…was to bring an Amiga on stage for live performance. I tried, but soon found out, that it just wouldn´t be possible. It´s tons of breakable equipment. The transportation would take a whole trunk and there would be no room for anything else. Since all the devices were designed to be used on a dektop, the danger of the whole setup beeing turned into a pile of plastic waste is horribly high. To make it short, it seems to be so much easier to use a conventional sampler / mp3 player / a rockband / whatever to do the sound.
Well, things will change, in a radical and devastating way. The „Riot AMIGA“ is about to come! (I don´t know when though…) If this works out, it will be something like a super cool Retro – Groovebox with:
- 2 channel original 8 bit sample sound (i know, Amiga can do more, but it quiets down somehow…)
- 4 channel Midi – sequencer (when using an old version of octamed, haven´t tried anything else yet, because i don´t need it)
- sampling function
- retro style keyboad
- CF card reader (…Amiga formated unfortunately)
- 19″ mountable
-…maybe an internal effect
This is, what it might look like…
1 Some 8″ portable TV. Hopefully it will be possible to recognize something on it.
2 Audio IN /OUT, 2 channels each
3 Midi IN / OUT
4 Power supply
5 Basic controls, not sure about them yet…
6 Trackball mouse
7 Rack casing, not sure about this too…
8 Card reader
9 A600 Keyboard
10 some weird coloured spraypaint skin…
Why not…
…use an Amiga 1200? Because its motherboard and keyboard would be bigger. Also i might not need the AGA chipset, since the A600 has got the same sound chip, as far as i know. Its Paula, i am about!
…use an Amiga 1200 and soundcard? Same reason. The basic system would also be much more expensive. Since i don´t know what i´m doing most of the time and the whole thing could… well, just explode maybe, it would be a waste of money and equipment. By the way… with a soundcard it wouldn´t be 8 bit anymore, so where is the point? 
…use disk drive, CD or something? Might be possible. But i have been using an Akai MPC, which also reads CF and it turned out pretty handy.
…use some better looking case? The idea is to build a device, that can be used on stage. It has got to be -at least kinda- stable. Also i like the idea of mounting it into a rack.
…put an effect device in it? I thought about that. A distortion would be awesome! A Kaos pad sounds nice too, but is way too expensive. If there is any room for that, i´ll do it. Uh, well… and power supply. Mhm, so maybe not.
…give it a rather pathetic name? A – TA – RI -TEEN – AGE – RIOT !!!
This is, what i got so far…
An Amiga 600 in working condition and 2 mb ram, a 1 IN / 3 OUT Midi Interface and a Stereo 8 bit Sound Sampler.
Stuff i need to get…
- a propper power supply
- amiga compatible trackball
- some flat and portable screen, which can be powered by the power supply, i also dont have yet…
- the whole „CF card for Amiga“ thing. I have to figure out, either to use the pcmcia or the ide onboard controler for that. Maybe both?
- some cables, adapters and connectors
- the case. But this will surely be the last thing to worry about.
…Alright, here we go!
