ANNOUNCING THE MUSIC KIT 4.1 FOR INTEL AND NEXT HARDWARE The CCRMA Music Kit and DSP Tools Distribution now runs on Intel-based hardware under NEXTSTEP, using one or more plug-in DSP cards to support music synthesis and digital audio processing. MIDI is similarly provided by plug-in cards. The new release, designated "4.1," is essentially Release 4.0 plus support for NEXTSTEP 486/Pentium machines. (A list of highlights is given below.) The release is "fat" so there is only one package that works on both NeXT and Intel-processor computers. It is available free of charge by anonymous FTP from host ccrma-ftp.stanford.edu, directory pub/NeXT/MusicKit/. For those unfamiliar with the Music Kit see the "BACKGROUND" section below. For music synthesis and digital audio processing on Intel hardware, the 4.1 Music Kit provides drivers for three DSP sound cards, the Ariel PC-56D, the Turtle Beach Multisound and the i*link i56. For MIDI on Intel hardware, the Music Kit provides a driver for MPU-401 cards (such as the MusicQuest family and the SoundBlaster-16), emulating the functionality of NeXT's MIDI driver, including synch to MIDI time code. Source to all the drivers is included in the Music Kit Source Package. While only one DSP card is required, the power of a system can be scaled up by the use of multiple cards. An application built with the Music Kit can simultaneously use multiple DSP and MIDI cards by the same or different manufacturers, with details of DSP resource allocation handled automatically. In addition, the drivers provide automatic sensing so that applications can be moved between machines with different hardware configuration with no re-configuration necessary. NeXT hardware has not been left behind-the Music Kit now supports the 192K DSP extension memory board (available from S.F.S.U.) with automatic sensing. Other new features include a MusicKit panel for the Preferences application for setting various defaults and managing multiple DSP and MIDI cards. BACKGROUND The Music Kit is an object-oriented software system for building music, sound, signal processing, and MIDI applications under the NEXTSTEP operating system. It includes programmer libraries, applications, a music scripting language, documentation and programming examples. It has been used in such diverse commercial applications as music sequencers, notation packages, computer games, and document processors. Professors and students have used the Music Kit in a host of areas, such as music performance, scientific experiments, computer-aided instruction, and physical modeling of musical instruments. The Music Kit is the first to comprehensively unify the MIDI and Music V paradigms, thus combining interaction with generality. It was developed by NeXT Computer, Inc. from 1986 to 1991 and has been supported since then by CCRMA at Stanford University and developers such as Pinnacle Research, Inc. Please send Music Kit requests to musickit@ccrma.stanford.edu. To subscribe to a Music Kit news group, send to mkdist-request@ccrma.stanford.edu. MUSIC KIT RELEASE 4.0--HIGHLIGHTS Here is a partial list of highlights of the 4.0 release of the Music Kit (also supported in release 4.1): * Extensible, high-level object-oriented framework that is a super-set of Music V and MIDI paradigms. * Representation system capable of depicting phrase-level structure such as legato transitions. * General time management/scheduling mechanism, supporting synchronization to MIDI time code. * Efficient real-time synthesis and sound processing, including option for quadraphonic sound. * Fully-dynamic DSP resource allocation system with dynamic linking and loading, on multiple DSPs. * Complete support for multiple MIDI inputs and outputs. * Digital sound I/O from the DSP port with support for serial port devices by all popular vendors. * Non-real time mode, where the DSP writes a sound file (NeXT hardware only.) * Suite of applications, including WaveEdit--a graphical waveform editor, Ensemble--an interactive algorithmic composition and performance environment (including a built-in sampler) and ScorePlayer. * Library of instruments, including FM, wavetable, physical modeling and waveshaping synthesis. * Library of unit generators for synthesis and sound processing. * Documentation, programming examples, utilities, including a sound file mixer, sample rate converter, etc. * ScoreFile, a scripting language for music. NOTES ON INTEL-BASED HARDWARE Care must be taken to be sure that NEXTSTEP and the sound cards are configured properly. For information on configurations supported by NEXTSTEP, please contact NeXT (email: NeXTanswers@next.com). Note that the Ariel PC56D and i*link i56 use several high addresses in I/O space to signal DSP reset and memory map configuration. Be careful that these addresses do not conflict with other devices, PCI bus configuration cycles, etc. For information on CCRMA-tested configurations, send email to musickit@ccrma.stanford.edu.