Amstrad Studio 100

[ralferoo]

I'd never even heard of this!
Amstrad Advert c. 1985

[MacDeath]

The funnier is that you had to use an Atari St to use it properly...




Yes, Amstrad was basically a (cheap) Hi-Fi manufacturer to begin with.


They also produced some toasters (probably with Sinclair QL's refurbished parts I guess)

[Bryce]

Why did you need an ST to use it properly? Any computer with a Midi interface, sound out, etc, such as... The Amstrad CPC perhaps could use it.

I had a very similar Amstrad HiFi, without the mixer, but with a CD Player. Can't remember if it had a name or number anywhere, but I think it's still in my parents attic.

Bryce.

[TFM]

That's right, and there are some MIDI expansion cards for the CPC. Even DIY solutions - done quite well IHMO.

[Gryzor]

Heheheh this is hillarious... and I had no idea they produced something that "advanced".

[MacDeath]

Why did you need an ST to use it properly? Any computer with a Midi interface...

...

The Atari ST having a MIDI in-built, it was by default the good choice in Midi-ing...
MSX was also often considered a Midi machine but failed at occidental markets, and the ST was far more powerfull and quite cheap in the late 80's.

Could even be used as MIDI-Net (basic network solution but quite effective)

The funny part is that Atari could have somewhat survived if they had continued the ST-Falcon Series as specialised (music and MIDI) machines (in addition to being the next era STs), just the way Apple survived thx to its niche market (PAO-publishing).
But hey, Tramiel wanted his Jaguar to be eaten by Playstation instead.

They killed their last hope by discontinuing the Falcon while all production settings and devs were already done...hence no hope to get a few money back from it.

Falcon was really nice for sounds (and Demo and games after all), it could get sounds with even a better quality than CDs and as a "dedicated" machine, is even more accurate at MIDI than modern multipurpose PCs (who have to handle a fuckhuge priority Windows while MIDIing)...

And it's a pleasure to have this good old ST casing and keyboard so it is easy to find replacements...
I could save a pair of STE thx to this too, as I had an old STF not working at all... could take the keyboard, upper casing and DiskDrive into a broken yet functional 520STE... And another 1040 STE.
I guess I should try to run Populous in MIDInet...


Really a shame if you want my opinion.
God bless you Jacko Tramiel anyway... you finally were a great man with many defaults though, but still a great man.

[Gryzor]

You ignore the business reality of the era; the Jaguar wasn't given the push it needed anyway because of lack of funds,  and the Falcon kind of went against the grain of Tramiel's philosophy - maybe it was cheap compared to other solutions, but it was still expensive and in no way a home computer.