npjg
Member
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2023
- Messages
- 12
(For background on what started all this, see https://github.com/npjg/PowerPoint97InteractiveMusic.)
I am looking for a very specific tool. Before there was DirectMusic (and the DirectMusic Producer authoring tool), there was the Microsoft Interactive Music Architecture (IMA) - which itself was based on Blue Ribbon Soundworks' AudioActive and even earlier Bars&Pipes. I have found the runtimes for the Interactive Music Architecture (some variant of IMUSIC.DLL) that was distributed with MSN and some games, but I have not found an authoring tool from this period, nor an authoring tool from AudioActive days. Specifically, every version of DirectMusic Producer I've tried (back to first release in DirectX 6.1) cannot open the personality (PER) files that the IMA used. In DirectMusic these "personalities" are called "chordmaps". The internal file structures are indeed totally different, though interestingly the style (STY) files are compatible.
Note that what I am looking for is not the "Microsoft Music Producer" (see http://timigi.com/Stuff/Archive/blueribbon/msmp.html), which is also just a runtime (though it can render out MIDIs). I am looking for the tool that lets you edit the "personalities" like DirectMusic Producer let you edit styles and chord maps.
I am looking for a very specific tool. Before there was DirectMusic (and the DirectMusic Producer authoring tool), there was the Microsoft Interactive Music Architecture (IMA) - which itself was based on Blue Ribbon Soundworks' AudioActive and even earlier Bars&Pipes. I have found the runtimes for the Interactive Music Architecture (some variant of IMUSIC.DLL) that was distributed with MSN and some games, but I have not found an authoring tool from this period, nor an authoring tool from AudioActive days. Specifically, every version of DirectMusic Producer I've tried (back to first release in DirectX 6.1) cannot open the personality (PER) files that the IMA used. In DirectMusic these "personalities" are called "chordmaps". The internal file structures are indeed totally different, though interestingly the style (STY) files are compatible.
Note that what I am looking for is not the "Microsoft Music Producer" (see http://timigi.com/Stuff/Archive/blueribbon/msmp.html), which is also just a runtime (though it can render out MIDIs). I am looking for the tool that lets you edit the "personalities" like DirectMusic Producer let you edit styles and chord maps.
), but I found a "Microsoft Music Producer" topic/book in MSDN Libary April 1997 (probably available on archive.org) under "Developer Products", "Visual InterDev", but while it explains what personalities are, it doesn't give any clues as to what (other) tool you might use to edit them. Perhaps they didn't mention it because it's a non-Microsoft tool?