: gt2862c@prism.gatech.EDU (gt2862c THAM,JEFF C)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.audio
Subject: Re: MIDI Programs
Date: 9 Apr 92 03:21:02 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <1992Apr7.083006.392@mr.gov.bc.ca> ewilts@mr.gov.bc.ca (Ed Wilts) writes:
>In article <RBRsiB1w164w@bbs.orion.bison.mb.ca>, linton@bbs.orion.bison.mb.ca (Michael Linton) writes:
>> 7)  Are there better programs than KCS or B&P Pro?  Or are they the best
>>     packages?  There doesn't seem to be too many to choose from (at least
>>     via mail order)
>
>You can also consider Music-X.  Although I haven't worked with it beyond a demo
>a few years back, I've lots of good things about it.  Be aware, though, that
>MicroIllusions is no longer distributing it - some company known for game
>software apparently took it over.
>
>One of the reasons I went with KCS (and MRS earlier) was the company supporting
>the product.  Dr.T is a well-respected name in the music business.  They've
>been around for a while and are expected to be around in the future.  I

Well, so is Blue Ribbon. What has Dr. T released lately? Blue Ribbon has
released at least three new products in the last two months alone, including
the only MIDI interface with three separately addressable outs. Oldest doesn't
mean the best in most cases. It has also just been released that Blue Ribbon
has been contacted by Silicon Graphics to do ports of SuperJAM and Bars and
Pipes Pro for the IRIS workstation. I'll say Blue Ribbon will be around. 

>personally don't trust either Music-X (remember the full-page ads 18 months
>before the product finally shipped and the comments "it will ship real soon
>now"?) or Blue Ribbon SoundWorks (the developer who did B&P also did Soundscape
>and gave the Amiga its initial undeserved bad reputation for not being able to

You're saying one piece of software gave the Amiga bad rep for MIDI timing?
Come on, Soundscape hasn't been in production for a while now. You don't expect
first generation software to be bug free, do you? I think you should compare
KCS with Bars & Pipes Pro, not Soundscape. For your information, the same
developer was responsible for programing the rountines to coordinate the
computers for Atlanta's Olympic bid multimedia presentation that was shown
at the award ceremony at Toyko. Your wouldn't expect the bid committee
to give the job to a programmer who can not handle MIDI timing, would you.
Interestingly, he used an Amiga to control the Macs that operates the various
devices. That should make some Mac owners cringe. This is also reported in
a back issue of some Amiga magazine.
 
>handle MIDI timing).  Blue Ribbon recently sent me a demo copy of SuperJam. 
>This self-running demo doesn't and crashes frequently on my A3000.  For my
>needs, I want a stable product - if a company can't even produce a self-running
>demo then I don't trust them to develop production software that has user
>input.

The only problems Blue Ribbon's heard of is people using A500, and that's
because of hardware limitions. Are you sure it's not your hardware setup that's
causing the crashes? Maybe you have a corrupted copy. It runs fine for
everybody else. Is that the only piece of Blue Ribbon software you own? I
don't think you should judge a company when you don't even own an actual
product.

>All major sequencer packages have demo versions available.  If you really want
>to mail order your software, try out the demos.  They all vary considerably in
>look & feel.  A package that's right for the way one person makes music may not
>be right for you.
>

I agree here. You should try them all and see which one you like. Talk to other
users too. I am not trying to put down Dr. T, but it's seems like you're trying
to make Blue Ribbon look bad, rather than present an objective view.

Later...

Jeff