Getting back into Amiga Octamed 8bit Filth Advice needed...

[Finku]

Hi people,


It's only been 30 years since i last had an Amiga, and it appears things have changed a bit....


I would love some help with buying a new Amiga (almost exclusively Octamed 8bit Paula sample based music) and associated bits and bobs!



1, Which is the best model? A1200 seems the go to? Last one i had was an A600 but only because it was small and sat on my keyboard sampler doing MIDI sequencer duty only.


2, I understand a Recapped one is basically mandatory?


3, Is sample memory a fixed thing (chip mem)?


4, Could it be installed with and auto-boot from an internal SD,CF Hard drive without needing to use a Floppy drive/Gotek?


5, Is there a simple way to conect an optical mouse?


6, I have an old LG LCD monitor with VGA input, could i use this?


7, Assuming this list of queries starts a shopping list. Where (UK) is the best place to get said parts, or even better a ready to run system?


Many thanks for any advice and or questions!


P.S i have some questions regarding sample rates/conversion, how to and best practices, but i'm not sure where to ask.

[Karlos]

If you use OctaMED soundstudio, you can use Fast memory to hold samples and then they can be whatever lengths you like, memory permitting. It also works well as an 8-bit midi triggered sampler this way.

[Finku]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. I will be using Ocatamed 4 as it's the one i know. Also i want to get away from MIDI as it is sloppy compared to the razor sharp triggering of the internal samples.
I suppose i want to do it the classic way (the only one i know) but with some modern comforts like SCSI2SD, modern'ish mouse and monitor etc..

[daxb]

I would say A1200 is a good choice because of the 2MB chipram but I would recommend also some fastram.

If you connect a harddrive (cf, sd, ...) there should be no problem to auto boot Octamed.

Optical mouse should be doable but I've no experiences with it.

If your Monitor supports 15kHz/50Hz on VGA then an adapter should do it, else there are more or less expensive solutions to connect a modern monitor.

There is at least one thread on eab about samples conversion (usually 16bit nkHz to 8bit nkHz) on pc or on Amiga.

[Karlos]

I would definitely recommend fast memory even if you aren't going to use it for sample data in OMSS, it frees up chip memory that would otherwise be used by the OS and software.

For the A1200, I'd recommend fast memory as a bare minimum upgrade for any productive use case since it lets the CPU run at its full potential.

[Finku]

Originally Posted by daxb

I would say A1200 is a good choice because of the 2MB chipram but I would recommend also some fastram.

Originally Posted by Karlos

I would definitely recommend fast memory even if you aren't going to use it for sample data in OMSS, it frees up chip memory that would otherwise be used by the OS and software.

For the A1200, I'd recommend fast memory as a bare minimum upgrade for any productive use case since it lets the CPU run at its full potential.

Cool thanks. A quick search found 8mb expansion on Amiga kit, but it has some options for extras, is this a problem or?

[Karlos]

The only issue with using 8MB is that you will lose the PCMCIA slot as the full 8MB needs the available addressing space. This is only a problem if you need it. It's handy for being able to stick a network card in.

A lot of memory expansions back in the day allowed you to switch between 4/8MB.

[Finku]

The only 4mb expansion i could find is for the A600. The A1200 seems to be 8mb and up. I won't need a network card.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by Finku

The only 4mb expansion i could find is for the A600. The A1200 seems to be 8mb and up. I won't need a network card.

Then 8 is fine. Octamed will use it for everything except the screen and sample data. It's overkill for old school 4ch stuff but if you ever do try OMSS, the ability to use that memory for samples is great. I am not sure but the fastmemplay option may exist in v6 or even v5.

[Finku]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Then 8 is fine. Octamed will use it for everything except the screen and sample data. It's overkill for old school 4ch stuff but if you ever do try OMSS, the ability to use that memory for samples is great. I am not sure but the fastmemplay option may exist in v6 or even v5.

Thanks, that's good to know!


Does the A600 have any limitations that can't be upgraded, when considering Octamed? If i remember correctly the num pad was useful for muting channels on the 500/1200 but not sure anything else?

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by Finku

Thanks, that's good to know!


Does the A600 have any limitations that can't be upgraded, when considering Octamed? If i remember correctly the num pad was useful for muting channels on the 500/1200 but not sure anything else?

If you are just going to be using 8-bit, 4 channel sample playback, nothing other than the chip ram, which is upgradable to 2MB. Again, you'll want to keep that chip memory as free as possible.

I ran OctaMED for years on both machines. In my case, I ended up with a pretty expanded A1200 (tower, 040/PPC, 256MB memory, RTG card) and I ended up using SoundStudio which while not everyone's taste, I cannot fault, especially on expanded kit.

What I will say is that if you have more than Amiga, you can run octamed on both, The timing is so good that you can set both playing and they'll stay in sync for ages in my experience, but more usefully, a nullmodem cable will allow you to midi sync them,

[Finku]

Originally Posted by Karlos

If you are just going to be using 8-bit, 4 channel sample playback, nothing other than the chip ram, which is upgradable to 2MB. Again, you'll want to keep that chip memory as free as possible.

What I will say is that if you have more than Amiga, you can run octamed on both, The timing is so good that you can set both playing and they'll stay in sync for ages in my experience, but more usefully, a nullmodem cable will allow you to midi sync them,

The A600 seems a good fit, small footprint and cheaper than the A1200. Add chip and fast ram, and i've also seen someone using the expansion slot for removable SD cards as well as SD internal HD!
Finding a compatible 5:4 LCD monitor appears to be a bit pricey though...

I will look into MIDI sync at some point down the line.

Cheers!

[RetroPassionUK]

An Amiga A600 is perfectly fine for Octamed etc. add 1Mb chip ram, 8Mb fastram card (which comes with a switch to flip between 4/8Mb for PCMCIA access) as below:

https://www.retropassion.co.uk/produ...ia-switchable/

Coupled with 3.1 kickstart, 4Gb CF card and PCMCIA transfer kit you have a great music making machine. We have sold a few refurbished units with this config for musicians, works great.

[epithetic]

The A1200 will have somewhat cleaner audio output if this is important to you, in terms of there being less signal noise and filtering (see 1, and 2 for more detail).

If you're not planning to use the system to record from or prefer the less clean sound it's likely not a big issue.

[Paulee_Alex_Bow]

Originally Posted by Finku

Hi people,


It's only been 30 years since i last had an Amiga, and it appears things have changed a bit....


I would love some help with buying a new Amiga (almost exclusively Octamed 8bit Paula sample based music) and associated bits and bobs!



1, Which is the best model? A1200 seems the go to? Last one i had was an A600 but only because it was small and sat on my keyboard sampler doing MIDI sequencer duty only.


2, I understand a Recapped one is basically mandatory?


3, Is sample memory a fixed thing (chip mem)?


4, Could it be installed with and auto-boot from an internal SD,CF Hard drive without needing to use a Floppy drive/Gotek?


5, Is there a simple way to conect an optical mouse?


6, I have an old LG LCD monitor with VGA input, could i use this?


7, Assuming this list of queries starts a shopping list. Where (UK) is the best place to get said parts, or even better a ready to run system?


Many thanks for any advice and or questions!


P.S i have some questions regarding sample rates/conversion, how to and best practices, but i'm not sure where to ask.

If you’re getting back into Amiga sound there’s a few videos I’ve done that you might enjoy. One is a documentary I did, and one is an example of my OctaMED work

[ Show youtube player ]
[ Show youtube player ]

A warning with the documentary, you might go down an Amiga rabbit hole and 8-bit sampling might give way to wild softsynths and real time effects! As for your questions:

1. I like my A1200, I put an ‘060 in it just to live out teenage aspirations lol. I also have an A500+/2000/3000 and all are musically useful.
2. Yes recap, unless you get an A500+ which has a battery issue instead, but is a lovely machine which is nicely upgraded with a TF536 or PiStorm.
3. Octamed SS adds FastMemPlay, I’d at least give it a go it’s much more friendly to use than the clunkier early versions, I think.
4. Yes. Many of us set up the install on a PC with WinUAE, copy the image to a CF card and boot it that way, never using real disks. There’s also tools to write ADF files to real disks on the Amiga.
5. There’s an optical conversion kit for tank mice, there’s also various USB mouse adapters, I haven’t tried these but some people like them. Apparently some A1200’s have a right click issue with these.
6. Nah not really, unless it syncs down to 15Khz. You are better off with 23 pin RGB to scart to an LCD TV if you live in Britain. In America there’s a few solutions, scandoublers etc.
7. Retropassion are good but a business with overheads so are never gonna be cheap. There’s some cool contacts I know in various user groups who sell nice machines at decent prices, especially Norwich Amiga Group, Scottish Amiga Group etc.

[Paulee_Alex_Bow]

Originally Posted by epithetic

The A1200 will have somewhat cleaner audio output if this is important to you, in terms of there being less signal noise and filtering (see 1, and 2 for more detail).

If you're not planning to use the system to record from or prefer the less clean sound it's likely not a big issue.

Unless it’s an unmodded 1A, but some like it hot LMAO.