The upcoming ADAMCon-04, an "international convention" for ADAM owners everywhere, is to be held in my own back yard, so to speak. Cleveland is only a 34 mile drive up the highway from my home in Barberton, OH so you can bet I'll be there July 23 to 26, 1992 with my own MIDI equipment to show off! I'll also be doing plenty to bug the local U.G. with any new MIDI tips I happen to run onto. Our next meeting is to be my chance to show off a new MIDI FM Sound Generator (the FB01) from YAMAHA that I picked up second hand over the summer. I want to show how it gets hooked up and how nicely it works when controlled by the ADAM through my MIDI-Mite board. I'll also show them the latest software from Bonafide Systems, developer of the MIDI-MITE (and all that it makes possible.) As you can tell, I've been busy since ADAMCon-03!

When you find a PD library of MIDI song files listed in the popular ADAM User's Group newsletters, you can be sure that these are all on an ADAM disk or data pack. All the work has been done for you by the compiler of the volume, so all that's required for playing is to load the MIDI software, select that disk, pick the song you want and enjoy the music! Still, have you ever wondered what went into getting those songs in such an easily accessible format? If so, stick around and I'll try to give you the basics.

With all that's been going on lately, I thought it would be a good idea to pass on some of the things I've learned, tips I've been given and some problems I've run into (as well as the way I worked around them .... with the able help of Chris Braymen!) The net result of our efforts (Chris, Ron Mitchell, Glen Smith, John Villilo, myself and the many other ADAM MIDI users) is to provide "ready to play" MIDI music volumes to the ADAM community. Most of the things we've learned and problems we've encountered never show up when you put the disk in and start to play the music.

Actually, almost every problem I've encountered could have been avoided if only I'd taken out enough time to "JUST READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!" I've been told that I'm not the only one who does this, so I don't feel TOO bad. Haven't YOU ever just jumped right in and tried to use something? Well, then you know what I'm talking about. Oh well, I'm a user, not a reader, so I just dive in. Too bad! I missed quite a bit of information in the process. Hopefully, this will inspire you to "READ FIRST", "LEARN IT", and THEN use your MIDI!

For those of you who aren't familiar with MIDI (or maybe you aren't all that familiar with the ADAM Computer System?), I'll do my best to give you a little background on both subjects. If I'm lucky, this will give you at least a rough idea of what all this MIDI stuff is about.

When it comes to the use a MIDI device on the ADAM, it must be remembered that we do NOT have the vast memory storage available to the MS-DOS machines, the Atari ST's or even the Amiga's. All of these, along with the ever useful Macintosh computer, are noted for their ability to use MIDI interfaces and software. In fact, some of these, such as the Amiga, have a MIDI port built right in! The other's have such a tremendous user base that they have a lot of high quality hardware and software to choose from for the purpose of making computer aided music. We are not quite that fortunate.

These other machines are 16-bit and 32-bit computer systems with speed and power that dwarfs our 8-bit ADAM's best. They are running at several times the processor speed and have more base memory available to devote to complicated programming tasks. For example, a typical MS-DOS setup would have at least 2 megabytes or more of memory to work with. A serious Macintosh MIDI system might start with as little as 4 meg and increase as needed. That is FOUR MILLION "K's" folks! One "K" is composed of 1024 "bytes" so a "4-meg" system should really be SOMETHING!

The ADAM, on the other hand, is based upon the Z80 CPU, an older and much simpler 8-bit computer chip. The Z80 provides us with a 64K memory that must be used to store an operating system and a working program! For that reason alone, few ever considered the 8-bit ADAM as a likely prospect for MIDI purposes. An 8-bit machine was considered much to primitive to be of any use at all for serious electronic music buffs. Limited MIDI capability was available to owners of the Commodore 64 computers, another famous 8-bit system. The ADAM, though, never seemed to impress the few hardware vendors as a viable MIDI controller, especially once the great minds at COLECO dropped this wonderful computer system!

The limitations of a 64K computer system never seem to daunt Chris Braymen when he really wants it to do something special! A popular TEXT only version of the popular SARGON 1 computer chess game was once converted by him into a superb GRAPHICS version for use on the ADAM. This was then released to the Public Domain and has since been enjoyed by hundreds of happy chess players.

Chris is a professional musician / programmer who creates some beautiful background music for MS-DOS games. He is also an ADAM owner who wanted to have a MIDI interface built for his home ADAM computer system. He wanted to be able to do for fun what he also was doing for a living... work on computer generated music! It's too bad that the people who were actively developing hardware for the ADAM at that time didn't see the need for an ADAM compatible MIDI interface. I think they passed up a great potential and may never even know it! It's a good thing for those of us ADAM owners who share the "music bug" that Chris didn't just give up! He went out and learned to develop hardware and even to write software. By the time ADAMCON 1 was held in October of 1989, he had gone on to develop, not only the interface, but all the necessary software to use that interface! After a bit of gentle prodding, (ok, so I begged... grin), Chris and his wife Elizabeth went on to establish their own ADAM oriented company to build and market the new equipment. That company has been named Bonafide Systems... and lives up to that name too!

It's been two years and more since the project was started, and still there are new programs, utilities and even PD disks of MIDI songs coming to us from Bonafide Systems. That shows me an unparalleled level of high quality product support. Whenever I've needed advice on what equipment to purchase, how to hook it up or even some program to make it work better, Chris has always been there ready and willing to help. If you ever have any questions or requests, you can always get an answer... and in some cases... a new program to help you do what YOU need the MIDI to do!

As current MIDI-MITE (as it's been named) interface owners are already aware, the unit comes complete with everything you or I need to get started. The package comes with the interface, two MIDI cables, one 60 conductor ribbon cable to connect it to ADAM, two software programs on digital data pack, and three instruction manuals. All you need to do is to plug the ribbon cable into the side port of your ADAM CPU, then into the side of the MIDI-MITE. Looking at the interface, there are four jacks on the right side for connecting external MIDI devices. There is a jack labeled IN, a jack labeled THRU and two jacks labeled OUT.

Next month, what to look for in purchasing a MIDI device and what one can expect to pay for it.