What are you using your Atari for?

[richardkasika]

Hey all! I had an atari through out eh 80's and early 90's and it died then I switched to Windows. My atari was running C-Lab Creator. I absolutely loved that software and have been haunted ever since switching to Windows (now using Cakewalk Sonar and am loving it). I may be a little bit behind, but please advise: Is Atari still alive? Do they have any new compters? were they taken over by some other company? Do they have an official website other than the forum kind? Thanks, I'll appreciate any help with this.

[David Etheridge]

Hi Richard,
Atari is long gone due to all sorts of silly activities by the company.


Many of them were described as they happened in the Atari column in SOS at the time. You may be still able to access the articles using the search button on the SOS site.

Look at the FAQ for all Atarians posting here on this forum for links to which sites are supporting Atari.
Things are still up and running in Atariland. Tim's Atari MIDIworld now has 700+ members, all happily using Ataris, so there's stil help advice and support for the venerable STs.

Best wishes,

Dave

[mal7921]

Most of my Atari collection is visible at http://soundworks.uk.com/Atari and yes, the Falcon AND the TT are still in use, as is the Mega2.

Most of the studio runs on the Cubase SX laptop and Nuendo workstation, but the Atari's have uses as musical scratchpads, each with their own mini setup so I can power on and just run.

It's amazing just how creative you can be when you have limits!

Once an idea has been worked out, it's transferred to the main rig(s), where the finishing touches are added.

[Fuji Ed]

Hi Mal7921,

WOW! Thats a very nice Atari collection! Wicked online info too.

Cool to hear your still using them along with your newer setup. Thats gotta be the way to get the best of everything!

Yup, I definitly agree, working with limits can bring great results!

Cheers,
Ed

[Cannibal Gymnastics]

Alright, reading the other threads I realise I'm not very technically minded at all, just kind of stumbling through managing to make some music along the way!
I started using the Atari about 5 years ago when a mate showed me Cubase (all I wanted is to midi some drums). I soon got hooked and ended up buying 4 STs second hand as this guy was selling everything together. Only got one left now, its an 4160 and for a while I used that and some hardware to do music. Last year I got a PC as I was getting frustrated as a lot of the stuff I wanted to do was messing about with samples and my sampler isn't that friendly to use.
Now I've started getting the hang of the PC I've brought my Atari out again and want to use it with the PC as I've got some odd little sequencers on it and a couple of programs that use the soundchip to create synth sounds. Having trouble midi syncing it up to cubase on the PC at the moment though (but I won't use this thread to ask about that).
I also use it when the PC gets a bit much and I want to get back to basics and knock something out.I also find it satisfying trying to push it as much as I can. My midi set up is:
Atari St 4160
Yamaha TX81Z
Akai S2000
Alesis SR-16
And of course the PC.
Anyway, you've probably heard of all these but heres where I get some of my programs:

http://www.cow-net.co.uk/

I recommend the Charming Chaos sequencer!

[mal7921]

Hi Mal7921,

WOW! Thats a very nice Atari collection! Wicked online info too.

Cool to hear your still using them along with your newer setup. Thats gotta be the way to get the best of everything!

Yup, I definitly agree, working with limits can bring great results!

Cheers,
Ed

Thanks, there are 2 other machines to add to them, a 260ST and a 520ST+, though I rarely get time to update the pages these days (2 year old daughter, full time job, maintaining my site and other peoples while doing music leaves little time for sleep(!)).

The collection is not yet complete, still after a Mega STe, and that real rarety (Though some do exist) the STE+ (With built in 286 processor and hard drive for running DOS).

Currently my ST Book is the pride of my collection, though I just missed out on an ST Pad (STylus). Damn you eBay!

[hadey]

Around cgristmas I went a bit ebay crazy and bought an Atari 520fm and an Akai S2000.
So my set up is as follows:
Atari ST, cubase 2
Akai S2000 w/10 outputs,scsi zip
Phatboy
Tascam 788
Korg Poly 800
Kawai midi keyboard
Berhinger MX2804 desk
A mountain of fx pedals
PC P4, with M-audio delta44
PC P2, Soundblaster
some guitars

Basically I'm trying to set up a system where I can do a gig with it, so it'll be the ST driving the S2000 and tascam788, maybe the korg too if I can get round to programming some sounds into it (fab for bass tho!. Use the fahatboy to bend and twist the s2000 and I'm away!

I'm in desperate need for a midi merge tho, as I have a problem where I can't close the midi loop as my keyboard only has a midi out, not too much of a problem but I think it's the reason why the 788 isn't syncing properly, it takes a while for it to cotton on it's suppose to be doing something..

Not been able to do much so far for the lack of DD disks, but good old ebay sorted me last night, ah 2 quid for 20 DD's, bargain!

laters...

[Pop Fodder]

Reminiscences, yay!

I used a variety of ST machines for music up until late 2000 when I bought a Mac (new millenium, new platform...I think that was the rationale). No expansion or interfaces, just a big MIDI daisychain and careful channel allocation. Audio was handled by recording onto minidisc or DAT, then sampling into an expanded Yammy A3000 and triggering the samples via MIDI; a technique I've already seen mentioned on this thread, and one that worked faultlessly!

My sequencer was Breakthru 2, which was based on Sequencer One (a freebie with ST Format). The killer features of Breakthru were its "Diamond-Drag" MIDI editing, and its internal sample playback capability (samples were recorded using an 8-bit cartridge called Stereo Master- a cutdown Replay 16?). Before that I used a program called Quartet, which was a notation-based 4-part sample tracker.

At university, bored, I got into customizing my ST by taking the cover off and spraying it different colours to replace the nasty 80s beige...(pre-iMac!)

I still have three STs- a purple 520FM, blue1040FM and green1040E- on a shelf in my studio. They very occasionally get powered up to feed 90s MIDI into Logic, but these days they work well as art and are much admired by visitors.



Atari+A3000=no crashes. Got an A5000 now, and it too needs new knobs. Soldering, yikes.

[forumuser669739]

Got two Atari ST's at the moment. One is used alongside C-labs Notator (the hub of all sequencers). The other is used with Steinberg's Avalon and the Akai S950 - mainly for lo-fidelity effects.

[TonyHoult]

I have an old Atari 520STM with an external floppy drive.... I'd love to say I still use it for music but it reality it acts as a very efficient door wedge!!!

Tony

http://www.captive.co.uk

[Sonic The Hedgehog]

Sadly my hard drives gave up the ghost at the start of the year, although it's odd that all three hard drives seemed to have lost data and refused to reformat, so it has to be the host adapter card. Seeing as how I now use an iBook as part of a portable setup, there's not really much I'm going to get out of the Atari anymore But I'm keeping the STe at least. The STFM I've got may go... same with the Jaguar and XE I've got somewhere. The STe may one day be recovered for MIDI if I could recase it or something when I get a more permanent studio but as for now, it's cupboard fodder for a few years

[Sonic The Hedgehog]

Reminiscences, yay!

I used a program called Quartet, which was a notation-based 4-part sample tracker.

At university, bored, I got into customizing my ST by taking the cover off and spraying it different colours to replace the nasty 80s beige...(pre-iMac!)

I still have three STs- a purple 520FM, blue1040FM and green1040E- on a shelf in my studio. They very occasionally get powered up to feed 90s MIDI into Logic, but these days they work well as art and are much admired by visitors.

Haha me too - I painted an upgraded STFM metallic black, and my STe a sort of blueish-purple colour. It was going to have a flourescent yellow keyboard but I only ever got round to testing the paint on the asterisk key...

I used Quartet too. That was a lot of fun and had a really crunchy sound which was awful for some stuff and fantastic for others. I might come back to it at some point for some stuff I'm working on, but I need to get a working copy on floppy disks cos of the death of my hard drive host adapter

[OBLIQUEMUSIC]

Hello all,

Went all techno and pc a few years back and left the atari to gather dust for a bit.
Became disillusioned with pc stuff and moved back to the Atari to reclaim some of the spirit and soul of making music.

I use two 1040 STe's (one with an external hard drive that would withstand a nuclear attack!) not sure what drive is actully in the enclosure,both with SM144 monitors, a Mega/STE with internal hard drive and sm144 monitor.

The two 1040 STe's are used mainly for safety purposes in case the worst ever happens.
Attached to the mega is a steinberg smp11, and steinberg midex which both give plenty of midi ins and outs.

The mega controls various synths and samplers i.e. access virus, waldorf microwave, S950 and S5000 samplers, and a lexicon reverb.

I also use various acoustic instruments and much electric guitar stuff.

Can't be arsed with syncing issues and have not had much success with it to be honest, so generally record all the electronic and sampled stuff on the atari and then play this back through the mixing desk whilst playing live into a digital multitrack (only 8 track!)...this is great because it gives a kind of live feel to any performances.
The inevitable bum notes and unwanted sections are edited out via the multitracks editing software...which admittedly, I have to use a pc for...ho hum!

Still, I could live without the pc and record everything into the dat machine and just do retakes till we get it right!!!...tedious but possible.

At the end of the day, the atari does not interfere with the creative process at all, and it probably adds to it considerably because it just works without any undue technical involvement...I just like to hit record and go, I get my technical kicks by just trying to program the bloody synthesisers!!!
Best vibes to everyone...

[phantomfield]

Greetings fellow Atariofiles.

I've two Atari's, both 1040ste machines. The first I got 15 years ago from Thatched Cottage Audio in Cambridge (just before the blighters ceased trading). It is still running to this day. The only thing I had to do was pop in another floppy drive. The other I brought from ebay/ It was fine apart from the power socket needing some attention. One Atari stays in the box and the other has its own little corner in my studio with emagic logic.

I mainly run it with my old s1000 (screen isn't as bright as it once was) with the individual outs feeding a little folio mixer and a quadraverb which I'm adept at using with midi !

Like someone else mentioned I also have numerous old ideas stuck on disks in boxes, which i listen to now and again, reappraise and catalogue.

They are still useful tools for music creation as far as I'm concerned.

[Guest]

I use mine for synth librarians

[tzouras]

All my gear is boxed up now since moving house so let me try and think of the setup....

1985 STFM1040
Creator Unitor
Korg M1 keyboard
Yamaha DX7 keyboard
Roland JD990
Korg Wavestation
Proteus 1
Akai 3200 sampler
Alesis Quadraverb
SCCI drive
Allen Heath GS3 mixer
Fostex A8
Technics DAT
Mackie HR824's
Yamaha cassette

It all used to work perfectly well, but I'm going to upgrade to a Mac Logic Reason setup eventually.

[David Etheridge]

It all used to work perfectly well, but I'm going to upgrade to a Mac Logic Reason setup eventually.

Erm...
are you sure that's wise?

(just a thought)


Dave.

[tzouras]

I don't know if it's wise, but I think I reached the limits of my setup, especially with sampler memory and the pain of manually time streching and the hassle of setting up for remixing older tracks. Also, the idea of recording, mixing, mastering and SAVING ALL the parameters in one box, with instant recall, appeals.

I must admit that the thought of learning to use all the new hard/software does freak me out a bit, especially as where I live there is not One soul using the Mac/Logic stuff who might be able to help me out a bit. I would probably enrol on the Berklee online production course.

My theory is, that once I learn all the new stuff, it should make things relatively simpler to do with the addition of being able to manipulate sounds and effects through the DAW. And then straight on to CD.

D'you think I should just optimise my present stuff with extra memory/gizmos and add a new monitor and HD drive? I probably don't even know half the stuff I would need to 'modernise' the Atari experience.

Thing is, after 20 years of experience on the Atari system, I got rather good at putting my [ ****** ] together; used it for midi sequencing with just the occassional and minimal guitar and vocals smpt'd to my A8.

Your thoughts would be welcome and maybe if you're visiting Cyprus next year you could pop round and give me some real time advice before I take the plunge. I intend to remix and master almost everything I've done the past 20 years before I take the upgrade path, so I've got at least 2 years work ahead of me.

[David Etheridge]

Hi Tzouras,
yes, you can optimise your existing setup quite substantially. A 4 meg upgrade to the ST would be quite a useful thing to have, because you can then run Creator in multitasking mode, running extra programs at the same time. Looking at your gear list, I think you'll find Atari editors for most of your synths on the atariMIDI archives files (look at the FAQ posting above for the full list).
Running a hard disk also makes things a lot easier: you're not fiddling with floppies (I always ended up knocking the one I wanted onto the floor ) and load up times are a fraction of those with floppies. So this means you can have larger song files complete with sysex dumps and sound patches edited and ready to load all at the same time.
As ever, check with Barrie at Keychange for advice on upgrades, as he's the guy who knows and has everything in stock.

Don't get me wrong about upgrading; I know that Logic is a very powerful program, but I find that the main drawback is the very amount of stuff on offer. You start off trying to do one thing and find that there are so many side alleys that you're led down, with the result that three days later you've got nowhere because you've been playing around with setups and other preferences. The Environment page is a case in point: a very flexible and comprehensive feature that allows you to make up a virtual map of all your MIDI connections.
In my case, I already know how everything's connected up, with Unitor 2 and Log 3. On Notator I simply select the MIDI channel I want and play. With Logic, I've got to construct a connection to the MIDI buss and/or module before I can do anything. Even the books on Logic (PC publishing do some excellent ones) admit that configuring Logic is a goos way to fill a boring weekend (or week? ).
By comparison, Notator/Creator is a doddle that never takes you too far away from just playing and creating your music. It's like having a nice runabout for your weekly shopping, while Logic is the equivalent of the Space Shuttle- so many features that you may never use and take up time trying to master.

You may find that a standalone digital recorder might suit your puposes rather than an all in one DAW. No constant upgrading and reloading/reauthorising of software (SOS editor Paul White has waxed particularly wrathful on this subject) and it'll connect to your existing setup very nicely. But I would still hand on to your A8; you never know when you'll need a 'tape saturation emulator' and an A8 is much cheaper than the hardware versions!

Anyway, hopefully this has given you some food for thought. Upgrade your Atari with a nice big monitor, 4 meg of memory, the various synth and FX editors from the net (free downloads, remember) and a hard disk, and you'll find that things can be greatly speeded up and simplified.

Hope that this helps,
Best wishes,
dave

[tzouras]

David, thanks for your feedback, you've given me food for thought. Would it be possible to use soft synths/samplers/FX with the upgraded Atari or would I need to sync it up to some additional PC?

[David Etheridge]

Hi Tzouras,
there are one or two softsynths that run on Ataris. If you check with Tim's Atari MIDI world (see FAQs for locations) you'll find further details there (also check out the Atari Launchpad with links direct to the relevant homepages), but I'm guessing that you'ld need an extra Atari to run them, as I have no experience of them myself (I prefer hardware stuff).
Quite a few folks on the yahoo atari MIDI users forum have sucessfully linked their Ataris to PCs running VST instruments. If I were in your position I'd probably prompt for a Mac for this, and used Macs are resonably cheap since the G4 and G5s came along, and don't have the rubbish Microsoft OS, which is the source of endless aggro, as witness yourself on the PC FAQs and forums here.
The thing to remember is that VSTis and virtual FX in particular are reputed to be quite processor intensive. This is one of the many reasons I stuck with Atari +hardware synths and FX.
Also remember that the Atari is STILL the most accurate mahine for MIDI timing, as the MIDI ports are wired direct to the main processor, so if you use yours for sequencing and an externel PC/Mac for synths/samplers/FX you'll get the best of both worlds.
One final point (which not a lot of people know): NASA found that the humble Atari was the only computer that still worked on zero gravity emulation flights!


Best wishes,
dave.

[The real musiclover]

Hello.

An Atari is more computing than they had on the moon missions, is it not? If you believe they put a man on the moon. (maaan on the moon)

Y'know? I just remembererd i have an Atari, 2 in fact, except one is a 2600. The other a 1040.
It has midi, THE thing that got us on 'em way back when, and the timng is great. I never really used it much, and have no need of it's sequencing these days.

Rather than take this nostalgic thread off topic i made a post regarding my Atari use question.

[David Etheridge]

Yes, naturally the Atari postdates Moon landings. According to Tim Conrardy at Tim's Atari MIDIworld, they've been using it more recently, at a guess for Shuttle simulations.
Can you imagine Microtwit stuff working at several G force?
This program-this program has performed-performed an illegal operation and will be-won't be shut down. We are the Borg-resistance is futile
You see what I mean?

Dave

Live long and prosper.

[The real musiclover]

Been some assimilation attempts, but rotating the phasers harmonics seems to work, the shields are at 90%, but one or two bull filters need a tweak!

I discovered a replay 16 sampling cartridge, with no instructions? Shouldn't be too hard to suss out if i get it, should it?

[David Etheridge]

Hi RML,
yes, why not? it shouldn't be too hard to figure out-it's not brain surgery!
Have a word with Barrie and he might be able to supply some documentation.
Incidentally, have a butchers at the 'Atari as synth' posting; there's some good news for you

Dave.