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Home Forums 68kMLA Composing music with Macintosh SE — #13
Post #13 by Mac128
Source Forum68kMLA
Category68k
Post DateTue, 19 Feb 2008 - 05:50
Original URLhttps://68kmla.org/bb/threads/composing-music-with-macintosh-se.11984/
Post
1) Does anyone know what software orginal was used on the machine in the 80's? I heard about 'Music 2.5' and 'Musicworks' but maybe there is more.
MOTU came out with Composer which incorporated Performer (later a separate product) in 1985. It was the definitive MIDI based composing system and still is one of the top choices among all professional musicians today (Digital Performer). Limited only by RAM it could run on a 128K & 512K.

So I don't know what you are asking. MusicWorks came out in 1984 and was one of the first music writing programs available for the Mac and was often bundled with 128Ks. However it was geared more toward the casual home user than a serious professional and has related limitations (i.e. no MIDI capabilities). Composer came next and by the end of 1985, there were a dozen programs, though none caught on as well as Composer and Performer.

You are however, dealing with an 86/87 era Mac which by that time some of the earlier programs had gone belly-up and you had a lot more RAM making much more sophisticated programs practical. That's why I say for modern MIDI use, Performer is the way to go. It is applicable to the era of your Mac and is still the standard for professional musicians today.

If you are just looking for a list of music programs from 1985-1986, among the popular originals:

MusicWorks

Professional Composer

ConcertWare

WaveEdit

MacMusic

Delux Music Construction Set

MacMIDI Softwware (MIDIWorks & MegaTrack)

MIDI Composer

Music Shop

MusicType

SongPainter

StudioMac

See this:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0148-9267%28198523%299%3A3%3C52%3AMSFTAM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M&size=SMALL&origin=JSTOR-reducePage

AND THIS:

http://www.semaphorecorp.com/ss/ss25.html

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