Claes Holmerup: Falcon - the music machine
AT LAST! The first C-lab Falcons have landed, and if we're lucky, a new shipment will arrive before christmas. Speaking of christmas; the 24. of December is the last date for ordering the Limited Edition bundles with Cubase Audio. Those who want such an extremely cost-efficient package are really out in the eleventh hour (if this article is published before christmas - otherwise, it's unfortunately already too late).
What's so special about the C-lab machines?
Well, the LE-bundles contain a Falcon MKII with a built-in SCSI-harddisk (350MB
or 530MB). The hard disk has been connected by removing the internal terminators
on the motherboard and placing a small card with a 2.5" SCSI-connector leading to
the internal SCSI-disk instead. When this HD is mounted, the place that originally
was intended for an internal 2.5" IDE-disk is used, so it can't be connected at
the same time (unless if you build it into a tower case...).
On the harddisk
The hard disk is split into two partitions, where the first is 14MB and contains
all the pre-installed software. The other partition is intended for audio
recording. Among the programs are Cubase Audio (naturally), ICD Pro 6.5.5 hard
disk driver (which is better than Atari's own AHDI/HDX), CheckDisk3 (for
defragmentation), as well as the other programs normally located on the Language-
disk. On the harddisk is also a demo song with eight audio tracks, which is
automatically loaded when Cubase Audio is started. This demo song can of course
be removed (thank heavens for that!).
When I conducted a test of the harddisk speed, it shows that the transfer speed
is about 1.2MB/s, which is enough for making audio recordings, according to all
the tests I've made previously.
To compare, I tested exchanging the harddisk driver software to SCSI-tools and
HDDriver. I got a transfer speed of about 1.4MB/s with these - to be compared to
my own 3.5" fast SCSI-II disks which shovels the data at a speed of about 1.8-
1.9MB/s with SCSI-tools or HDDriver (which is as close to the limit of the SCSI-
bus as you can come).
Sound quality
The sound circuitry has been improved. Naturally, there are line levels in and
out, and C-lab have also exchanged the output OP-amps to IC's with less noise than
those that were used in the original Atari Falcon. Cubase Audio with cartridge
dongle and clock module is included with english user manuals and is also pre-
installed on the harddisk, so you can start immediately with your recordings. The
keyboard has the english character set, if anyone was afraid they would have
chosen the german keyboard layout instead...
In short: The Falcon is - as usual - the best choise for the musician who wants to
work with harddisk recording. Well done C-lab!!!
In the next issue, I'll say a few words about another field of use for the Falcon: home burning!
Until we meet again - continue to make music!
Claes
claes@holmerup.com
www.holmerup.com