Hi there, music lovers. Brown here. You know when
I think back longer than I care to remember I have always had a
desire to bring together my two great loves – computers and music. I
am a guitarist and a keyboardist by training but my trusty 1982
Atari 800 was so limited in what it could do in the musical field
that, gradually, I lost interest in all computer activities bar an
American program called 'Financial Wizard' which I used to keep my
bank manager at bay.
Developments in digital synthesis for musical
instruments reawakened my love of the keyboard and the creation of
the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) soon wetted my
appetite for a computer controlled keyboard. I could now blend my
computer and musical abilities together into an all consuming
pastime. I could make a widow of my long suffering wife, orphans of
my three little kids and alienate a significant proportion of my
friends. A martyr to computer controlled musical synthesis.
So, earlier on this year, I sat down to look at
what was available. The one and only MIDI capable computer was the
Atari ST and thus it became my logical choice. After further
deliberations my eventual decision was to acquire an Atari 520 STM +
, an SM125 mono monitor and an AST 600 twin 1Mb drive. The larger
RAM memory would allow the manipulation of bigger pieces of music,
the monochrome display would be easier on the eyes and the 1Mb
drives would transfer the musical data all the faster.
I got my system in July after a very annoying
three month wait. I had opted to do business with Bath Computer
Shack where Di and Steve did their best to get my system together
completely unaided and unabetted by a hopeless AS +T. Such was my
frustration that I contacted AS +T to find out what was causing the
delay. During the course of the conversation I found out that they
were still advertising a drive combination which I was told was no
longer made (Twin 1000C with PSU) but I stuck to my decision to wait
for the FD 600 and paid dearly for it in terms of the quarter year
wait. The Bath (now Trowbridge) staff were more than aware of my
dissatisfaction and were more than kind by way of extra software
sent with the system.
The next round of decisions lay in the choice of
synth. I checked out the Roland Alpha Juno 1 and 2, the Yamaha DX 21
and 100, and the Casio CZ 1000 and 3000. Purely on a value for money
basis I opted for the CZ 3000. The choice of timbre (voice)
facilities is very similar to the Yamaha DXs but the CZ was £100
cheaper. I also felt that the CZ was easier programmed than the DX.
A fellow musician put me off the Rolands but it is down to personal
preferences in the final analysis. While looking out for synths I
espied a tidy little Yamaha RX 21 drum machine going for the right
price. Both the CZ 3000 and the RX 21 are equipped with MIDI and use
digital sound sources. I could now connect the ST, the CZ and the RX
all through MIDI. Only the software needed choosing.
The more I checked the software out the more I got
confused. There is a plethora of music programs available for the ST
and quite a few are MIDI capable. I felt that the handiest item
would be a sequencer that offered a comprehensive range of MIDI
operations. A sequencer is like a multi-track tape recorder which
arranges music stored on disk to be played as the composer wishes.
The composer can play a piece in its entirety and save it for later
modification or he can put the piece in track by track, doing bass,
harmony and melody separately in sync. He can then play the
individual tracks back as one song. Software for the CZ series
appeared to be cheaper than the DX series, although a good many
programs are not dependant on the synth. I had chosen my synth
correctly! Hybrid Arts software was what I was looking for and so I
went for EZ Trak which is a 20 track sequencer with enough
facilities to see off the nearest rival. This company also produce
full blown professional packages that are employed in top recording
studios by some of the leading lights in the music industry. With a
pedigree like that I revelled in my choice.
With the growing interest in hooking ST's up to synthesisers,
we felt that many readers might want to dip their toes into the
swirling musical waters so we asked a musician to let us know
what he put together. It wasn't Midge Ure so read on, you might
be able to afford it!
I rejoiced when Santa came early. After a bit of
plug fitting, my great dream came to reality. I connected the
computer to the synth using cables from the ST's MIDI out to the
CZ's MIDI in and from the CZ's MIDI out to the ST's MIDI in. This
arrangement would allow the transfer of MIDI data to and from the
computer and synths. I could play a tune on the CZ and the ST would
hold it in RAM and then play it back ad infinitum (or ad nauseam!).
EZ Trak could also save any tune or composition to disk enabling
budding Bachs and developing Dvoraks to retain their opuses for
electronic posterity. It should be noted that an equivalent
multi-track tape recorder could put you back thousands of pounds so
sequencers like EZ Trak are fantastic value. I hope to say more of
this program and it's ilk in future issues.
So what does the future hold. Well music lovers, I
hope to purchase a program called CZ Android which will allow me to
program timbre data into the synth and save it to disk as part of a
patch library. This is another Hybrid Arts product so I am expecting
something of a very high standard. I may upgrade EZ Trak to a more
pro affair called SyncTrak which caters for 60 track recording and
lots, lots more. I will not indulge himself here for fear of
spoiling forthcoming articles. From a hardware aspect, I will be
investing in a small Tascam line mixer to allow simultaneous playing
of the synth and the drums. I hope to mix the output of the synth
with that of the RX 21 drums. This composite stereo signal will be
fed to the AUX in of my domestic HiFi amp. At present, I still have
not heard my little collection of digital delights in full. Someday,
not too far distant, I will savour the perception of something
created by Brown for Brown alone!
Catch you later.
Next issue ... An in-depth look at Super
Conductor, one of the cheapest music packages. Is it good enough or
do you have to pay as much for the software as for the ST?
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