Bernie Dawson
After using the Music 5000 for some time now I have begun to
grow tired of the set of sounds it is capable of producing. (For example, the supposedly
'different Elguit' guitar in AMPLINEX 012 was all but identical - simply having
the offset put on channel 2 instead of channel 1 makes no difference to the
RM'd signal output - my ears could not detect a difference anyway.)
It occurred to me that I select some presets more often than
others in my instrument definitions so I set about analysing the instruments
created in AMPLINEX 12 and the Music City 2 album (both have 15 tunes with
which to do the comparison), to find out if this applied more generally.
AMPLINEX 012 had 67 user-defined instruments of which 19
could be recognised as coming from Hybrid's 5000-4 bank of instruments. Music
City 2 had 80 user-defined instruments 14 of them coming from 5000-4's bank. Each
instrument was then analysed to add up each occurrence of a waveform, pitch
envelope and amplitude envelope. Words like SYNC, RM and FM were also noted.
Waveforms analysis
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AMPLINEX 012 Music
City 2
Most popular 5 were:
Metal 25 Metal 54
Round 21 Round 17
Pure 19 Pure 13
Sharp 13 Sharp 33
Bright 9 Bright 13
Metal 25 Metal 54
Round 21 Round 17
Pure 19 Pure 13
Sharp 13 Sharp 33
Bright 9 Bright 13
Least popular 5 were:
Syncer 7 Syncer 0
Watery 4 Pipes 0
Hard 4 High 1
Broad 2 Broad 0
Clear 0 Clear 1
Syncer 7 Syncer 0
Watery 4 Pipes 0
Hard 4 High 1
Broad 2 Broad 0
Clear 0 Clear 1
Pitch envelopes analysis
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AMPLINEX 012 Music
City 2
Most popular 5 were:
Flat 61 Flat 54
Delvib 35 Delvib 43
Vibrato 12 Vibrato 13
Slowvib 11 Slowvib 11
Drop 6 Drop 23
Flat 61 Flat 54
Delvib 35 Delvib 43
Vibrato 12 Vibrato 13
Slowvib 11 Slowvib 11
Drop 6 Drop 23
Least popular 5 were:
Cycle 0 The same ones
Ramp 0 as AMPLINEX
Rise 0 plus Trill
Warble 0 Sweep and
Wow 0 Wide all = 0
Cycle 0 The same ones
Ramp 0 as AMPLINEX
Rise 0 plus Trill
Warble 0 Sweep and
Wow 0 Wide all = 0
Amplitude envelopes analysis
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AMPLINEX 012 Music City 2
Most popular 5 were:
Onoff 20 Short 40
Tailed 17 Verylong 19
Strike 14 Strike 14
Percuss 14 Percuss 16
Long 13 Long 16
Onoff 20 Short 40
Tailed 17 Verylong 19
Strike 14 Strike 14
Percuss 14 Percuss 16
Long 13 Long 16
Least popular 5 were:
Burst 4 Tailed 3
Swell 2 Onoff 2
Tremolo 1 Peaked 0
Spike 1 Spike 2
Reverse 0 Reverse 0
Burst 4 Tailed 3
Swell 2 Onoff 2
Tremolo 1 Peaked 0
Spike 1 Spike 2
Reverse 0 Reverse 0
Other analysis
This shows how often RM, FM or SYNC were used in the
instruments:
AMPLINEX 012 Music City 2
SYNC 7 2
FM 6 19
RM 15 32
FM 6 19
RM 15 32
Comments, conclusions
Frequent use of Metal and Sharp was for percussive and
string definitions respectively. Round and Bright are often in bass
definitions. There was considerable agreement as to which are the most
useful/useless waveforms.
A similar picture was seen with the pitch envelopes - the
same top 5 being used on both discs. Clearly many pitch envelopes are regarded
as useless by programmers, as they usually produce sound effects more suited to
playing Pacman! Some of them could be used with SYNC though (see later).
The use of amplitude envelopes is much more varied as
evidenced by the difference in choice shown in the two sets of music. Out of
SYNC, RM and FM, RM is much more used, and SYNC is least used.
So, if like me you want to try and create different sounds:
1) Go for the less commonly used waveforms such as Clear,
Broad, High, Hard.
2) Use the little-used Syncer and SYNC in conjunction with
some of the odder pitch envelopes on channel 1 (Music 5000 User Guide p69).
This always produces sounds with a lot of timbral movement.
3) (and here I'm wishing out loud) Persuade Hybrid to give
us the old Music 500 design facilities. The Music 5000 came out roughly 3 years
ago - one would have thought that by now this major deficiency would have been corrected.
Published in AMPLINEX 013, September
1989
