From: metlay@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu (metlay)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth
Subject: Re: MOTU Apparently Now hiring ex Radio Shack Employees for Tech Support
Summary: All screaming aside, let's consider the one real sticking point....
Date: 9 Apr 92 22:35:50 GMT
Organization: Atomic City


So I'd just finished watching Indiana Jones last night with the Wife Unit,
and the phone rang. Like many Americans confronted with a ringing phone,
I answered it, choosing to ignore the string orchestra that had suddenly
started playing the theme from "Jaws" in the back corner of the living room.

"Hello?"

"Hi. Mike?"

"Yo. John? That you? You sound like you've been gargling rock salt."

"Keep your Amiga, Mike. This goddamn motherfucking Mac....."

....and we were off. 90 minutes later, soaked in sweat, I put the phone down
and staggered into the kitchen to get a drink of water. The Wife Unit looked
at me and said something like, "Sweetheart, are you OKAY? Who WAS that?"

To which I responded, "Chapter 26 of Life With Rossi."

I got basically the same rant from John last night that y'all got today
ove the Net, and having had a night longer than everyone else, I've had
time to strip out the bile and render it down, rather like chicken fat,
to the basic problem:

A Macintosh apparently cannot send data to a MIDI interface at a throughput
of greater than 140 kilobaud.

I've turned this problem over and over in my head, taking what little I
know about Macs (me and the rest of the industry, it seems) and trying 
to make all the pieces fit. On the one hand, I have many friends who
use them and swear by them: the same folx John mentioned, like Adam, 
Nick, Eirikur, et alii. (You know Alii, right?) On the other hand, I
recalled the last session I did with a Mac, in particular one exchange
between two people we know and love:

"Nick, what've you DONE to my CONTROLLER DATA?!"

"Filtered it, John. We can't have full resolution or we'll hang the MTP."

So what am I to believe? This situation smacks of the old joke about the
guy who tells his doctor, "Doc, it hurts when I move my arm this way" and
the doctor says "Don't move your arm that way." 

"Hey, if I broadcast more than 4 solid MIDI streams the interface gags."
"So don't broadcast four solid MIDI streams." WRONG!

This isn't about continuous streams of note-ons on 64 MIDI channels all
at once, or whatever other stupid paradigm the software people come up with
to show how powerful the gear is. This is about what is, for ME, a very
real performance situation: I have a Prophet VS on one line, an Xpander
on another, and a Microwave on a third, and I'm sending them all massive
streams of controller data. BZZZZZT, no more headroom.

This is how I work. I turn knobs, I run control signals into synths, I 
generate long, gooey streams of bytes at a very high rate of speed. And
this apparently is telling me that a Mac can't handle that. Strip away
all the insults and everything else, and that's what's left: a Mac can't
use an interface of this type for more than three or four data streams 
at once without choking. The MTP comes under this aegis, as does every other
interface out there, including the Studio Plus 5, which HAD been looking
rather tempting....

Would someone PLEASE point out a verifiable technical spec SOMEWHERE that
proves me wrong? PLEASE?

--
metlay    | "Now, why can't I buy a decent Venetian cutaway 76-key master 
@minerva. |  keyboard in flamed maple with full body sunburst finish?
phyast.   |  (and gold Schallers, whatever they are.)"
pitt.edu  |                                               --Nick Rothwell