[Coco] CoCo Orchestra-90

[Rogelio Perea]

Andrew wrote:

> I recently received from Ebay an Orchestra-90 (thank you, Diego!) - I
> know there is a manual on the David Keil emulator disk (or somewhere - I
> have a couple of very large CD-ROMs of software and stuff from a couple
> of CoCo sources) - can I test this thing using only the manual?

The Orch-90 comes with a built in musical piece: William Tell. When you 
power up the CoCo with the cart inserted (with/without a multipak), after 
the initial banner, you can press E to edit the built in file, you can 
browse up and down a bit to get a feel of the "language" the ORch-90 uses to 
produce its tones - don't modify anything on the file or it may not play 
back properly.

After you satisy your craving for looking at the musical score source code, 
go back to the command mode... think it is BREAK how you exit the 
edit/browse mode. When you are at the command line you have to have the pak 
compile the source code, use the S command (for Score). The pak will get 
busy and after a couple of seconds the cursor will return. To play issue the 
P command (for Play... obvious?). You can get sound (mono) throught the 
TV/monitor speaker but the very best experience is running the stereo output 
of the pak trhough a decent boombox or hi-fi system... need a suitable RCA 
to RCA stereo patch cord of suitable length to accomplish this.

> I guess what I am wondering because it included the box (but no manual)
> - the box mentions that it "Includes software, synthesizer module,
> operation manual" - well, I likely have a copy of the manual (if it is
> on one of those disks) - but what of the software? Is it needed?

As Neil pointed out, all the software you need is built in the pak ROM. The 
manual you will need to really get a grip on the scoring language the pak 
uses, there are quite a few commands and directives to modify tones, set 
tempo, notes, note length, etc.

> Also - does it play well using an MPI and floppy drive?

It does, just point the MPI switch to the slot that has the Orch90 pak, even 
if a disk system is installed. The Orch90 software takes care of the minimal 
disk routines to use... like to get a directory of what's on drive 1 issue a 
D :1 command.

Note that if you CoCo disk system is set to work with a disk controller that 
has all the whistles and bells (like ADOS), when the Orch-90 pak controls 
the disk, all the extra features in your disk controller are gone - at least 
that happens in my CoCo setup; all my Orch-90 music floppies are standard 35 
track single sided disks, even when my disk system can access both sides of 
the disk and push for 40 tracks.

Enjoy the Pak, and explore the web for music files.


-=[ Rogelio ]=-