Atari music recommendations for a newbie

[rompi]

Hi, I think this might be the right place to ask...

Could you please give me couple of hints and recommendations on the best way to enjoy some music on my Atari Falcon (... to enjoy as a listener, not a composer). More specifically: I've got quite a new Falcon, successfully up and running, and now I'd like to enjoy what its music scene can offer. I'm an absolute newbie in the Atari Music scene. Back in the early 90's I often used Chaos Music Composer on my 800XL, but that's all, and then I had a 15-year lag in my Atari experience anyway.

Well, now I downloaded randomly couple of MODs, couple of SNDHs, and couple of apps to play them. But to be honest, I wasn't much excited with the software... Most of those apps didn't support playlists (or at least I didn't figure out how to use them), or they had other problems (GEMPlay played MODs with some strange cracking noises; The Player v1.0 crashed with MODs; ...). The best player from those I randomly downloaded is JAM: it plays almost everything (can play MODs as well as SNDHs), sound was very nice (at least according to my amateur judgement), supports playlists, but... there could be some improvements, especially in GUI, and it's real pain in the _he_he_this_word_would_be_censored_by_an_asterisk_ to manage playlists with it...

So to summarise it: I know it'll sound stupid and lame... but is there anything like XMMS (or... ehm... WinAmp...) for Atari (Falcon)?

And now lets imagine I have a player... could you recommend me something to play? Anything, no matter the style... I know it sound stupid too, but when I open a music collection such as the one from sndh.atari.org, there are tons of files and for me it's a total random walk, overwhelmingly exhausting and almost scary. So I'm just asking where to start... is there anything like a "renowned Atari musician" who never fails to satisfy any listener?

Thanks a lot

[mal7921]

There are a few media players available for the Falcon, though to get the best sound out of it you should do the line output conversion, that way you can connect it to a standard amplifier and get the best out of the audio engine.

Failing that, using a good quality set of headphones will do just as well.

Have a look at some of the links on the Atari Links page, the best section to look in is here, though there are a number of other sections where other utilities can be found.

Dead Hackers Society have a number of demo's with some good audio, though if you don't have a 68882 co-processor many of them will do to a blank screen (Though the audio will still play just fine). If you do a search on Atari Falcon Demo's in Google, you will probably be able to find a number of other sites offering similar things.

Do take note that many MP3 players use the DSP chip, but some also make use of the 68882 co-processor, so it may be worth tracking down a tool to show how your system is configured. If you get one which is Falcon aware, it should be able to detect the presence of a co-processor if it is *.

One last thing, if it only has 4MB RAM, order an upgrade to 14MB (16MB) from Barrie at Keychange music systems (barrie@keychange.co.uk). This will allow you to load larger demo's and files.

Music wise, you can't go far wrong listening to Yerzmyey, and a fine example of his work on the Falcon can be found here.

Enjoy

[rompi]

Thanks a lot for your reply!

I was actually thinking of upgrading RAM (I've got only 4MB), so I hope I'll get the upgrade from Keychange (or is there anyone else who is able to supply memory upgrade? just in case...)

I don't have 68882 FPU. Is it worth getting one (are there many programs that need it, or it's just couple of demos or mp3 players?)? Is it the one the sell here? http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... cts_id=119

Thanks once more

[mal7921]

Some demo's require the 68882 and on occasion music programs (Especially if you are doing sample editing). The co-processor is a 'nice to have' thing for day to day use and for the cost is probably worth adding. The one you have in the link is also ideal for your machine.

There are a few places where RAM upgrades can still be found, but I would steer clear of the official Atari 14MB RAM upgrade as the actual chips used are slower than the ones from people like Barrie at keychange.

If Barrie does not have one in stock (Which is unlikely but possible), 16/32 systems may be able to help. Their website is here, and payment is possible through paypal. They also have an ebay shop, though not all stock is available through there.