Old Amiga music (Aegis Sonix IFF-SMUS) stuff I did in 1987 (Videos)

[Adrian Cummings]

Written using Aegis Sonix (IFF-SMUS format) on Amiga 1000 in 1987 by me

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Those were the halcyon days of Amiga for me.

[DavidQ]

Thanks for posting that Adrian. I really enjoyed it... in fact I just can't get enough of that kind of thing. I bought my Amiga 1000 in 1987 and they were definitely halcyon days for me too.

[Adrian Cummings]

Originally Posted by DavidQ

Thanks for posting that Adrian. I really enjoyed it... in fact I just can't get enough of that kind of thing. I bought my Amiga 1000 in 1987 and they were definitely halcyon days for me too.

Cheers

[AmigaHope]

SMUS, the first tracker format before trackers were invented. XD

[Adrian Cummings]

Originally Posted by AmigaHope

SMUS, the first tracker format before trackers were invented. XD

Yes Deluxe Music Construction Set (DMCS) and then Aegis Sonix was certainly the first music packages I used on Amiga.

Next thing I used back then was Jungle Command's early tracker, although it was only raw source and you had to type the note values in, assemble and run to play music back.

I think then Soundtracker, Noisetracker happened not long after and many other variants from there.

Great times.

[roondar]

Thanks for these, it's nice to hear some SMUS music as it always felt like this 'mythical' beast to me. I can't remember ever hearing some music that was advertised as such, though I probably have heard some before - just not knowing it was SMUS.

Makes me wonder why most people preferred tracker formats instead. CPU use?

Oh and the music was quite nice too, certainly for 1987

[Adrian Cummings]

Originally Posted by roondar

Thanks for these, it's nice to hear some SMUS music as it always felt like this 'mythical' beast to me. I can't remember ever hearing some music that was advertised as such, though I probably have heard some before - just not knowing it was SMUS.

Makes me wonder why most people preferred tracker formats instead. CPU use?

Oh and the music was quite nice too, certainly for 1987

Cheers

Yes I think the CPU stuff by it's very nature was a lot more dynamic. SidMon also gave that more c64 sounding end result later on too. I love the entire Amiga music scene offerings tho.

[curtcool]

Nice stuff for '87 - I also remember trying out Aegis Sonix since I could read notes and stuff, having played, errr, being forced to the piano as a kid. But that was way later. Didn't really compose any Amiga music (or any other music) until 1992-1993 though.

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by roondar

Thanks for these, it's nice to hear some SMUS music as it always felt like this 'mythical' beast to me. I can't remember ever hearing some music that was advertised as such, though I probably have heard some before - just not knowing it was SMUS.

Makes me wonder why most people preferred tracker formats instead. CPU use?

Oh and the music was quite nice too, certainly for 1987

It's because early computer music applications focused on trying to replicate traditional instruments and sheet music, rather than the full range of effects you could do with a computer. The SMUS format, while being internally functionally identical to a *very* simple tracker, only really implemented stuff that was working toward that sheet-music goal.

The whole tracker paradigm was approaching music from a clean-sheet approach that threw away the limitations of physical instruments, and instead focused on working within the abilities and limitations of a digital audio device. No more sheet music, just operations and operands.

This meant you could produce way more diverse kinds of audio.

Certain tracker formats were indeed made for low-CPU use in game environments, so those were indeed popular for games, but not all trackers did this (e.g. MED and its descendants were more CPU hungry). SMUS though was actually used in a number of early American games as it didn't have much overhead.

[saimon69]

I did start on Sonix too, it was an incredible program: pretty simple to start and to experiment if you know music basics; then i did pass to try SoundFX by Linel and then later on noisetracker to do music for the Quazar demos and for the first instances of Powder - the protracker jump came as natural as the EXXs commands and CIA timing became clear to me.