A1200 to A500+ Serial Null Modem Connection & Octamed 4 Qs...

[G'fr'sh]

Hello! My first post and I don't come from a computing/micro background, so go easy on me!


I'm Geoff and I bought an A1200 a couple of months ago that I've been using solely for making tunes with, running Octamed IV and Audio Engineer IV, sampling through a Technosound Turbo cart. Bloody LOVING IT and am doing possibly the best stuff of my life so far with it.



Coming to it from hardware samplers, I'm used to having 8 separate mono audio outputs that can be mixed/EQ'd/compressed/reverbed etc separately. It also doesn't take long for me to fill up 4 sequencer tracks. I've really been enjoying the limitations and economical thinking that memory/feature-limited sampling/sequencing demands, to which I am well used in myriad ways, and have got a pretty good sound with the 2 outs so far and am about to record an album with this set-up. Nonetheless, I just 'scored' a PCB-busted 500+ (battery leak, naturellement) so I'm now thinking about doing that up to basically act as a sample player, running in tandem with the 1200, obviously thereby doubling my outs and seq channels.



Currently I get my basses mostly from a Roland JV1010 rompler module, obvs MIDI-controlled by Octamed.


So, my questions...

A general cable one, I suppose...
What will the two Amigas be able to do with/to eachother when connected via the serial? Will one be able to see files etc on the other and load them up? Obvs I'm thinking with regards to the 500 accessing samples/.MEDs from the 1200's CF drive, thereby avoiding it having to have its' own storage/transfer solution. If so, is it fast?
And, specifically to do with Octamed, what control can the master 1200 have over the slave 500 in Octamed? Just Stop/Go? Or more? I did find a thread on this on here but no specifics were really entered into, so if you've used Octamed IV in this way, what could you do between the two?


And here's why the above first question is so important...
With the two pooters connected by their serial ports, I obvs won't be able to connect the serial-MIDI adaptor cable that goes to my JV1010 synth module. I'm yet to find a satisfactorily smooth bass sound with the Octamed synth and sampling for a sustained bass note can often easily introduce clicks etc. So, if I buy/make a break out cable/adaptor like this...



http://www.cablesonline.com/dbm2fparyspl.html


...or this...



https://itm-components.co.uk/product...wired-straight


...will I be able to both run the Octamed on the 500 from the one on the 1200 and the JV module at the same time by connecting my serial-MIDI adaptor to one end of the above? If not then I may have to choose between having the JV for bass or having easy transfers of stuff. Or, if it comes to that, then maybe get something like this for easy switching between transferring and BASS...


https://www.reichelt.com/gb/en/sub-d...8-p135602.html


Aaaaaaanyway...help!


Thanking you in advance!

Geoffo

[Jope]

1) Serial would already be taken by midi as you noticed. An Amiga's motherboard serial is super slow anyway, a better idea is to parnet them together. It is possible to make a parnet boot disk so you don't need a hard drive on the A500.

2) If you connect them together via midi, then there is at least a sample slave mode in octamed SS where the slave machine just plays one sample slot per midi channel. Not sure if any octamed version really syncs that well to midi clock, but have fun experimenting.

[G'fr'sh]

Parnet, eh? Alfie Parnet. First I've heard of that. I shall look into it! FANQZ.

[Jope]

This is probably the easiest way to get a parnet setup going http://aminet.net/package/comm/net/ParBENCH31

[G'fr'sh]

Can you turn LHAs into usuable files using DOpus 4 once I get them in the Amiga using a CF? If so, could you list for me step-by-step, 'for dummies' ijnstructions please? I had a go earlier and there is an lha button on my DOpus and, when pressed, a load of code filed past and then it said it was done...but the results were not to be found anywhere?

[Jope]

It all depends on your dopus setup. Not sure how the default lha button works, try having the directory with your lha in your source window and the destination where you want it in your destination window. Perhaps it works like that.

I'm not a dopus user nor do I know what WB distribution or whatever you're running.

What I'd do: open a shell and type lha x path:to/packetname.lha ram: and see the files extracted to ram:

Don't give up. There's some learning to do, but in the end you'll know how to use an Amiga. :-) Lots of books on the subject at www.bombjack.org's commodore section.

[G'fr'sh]

Tried the Source to Destination window thing but got nowt. Will crack on.


Thanks!