In my web searches, I stumbled across a programmers page in which a certain programmer was writing about some SysEx Utilities he developed for the Atari platform. I decided to contact him for availablity. In doing so, he responded very positivly by providing as FREEWARE several previously commercial applications. These were developed in Germany by Jochen Nies (the Joker)and his companion Petra Wolf. They are now available with more to come.

The first of these offerings is

ZEUS
E - M U Morpheus / Ultra Proteus
C O M M A N D E R
Version 1.3

Introduction

This is ZEUS, the editor and bankloader for E-MU Morpheus/Ultra-Proteus for the ATARI.
ZEUS runs on ATARI ST; STE; MEGA ; TT; and FALCON with minimum 1MB and 640*480 screen resolution (..REAL fun on a TT with a big screen!).
It features full GEM-compatibility; size and position of open windows can be saved in the setup; "clean" code that runs under all TOS-Versions, including multitasking (tested under MAG!X and MROS-Switcher in conjunction with CUBASE).

As you can see from the screen shots, these programs are rich in graphics and functionality. As I do not have a Emu-Morpheus (YET!) I cannot test it. However, within the ZIP is a DEMO version which you can run to see what the program is about. Of course the full version is available along with Documentation in PDF format, with screen shots within the text. Excellent job on the manuals.

The next offering is
Prophy, the KORG Prophecy Bankloader for ATARI. It can be used as a PRG or ACC.
Prophy runs on ATARI ST; STE; MEGA ; TT; and FALCON with minimum 1MB and 640*400 screen resolution (..REAL fun on a TT with a big screen!). It features full GEM-compatibility; size and position of open windows can be saved in the setup; "clean" code that runs under all TOS-Versions, including multitasking (tested under MAG!X and MROS-Switcher in conjunction with CUBASE).

I did try the above programs on my TT030 with 19" monitor at 1280x960 res, and I can tell you it IS real fun at that resolution. You can open many windows at once and you can see all the parameters very easily. A real treat at this resolution.

_____________________________________

MIDI GEN
Released as Freeware June 2001

Midi Gen is an Algorithmic Midi Generator created for Joker's (Jochen Nies) personal use by his companion Petra Wolf.It was not a commercial application. However, it is now being released to the unsuspecting Atari-Midi Community in hopes it will be used in exploring other facets of music.

MidiGen General Description
Q & A session between Tim Conrardy and Joker

=================================================================

Tim Said:

>It sounds like M , tunesmith and Schoenberg composer all >rolled into one.

Joker responds:

Thanks, IŽll tell Petra!

>1. What is it? a general description.

Planed to be a "simple" MIDI event generator for (mostly Note on/off and Controllers), to overcome the poorness of the user-interfaces of those early 90th synths, it grew bigger and bigger . . . It was designed for use in my live-setup, that I do improvised music with and I used it intensely for about 4 years.

>2.What is the basic outline ?

21 generators, ect. Up to six sets (to be used alternately) of 21 independent generators each.

Lets take a look at a generator:
It can send data on 4 MIDI channels, up to six controllers are availiable. MIDI and controllers have basically the same generation algoŽs: random within range intervallic within range (ascending-, descending-, asc/desc-, permutational-order) random+intervalic within range (see above)

For generation of MIDI notes there are additional features:

12-Ton - applying the 12-tone rule: has to go through all notes of scale, before a note repeats Ton Intervall - sets the interval to half, quarter, 8th or 16th of a note (using pitch-bend)

Dauer - lenght of generated note (the polyphony is 5 notes per channel)

Mono - for monophonic synths, sends a note off before playing the next note controller only - switches of note generation for that generator (mostly to preserve computational speed)

Timer T - adds a random timing-interval from a range (i.e.: Time is set to 5, Timer T is set to 10, range from 20 to 80 means: at every tenth generated note, a number between 20 and 80 is added to the timing)

Timer P - the same for generating prg-changes etc, etc.

>3. Can it send Midi clock?

No, the timing is based on "system ticks", a very unstable timing-base (you may have noticed, that it runs faster if you move the mouse). Also, with a growing amount of data to be computed with lots of generators runnig, it slows down. I never needed any timing stability or sync-possibilities, as I use it for abstract sound-sculptures, not as any sequencer source (the interactive-phrase-synthesizer built into Cubase is a much better tool for this)

> >BTW, looks like it was designed with TT-HI in mind: excellent to use at this res.!

We never had a TT or high-res Monitor (just Overscan, which worked fine), thats just a benefit of trying to provide the highest possible compatability.

all the best,

Joker

=================================================================

When MidiGen loads, a generator screen comes up over the main screen. Notice you can scroll the windows left and right. If you click into the main screen (or close the generator screen)and then click into any of the "control" boxes with zeros in them, this brings up a generator screen. Clicking into PLAY will cause what is programmed into the generator screen to output its data. Experiment by clicking into control boxes in the main screen to see what is programmed in them. Then stopping everything and try entering parameters of your own within a generator screen, select PLAY and hear the results. You can tinker with this for hours!

=====================================================================

DOWNLOAD AND LINKS

Go here for the download

Genet by Tim Conrardy. Example of output from MidiGen 59 KB

MidiGen, an Algorithmic generator

PROPHY: Korg Prophesy Editor 368 KB

Zeus: Editor for the EMU Morpheus. Seperate out the Manual Folder when tranfering them to the Atari. Manuals are in PDF format. 464 KB

Home Page of Petra Wolf and Joker