GLOSSARY

Amiga

A range of computers famed for its graphic innovations and efficient multi-tasking operating system originally manufactured by the now-defunct Commodore starting in the mid-80s. After Commodore went bankrupt in the early 90s, the Amiga line was bought by Escom, a PC-clone manufacturer, who also promptly went bankrupt. The Amiga patents were then bought by Gateway 2000, another PC-clone manufacturer who seemed to be forging ahead with new Amiga plans which in the end amounted to nothing. Some ex-employees of the latter company broke away, and started a new Amiga company, buying the trademarks and licensing the patents from Gateway. Their new Amiga is essentially a new streamlined operating system which has little in common with existing Amigas. More information is available on the Amiga website.

Aminet

A vast repository of freeware and shareware files for the !Amiga.

Compuserve

Before the huge popularity of the Internet, computer users used to communicate via their modems using Bulletin Boards. These were (and still are) places that people could connect to, download files, leave messages for other users, and so on. Compuserve started life as a commercial Bulletin Board, and grew via a vast number of users into something resembling a miniature proprietary Internet. It was here that the !Blue Ribbon software was uploaded to after the company was bought by !Microsoft.

Direct Music

Essentially the successor to Bars&Pipes and (moreso) !SuperJam!, created by the team formed from the buyout of !The Blue Ribbon Soundworks by !Microsoft. It allows the creation of interactive music for games and other media on the Windows platform, using similar techniques seen in the aforementioned !Amiga programs. It is available for free on the DirectX SDK, available from !Microsoft.

Emulator

A piece of hardware or software that will allow one type of computer to use the software designed for a different type of computer.

Gloss

In this context, a brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult technical expression, often inserted in the margin or between lines of text or a manuscript. [Middle English glosa, from Old French, from Medieval Latin, glosa, from Latin glossa, word that needs explanation, from Greek glossa, tongue, language.]

Glossary

A collection of !glosses, such as a vocabulary of specialised terms with accompanying definitions. [Latin glossarium, from Greek glossa, tongue, language.]

General MIDI

A standard designed for cross-compatibility between MIDI instruments. Basically, it consists of a list of specific tones with corresponding number values. For an instrument to be GM-compatible, it must be able to produce the relevant tones on receiving a Program Change command of the relevant number. For example, a Piano tone has a value of 1, and a Helicopter sound has a value of 125. The system is greatly flawed by the huge restrictions is places on the composer, and the fact that there is no way of knowing just how a particular instrument will actually sound. It's main use seems to be restricted to the distribution of cheesy MIDI versions of pop songs.

HTML

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and is the language used to create websites. The language itself is defined by the W3C and is supposed to be used by website creators and browser developers. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Different browsers have different problems displaying certains things, and most website developers completely ignore the official standard, creating sites with lots of errors and consequently creating lots of display problems in different browsers. This site strictly adheres to the HTML 4.01 Transitional standard and should work on as wide a selection of browsers as possible.

Microsoft

One of the largest companies in the world, famously headed by Bill Gates - at one time the richest man in the world. Some consider Microsoft to be an evil empire, and certainly their business practices are heavy-handed and illegal as shown by the court case brought up by the US Department Of Justice. Microsoft bought The Blue Ribbon Soundworks to create it's Direct Music software for Windows, which is largely based on Bars&Pipes and !SuperJAM!. More information is available on the Microsoft website.

MIDI

MIDI is an acronym for "Musican Instrument Digital Interface". It is used to allow MIDI equipment, such as synthesizers or a sequencer on a computer, to communicate with other MIDI equipment, allowing one to control the other.

Mike Clarke

Creator of the Liquid MIDI site. Mike is a full-time audio programmer and freelance composer/producer and uses Bars&Pipes to sequence all of his music. He worked for over 7 years as in-house musician at Psygnosis in Liverpool. His band, From Within, is currently writing and recording an album. He also produces tracks for local artists and indulges in the odd bit of web design and programming. For a fee, he'll create a website for you too. See Contacts page for details.

Octamed Sound Studio

One-Stop Music Shop

An add-on sound board for !Amigas containing !Zorro slots (e.g. A2000, A4000). It contains a 64-voice !GM-compatible Proteus-1 sound engine which can be used directly inside Bars&Pipes, or via an external sequencer. The One-Stop Music Shop comes with it's own Bars&Pipes Input and Output Tools, thereby allowing use of the board without using up any existing MIDI channels. Also contained on the board is an extra MIDI port which gives an extra 16 MIDI channels (or an extra 48 with the One-Stop !Triple Play Plus interface) on top of the channels available via a MIDI interface connected to the standard serial port.

PNG

PNG (pronounced "ping") is the Portable Network Graphics format, a format for storing images on computers. Unofficially its acronym stands for "PNG's Not GIF". PNG was designed to be the successor to the once-popular GIF format, which became decidedly less popular right around New Year's Day 1995 when Unisys and CompuServe suddenly announced that programs implementing GIF would require royalties, because of Unisys' patent on the LZW compression method used in GIF. Since GIF had been showing its age in a number of ways even prior to that, the announcement only catalyzed the development of a new and much-improved replacement format. PNG is the result. More details are available on the PNG homepage.

SuperJAM!

The Blue Ribbon SoundWorks

A now-defunct pioneering software company, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Most notably makers of the Bars&Pipes series of MIDI sequencers, !SuperJAM!, the !One-Stop Music Shop soundcard, and the !Triple Play Plus triple-output MIDI interface. All Blue Ribbon software products were released for free onto !Compuserve after the company was bought by !Microsoft, and are now available on the Download page.

Tools

Triple Play Plus

A MIDI interface that plugs into the Amiga's serial port and gives three independant MIDI outputs, thus allowing up to 48 channels of MIDI. Originally designed for use solely within Bars&Pipes, it is now possible to use the interface with !Octamed SoundStudio. Special Instructions to build your own are available on !Aminet or on the Downloads page. Another Triple Play interface was made available for the !One-Stop Music Shop card, shortly before !The Blue Ribbon Soundworks was bought by !Microsoft, but is a very rare find. Using both the serial and !One-Stop Music Shop Triple Play interfaces together would give you 96 MIDI channels in Bars&Pipes!

Zorro Slot

A Zorro slot is a collection of slots in big box !Amigas to insert hardware add-ons such as soundcard, graphics cards and so on. It can be thought of as the !Amiga's equivalent to the PC's ISA slot, the Mac's NuBus slot, or the generic PCI slot. A Zorro slot is required for the !One-Stop Music Shop.