In this section we have a review of the Music 5000
Universal, of two new music disc releases, of a music tutorial package, and of
the Roland D5 synthesiser.
Music 5000 Synthesiser Universal
Roy Follett
To quote the introduction in the Universal User Guide:
"Welcome to the Music 5000 Synthesiser Universal and a new world of
high-quality musical sound from your BBC Microcomputer".
What this software does is replace the computer's internal
sound system with instrument sounds from the Music 5000 synthesiser. In other
words, if you have any music software it's 'Goodbye' to the computer's own
dreadful sound.
Alas, it is only for owners of a Master 128. Users of other
BBC computers with Sideways RAM are not catered for, which is a pity. For here is
a splendid utility which converts good music software into absolutely superb
music software.
The Universal software is child's play to use: so easy, that
the User Guide has just eight pages, but contains all you need to get going.
One gripe is that when setting up your music disc you are only allowed to use
one drive even if you have dual-drives which is a bit tedious, although in
total it was only three disc swaps.
There is a list of around sixty musical software packages
that the Universal recognizes, but if yours is not on the list you can set it
up to suit. I was only able to test the Universal on two packages: the Tobin Music
System and Ted Kirk's music learning software. Both of these worked fine.
It's very strange, instead of hearing the computer emit its
usual beep, to hear an Organ or Piano sound or whatever else you set it to be. Without
doing a benchmark timing check I had the feeling that BASIC was running slower
with the Universal installed than when it was removed. However, I can't see
that this will be a problem with most music packages.
But one must remember to remove the Universal, by EXITing
from it, if using software where speed is important.
All in all this is a magic bit of software. Any criticisms I
have of it must be put aside for the sheer joy of listening to a decent sound
instead of that appalling alternative. And lest you forget, Hybrid Technology
has set aside a key to remind you what it used to be like.
The Music 5000 Universal Software Pack (for existing Music
5000 users) costs £33.35 (inclusive of postage and packing) and is available
from:
Hybrid Technology Ltd
273 The Science Park
CAMBRIDGE
CB4 4WE
273 The Science Park
CAMBRIDGE
CB4 4WE
The Legend of Obernell by Phil Comber
Roy Follett
At last Phil has emerged from under a pile of aliases, to
stand up and be counted. What we have here is a collection of titles previously
published in a variety of places. All of them have been re-mixed, re-vamped and
in some cases re-written.
In case you are thinking 'why should I buy something I might
already have?', all I can say is you will miss a good disc. You will also miss
finding out about his secret past, for he has bared his soul in the 'shock
horror revelations' contained in the 'sleeve notes'.
I found it interesting to make comparisons with previous
versions - and in general he has succeeded in making improvements. My two
favourites of Phil's are 'Flight' and 'Dreamer'. Both of these are included and
whereas 'Flight' is a remix resulting in a fatter sound, 'Dreamer' has been slightly
rewritten, resulting in a somewhat different tune. I think I prefer the old
'Dreamer', the new version seems to be less of a performance, losing the drive
of the old one.
To use his own words "This is a collection of Phil's
best compositions. Listen and enjoy."
At £3.00 inclusive what more can I say?
See the Advertisements section in this issue for further
details.
Windy Island by Michael Harbour
Ted Kirk
Hands up those who bought the disc 'Shivering Again' after
hearing 'Running on Ice' in AMPLINEX 013. My hand stays guiltily down. How hard
do we listen to each other's music? We have a young composer of imagination and
skill here, and he's been here all the time.
This new disc requires the Music 3000 expander: it gives
added scope to that imagination while, I suppose, limiting the likely sale of
the disc.
The disc introduces itself with a little
fanfare-cum-signature-tune which is the least captivating thing on it; don't be
put off! I expect I'm very stupid, but I couldn't find out how to cycle through
the menu and play the pieces in turn, and there didn't seem to be any help
offered. Of course you can keep pressing f9, but then you get the fanfare every
time! I was reduced to cataloguing the disc and doing LOAD RUN.
Once enveloped in the wrap-around sound of the opening tune,
'The empty newspaper' (short 'info's explain the titles - more or less! -
imagination's put to work here too, yours as well as his), my first reaction
was 'Jean- Michel Jarre, eat your heart out!'. I don't mean that this music
isn't original, but we are in that Jarrish world of simple chords, interesting melodic
patterns, and ravishing sound complete with wind and sea-surge (and the
occasional spell of umty-tumty 12/8 rhythm as well).
Michael's pieces have some advantages over Jarre's: there's
more going on in them, and they're a lot shorter. Also I haven't noticed much
humour in the great J-M (Jarre fans stay away from my door!), but there's
plenty here. I defy you to resist Granpa Spoons strumming on his electronic
banjo and grievously missing the notes of his favourite tune, or the waltz of
Milly - sorry, milly - the stupid rhino, with its fat galumphing bass. 'The bellringers'
play a hymn called 'He who would variant be' (and the clock chimes are variant
as well).
But what will keep bringing me back to this disc is the
wrap-around numbers (headphones are a must). 'The bellringers', as well as
whimsical, is beautiful and very skilfully woven within its simple structure.
'Anyone there?' (starting from Morse code) is both exciting and nostalgic. 'Underground
river' has melody and mystery decorated with plops from dripping stalactites
and an unexpected little coda in 5/8 time (much too short, this one). 'The
empty newspaper' and 'Ricky's mountain', which start each 'side' (side?), do a good
job of creating the atmosphere of Michael's unworldly scene.
I've only one gripe, and I address it not only to Michael
but to others out there. Some of these pieces, and too many of our lesser works
in AMPLINEX, just stop. What's happened to the art of making an ending? Or is
this a fashion of the day, passing by square, ancient me? Oh, well. At least
there are no fade-outs.
'Windy Island' ends with 'God Save the Queen' (not variant,
except for one odd chord). It comes in on a sort of fair-ground organ, but
slowly it expands - and the world joins in (Mike Oldfield, eat your heart out).
Tremendous! Get it (and the expander)!
'Windy Island' by Michael Harbour costs £4.95 (inclusive of
postage and packing) and is available from:
Hybrid Technology Ltd
273 The Science Park
CAMBRIDGE
CB4 4WE
273 The Science Park
CAMBRIDGE
CB4 4WE
PLAY from JBS Software
Roy Follett
Members who have read my reviews of John Bartlett's music
discs (for example, Jazz Volumes 1 and 2, and Impressions) will know of my enthusiasm
for his ability to create a sense of 'performance'. So far, in my opinion, he
is the only person to achieve this with repeatable success.
Following feedback from purchasers of his discs, and from
the realisation that AMPLE has more power than is generally used, he decided to
write a tutor based on his techniques. 'PLAY' is the result.
PLAY is thus a tutor that instructs you how HE does it: it
has plenty of examples on disc that show, firstly, how a straight transcription
sounds, then the sound with John's technique added.
The motto of this tutor is 'Hold my hand and I will guide
you through MY methods': it never duplicates anything that is already written
in the AMPLE Programmer or User Guides. In fact he urges you to read and
re-read the Guides, even the boring bits.
As John points out, he has devoted no space to deep AMPLE code
because the Hybrid system has been cleverly designed to make music without it. There
is a Toolkit which is a group of useful words for manipulating timing, dynamics
and effects. It also has a word 'part9a' which deals with the WIND command and
is as near to 'deep code' as you are going to get.
Apart from the niceties of his techniques, there is a good
Beginners' Guide. This is placed at the rear of the manual. The reason for it
being there is, having grasped the fundamentals you won't require it again. I
defy even the most ardent 'Jukebox' user not to learn from this section.
If you want to become a brilliant programmer, read the User
Guides; if you want to make your music interesting, then PLAY must be a good route
to take.
PLAY is the bargain of the decade, costing £15.95 for a
version that includes a nicely-presented fifty-page manual or £11.95 for a
version that has the text files on a second disc.
My advice to you is place your order now and beat the rush.
Me? I shall forget to return my review copy.
See the Advertisements section in this issue for further
details.
Review of Roland D5 synthesiser
Ian Buckley
I shall concentrate in this brief review on use of the
Roland D5 synthesiser as an add-on MIDI instrument for use in the Music 5000/2000
environment; there have been several useful general reviews in the late
1989/early 1990 music press.
Connections and facilities
MIDI in, out, through; stereo or mono out; stereo headphone;
ROM card slot; sustain pedal input jack; supply jack; 5-octave velocity
sensitive keyboard (no aftertouch) with on-board bender/modulation wheel
combined.
Two preset tone banks of 128 preset configurations per bank
plus drum presets; all tone banks are editable. Tones are a mixture of sampled
and digitally synthesised sounds. Extra tones available on ROM cards (see below).
RAM cards are available for patch dumps etc.
Four Modes
- Performance: single MIDI channel feed with 128 voices
available as independent (one at a time) instruments. Polyphony variable, but usually
at least 8-note. Arpeggiation (variable speed, direction), chase (an echo
effect with variable delay and decay) and two 'chord play' modes are available.
- Manual Drums: the keyboard is converted into a drum kit
with a different (and very realistic) drum sound assigned to each of the 62
keys.
- ROM play: a number of pre-programmed demonstrations using
multi-timbral mode. Very impressive!
- Multi-Timbral: the mode for use with the Music 2000. Eight
polyphonic voices, each of which may be one of the 128 set up in the
multi-timbre sound bank (which is different from the performance mode sound
bank).
Add to this the drum sounds which are available
simultaneously on dedicated MIDI channel 10. The synthesiser will actually play
up to 32 sounds simultaneously and you can play along on keyboard (as part of a
part).
In use with the Music 2000
Well, yes, of course it adds another dimension to the sound.
There is a loss of the close control available in the Music 5000 environment
(e.g. dynamics, panning) but this can be overcome by writing one's own control commands
and embedding them in the AMPLE words.
For example:
"EBAS1" [90 MIDIPROGRAM]
I have actually created my own control subset comprising
words such as MP, MC and LEV which I load in as a basic toolkit prior to
writing a piece in AMPLE. Fortunately, AMPLE is sufficiently flexible to permit
this, though there is the problem of timing, which can suffer on a large piece,
with the puny BBC micro being hard pushed to get through all the work looking up
the words. Incidentally, why did Hybrid choose to use such long names for the
MIDI commands; and why does VEL not work?
One of the annoying features of the D5 is volume control.
The preset patches have been set at 'suitable volumes' in the factory and seem
to be all over the place to my mind. I would prefer a flat setting across the
board in order to permit subtle manipulation from the Music 2000. I could
modify all the patches myself to suit, but life is too short for that. The
result is careful level setting on each part, being mindful of the patch
playing the part.
This brings me to editing: some superb patches can be
created but it is hard going - I did manage a nice 12-string guitar sound after
a 2 hour struggle. The manuals, although very thorough, seem to have lost
something in the translation from the Japanese. There are upwards of sixty
parameters, many of which have multiple numerical settings available, which can
be edited to produce one patch.
Sounds
As for the presets and the use of them, here is my opinion:
Drums - Superb. I have created a whole bunch of drum
patterns in chordal form. For example:
'c(EGA)c(E//)/(E//)c(E//)
Put through a decent sound system, they sound like the real
thing and make the walls shake!
Bass - Good. 12 bass guitar patches are available in
multi-timbre mode, most of which have a rich satisfying sound.
Strings/woodwind/brass - Good and, in the main, convincing.
Pianos - Weak. Need more resonance.
Guitars - Weak. The 'acoustic' guitars sound like elastic
bands.
Organs - OK, but generally not as good as the Music 5000.
Church organ (performance mode) is good.
Ethnic/special effects - some of these are excellent and
atmospheric.
There are also some rather peculiar 'wailing cat' type
'Oriental' effects which aren't particularly to my taste; they do, however,
appear to excite my neighbour's dog (who is also excited by Kylie Minogue,
Australia's greatest living musician, but that's another story).
The 'Take off jet' effect is spectacular in stereo.
A general comment on many of the preset patches is that they
are too flat in the ADSR (i.e. of an ONOFF type with fairly high sustain levels
and long or infinite release times). This is fairly easy to get around.
There are additional 'presets' available on ROM cards but,
from what I have seen and heard, they are not that impressive or worth the cost
(£20+). In contrast, a versatile, cheap, mini-keyboard could be added on and
accessed via the MIDI through socket - for example, a small Casio 230 tone-bank
unit which is now available at less than £70.
Summing up
A versatile, professional-standard yet budget price keyboard
(I got mine from Dougie's Music Northwich for less than £500) capable of
producing superb sound. The multi-timbral mode provides a flexible outlet for
the Music 2000 and like units.
Published in AMPLINEX 018, July 1990
