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I used to make music on the Amiga. There is one aspect that the article doesn't explain too well - what allowed the Amiga to flourish as a music making platform

I used to make music on the Amiga. There is one aspect that the article doesn't explain too well - what allowed the Amiga to flourish as a music making platform, is that it had onboard audio which was much more capable than most other computers of the time, thanks to Paula, which allowed multi channel, high sample rate audio playback [1] These hardware capabilites in turn allowed the development of the Amiga music software scene, in particular music trackers [2] The Amiga was the first mass produced computer where you could make music without plugging in expensive synths or samplers (like was common on the Atari ST for example - I remember my uncle connecting his ST to an Akai sampler and a Roland synth, as a kid I could never have afforded a setup like that). But, if you wanted to sample on the Amiga, you actually needed one external piece of hardware: an audio sampling interface, however these were generally very cheap [3] Just a few hours ago an article about making music on the Atari ST made it to the HN home page (I also commented there), might be an interesting read for those interested [4] [1] http://theamigamuseum.com/the-hardware/the-ocs-chipset/paula/ http://theamigamuseum.com/the-hardware/the-ocs-chipset/paula... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9MXYZh1jcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9MXYZh1jcs [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31222980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31222980

rasz 4y ago
Apple IIGS had Ensoniq ES5503 build in, pretty much half of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq_Mirage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq_Mirage
- timbit42 4y ago
  Ensoniq was founded by Robert Yannes, the creator of the SID, and Al Charpentier, one of the designers of the VIC-II, and Bruce Crockett, whose history I do not know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq
  - rasz 4y ago
    Bruce was logistics. InfoWorld - Apr 26, 1982 - Page 18: "Bruce Crockett is Commodore's vice-president of systems manufacturing and the man who keeps the Santa Ciara assembly plant running smoothly." Before that "Liquid Gold: The Story Of Liquid Crystal Displays And The Creation Of An Industry" page 134 "he was a former operations manager for LEDs at Fairchild" Apparently Tramiel had a thing for not keeping verbal agreements (suppliers being huge example). Whole C64 team was promised bonuses after release, instead they got "be glad you have a job" pep talk and the smart ones left.
ahonhn 4y ago
Samplers were cheap? I remember the few I might have been able to acquire from the one or two local shops that had Amiga stuff being at least a hundred bucks - a comparative fortune back when I was on $5 a week pocket money.
- mastazi 4y ago
  Some models were cheaper than that. As an example you can see here[1] this particular model was 30 pounds in 1992, which is equivalent to about 50 dollars[2]. Depending on the time or place they may have been a bit more expensive so it makes sense that in your case you had to spend $100... but let's not forget that a stand-alone sampler was at least 10 times more expensive, so the Amiga was still a way cheaper option than e.g. an Atari ST + MIDI-connected stand-alone sampler. Also we have to consider that there were sample libraries distributed on floppy - so with an Amiga you could still have "cool sounds" even without a sampler interface - the main point being that audio playback on Amiga was higher quality than most competitors. [1] https://youtu.be/i9MXYZh1jcs?t=184 https://youtu.be/i9MXYZh1jcs?t=184 [2] https://fxtop.com/en/historical-exchange-rates.php?YA=1&C1=GBP&C2=USD&A=1&YYYY1=1990&MM1=01&DD1=01&YYYY2=2022&MM2=05&DD2=08&LANG=en https://fxtop.com/en/historical-exchange-rates.php?YA=1&C1=G...
TacticalCoder 4y ago
Yup indeed... The Amiga was the better machine but when a guy would come up with a ST and hook its Roland or Moog synth through the MIDI port, we were in awe! Interestingly enough for the ST had no fan, it's been used for a very long time in some recording studio (where they liked silent recording equipment). To my surprise I saw an ST still in use well into the 2000s. > But, if you wanted to sample on the Amiga, you actually needed one external piece of hardware: an audio sampling interface, however these were generally very cheap I don't know if I still have mine. In french we'd call it a "digitaliseur" (literally "digitalizer"). I do know though that I still have something much rarer: a 5"1/4 external Amiga floppy drive (when sailing the high seas, for the price of 30"1/2 floppies it was cheaper to buy a 5"1/4 drive + 30 5"1/4 floppies). We'd then add a switch on the Amiga to be able to boot from the 5"1/4 as if it was a 3"1/2 and no program would know anything about it (it was working perfectly).
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  Honestly, while the Amiga was a better graphics and sound machine and was better for games and some early video and digital audio stuff (trackers, etc.) -- the ST had a better "productivity" story. 640x400 paperwhite monochrome monitor + MIDI ports + MSDOS-compatible floppy format. High resolution on Amiga was interlaced and required a scan doubler to be tolerable. Reading MSDOS formatted floppies required special software. DTP and other productivity software tended to find their way to the ST first. Atari made a rock bottom price cheap laser printer. The total package price for a 1Mb ST + high res monitor was lower than anything Commodore ever offered, and far lower than anything Apple offered, but still got you an 8mhz 68000, a GUI, MIDI ports, etc. I always try to say: the competition for the ST was the Mac and a PC, not the Amiga. Different market segment. Yes, on a low-res colour monitor many people purchased the ST as a games machine, but it wasn't great for that, really. It was a cheap productivity machine, "power without the price". More memory and more Mhz per dollar than anything else out at the time. And that's the segment Tramiel was targeting, he was going after the Mac ("computers for the masses, not for the classes."). The "Jackintosh" For MIDI sequencing, there's no comparison. The breadth of software on the ST was far beyond anything on the Amiga and some giants of the current DAW software market like Cubase and Logic got their start there. And honestly, while onboard sampled sound generation on the Amiga was better than its competition, that's kind of a dubious distinction when we're talking about grainy low-bitrate 28khz 8 bit audio. Not exactly CD quality. Within a few years it was outdated relative to what you could get on a commodity PC ISA sound card.
superdisk 4y ago
> But, if you wanted to sample on the Amiga, you actually needed one external piece of hardware: an audio sampling interface, however these were generally very cheap Interestingly, an amiga and cheap sampler is how Kanye got his start. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y7SeNjFeeSc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y7SeNjFeeSc
Braini 4y ago
Offtopic regarding [1] I just love these websites which mimic the Amiga UI or at least show the mouse pointer, instant nostalgia kick. For example also the amigalove forum.

rasz 4y ago

Apple IIGS had Ensoniq ES5503 build in, pretty much half of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq_Mirage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq_Mirage

timbit42 4y ago
Ensoniq was founded by Robert Yannes, the creator of the SID, and Al Charpentier, one of the designers of the VIC-II, and Bruce Crockett, whose history I do not know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq
- rasz 4y ago
  Bruce was logistics. InfoWorld - Apr 26, 1982 - Page 18: "Bruce Crockett is Commodore's vice-president of systems manufacturing and the man who keeps the Santa Ciara assembly plant running smoothly." Before that "Liquid Gold: The Story Of Liquid Crystal Displays And The Creation Of An Industry" page 134 "he was a former operations manager for LEDs at Fairchild" Apparently Tramiel had a thing for not keeping verbal agreements (suppliers being huge example). Whole C64 team was promised bonuses after release, instead they got "be glad you have a job" pep talk and the smart ones left.

ahonhn 4y ago

Samplers were cheap? I remember the few I might have been able to acquire from the one or two local shops that had Amiga stuff being at least a hundred bucks - a comparative fortune back when I was on $5 a week pocket money.

mastazi 4y ago
Some models were cheaper than that. As an example you can see here[1] this particular model was 30 pounds in 1992, which is equivalent to about 50 dollars[2]. Depending on the time or place they may have been a bit more expensive so it makes sense that in your case you had to spend $100... but let's not forget that a stand-alone sampler was at least 10 times more expensive, so the Amiga was still a way cheaper option than e.g. an Atari ST + MIDI-connected stand-alone sampler. Also we have to consider that there were sample libraries distributed on floppy - so with an Amiga you could still have "cool sounds" even without a sampler interface - the main point being that audio playback on Amiga was higher quality than most competitors. [1] https://youtu.be/i9MXYZh1jcs?t=184 https://youtu.be/i9MXYZh1jcs?t=184 [2] https://fxtop.com/en/historical-exchange-rates.php?YA=1&C1=GBP&C2=USD&A=1&YYYY1=1990&MM1=01&DD1=01&YYYY2=2022&MM2=05&DD2=08&LANG=en https://fxtop.com/en/historical-exchange-rates.php?YA=1&C1=G...

TacticalCoder 4y ago

Yup indeed... The Amiga was the better machine but when a guy would come up with a ST and hook its Roland or Moog synth through the MIDI port, we were in awe! Interestingly enough for the ST had no fan, it's been used for a very long time in some recording studio (where they liked silent recording equipment). To my surprise I saw an ST still in use well into the 2000s. > But, if you wanted to sample on the Amiga, you actually needed one external piece of hardware: an audio sampling interface, however these were generally very cheap I don't know if I still have mine. In french we'd call it a "digitaliseur" (literally "digitalizer"). I do know though that I still have something much rarer: a 5"1/4 external Amiga floppy drive (when sailing the high seas, for the price of 30"1/2 floppies it was cheaper to buy a 5"1/4 drive + 30 5"1/4 floppies). We'd then add a switch on the Amiga to be able to boot from the 5"1/4 as if it was a 3"1/2 and no program would know anything about it (it was working perfectly).

cmrdporcupine 4y ago
Honestly, while the Amiga was a better graphics and sound machine and was better for games and some early video and digital audio stuff (trackers, etc.) -- the ST had a better "productivity" story. 640x400 paperwhite monochrome monitor + MIDI ports + MSDOS-compatible floppy format. High resolution on Amiga was interlaced and required a scan doubler to be tolerable. Reading MSDOS formatted floppies required special software. DTP and other productivity software tended to find their way to the ST first. Atari made a rock bottom price cheap laser printer. The total package price for a 1Mb ST + high res monitor was lower than anything Commodore ever offered, and far lower than anything Apple offered, but still got you an 8mhz 68000, a GUI, MIDI ports, etc. I always try to say: the competition for the ST was the Mac and a PC, not the Amiga. Different market segment. Yes, on a low-res colour monitor many people purchased the ST as a games machine, but it wasn't great for that, really. It was a cheap productivity machine, "power without the price". More memory and more Mhz per dollar than anything else out at the time. And that's the segment Tramiel was targeting, he was going after the Mac ("computers for the masses, not for the classes."). The "Jackintosh" For MIDI sequencing, there's no comparison. The breadth of software on the ST was far beyond anything on the Amiga and some giants of the current DAW software market like Cubase and Logic got their start there. And honestly, while onboard sampled sound generation on the Amiga was better than its competition, that's kind of a dubious distinction when we're talking about grainy low-bitrate 28khz 8 bit audio. Not exactly CD quality. Within a few years it was outdated relative to what you could get on a commodity PC ISA sound card.

superdisk 4y ago

> But, if you wanted to sample on the Amiga, you actually needed one external piece of hardware: an audio sampling interface, however these were generally very cheap Interestingly, an amiga and cheap sampler is how Kanye got his start. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y7SeNjFeeSc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y7SeNjFeeSc

Braini 4y ago

Offtopic regarding [1] I just love these websites which mimic the Amiga UI or at least show the mouse pointer, instant nostalgia kick. For example also the amigalove forum.