Atari74user

As already said on these threads, MIDI is more than alive. The only reason we are seeing less of MIDI over DIN only now, is due to the advent and push of MIDI 2.0. Similarly, as already stated, this can be mitigated by a proper MIDI to USB host for any MIDI USB device which is class compliant, the most notable of which is arguably by Kenton: https://kentonuk.com/product/midi-usb-host-mk3/ You may have to make some compromises as others have suggested, such as the number of keys, adding a MIDI to USB host, looking at a Synth to grow into rather than a Keyboard aimed at the beginner for example. However cost will of course be a factor, but food for thought, maybe something from Korg as an example. Take a look at the Korg Kross 2, it’s an example of something new worth considering depending on what you may want to compromise on, which may be near your budget.

I was somewhat cavalier with looking and messing with the Hades that came my why, but actually has been very resilient, trying out the couple of graphics cards I have now, but I have pulled RAM in and out more than I would have liked, trying to diagnose why all of it was not recognised, unfortunate it was a bad module, all good now nonetheless. I am going to have to try getting sound (aside from the internal speaker YM) from the ES1371, also MV16 remake from DoG which slipped my mind. This is the very page I was looking at when I decided to get an ES1371 and MV16, so thank you for pooling this resource, particularly in this instance for the GSXB, MagicMac Sound and STFA resources, which hopefully will prove useful to play with.

To be honest I have been pretty lazy with the Hades for a little while, I did get a cheap ES1371 but have yet to install it to see if I can get it working. In fact, you have now reminded me. It sounds like you have tried?

This is true, Falcon CT60 can be clocked higher, but as you state, graphics card support is easier and very good on the Hades, also twice as much memory can be had on the Hades, so as I allude, depends what you have installed, and as you say, depends on clock on the CT60. The Hades certainly can out perform a CT60, depending on the variables, it out performs my CT60, but I don't want to push my CT60 to 100 MHz, so it depends. It would be nice to compare both fully ladened and turned up to max volume, for Hades I guess that would be an 8mb ATI Range Pro and 1gb of EDO RAM, that would be interesting to see.

Appreciated, thanks for the reply! . Interesting you bought directly from Fredi, and what say about stopping production, I believe I have read that somewhere, maybe from yourself and the last of motherboards etc... Mine appears relatively late, not sure just how late. but TOS 55 I guess is an indication , but I know mine has gone back to Fredi at some point, so not sure what may have been updated. Unfortunately I can't see the versions of PCIMAIN and RAMROM. Anyway, enough hijacking from me.

That is a fair point, I actually have been meaning to ask you, not necessarily wanting to completely hijack the thread, do you have any idea of Hades numbers, I was looking at my serial, and was curious, being E55M1010, I appreciate english Hades TOS 55, but after that have found different letters and numbers, and wondered what they align to?

Both Milan and Hades are among the rarest of the pure TOS based clones. Much more rare than Falcons, because ultimately their purpose was to keep the declining TOS market alive for the 'power TOS user', a tall order given the advent of the PC at that time. They shared a similar fate than that of the Falcon, only that Atari was a much bigger company, so had more manufacturing power, but they all ultimately lost out to the PC. I was fortunate to be given a nice example of a Hades 060, but have seen both the Milan and Hades sell for pretty high prices, but not as much as the Falcon (eBay ludicrousness aside). Either way, they are special TOS machines, and depending on what you have installed, out perform a CT60 based Falcon. All things said, the last time I saw something like a Milan or Hades sold, it went for circa €1400, but hey, that's just a marker as an example.

Totally didn't see this, I would be up for that!

Beautiful progress, and I like the touch screen in this instance. Very nice project, sign me up already hahah 👏👏👏

That's good progress though! 🤙

Understood, thanks for that, so yeah I think that is a good call personally! Really nice project! 👋

That sounds like a nice idea in my opinion! So the FDI / SPDIF would be the main part of the unit, and if the user wanted they could add the ADAT In / Out illustrated top left above on your design, not separate PCBs like SPDIF / FDI and ADAT SoundPool built units of old?

Good work, this is moving along nicely, impressive! 👍

You should be able to tell via the desktop and selecting Desk Info... from the Desk menu. You can then identify which version from the years which will display as follows: TOS 1.0 - 1985 TOS 1.02 - 1986, 1987 (aka BLiTTER or Mega TOS) TOS 1.04 - 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 (and if in colour, will display a cyclical rainbow coloured Atari logo, hence the nickname of 'Rainbow TOS'. There may be slight variations). Point taken about MB though.

This does sound interesting, new products are always welcome, even if to safeguard the old failing one day! 👍