Conference 7.286::atarist

    Hi,
    have you tried the  notes conference " NOVA::COMMUSIC " ??
                                                            
    I think you can get the right answer there,try DIR/TITLE="MIDI" in
    that notes file.

    Just add it to your note directory,and try it.
    
    Regards Hans.
                                                  
    

    Re .0
    
    Music Studio is an excellent way of getting into Midi (speaking
    from experience). You are correct in stating that there are limitaions
    in input from a keyboard using this package - duration is not detected.
    
    Jon.
    

This note is cross posted in COMMUSIC

            <<< DNEAST::SYS$TOOLS:[NOTES$LIBRARY]COMMUSIC.NOTE;2 >>>
             -< * * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * * >-
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Note 1345.25     Wanted: Cheap Keyboard For Sequencer Data Entry        25 of 25
TANNAY::BETTELS "Cheryl, Eur. Ext. Res. Prg., DTN 821-4022"  36 lines  20-SEP-1991 04:46
                  -< A new request for the same information >-
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I would like to reactivate this topic to get some up to date information:

>If I wanted a keyboard purely as a data-entry device, how little money could
>I get away with spending?  Touch not a concern, nor ability to send program
>changes, splits, or anything else.  All it needs are:

>	3 octaves of keys or more.
>	Polyphonic (more than one key at a time).
>	Sends MIDI.

I do need full size keys in addition.

My situation is this: I am a musician playing mainly flute and teaching my
two boys flugelhorn and percussion.  I also play piano and can't play well
(at all ?) on non standard keys.  I play in the local band.

In the band I often get handwritten music or music needing transposing.  I
wish to be able to produce good quality sheet music from this and also to 
rescore music so I can play with my kids.  

I bought MusicWRITER� which gives me the quality I want but is a bear to input
the music with by hand.  I am running the Macintosh version on an Atari
using the SPECTRE Macintosh emulator.

I'd like to get a keyboard to enter the parts one instrument at a time.  My
program can do the rest.  I don't intend to play it back (except to hear that I
entered it correctly maybe) but one day my kids might like that functionality.

There is a problem which I will also crosspost in ATARI and MAC files which is
that SPECTRE expects to use the serial port with an external MIDI box.  I 
really hate to buy one since our ATARI has a perfectly good internal MIDI but...
is there a way around this?

Thanks for your help.

Cheryl

    There are home keyboards in department stores from Casio, Kawai and Yamaha
    that have full size keys (49 or 61) and MIDI that you could use as
    input devices.  Prices start at about $150-200.  I couldn't hope to list
    model names, there are so many. Just be careful, many of those type of
    keyboards DON'T have MIDI.  You could probably find a used MIDI
    synthesizer for around $200, but buying a Casio off the shelf at your
    local mall is probably a simpler solution.
    
    As far as the problem with Spectre, the sad story is this: either buy a
    Mac MIDI interface to use your current software or buy some Atari
    notation software and use the built-in MIDI ports.
    
    							Brian

I may try and sell my Mac package and get some ATARI sw but I need lots of
functionality in the notation software!

Thanks,
Cheryl

See my latest 'for sale' note...

...and a caveat.

Well, I got the Yamaha PSR400 (?) for Christmas and have been having a great
time with it.  I like to put honky piano on the right hand and wood bass
on the left and try to play dixieland.  It has about all the functionality that
I could ever dream of.

Now for the bad part.  As I mentioned before, we have an Atari with Spectre on
it.  All the bugs have now been fixed.  I have the MAC MusicWRITER program.
We have hooked the Yamaha up to the Atari through the midi port and are
using a shareware program to record sequences.  Then, J�rgen also bought a
midi interface for the serial port so I could use it with my notation software.
Doesn't work and here is why (J�rgen spent quite a bit of time talking to
the manufacturers of the black box when it didn't work):

The midi interface boxes only work through a 432 serial link.  It seems that 
on a MAC,there is a 432 behind the 232 which the system "knows" is there and
addresses as such.  Of course, on the Atari, there is no such thing.

So, the moral is that you shouldn't try to run a MAC midi on SPECTRE.

I will now probably sell MusicWRITER (with a free midi box thrown in) and get
a copy of Notator.

Cheryl

Are you sure you don't mean 423?  I don't know what 432 is, but 423 is
interoperable with RS232.  You should only have trouble if the adaptor
is configured for 422.

As I understand it, the RS232 on the Atari is really an RS232 whereas on the
MAC the RS232 plug really has an RS423 behind it so the midi black box we
bought for the MAC doesn't work with SPECTRE MAC emulator on the Atari.

Cheryl