SE/30 + Cubase + Roland SC-88ST + Rock Band 360 Keytar

Mu0n

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Oct 29, 2021
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...makes for a very strange reunion of tech!


In my video (which I filmed after a succesful connection of MIDI IN and MIDI OUT of all this gear together as a test), it's not extremely clear, but I'm layering the default percussion instrument over a playthrough of Canyon.mid, played with Cubase. Canyon.mid is well known in vintage PC circles since it came with Windows 95 or 98, I forgot which. You usually found that file when you were installing/reinstalling Windows and wanted a quick way to test your sound card without needing to put a game in there. Everybody using Windows in the 90's is thus familiar with it.

A medium range goal of mine - make some midi tunes with my Roland units. I never used those tools back in the day so I'm not sure if the learning pains are worth it in Cubase, or if I should search for another piece of software. I'd like to build the layers with a sequencer of course, I don't have enough musical chops to do it purely with musical notation.
 

skate323k137

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Mar 7, 2022
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Hey there, nice video!

If you actually want to write/sequence multi-track MIDI stuff with outboard synths and such, I actually recommend Renoise on a modern(ish) system. It's a Tracker (I'm old school) but I find the workflow for multi channel MIDI composing to be pretty nice. It also has a MIDI monitor to watch MIDI system messages.

I noticed your MT-32, have you tried any of the Sierra games with it? I have gotten Thexder working on my SE, and some others should work in theory.

 

Mu0n

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Oct 29, 2021
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I'll check it out!
I'm not married to Cubase on my SE/30 yet, although I took the first steps for it.


And yes, I've made a new video on the SQ3 intro. Subscribe to my channel, hit the bell button, yadda yadda LOLZ

 
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skate323k137

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Mar 7, 2022
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The SQ3 intro gives me chills to this day :'D

I grew up on a steady diet of Sierra, Lucas Arts, I.D., all that good stuff.

Aside from my actual SE, I have been working a little bit with Mini vMac, as there is a MIDIVmac build which you can interface with in the host system. There's a video on my channel of the Korg 05R/W MIDI module patch editor running in it, but large sysex messages are still an issue (which I'm afraid may cause issues with MT-32 games, but I haven't tested that far).
 

nottomhanks

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Oct 31, 2021
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Do you mean you can use old Opcode Vision Software virtually with a USB Midi interface through the native system??
 

skate323k137

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Mar 7, 2022
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Do you mean you can use old Opcode Vision Software virtually with a USB Midi interface through the native system??
I have used the Korg midi drivers and patchbay in an emulator, if opcode vision can run on an old enough os for minivmac it should work.

here is the video I'm talking about. It may be a little confusing what's going on, but basically I am using a real Korg MIDI module, running the old system 6 patch editor in MIDIvMac. On the host computer side, MIDI Patchbay is "connecting" MIDIvMac to my USB MIDI interface(s). This results in being able to operate the Korg 05R/W via an emulated System 6.0.8, though saving and restoring large patch dumps is not yet working.