In 1991 the first version with the name OctaMED was released, so-called as it could replay eight independent channels on the Amiga's four-channel sound chip.
The distinguishing feature of MED and OctaMED in comparison to other music trackers on the Amiga was that MED and OctaMED had native MIDI support for external instruments via the Amiga's serial port – this allowed many musicians to sequence a combination of outboard studio equipment and internally generated sounds to create studio quality releases such as I Created Disco by Calvin Harris.
Secondly, and this is also one of the reasons why MED draws more CPU power, the MED format allowed a greater degree of complexity in music construction, with arbitrary length of pattern sheets, sections and blocks rather than a simple pattern-list, and a greater number of effects for the sound.
This additional complexity was welcomed by music composers, who preferred more sophisticated structure to their compositions and did not see it as a simple list of timed note-presses.
Teijo Kinnunen handed over the development of OctaMED to other programmers soon after the final Amiga version was released.
With the help of NSM (an open source patching and plug-in system for OctaMED[1]) the users could now get access to the CAMD MIDI library, 48-channel MIDI interfaces, signal processing plugins for the sample editor, interaction with the sequencer Bars&Pipes, and many other esoteric features, far extending the features offered for the commercial Windows version of OctaMED.
In February 2015 A-EON Technology Ltd acquired the rights to OctaMED for Amiga and Amiga-like next generation systems from RBF Software.