Dr T Kcs Level 2 Version 3 Options

[mklmouse]

Hi folks, is there anyone out there that can direct me to where I can obtain a copy of Dr T's amazing sequencer, compositional tool and algorithmic music generator: Dr T KCS Level 2 Version 3 for the Mac?
This app came out around the early-mid 80s on floppy disk and was also for Atari ST and Amiga computers. At the time (before I obtained my first Mac (MacPlus with no hard drive, just two floppy drives!)) I bought an Atari ST just to run this great program. Now my Atari is failing fast and everything else I have musically (straightforward MIDI & audio sequencing: Cubase, etc, and score writing: Sibelius, etc) is on the Mac; and so I'd love to find a copy of the ONLY music composition program for me. Anyone have any ideas? I've been trying for several years (including trying ST emulators; also, Dr T Software has long since gone out of business...).

Desperate of Sandwich

regards

mklmouse

[mortalengines]

http://www.foryourhead.com/DrTs.htm


This should answer your question....sorry man. There are a TON of sequencing programs out there. Do you still work with Hardware? Logic, DP, Cubase, or even Ableton lend themselves admirably to the task but I promise you they are NOT free (or necessarily cheap). You may want to look into an interface with a starter version of Cubase bundled and Midi In and out....That would be your best bet. Then again, you may want to troll the web for an old Atari ST with it loaded on it or if you are real resourceful, patient, and tenacious there may be a Dr T's user group out there that will be of some help to you....There's gotta be one out there as there are some old schoolers who are still using it.

[mortalengines]

Sorry, I didn't read your first post as closely as I should have. I know here in Portland, Oregon that there is at least ONE Atari 1040ST users group and some of them buy and sell machines as well. You should maybe start with that and go from there. I noticed you use Cubase (probably more like a recorder than anything else). I never got beyond a starter version of Cubase and found it to be highly unintuitive. If you hit a dead end with the Dr T's then maybe you should try a demo of Ableton Live. I REALLY like live and have been using it for a couple of years now (though it took me almost a year before I got a comfortable workflow going with it so I understand ANY reluctance to jump into another sequencer.....I hear Fatboy
Slim still uses a 1040ST and his engineers helped him slave a Pro Tools HD rig to it....Jan Hammer still uses Opcode Studio Vision...how long has THAT program been dead in the water?). I have always liked Reason's VERY straightforward sequencer as well. You should try em both if you haven't done so already.

Good Luck again!

[poesco]

aahh, KCS, and the wonderful Tiger and Tigercub... my first sequencer on the amiga and still dearly missed... I did lots of gigs with that, and even though I'm using Logic now, I still miss a lot of features....I saw Plaid perform with it in the early days...
I must have a hundred floppies with KCS tracks I can't use anymore...

[exsend]

Dear Desperate Sandwich

Are you sure there was ever a version for the Mac?

I still have KCS running on my old Atari via a little work-around-box called "Romatic Robot" (this was used to circumvent Dr Tobenfeldts piracy protection policy which dissallowed the making of backup diskettes). However the contacts on the box are getting worn out and its not much longer for this world. I dust it off occasionally and demonstrate "Open Mode" to my students. They've never seen anything like it before. (Some, however, compare it to Live and say that Lives interface is better... but what do they know?)

Have you checked out Cycling 74s Max/MSP. I think it might suit you down to the ground. (You maybe programmed Sinclairs in your youth)

regards from a piece of Swedish crisp bread!

This post has been edited by exsend: Mon 17 Sep 2007, 23:51

[Thea Hardy]

Good grief, things in this topic take me back. I remember my first MIDI sequencer on my TRS Color Computer - can't recall the name but it was done by Dr. Lester Hands, and I used it with my hotshit new DX7. Working with list data and thinking it was way cool. And what a thrill it was. But I loved Bars and Pipes on my Amiga - crazy interface, but it worked really well for me. By then I had a Roland U-20. Tinkering with ADSR and stuff. And that was a thrill, too. A real multi-timbral orchestra at my fingertips. I spent a lot of time learning how to articulate instruments so that even when played on the keyboard they sounded like what they were supposed to be - horns, and flutes and violins and such. It was so cool.

Now I am waiting for Logic Studio, which was supposed to arrive today but didn't. I am hoping for another thrill, but you know, I don't think it will ever be quite what it was in those days. Maybe I am jaded, but it's like discovering there are no longer any spices or herbs in the world I have not heard of and probably own (which is true in my case) - it's not like there is nothing new, but we came a long way in a short time in those days.

[mklmouse]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my quest. Exsend, as a point of interest, the version for the Mac did come out at the same time – mid-80s – as the version for the Atari ST, so it must have been for System 6. And as you point out, (apart from the extraordinary Programmable Variations Generator and Master Edit) the most especial aspect of the program is Open Mode, absolutely perfect for composing where structure (and experimenting in structure) is paramount. In the end, I am bereft off this masterpiece of technology and my only recourse (apart from continuing to search the Mac version amongst folk like you) is yes – to find another Atari ST and run the thing on that – or to explore the possibilities of running an ST emulation on a (yuk!!!!) PC (I know there's one prog for Windoze, STeem, that apparently does a goodly job... that means (if it works) getting a Windozy machine, which I'd rather not do, but...

Again, thanks to you all. If I get lucky and solve my prob, I'll be back with my solution (this might help poesco with the 100s of KCS floppies).

regards

michael of Sandwitch