TRS-80 ORCH80 Free

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http://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/orch80/

I don't know exactly what this is but I felt like I should share this here.

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You mean, like an alternative to SampleTank 3 ?

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:hihi: In all seriousness, I don't quite understand what it is... a synth? a daw?

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The TRS-80 (affectionately known as the Trash 80) was the first computer I ever used in the late 70s. It had no sound, no color, just lo-res blocky monochrome text and graphics. This was before MIDI existed.

I looked at the manual that was linked to here. They sold a box that you could hook up to the TRS-80 to allow it to make sounds and a programming language of sorts for entering notes. Very primitive stuff. None of this is relevant today unless you are interested in ancient technology.

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Frantz wrote:None of this is relevant today unless you are interested in ancient technology.
Ancient technology, eh?

You mean like MiniMoog, Prophet and Odyssey :hihi:

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Frantz wrote:The TRS-80 (affectionately known as the Trash 80) was the first computer I ever used in the late 70s. It had no sound, no color, just lo-res blocky monochrome text and graphics. This was before MIDI existed.

I looked at the manual that was linked to here. They sold a box that you could hook up to the TRS-80 to allow it to make sounds and a programming language of sorts for entering notes. Very primitive stuff. None of this is relevant today unless you are interested in ancient technology.

Yep. The "sound" card, such as it is, is really nothing more than a pair of resistor dacs. If you are interested in masochistic music making you could almost certainly run that code in an emulator and map the output to a file. With a little work, you could turn the output into samples.

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Numanoid wrote: Ancient technology, eh?

You mean like MiniMoog, Prophet and Odyssey :hihi:
There is good ancient technology that people hold in high regard and then there is the Trash 80.

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I have a lot of nostalgia for the TRS-80 and its blocky graphics. Sound isn't part of that nostalgia, though.

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This was our family's first computer!! Talk about nostalgia. Lol I used to try and program music on it when I was like 10/11. And the sound was so terrible lol. I'm so glad computers have came along so far so fast. Programming music on the TRS 80 orchestra was similar to just working with a MIDI event editor. Putting in each note & rest & intricate step. Painful lol
I read more than post = I listen more than I talk

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I still have my grey case TRS-80 CoCo 1. That was the first home computer I owned. The computer I learned machine code and BASIC programming on though was a Dick Smith System 80.

Here's a pic of the Dick Smith System 80 (Z80 CPU)...
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..and here's a couple of photo's of my TRS-80. I upgraded its keyboard, upgraded the RAM from 16K to 64K and did a bunch of other mods internally (extra i/o, S-video output)...
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ghettosynth wrote:Yep. The "sound" card, such as it is, is really nothing more than a pair of resistor dacs. If you are interested in masochistic music making you could almost certainly run that code in an emulator and map the output to a file. With a little work, you could turn the output into samples.
There is software on that page for that (scroll down).
And here the original in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uv4FUdBYX0
Oh yes - the 80s and there sound (how I hated it....)
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AusDisciple wrote:Here's a pic of the Dick Smith System 80 (Z80 CPU)...
Seriously? There was a thing called a "Dick Smith System 80"? :lol: I guess that eventually went the way of the Joe Blow 9000...
You need to limit that rez, bro.

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We are talking about several generations of technology. The first computer I ever used was the TRS-80 Model I. It looked just like this. You loaded programs from cassette. The graphics for this Star Trek game were typical. Big blocky, primitive graphics. No sound. It was exciting at the time but was completely outdated the moment the second generation of home computers arrived: Apple IIe, Commodore Vic 20, etc.

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Here is the original ad from 1977. It was yours for $599 USD.

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Clip and mail the coupon the today!

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Even though the TRS-80 Model I came out in 1977, Orchestra-80 was not available until 1980. This was how you entered music into Orchestra-80. You wrote a program like this which probably took days to prepare. You were rewarded for your efforts with musical beeps and boops.

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