Specifications

converter 1.5

2000 - 2005 urr Sound Technologies Inc.
10
foreword
This software was originally created as an in-house prototype tool for direct midi datastream control
and conversion of non-midi controller sources. For reasons of flexibility, certain parameters and
functionality within the software has remained open in an attempt to avoid limitations in its potential
applications; as a result, it is possible for converter to be programmed in ways which do not conform to
conventional midi specifications. While the user interface has been carefully designed so that a lot of the
functionality of converter can be easily and immediately utilized by someone with minimal experience
using midi, a certain amount of knowledge and understanding of the u
a certain amount of knowledge and understanding of the ua certain amount of knowledge and understanding of the u
a certain amount of knowledge and understanding of the underlying concepts of midi as
nderlying concepts of midi as nderlying concepts of midi as
nderlying concepts of midi as
well as its lower
well as its lowerwell as its lower
well as its lower-
--
-level implementation is required in order to take full advantage of the type of control
level implementation is required in order to take full advantage of the type of control level implementation is required in order to take full advantage of the type of control
level implementation is required in order to take full advantage of the type of control
and power that converter provides.
and power that converter provides.and power that converter provides.
and power that converter provides. To learn some basics about the midi data protocol specification and
related concepts, refer to the midi format appendix. To truly understand converter and how to make it
perform to its best abilities,
read this manual carefully
– there are a lot of important pieces of
information in various places of this document (many not so obvious).
Even though an experimental software program,
when configured properly converter provides
extremely reliable and robust performance
. The nature of its user interface tends to avoid
possibilities for crashes or other errors. Any functionality problems will most likely be a result of user
programming errors or improperly configured interfaces. However, as the PC world represents denizens
of manufactures of every type of hardware component, there are some potential caveats – refer to the
troubleshooting appendix if you encounter technical difficulties.
Why DOS?? Why not Windows?!?
Several reasons here. Fundamentally, converter was designed to target older, obsolete computers, and
provide them with additional value and relevant functionality for modern music production and live
performance. The types of functionality converter offers, with the low latencies it provides, should not
require a fast Pentium-3 or Pentium-4 system (or even a Pentium-2 based computer), which would be
essential for equivalent real-time performance as a Windows application. A high-performance, modern
soundcard is also not required for the type of work converter performs. The DOS operating system was
chosen for its combination of reliability, efficiency, and elegance. The low operating overhead of DOS
enables real-time performance comparable to that of dedicated outboard hardware implementations, a
requirement for practical applications in live performance and musical interactivity. DOS can provide this
DOS can provide this DOS can provide this
DOS can provide this
level of performance with
level of performance withlevel of performance with
level of performance with
much lower hardware requirements than an equivalent Windows
application
, and therefore provides effective utility for older ‘obsolete’ computing hardware eclipsed by
current trends in operating systems and software technology. While consumer soundcards (and
especially older soundcards such as the SoundBlaster 16 etc) provide audio quality which is
substandard for professional applications in recording,
converter provides an application in which
these older abandoned soundcards and computers can find a new life within the context of
current professional studio work – thus avoiding the garbage dumps, which is increasingly
becoming an environmental problem
. Considering a Pentium-233MHz machine can currently be
purchased for about $40 CDN, and slower computers (still supported by converter) can be found
essentially for free, older computers make great cheap “embedded systems” or dedicated machines for
a multitude of purposes.
Attempting to run converter under Windows
During testing it was found that converter behaved unpredictably when run from within a DOS shell
under Windows, due to the way it directly programs most of the computer’s hardware. Therefore,
converter must be executed in “true” DOS mode (without Windows operating in the background).
WindowsXP might ‘think’ it can run converter in a DOS session, however this will likely result in a crash
or harsh corruption (non-permanent) of video card memory which is only corrected by a reboot.