I want to add some explanations about this program.
I pointed some information about it on other
post:
"Don't expect a complete sequencer/player on it..... only weights 8KB, but what it intents to do is correctly done. It works like a cassette player recorder, but for Midi streams instead of sounds. But it can record 8 different tracks, and also mix incoming midi with the data in memory, so it can give a lot of entertainment.
On the other side... again its files aren't standard Midi files, you can't play here your collection of Midi songs. But.... you can record them instead, and then save the songs as EMR files. I have already made the test and it saves the incoming song. "
EMR stands for Electro Music Research. This corporate name hides the name of Mike Beecher, also editor of Electronics & Music Maker and Home Studio Recording magazines on the 80s. He moved from the journalism to the commercial side of MIDI creating an interface for almost every computer on that era.
Here you can read an article about the Performer program on its first version for the BBC Micro.
But some of you may ask yourself, how this particular CPC program has made its way to the Ep?
The reason is... there is not only one reason... Beta-testing the SF3 I was searching some MIDI program candidates for every platform, MSX, CPC and PCW(EP already has the ScoreTrack Rom), and the only one I found for CPC was this one. Later I found that the interface was based on the same UART chip than our never released
Midi cartridge adapter for the EP, so it was selected.
For the MSX I selected the
Philips Music Module, one big interface I already have wrote here about, as it also uses the same UART chip and has a lot of software.
On the time I found the EMR performer program I still hadn't a real CPC, so I asked Geco if he could adapt it to work on his emulator, and he kindly did it for me. Of course the program didn't played a note at all, I only wanted to study the curious program.
But things changed not so long ago when Hans from TMTLogic achieved to emulate the CPC EMR interface on the SF3 and the CPC Performer was suddenly working. The path for emulating the EMR program on the EP was then opened. Geco re-took the program and tried his best to make it work, and after some weeks he added it a needed interrupt routine and the notes started to sound... You already have seen the
video of the CPC and the EP emulating a CPC, both running the EMR Performer program.
And now we have here the complete conversion by Geco, with the added bonus of better colours on the main screen, and also we no more need a SF3 to make it work, at least on the Emulator...
He has taken the graphics from this faded MSX screen:
And the CPC unbalanced colours screen:
And has tailored the graphics to this magnificence, more according with the EP colour scheme:
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I want to highlight that his almost lonely work is done on spare time. He is actually maintaining the flame of the Enterprise scene, and the task must be recognised accordingly.
