In this issue we have an AMPLE-user's view of the EMR Studio
24+ music software for the Archimedes. How does it compare, and how do they
work together?
EMR Studio 24+ version 2
John Bartlett
This is not intended as a review, more as a user's view
which may help any members who are contemplating forking out the requisite £179
for this powerful and complex piece of software for the Archimedes (and A3000).
The package has been ably reviewed elsewhere - but how does
it stand up after 12 months extensive use? The opinions expressed here are
purely personal and relate to the way in which I use it, and are not necessarily
a judgement on the facilities offered.
The first thing to understand is that this is a dedicated
sequencer - something very different to the Hybrid Music System.
The Hybrid package is based on a fairly powerful high-level multitasking
musical language. This enables quite complex tasks to be programmed with
reasonable simplicity, or the system can be used on a more convenient level by
means of the disc-based interfaces supplied. Most of us use a combination of
the two (whether we know it or not!).
Studio 24 has no significant programming facilities, but
does have various editors for examination and modification of MIDI data. It is possible
to program MIDI data (e.g. complete tunes) from scratch in any of its editors
(not for the faint hearted! - more of this later), but in essence it is a
powerful data manipulation program. The music data is intended to have been
generated by a keyboard or other compatible device like the Music 2000. Please
note that you will also need a MIDI podule. I use the Acorn AKA16 one and have
found it most satisfactory.
Having been duly impressed by the screen graphics and
generally figured out what they all do, what next? The manual is reasonably
clear but rather poorly laid out, something that is aggravated by the upgrade
pack! However, it's all in there and once found, the information is quite clear
and concise.
Recording 'live' from a keyboard is very simple and almost
identical to using a multi-track tape recorder. You do need to understand your
keyboard (e.g. how to set MIDI channels) but this is normal with any MIDI
device. Recording from the Music 2000 is also very simple, either one track at
a time or in 'bulk'. For bulk dumps there is a very good unmerge facility which
allows you take in all of the data on all the channels on one channel and then
separate it into individual tracks. I use this extensively. 'Live' tracks can
then be added.
Individual tracks may then be modified in several ways:
transposition, changing volume (this is via velocity not true volume
unfortunately), altering start point, looping, copying to another track, etc.
Arrangements can be built up from parts in a similar way to
AMPLE. Note however, that if WIND is used from the Music 2000, strange finish
points (in terms of bar position) occur due to the way in which WIND works.
This has to be compensated for in the Studio 24 arrange page. There is no
mention in the manual of how to correct for odd bar positions, but it can be
done.
There are two serious omissions: tempo changes are discrete
instructions, hence 'accel' and 'decel' are tedious to produce. 'Cresc' and
'dimin' are impossible to produce other than by editing individual notes.
There are four editors - Event, Drum, Graphic and Score.
The most useful is the Event editor. Information about note,
duration, velocity, control, program, etc. is listed in chronological order and
can be scrolled through with the mouse. One very pleasant detail is the way in which
the data is sent out as you scroll, thus playing the notes or issuing control
changes etc. Similarly, when altering the note velocity, the note sound
continuously at the appropriate volume.
The Drum editor is a scrolling matrix into which note 'hits'
may be placed. I have never found a use for it, as AMPLE does it so much
better!
The Graphic editor is essentially an electronic piano roll,
which can be useful for quickly tracking down strange occurrences.
The Score editor is, in my opinion, the poorest feature of
the whole system. It is difficult and tedious to use for editing and, apart
from the relatively good printer dump, it is really only useful for looking at
the music in notation form. It suffers from the same malady as most other score
editors - the mouse syndrome. Hybrid have produced a staff editor which is
superlative - notation can be entered very quickly and simply and it can be
likened to a music word processor.
Not so other systems. I have yet to see a mouse-driven
editor even come close to the QWERTY keyboard entry method. The manual states -
"over the years EMR has had great success in persuading beginners to use
real-time rather than step-time input". Having tried the editor I am not
surprised! My greatest objection to the crop of poor staff editors is that they
assume input from a keyboard.
If anyone from EMR is out there, please note the following:
the assumption is not only naive but also arrogant. We do NOT all want to be keyboard
players and we are NOT all beginners. It also goes some way to explain why so
much of today's electronic music sounds the same - most of it has been produced
by keyboard players. Many of the things which I write are unplayable on the keyboard,
so I need a good score editor.
In summary, I generally use the package as a bulk handler
for MIDI data and for final mixdown. With the 1Mb expansion there are acres of space.
My average program size is about 75k, and there is usually over 1Mb to spare.
Sequencers are often notable for their tendency to crash. Studio 24 is not too
bad in this respect. For the first few weeks I had numerous problems, but
having spotted what tends to make it fall over, I avoided the problems. It
crashes occasionally for no apparent reason, but this encourages regular
backups!
The ability to play waveforms from the Archimedes is fine,
but the format of the waveform has to conform to the EMR standard - i.e. you
are tied to EMR samples. A major omission is the inability to save to disc in
MIDI standard format. A new piece of software has been released by EMR to read
this format but not write it.
Not having used any other sequencers in depth, I do not wish
to make comparisons, but I am seriously considering the purchase of an Atari system
running either one of the C-Lab or Steinberg sequencers. The huge Atari
software base makes me regret having gone the Archimedes route.
Oh, for a Hybrid system running MIDI under RISCOS! Now THAT
would be truly wonderful - how about it Mr Jordan? You could beat the
competition hands down.
Published in AMPLINEX 023, November
1991
