Best Retro Computer for Composing with the SC-88 Pro

hello John,

I used Pro-24 back in the days, it was quite cool: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari … 29596.html
But later I used Cubase (or Cubase lite, I don't remember well). Both are from Steinberg, I think Cubase is more advanced. Probably you need a dongle to use Cubase because I'm not sure there is a reliable crack for it (that's why I think it was Cubase Lite I had because I had no dongle).

I used Midi program changes in Cubase, so my expander (Roland D-110) could automatically switch to the correct instruments when the song started to play (it's just a midi event to insert in the track).

I can understand people use old chips to make music with them, but for MIDI, it will just sound the same, so why not using a more modern tool? Well, I must admit I had already thought to use my Atari ST for this purpose as well. But I already have one. For a decent Atari ST(e), it will cost you around 50-70 €. Try to get an STE because if you want to compose Chiptune with Maxymiser in the future, you get DMA channels and it also has CINCH / RCA outputs.

Anyway, in Logic Pro you should be able to program midi program changes as well: http://www.plugorama.com/kb.php?id=33

For the correct values, it should be quite easy. First select the bank, then the program within the bank. For example I see the SC-88 has a manual there: http://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/SC-88PRO_OM.pdf
It seems it's organised not with bank numbers, but with banks of instrument categories (piano, organ, bass etc). You'll find all the needed values in this manual.

On some DAW you can select your synth / expander. Probably Logic Pro supports the SC-88. In a DAW I use, Ardour, you can select it this way:

Then select the bank and the instrument by its name:

Some DAW permit to select the instrument only for the whole song, on some others (like Ardour) you just define a midi event at the place you want so you can change instrument during the song replay (but it's a bad idea IMO to do this on the same track when you're not limited anymore but the numbers of tracks). You can also use MIDI to send sysex message from your DAW to the expander so you can change filters and such.

I don't know how good is the Atari about midi latency, but now you can also achieve pretty good low latency on modern computers as well.

There is a heated discussion on this matter there: http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/03/10/atari-ste/

Actually, the Atari ST series is still a viable option for non-chiptune MIDI because of its incredibly accurate timing. It still beats out most modern solutions in that area.

The MC6850P ACIA chip that deals with MIDI in the ST is IRQ driven and makes for extremely stable and accurate timing. All modern software MIDI goes through far more software and hardware levels than the Atari ST.

That said, a modern professional setup, configured well, can probably compete pretty well with an Atari ST in terms of accuracy. However, you generally won't see this sort of accuracy in an affordable, home studio setup. Most affordable MIDI interfaces (and any MIDI interface using USB) will have far more jitter and latency and will often be unable to keep up with a lot of very fast parameter changes.

Like you mentioned, it's not too hard to deal with latency. However, latency isn't the biggest concern. The biggest concern is jitter, which is where modern solutions generally suck. Most will even start to drop bytes when you send MIDI data too quickly. For most people, this will never be an issue because they're not sending MIDI data fast enough to notice or care about the minor jitter issues. However, if you're working in a chiptune aesthetic you're more likely to be pushing parameter and pitch changes extremely quickly and this is where you'll actually start to run into problems.