OctaMED
Encyclopedia
OctaMED is a popular sound tracker for the Commodore Amiga, written by Teijo Kinnunen. The first version, 1.12, was released in 1989 under the name MED, which stands for Music EDitor. In April 1990, version 2.00 was released with MIDI support as the main improvement. In 1991 the first version with the name OctaMED was released, so-called as it could replay eight independent channels on the Amiga's four-channel sound chip. This was also the first commercial version of the software. The publisher throughout has been RBF Software of Southampton, UK which is run by Ray Burt-Frost.
The technique of playing more channels of music than the Amiga hardware was capable of was first introduced with Jochen Hippel
's "Hippel 7V" routine, which used one hardware sound channel, and performed software mixing of two channels as the source of the remaining three Amiga hardware sound channels. The reason for using seven channels rather than eight was because the sound routine required more processing power than the 7.14 MHz 68000 CPU in the older (and later low-end) Amiga models could provide. The seven-channel routine then appeared in TFMX. Finally, the routine was optimised so it could mix an additional channel, resulting in eight channels of sound. The 8-channel routine first appeared in another tracker called Oktalyzer and Face The Music. Finally, this appeared in OctaMED.
OctaMED was developed on the Amiga until 1996. The last version, called OctaMED Soundstudio, had features like MIDI file support, ARexx
support, support for 16-bit
and stereo
samples, hard disk recording, and support for up to 64 channels.
Teijo Kinnunen handed over the development of OctaMED to other programmers soon after the final Amiga version was released. The new programmers later released a Windows
port, but the lack of features and presence of noticeable bugs meant this edition did not achieve the same level of fame as the Amiga release. More versions of the Windows port were later released. It was subsequently renamed to MED Soundstudio, and has had several releases under that name.
A later approach to extend the features of the Amiga version of OctaMED was performed by Kjetil Matheussen starting in 1997. By hacking the binary he managed to make a more low-level plugin system than was already available via the ARexx
language. With the help of NSM the users could now get access to the CAMD MIDI library, 48-channel MIDI interfaces, signal processing plugins for the sample editor, interaction with the sequencer Bars&Pipes, and many other esoteric features, far extending the features offered for the commercial Windows version of OctaMED.
Current version is available for Windows and AmigaOS platforms, called MED SoundStudio.
used Octamed to create "Super Sharp Shooter"
The hardcore techno
/jungle producers Urban Shakedown used purely Octamed and Amiga computers to create their 1992 British
top 40 hit, 'Some Justice'.
The music in F-117A Nighthawk (Stealth Fighter 2(1993)) was composed and created by musicians Brian Sutherland and Mike Colman using Octamed and an optomised version of the Octamed player was used to play the in game music.
OctaMED was used by Cristian Vogel
as the main sequencer on his first six albums.
Venetian Snares
British drum & bass producer Paradox
uses OctaMED in the studio and live on stage.
The 2009 album "Amiga Railroad Adventures" by artist Legowelt
was produced with Octamed on an Amiga 1200
.
UK electronica producer Matt Barker, using the artist moniker Epicentre, learnt his trade on the Amiga and made the jump onto OctaMED for his first few tracks in the late 1990s.
Welsh born group "Unleashed" produced an album "Gasshouse Guerillas" almost entirely on the Amiga using OctaMED
Calvin Harris
used OctaMED to produce the entirety of his first album, I Created Disco
(except for track 6 which was created using Logic on a Mac).
History
The distinguishing feature of MED and OctaMED in comparison to other music trackers on the Amiga was that MED and OctaMED were chiefly used by musicians to create stand-alone works, rather than by game or demo musicians to make tunes that play in the context of a computer game or demo. Firstly, this is because the MED and OctaMED music replay routine is simply too slow to be used in a game or demo. Most trackers are optimised for speed of replay code, taking less than 3% of CPU time. MED took roughly 20% of CPU time. Secondly, and this is also one of the reasons why MED draws more CPU power, the MED format allowed a greater degree of complexity in music construction, with arbitrary length of pattern sheets, sections and blocks rather than a simple pattern-list, and a greater number of effects for the sound. This additional complexity was welcomed by music composers, who preferred more sophisticated structure to their compositions and did not see it as a simple list of timed note-presses.The technique of playing more channels of music than the Amiga hardware was capable of was first introduced with Jochen Hippel
Jochen Hippel
Jochen Hippel is a musician from Kirchheimbolanden in southwest Germany. He played one of the most prominent roles in computer music during the 16-bit microcomputer era, composing the music for tens of games. He was also an experienced Amiga programmer and ported many of Thalion Software's Atari...
's "Hippel 7V" routine, which used one hardware sound channel, and performed software mixing of two channels as the source of the remaining three Amiga hardware sound channels. The reason for using seven channels rather than eight was because the sound routine required more processing power than the 7.14 MHz 68000 CPU in the older (and later low-end) Amiga models could provide. The seven-channel routine then appeared in TFMX. Finally, the routine was optimised so it could mix an additional channel, resulting in eight channels of sound. The 8-channel routine first appeared in another tracker called Oktalyzer and Face The Music. Finally, this appeared in OctaMED.
OctaMED was developed on the Amiga until 1996. The last version, called OctaMED Soundstudio, had features like MIDI file support, ARexx
ARexx
ARexx is an implementation of the REXX language for the Amiga, written in 1987 by William S. Hawes, with a number of Amiga-specific features beyond standard REXX facilities. Like most REXX implementations, ARexx is an interpreted language...
support, support for 16-bit
16-bit
-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...
and stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
samples, hard disk recording, and support for up to 64 channels.
Teijo Kinnunen handed over the development of OctaMED to other programmers soon after the final Amiga version was released. The new programmers later released a Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
port, but the lack of features and presence of noticeable bugs meant this edition did not achieve the same level of fame as the Amiga release. More versions of the Windows port were later released. It was subsequently renamed to MED Soundstudio, and has had several releases under that name.
A later approach to extend the features of the Amiga version of OctaMED was performed by Kjetil Matheussen starting in 1997. By hacking the binary he managed to make a more low-level plugin system than was already available via the ARexx
ARexx
ARexx is an implementation of the REXX language for the Amiga, written in 1987 by William S. Hawes, with a number of Amiga-specific features beyond standard REXX facilities. Like most REXX implementations, ARexx is an interpreted language...
language. With the help of NSM the users could now get access to the CAMD MIDI library, 48-channel MIDI interfaces, signal processing plugins for the sample editor, interaction with the sequencer Bars&Pipes, and many other esoteric features, far extending the features offered for the commercial Windows version of OctaMED.
Current version is available for Windows and AmigaOS platforms, called MED SoundStudio.
Users
Drum & Bass producer DJ ZincDJ Zinc
Benjamin Pettit, better known by his stage name DJ Zinc, is a drum and bass / breakstep DJ from the United Kingdom. Zinc is well known for 1995's "Super Sharp Shooter", a hip hop / jungle fusion.-Biography:...
used Octamed to create "Super Sharp Shooter"
The hardcore techno
Hardcore techno
Hardcore techno is a type of electronic music typified by the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples...
/jungle producers Urban Shakedown used purely Octamed and Amiga computers to create their 1992 British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
top 40 hit, 'Some Justice'.
The music in F-117A Nighthawk (Stealth Fighter 2(1993)) was composed and created by musicians Brian Sutherland and Mike Colman using Octamed and an optomised version of the Octamed player was used to play the in game music.
OctaMED was used by Cristian Vogel
Cristian Vogel
Cristian Vogel is an experimental electronic musician.-Biography:Cristian Vogel was born in Chile and moved to England in the mid 1970s. Vogel first began working with electronic compositions in the late 1980s with the Cabbage Head Collective...
as the main sequencer on his first six albums.
Venetian Snares
British drum & bass producer Paradox
Paradox (artist)
Paradox is the pseudonym of Dev Pandya, a producer from the UK who has in recent years championed a new sub-genre of drum & bass known as drumfunk, which focuses on either finding obscure breakbeats or re-sampling much used drum & bass breakbeats from their original source and transforming them...
uses OctaMED in the studio and live on stage.
The 2009 album "Amiga Railroad Adventures" by artist Legowelt
Legowelt
Legowelt is a Dutch electronic musician who describes his musical style as "a hybrid form of slam jack combined with deep Chicago house, romantic ghetto technofunk and EuroHorror Soundtrack."...
was produced with Octamed on an Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200
The Amiga 1200, or A1200 , was Commodore International's third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market...
.
UK electronica producer Matt Barker, using the artist moniker Epicentre, learnt his trade on the Amiga and made the jump onto OctaMED for his first few tracks in the late 1990s.
Welsh born group "Unleashed" produced an album "Gasshouse Guerillas" almost entirely on the Amiga using OctaMED
Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris is a Scottish singer-songwriter, record producer and DJ. His gold-selling debut album, I Created Disco, was released in 2007 and contained the top ten singles "Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls"...
used OctaMED to produce the entirety of his first album, I Created Disco
I Created Disco
I Created Disco is the debut album by Scottish recording artist Calvin Harris. It was released in the United Kingdom on 18 June 2007 by Fly Eye Records and Columbia Records, preceded by the singles "Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls", which reached numbers ten and three on the UK Singles Chart,...
(except for track 6 which was created using Logic on a Mac).