QuickTime Music Architecture

Latest Versions!

QuickTime 2.1 is available directly from Apple's QuickTime site. The next major update to the QuickTime Music Architecture will be in QuickTime 2.5.

As of 19 May 1996, QuickTime 2.5 has gone Beta!

As of 22 July 1996, Monday, QuickTime 2.5 has gone Final!

I poked my head out my cube around 10 pm, and saw Mike Dodd and Tim Schaaf and a few others sort of standing around, leaning on our portable computer carts. Tim said, We're final. The others grunted something I took to be assent.

If you are a developer with who needs to be seeded with future versions of QuickTime, you can find beta versions and developer goodies at Charles Wiltgen's QuickTimeFAQ site.

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Here are some of the new music features for QuickTime 2.5.

Atomic Instruments
We now have a format for custom instruments and sounds to be added to QuickTime movies. The "Atomic Instrument" format is used for instruments inside a movie, added to the system folder, or used within an application.

Better Sound Quality
Everything just sounds better. The overall volume has been increased, a 32-bit mixdown bus is used, and, on PowerMacs, we do some snazzy audio interpolation.

Karaoke
Using QuickTime text tracks, we can import .KAR files with lyrics! Open your own Karaoke bar! Or something.

Open Synthesizer Architecture
Third parties can now write custom drivers for sound cards, software synthesis methods, and external MIDI synthesizers. QuickTime will immediately have access to all their capabilities. (Sample code for a complete software-based synthesizer is included here.)

Bugs!
QuickTime 2.5's Music Architecture components have fewer of them. Most notably, we have corrected the Standard MIDI File importer to report correct instruments and not crash, and prevented parts of the drumkits from randomly disappearing (which some listeners seemed to have found aurally objectionable, for some reason).

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Some other information you may find useful.

A QTMA Catechism
A set of common questions and answers about QuickTime.

David's MIDI Spec
An introduction to the MIDI protocol

Recommendations For MIDI Implementation
Recommendations for the clean implementation of MIDI on musical synthesizers, with an emphasis on how to design a synthesizer suited for use in computer applications.

WBL 4014 Sequencer/Arppegiator
A pattern-based sequencer which is implemented entirely using the QuickTime Music Architecture, and takes advantage of many of QTMA's features. The WBL 4014 lends itself to certain styles of composition and performance; we use it primarily for techno material.

Configuring QTMA
How to use the QuickTime Music control panel and the QTMusic Configuration application to configure QTMA to use any synthesizer or combination of synthesizers.

Other QTMA Software
Various small programs of utility to developers and users of the QuickTime Music Architecture.

How To Write A MusicComponent
Some preliminary documentation about how to write a music component for a particular synthesizer to run under QuickTime. Also, the source code for a complete music component is provided for your reading pleasure.

QuickTimeMusic.h
The released version of QuickTimeMusic.h was missing the macro "qtma_StuffXNoteEvent". This is only needed if your application generates sequences to pass to the Tune Player or put into the media samples of a QuickTime music-only movie.

Sample Code
This is a small application, with sample code and Code Warrior project, which opens up a QuickTime music movie, alters the instruments in the header, and then plays the movie with the altered instruments.

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Other sites of interest.

My Develop Article
An article for Apple's Develop Magazine which explains the basics of programming for the QuickTime Music Architecture