Originally Posted by :
What we do forget though is whilst the Paula chip was far superior to early PC's the ST was far better with sound and had some brilliant music software and in some cases is still being used today.
Blasphemy! That isn't true at all! The Atari ST used an off the shelf Yamaha sound chip that produced 3 channel mono sound! This was later upgraded towards the end of the ST's life with the STE which then had 4 channel stereo similar to the Amiga, but most game's developers continued to just code for the original 3 channel mono because the game's wouldn't be compatible with the older STFM otherwise. What we do forget though is whilst the Paula chip was far superior to early PC's the ST was far better with sound and had some brilliant music software and in some cases is still being used today.
The only reason the ST saw great music software developed, such as Cubase, and appeared in many sound studios was because of it's built in midi ports. With these the ST's own sound wasn't even used, and the ST was instead used as a Midi controller for midi based musical instruments and equipment. And often a monochrome monitor was used too!
The sad thing is that with the addition of just a £20 parallel port midi unit the Amiga had identical abilities! And in fact due to the Amiga's much more advanced OS and custom chips, Amiga midi programs could control more channels than ST equivalents! Have a look at applications such as Bars and Pipes for a good example of Amiga midi software.
Just think. If the Amiga had come with built in midi ports too then the ST might not have even been popular at all! Oh what a dream!
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