JayArgonaut

Thanks and rest assured, I'll take the correct health and saftey precautions.

What do you need the Atari to function as amongst your setup? As Minardi already stated, for sequencing, sample editing and other midi tasks like editing your synths etc then the ST is perfect. There's a massive amount of ST only music software which means It's worthwhile having one alongside your Mac or PC. A lot of musicians still use the ST and I've seen programmers who although they have migrated to using Mac's still keep a few Atari's on hand in their studios. Mark_Wolfe is right in that if you want to work on stuff like D2D recording and above, then a Mac is definitely the way to go. You can pick up a model from the pre-Intel range (like a G4) for next to nothing. It all comes down to what you'd want to use the ST for. On a side note, how much have you seen the A1000 going for? I wonder if the prices are due to it being the first Amiga (and that every A1000 has the signatures of the designers inside the case). Atari St's go for peanuts over here in Europe, many people have relegated them to lofts, cupboards etc and are quite happy to just give them away. Which is how I received mine

Yes thanks, that would be great! That's one of the first things I noticed with SM124 - just how "underscanned" the display is. I wonder why Atari and the CRT manufacturer did that... My electronic skills are "modest", but I know a few engineers who'll be on hand to check over my handiwork, so please post a link or details of the info and I'll have a go. Zero-X does work on the ST. I've heard good things about this software - It can send sample dumps over SCSI between the sampler and computer. However I can only find the demo version, unfortunately and the people involved in the project seem to have totally vanished without a trace. Avalon was highly recommended but my "dodgy" copy locks up after booting lol. I do have Replay 16 amongst my collection, I'll have a look. From my experiments with the demo of Zero-X, It is possible to play back 16bit Wav's on the STE's sound chip without the need for any manual conversion process. Update: Avalon works but you have to use the keyboard to the control the pointer and access menus as the mouse is inoperable for some reason...

Ok, update time! Yesterday I picked up the ST gear - the computer is a 1040 STE with 4 meg. All it needs is just some minor cleaning. The mouse is in good condition and works fine. There are 100 or so floppies including the obligatory cover disks, several "dubious" copies of Cubase and a selection of utilities. One of notable interest is a synth library program that enables me to edit parameters on my Roland sampler. I was only expecting to receive the computer but to my surprise, the monitor was also included: an SM124 - in very good condition and no signs of burn-in or display problems. Plus I managed to find a sample editing package that fits my needs perfectly, "Squash it!" - by Electronic Cow, who have now made the program freeware and available for download So what do you think of my find? Everything works 100% and I'm in business. All it cost me was a short trip across South London with my Oyster card! Jay

Thanks for the replies and information The sequencers look quite interesting, but as I already stated all programming and arranging is done on my hardware sequencer/sampling drum machine, the MPC 3000. I'd be using the Atari to edit sounds via floppy (and midi sample dump) from my samplers so I'm looking for a suitable sample editor really. I will check out the link for Tim's site and post an update once the ST arrives, thanks again. Jay

Hi everyone, Have to say this is a great forum with a massive amount of information and support. I think I'm going to like it here I've got some music related queries and I'd really appreciate any advice and suggestions you can provide. Browsing this forum has convinced me to add an ST to my home studio and someone has very kindly offered to donate their machine to me! Right now I've got no idea of the spec/config, so I'll post the details (and photos) when I pick it up. For my sequencing and arrangements I use an Akai MPC 3000 drum machine. So the ST wouldn't be utilised in a "Cubase capacity". Instead, my plan is to put it to use reading and editing the samples on HD/DD disks (or via midi sample dump) from my Roland S330, Akai S950 and MPC 3000 samplers. Right now I'm cash strapped, so this would work better than laying out £££ on a USB floppy, midi interface and software for my G4 if the Atari can do the same task and for free Which packages would you recommend for my goal and what would be the hardware requirements for the ST? Thanks and hope I didn't ramble too much! Jay P.S: after visiting this forum I well and truly regret not buying the Falcon I saw a couple of years ago in an old computer sale for £5