Author: Crash (cpe-66-8-208-249.hawaii.res.rr.com)
Date: 08-30-2006 14:25
Well, I never had trouble using serial MIDI expanders such as the Export on the TT, but when all of my Logic compatible TTs died (that means, the stupid copy protection dongle doesn't like most TTs, and therefore won't run) I was left with a few TTs that I couldn't use for Logic, and a few Falcons that wouldn't support all of the MIDI ports that my studio was set up for.
Atari did one monumentally stupid thing, in my opinion... Failing to guarantee that Notator, Logic, and other professional MIDI hardware and software was Falcon and TT compatible. People like me who had been using Atari computers for a variety of things since the 520ST came out, soon learned that the Falcon and TT were really nice computers, but couldn't replace the older ST that I was hoping to improve upon. Upgrading to Logic meant that I could use the Falcon if I tossed out my MIDI expander, or I could use the TT, if I had the 1 in 5 TTs that would run Logic reliably (really, I tried five TTs).
Lots of people will insist that piracy killed Atari, but it was really copy protection that did them in!
Anyway... The problem is that these serial MIDI expanders and Notator/Logic are (from what I can tell) hard coded to send MIDI information for MIDI ports B-D to Modem1, Export compatible MIDI expanders. Modem1 is present on the ST/TT, but the Falcon does not have it _available_, only Modem2. From what I can tell, the Falcon has the hardware (the MFP chip) but lacks the physical connections and operating system support. I quite unsuccessfully attempted to attach the Export to the MFP chip via a HSMODEM patch and some instructions from the doomed DOITF030 archives (which have since been relegated to the warehouse where the Lost Ark is stored to make sure no one can read them).
The good news is that Cubase users should have more options since there are Appletalk Lan (RS422) port MIDI adapters and (several) Parallel port MIDI adapters that should still work on the Falcon - and have Cubase drivers to match. Logic and Notator didn't use separate drivers, so whatever was in the program is what we were stuck with, or without in this case. I think that you may have to trade in your modem adapters for one of these others - unless of course you find some way in software to redirect the data from Modem1 (device 6) to Modem2 (device 7).
Cheers!
|
