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Help for the Vintage (!) Musician

KC9UDX

KC9UDX

Space Commander
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
7,468
Location
Lutenblag
A quarter century ago, I owned an IBM 5160, and a copy of Sequencer Plus. I composed a lot of music that way, and eventually ditched the XT and played in non-MIDI bands and then got out of music altogether.

Recently, I started getting back into music, and fortuitously, was given an M-Audio Fasttrack Pro, and a licence key for Pro Tools. I have no idea what version of Pro Tools the key is for, or where to get it anyway. That seems to be a dead end. But, the MIDI interface does work with other software. Unfortunately, so far without spending a fortune, I have no idea what software is right for me.

Does anyone here have a recommendation for a MIDI sequencer (not an audio package with MIDI support tacked on) that won't break my bank, and does piano roll editing, and sort of works like Sequencer Plus did? The catch is that it has to run under WindowsXP on a 3GHz P4 with 2G of RAM (and several terabytes of mass storage). I have no desire whatsoever (nor budget) to run out and buy a new PC (or preferably Mac) for this purpose.
 
Dig up a *cough* "used *cough* older version of Cakewalk, before it was "Sonar," or get WinJammer Shareware and find a key for it on the Internet (the company appears to be out of business, so I wouldn't worry too much about the ethics of that.) Cakewalk is better than WinJammer, but either will do, and both will run under XP.
 
NeXT said:
I thought Sequencer Plus worked under XP?
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Possibly. I no longer have it (well, I do have a watered down version of it on 5-1/4) but, I doubt it works with USB MIDI, which is what I have now.
 
I should also mention that I have been playing with MixPad and Anvil Studio.

MixPad is useless because it just doesn't do MIDI right at all, which is a shame because it looks nicer than Anvil Studio.

Anvil Studio will not read in any of my (yep vintage) existing MIDI files, which is a real pain. I would really like to re-produce an existing song whilst I try to learn the software. Also, the user interface is clumsy at best (I'll probably get used to it) and the free version is pretty crippled (I have paid for extra functionality but have to wait for the software to arrive).

I did manage to load a song into MixPad and export it one-track-at-a-time and then merge all the tracks into Anvil Studio. But I can't do much more until the software upgrade arrives. Due to my current synthesiser lineup I need to use multiple MIDI ports (I have two) but the free version only supports one.

Speaking of which, commodorejohn, you have a very impressive inventory. The only thing that I have on par with that is my lowly MT-32, which is intermittent right now. I'll have to open it up to fix the power supply, I reckon.
 
I used to use Cakewalk Pro back in the 90's. Bought it with a super expensive Ensoniq SoundScape Elite sound card and a Roland XP90 keyboard.

Cakewalk will do everything you want; the version I used back in the day was for Windows 95. No idea what the versions were like after that as I got out of that scene.
 
KC9UDX said:
Speaking of which, commodorejohn, you have a very impressive inventory. The only thing that I have on par with that is my lowly MT-32, which is intermittent right now. I'll have to open it up to fix the power supply, I reckon.
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Thanks :) That's actually a bit out of date (I've gotten rid of the Hohner and the Matrix-6, traded the Prophet for a battered Moog Opus-3, replaced the D-10 with a D-50, picked up a Korg 03/RW, and I'm currently waiting on my preordered Korg ARP Odyssey recreation to ship, supposedly in about two weeks, then I start saving for the new Prophet-6.) The MT-32 is a perfectly respectable little MIDI module, though - not as breathtaking as its big brother the D-50, but there's plenty of material to work with, especially once you get a patch editor set up (unfortunately I've yet to find a fully-functional one for Windows.) Early-'90s MIDI modules in general are a goldmine right now - they're not remotely as sought-after and expensive as vintage analog synthesizers or early digital keyboards like the DX7 and D-50, but they're safely before everybody decided to make all GM sound sets completely standard and boring, so there's still a lot of distinct character to them (especially modules like the MT-32 or Korg's AI² line where you can construct your own patches out of the built-in samples and some synthesis facilities.) And they're usually multitimbral, which is a godsend for arrangement/composing work.
 
Haha, that brings back memories... My first PC sound card was a Sound Blaster Pro. I spent the extra few bucks to get the version with the midi kit. It came with Voyetra sequencer software, which was primitive, but worked quite nicely in textmode, even on low-end systems.
That's vintage midi for me :)
 
I'm ready to give up. I got Anvil Studio to work with two MIDI interfaces, but, there is large delay between commands sent out over one versus the other. Windows-machines just aren't cut out for realtime work.
 
I recently provided a CompactFlash storage adapter to get a 5160 running in the recording studio - seems the vintage MIDI scene is gathering some momentum!

More info on my storage cards here. I'll also be adding a MIF-IPC board soon hopefully in case you are interested in getting the original Roland MPU-401 running.
 
KC9UDX said:
I did recently revive my 90-year old piano accordion. That has no MIDI ports though, so a microphone is alls I gets. :D
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I don't mean to get any more off topic here, but I must say, I'm surprised to find another vintage computer collecting ham radio operator that also happens to play the accordion. You don't collect fountain pens and work on classic cars too, do you? :)

Kyle
 
antiquekid3 said:
I don't mean to get any more off topic here, but I must say, I'm surprised to find another vintage computer collecting ham radio operator that also happens to play the accordion. You don't collect fountain pens and work on classic cars too, do you?
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I wouldn't say I collect fountain pens, I merely use them. And I don't know that any of my cars are considered classics: To be a classic one has to be a Ford, Chevy, or Dodge. All my cars were made by AMC. :cool:

Next I suppose we'll be talking about razors and the VEG.
 
KC9UDX said:
I wouldn't say I collect fountain pens, I merely use them. And I don't know that any of my cars are considered classics: To be a classic one has to be a Ford, Chevy, or Dodge. All my cars were made by AMC. :cool:

Next I suppose we'll be talking about razors and the VEG.
Click to expand...

What, no Gremlin?
 
Well, I don't think this thread is Off-Topic, anymore.

I repaired the computer I originally set aside for MIDI work (it wasnt vintage at the time).

I replaced the modern PC with a stock A3000 running Bars&Pipes. All the problems I was having are all gone.

Sadly, the Ariadne II seems to have given up the ghost, so I'm offline. And, I can't find my Delfina anywhere.
 
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