low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

So amazingly enough there are 3 people who live in a close area in relation to each other that happen to be
motivated in doing some exploration in the world of Apple IIgs Music. If you start doing research on the net you will find that
there is a VERY small niche for this platform and not many people advertise that they work on said platform.

So Unicorn Dream Attack, Arfink and myself are setting out to make it a little more well known, and a little more appealing.
First things first: Documentation. I will be putting together a basic Apple IIgs page on my site that contains software downloads, tutorials, and as much info as we can put together on one page to help people start to get into making music with the //gs!

At the moment i am concentrating on the hardware aspect of things. We're obtaining a few Apple Color monitors that I plan to refurbish and document my
end results on to help keep the already expensive monitors running longer. From there we will look at audio and video output modifications and hacks to help
make audio production a little more appealing.

So my question for you guys is this.. Are there any other users of the apple IIgs that would be interested in helping us document as much as possible.
Perhaps you already make music using a tracker on the system. perhaps you'd like to create a tutorial for that program.. a getting started, or just some basic tips, command hot-key's, etc, etc.

Please feel free to PM me and we'll start going from there.

It would be great to see more people using this platform as it's quite easy to find most of the hardware needed (at least in the united states) to start making music. The IIgs was to America as the Amiga,Atari and Commodore was to Europe. So why not try to get things moving along on this platform!

I'll make updates to this thread as we make progress.. I hope to see more and more of you coming out of the woodwork with your Apple IIgs's!

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City

Good one.
I wish I didn't throw mine away after the PSU blew up. D:
I can't believe how much they cost nowadays. I got a full system for less than 10 dollars!

Last edited by akira^8GB (Jan 29, 2010 4:28 pm)

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Oh yeah. that reminds me. i'll be doing a PSU rebuild tutorial as well! Thanks for the reminder Akira!

You can still obtain IIgs's for little to no money though. the most you'll pay is in the monitor.

arfink
Offline
Minneapolis

Yeah, for a basic configuration the monitor is really the kicker. Mostly because they are quite heavy and shipping is killer. I'd like to see about making a VGA output converter for this, it'd be a nice tool to have. In the mean time, I'm working a bit with the RGB output from the Apple IIgs, which can be used with other, more common RGB computer monitors from the era, such as Commodore monitors or arcade monitors. I have successfully used the Apple IIgs with a PSOne lcd screen, and I am thinking of trying a circuit to have S-Video and Component output, so in the event that you can't get a monitor for your IIgs that can be worked out.

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

I think when we can finally get together and sit down to breadboard out a video output solution we'll be able to move quickly on that Tony!
i am very excited for this!

Beware
Offline

Wrong thread! XD

Last edited by Beware (Jan 29, 2010 6:35 pm)

arfink
Offline
Minneapolis

Yeah. Another project I want to get to at some point- an overdrive 65c816 processor replacement which runs on a multiple of the bus clock and can sense the speed select switch in the control panel in order to overclock the CPU without the need for a cache and which can still revert to 1 megahertz mode for 8 bit compatibility.

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

mmmm talk nerdy to me.

lulz

Theta_Frost
Offline
Milwaukee, WI

Yo!  I got 2 IIGS's kicking around.  While its not on my immediate list of platforms to start writing music I have some knowledge about it and still play games regularly.  I do wish to write music on it eventually too!  I think something like this would also be useful albeit with a bigger screen:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFcw0UTRL1w

Also I'm from WI.  SUPER CLOSES RADIUS?@!  We still need some software to really kick this thing into gear too!!!

Theta_Frost
Offline
Milwaukee, WI

Check this site out for lots of great demos a musicdisk and Noisertracker GS!  It has an emulator built into the web browser for easy viewing.  Awesome stuff!

http://www.freetoolsassociation.com/

arfink
Offline
Minneapolis

Yeah, that place is amazing. Be sure and check out... WOLFENSTEIN 3D! On an apple IIgs! Oh, and I have found the other, newer versions of NTGS which will be hosted by Low-Gain on his website. smile

Awol
Offline

Props to the IIGS. First computer I ever used. Will get one again someday.

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City

Noisetracker is a sample tracker right?
I'd be interested only in trackers that use the synthesis capabilities of the Ensoniq soundchip.

ant1
Offline
uhajdafdfdfa

Soundsmith is possibly a synthtracker, although I've never used it. One of you guys should try it out if you didn't already! smile

arfink
Offline
Minneapolis

Here's the thing- the Esoniq is a wavetable synthesizer. Meaning, you really do have to feed it samples. However, the Esoniq is a true wavetable synthesizer in that it is constantly modifying and modulating the samples as they play. If you made a sinewave sample you could then use it and manipulate it just as if you were using a non-sample synth.

(And, not to get snippy on you akira^8GB, but a synth simply means that it's producing the sounds. I find it ironic that you don't like samples but still want to see the synthesis capabilities of the Esoniq.)

ant1
Offline
uhajdafdfdfa
arfink wrote:

Here's the thing- the Esoniq is a wavetable synthesizer. Meaning, you really do have to feed it samples. However, the Esoniq is a true wavetable synthesizer in that it is constantly modifying and modulating the samples as they play. If you made a sinewave sample you could then use it and manipulate it just as if you were using a non-sample synth.

(And, not to get snippy on you akira^8GB, but a synth simply means that it's producing the sounds. I find it ironic that you don't like samples but still want to see the synthesis capabilities of the Esoniq.)

Well, there's quite a big difference between a sampler and a wavetable synth. Like you said, "if you made a sinewave sample you could then use it and manipulate it just as if you were using a non-sample synth". I guess it's like using the synth in the sample channel of LSDJ instead of the kits, or using AHX on the Amiga instead of Protracker.

I'd like to hear both sample-tracker and synth-tracker songs coming from your IIGSes, but the synth sounds are surely going to be more unique and special. smile