OctaMEDPlayer from A-EON Technology (WIP)

@magnetic

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I don't think I am missing that fact. But knowing the program well won't help you if the program doesn't support modern enough technologies. Audio samples are a prime example: which sample libraries offer 8bit 16kHz RAW or 8SVX samples so that you can import them into ProTracker or OctaMED 4? I think one's adult life is busy enough to even find time for tracking, let alone converting samples or making your own sample libraries from scratch.

When I started working on my new tune (the last one I composed was in 2000) I almost pulled my hair out. With about every sample I had to first convert it into a suitable format, save and import it, try if it actually fits the tune, and often repeat the process several times. Now please talk to me again about the old friend factor

@LiveForIt

of course you could. But people would not buy it for a small bugfix. For that it would have to have something new offered that would have made it worth to buy even for people already using the old version.

That did not happen. Instead the efforts were invested to get it running on 4.X but that is not interesting for majority of users. The needed sales were never published (and the real numbers) but if you look that the activity there completely stopped it is obvious that the sales were too low (not a real surprise to me). And that people bought expensive hardware just to run PPaint PPC is not very propably. In my view the complete wrong ideas.

There is the retro community including emulation and the new vampire series with thousands of users and there is the NG community (expecially 4.X and MorphOS).

Improve and sell the amiga software to the retro community and make it in a way that the programs also runs on NG machines and not change the GUI. Concentrate the efforts on bugfixes and new features. That keeps cost low and gives a chance to get the money back.

If you want to really make NG interesting make new up to date software and port open source from Linux world. Of course that is expensive and risky because you invest in a still very very small market in the hope to grow it.

Doing the first improving amiga software for the retro market is in my view the better way but of course it not "sells" new PPC hardware (what in my view will not happen anyway).

@trixie

Maybe it makes sense to add support for other auto format, should be too hard to convert it to 8bit. When the samples are loaded.

@LiveForIt

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Not only makes it sense, I'd consider it a no-brainer. But if we're still talking OctaMED (the discussion has become a bit general in the meantime), this particular addition would represent an easy part. There are other things that need a rewrite: the mixing routine, the audio output, the MIDI handling, the assembler parts... Any volunteers? I don't think so.

@magnetic

It does with CIAgent, and IIRC something else which redirects the audio (although can't remember if that is actually needed or just makes it better quality)

@trixie

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I’m not sure if you looked at the work I did on Amos Kittens, but basically everything is done with expectation of music playback, however I’m working on something that might make it easier to fix old software.

I’m more interested in starting with something small, I’m not a 680x0 wiz.

@MickJT

The whole reason, for me, to even use Octamed is to use it on a real Amiga for the dirty low down bass ;)

Although I think its cool to have an NG version. I even have a CAMD compatible usb midi dongle ready!

@magnetic

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No question about that! I'm just being realistic about our current manpower.

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What kind of dongle is that? (Just curious. I use the Midisport 2x2 and 4x4 USB MIDI interfaces with my machines, and I can't recommend them enough.)

@trixie

It's an Edirol UM-2ex usb Midi interface.

Some exciting news: the feature most requested for OctaMED is now working. After 28 years AHI support has been added! No more hacks to get it working with sound cards.



Some additional bug fixes have been made. It now uses some Enhancer Software classes. More GUI development work will be done going forward.

Expect to see OctaMED 8 debuting on the A600GS in two months time and then on general sale as a boxed product and digital download.

@amigakit

I must admit, a 4-colour screen grab really isn't selling that product :)

Simon

@amigakit

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Well done!

@Rigo

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Looks basic for sure, but not too bad for a 68K program. And, I believe people will buy OctaMED for the name rather than for the look (which I'm sure will improve).

Finally! :--D

AHI is definitely the standard on higher end systems today. And really suprised to see CAMD Midi Library supported as well!

There are more features listed on wikipage:

- AHI support for Amiga's retargetable audio subsystem
- CAMD Midi Library support
- MIDI file support
- ARexx support
- 16-bit and stereo samples support
- Hard drive recording
- Support for up to 64 channels

https://wiki.amiga.org/index.php/OctaMED

Good to see the basics are slowly starting to form up. Is it 68k only at this time or is the native version coming later?

Anyways, good to see some progress after years. There has also been some nice delevelopment on amiga tracker side lately. But good things usually come in pairs?

@densho

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AFAIK the CAMD library is not supported in OctaMED yet. The code still hits the serial port.

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68K at the moment. For an OS4-native version, the code first needs to be rewritten from SAS-C and assembler to something meaningful.

@trixie

If that's the case, the wiki page has misleading info about "CAMD Midi Library support" :/

Looking at the photos Amigakit released Octamed8 seems to be running on "Amibench 46.1". I've understood it is 68k desktop which runs emulated on A600GS. Dunno how they handle the midi on A600GS, but an USB MIDI interface would be the closest option.

@densho

True, but it runs on top of UAE like install, so emulation takes care of that.

@densho

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Mathew confirmed USB to MIDI is already working.

How about a new and improved version of Aladdin4D for A600GS as well? A-Eon took over the Amiga rights 10 years ago and latest version is still not available for purchase,

@Rob

I got the impression trixie, was the person working on it, if so, he probably knows better.

@LiveForIt

It was in a reply to you in the A600GS thread over at Amigaworld.

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