Ample wow

[pixelblip]

I've just been reading the Ample Nucleus Programmers Guide ( what a bedtime read!)
It's nuts how detailed it all is and how advanced Ample is. I could spend a lifetime just on that instead of painting..........it's very flexible as a language....I am interested in the random possibilities of it.

[cmorley]

I've implemented the M5000 on a project and the more I learn about it the more I am saddened that it wasn't really taken advantage of. The tools just weren't there. I'd love to know what musical gems would be out there if it ever got 1/2 the love the mod scene or the Gravis Ultrasound got...

A modern sequencer which could export Ample so you can easily generate samples, envelopes and effects etc is missing. For demos and games a VST M5000 which exports register updates (VGM stylee) would be good but who is going to write it and who is going to use it

Without some modern software I think the capabilities of the M5000 and Ample will continue to fly under the radar. It's a bit like those naff western Sega Megadrive games which only used the dull default GEMS instrument patches so they all sound boring and identical... a missed opportunity on a system with great capability.

[tricky]

I've implemented the M5000 on a project...

Tell us more.

...A modern sequencer which could export Ample so you can easily generate samples, envelopes and effects etc is missing. For demos and games a VST M5000 which exports register updates (VGM stylee) would be good but who is going to write it and who is going to use it

simonm maybe?

[cmorley]

I've implemented the M5000 on a project...

Tell us more.

It's the thing I mentioned to you at the last ABUG Tricky, the low cost Cortex M7 1MHz bus board. I made the dev board (12 months ago!) around the time dp11 posted about the Pi 1MHz bus thing. It was one of those dev boards I sent to KF for the M7 greaseweasle development - which shows how long ago it was :O. I'll start a separate thread at some point when I (eventually) progresss the firmware some more.

...A modern sequencer which could export Ample so you can easily generate samples, envelopes and effects etc is missing. For demos and games a VST M5000 which exports register updates (VGM stylee) would be good but who is going to write it and who is going to use it

simonm maybe?

Let's hope someone does because it really should be capable of some fantastic game & demo music. I'd have a shot at a VST plugin but I just don't have the time to spare.

[RobC]

Let's hope someone does because it really should be capable of some fantastic game & demo music.

I read somewhere that Orlando was looking at using it to produce music for a game but abandoned the idea as it generated too many interrupts.

[cmorley]

Rob, Ample or the M5000? AFAIK the hardware doesn't produce any interrupts. You'd have to go bare metal for a game or demo...

[billcarr2005]

From here
https://www.stairwaytohell.com/lostandf ... e=homepage

FIRETRACK II by Orlando
From Micro User, January 1989:
...
One feature originally planned for FireTrack II has unfortunately now been shelved, but it is still worth a mention. Like its predecessor and Frak!, FireTrack II features some great music and at one stage of development, Orlando was hoping to include routines to drive a Music 500 or equivalent. Alas, the Music 500 uses so many interrupts - each requiring a certain amount of processor time - that the game would have been far too slow. Another option would have been to omit a number of other planned features but the game itself had to take precedence over the soundtrack.

I think it a great pity that this idea did not come off, because the music produced in this way and transmitted to a full size hi-fi would have been far superior to any music heard on an 8 bit machine. Gary Partis once told me that he designed Syncron as an exercise in pure speed - playability was not supposed to come into it! Perhaps, in the same spirit, someone can produce a simple game as a vehicle for a full soundtrack for the internal speaker - and also for the Music 500, if fitted.

[tricky]

If I ever get onto the pinball game that I would like to write, I should have enough memory and cycles, although I know nothing about music or the Music series of hardware!

[pixelblip]

If you get he game done I’ll do the music Tricky.
It’s about time I got to grips with Ample.

[tricky]

Deal

[RobC]

Rob, Ample or the M5000?

Sorry - I didn't mean my post to sound authoritative. I just remembered reading the piece that was subsequently posted and thought it was interesting that Orlando had considered the idea.

[cmorley]

My only source aside from the various emulators source was the M5000 schematic posted on stardot a while ago... I don't own a M500 or M5000 to check first hand. Interesting though the snippet billcarr posted - which is presumably what you recall?

They must have been talking about the player code I thought. Not enough memory to keep a few banks of SW RAM spare for pre-rendered register streaming - VGM style Stryker's Run (SEGA Super Locomotive). If you're firing off interrupts left right and centre to manage note changes and envelopes then I can see that being a killer for games - especially with the minimum OS overhead on an IRQ.