RiscStation MIDI

I am seeking any information on the MIDI interface built in to the Simtec A7500 motherboard as used in the RiscStation computer. Have any readers used this in the past and is there any technical information available or were there any software compatibility lists published. Does anyone remember anything in the magazines that was published on this topic? The motherboard also has a header for a Yamaha wavetable synthesiser board. Does anyone know whether this was ever used by any RISC OS software. Does anyone possess one of these wavetable boards? I have some Simtec documentation which mentions it but does not go into detail about its use.
With thanks in anticipation.
Kim F.

Hi Kim,
I do not posses the RiscStation A7500, however to check for your MIDI I would recommend to start from the MIDI module you should have loaded on your system:

• To display info about it start a TaskWindow

  [CTRL]+[F12]

• At the prompt type (please note the dot at the end):

  rom.

• Try to identify the MIDI module (generally they start with the MIDI name

When identified the name you can display some help using:

help MIDIModuleName

replace MIDIModuleName with the name of your MIDI Module.

the MIDI Module usually has all the SWIs it supports and can be used to control the MIDI interface. Some MIDI module may not display the SWIs in which case you can use a software called !Verma to display all the SWIs provided by your MIDI module.

Generally speaking quite few of the 3rd party MIDI Modules kinda tried to be “compatible” with the original Acorn MIDI Podule in terms of SWIs, so by verifying they are the same for your MIDI module will help ensuring it’s compatible with softwares like !Rhapsody for example which is a good music notation software still available to purchase on RISC OS shops and that is also capable to record music scores from live MIDI instruments connected to the MIDI Port.

Another way to use multiple MIDI apps with your MIDI expansion is to check if your card is supported by Liquid Silicon MIDISupp (or MIDISupport), if it does then I am pretty sure you can use !Rhapsody with it.

RISC OS also had the impressive Sibellius 7, but it’s a bit picky to install and it’s pricey, so I strongly recommend you to contact RComp or CJE (guys trying to be impartial!) for info and support to make sure you do not waste money.

In terms of software there are a lot of applications for MIDI on RISC OS:

• Rhapsody
• Notate
• MIDIWorks (very good MIDI tracking studio)
• Vistamusic
• MelMIDI
• Serenade
• Quite few plugins for MIDISupp

..and more I forgot the names sorry.

However they can have different requirements and some of them like Sybellius doesn’t run on all RISC OS releases.

Hope this helps!

The motherboard also has a header for a Yamaha wavetable synthesiser board. Does anyone know whether this was ever used by any RISC OS software.

I do not recall if it worked fine or not, apologies. But, it should come with a set of floppies with drivers? I think the sound module should be accessible (in terms of audio) from the 32mm line-out jack and should work with the MIDI module, but I am not sure 100% it’s passed a long time since I’ve looked for the RiscStation as a potential music system and I kept my RiscPC instead…

I think we have/had a RiscStation somewhere, and at the time, the MIDI was quite a significant feature. AFAIK it did work, but didn’t have things like “MIDI Support” (ESP’s extended MIDI technology which supported multiple interfaces and real time effects etc) available for it. I think it used a joystick port style MIDI connector externally.

The problem with the “off brand” ARM 7500 machines (RiscStation, Mico etc) was that they tended to offer a lot of features that may not all have been properly finished. However, of the two, I always felt the RiscStation had the more complete capabilities, so whilst I couldn’t swear to it, I believe both parts did actually work. I think they even go audio sampling (input) working in later software releases.

As Paolo says, do a *help MIDI is a big clue. *modules too, or *podules (but this may not be applicable – I’ve seen things added as virtual podules, but I don’t think RiscStation did it that way).

As for wavetable boards themselves, I did have a few – it was a hobby of mine – but much of my MIDI stuff has gone to either local professional musicians, or to keen RISC OS folks. It’d take a lot of hunting to see what I had left. But, now I’m wondering if we still have the RiscStation anywhere (it may even have one in)!

MIDI is ‘just a serial port’, albeit at a funny baud rate (31250 bps if I recall). Give the Super I/O chip in the RiscStation (assuming it’s the same family as the Risc PC) has two serial ports, I imagine they just brought out the second one to the MIDI port. Software-wise, I assume they used the Acorn MIDI module but with tweaks for their serial port.

Ah, some pics identify it has an ESS AudioDrive ES1879S sound chip , which comes with a MIDI-capable UART. I imagine they use that. Maybe the headers etc are the same as the ESS AudioDrive ISA sound card? (Searching for the ESS AudioDrive turns up quite a bit – seems like they’re quite popular retrotech nowadays)