Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

little over five years ago Steinberg
released a version of their Pro 24
sequencer for the Amiga. Despite the
fact that the Amiga was badly in need of additional
good quality music software. Pro 24 Amiga failed
to have the same impact of the Atari ST version.
This was little Of nothing to do with the
software itself, but simply a reflection that relatively
few people were using Arnigas for sequencing at
that time. In recent years, interest in Amiga Midi
sequencing has grown considerably and, since
many of you will have missed this sequencer first
time around, I thought some up to-date details of
the Steinberg offering might be useful
Pro 24 Amiga is actually a rewrite, rather than a
direct port, of the onqinal Atan ST program. It is
supplied on a single disk and, as expected, comes
with a 'Steinberg key' - i.e. a dongle - that must be
present in the second joystick port at all times. The
manual is very well written and has good
introductory and tutorial material, but the best
news is that despite some fairly detailed accounts
in later chapters, the manual has been kept to a
reasonable size so it doesn't take forever and a day
to read.
The top half of the main Pro 24 Amiga display
contains the track indicators, track selection, record
pointer icons NO the activity bars for each of the
24 tracks. Needless to say. the set of tape-transport
controls of Pro 24 Amiga look much the same as
those found on other sequencers, with each track
having a set of playback parameters that determine
whether data is transposed, quantized, delayed.
hitered or muted
As well as a tape mode there is a sequence
mode which allows you to create finks for
repeating sections and so on A Master track',
quite separate from the 24 normal tracks, is also
available and is used for storing tempo changes,
time signatures and other global characteristics.
Losing its
way
Although there is almost nothing that
cannot be done with this sequencer, I'd
be less than honest if I didn't mention
that I think the package is now she
its age. Amiga software, like that of
other machines, has moved forward a
long way In five years.
There's no doubt at all that Steinberg's
Pro 24 Amiga sequencer Is extremely
powerful, and would clearly be ideal for
any user that has had previous experience
with Pro 24 on the Atari ST. For everyone
else though I'm not so sure. and I suspect
that what is really needed is a revamp to
bring the package up-to-date.
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As with r most 'heavyweight sequencers, there are
Simply
o
far too many facilities to be able to mention
them
o
all. Pro 24 Amiga supports internal and
external r clocks. MTC and SMFTE, and offers a
range
1I
of metronome/count-in facilities including
the sending
,
of user-definable Mods notes
•
When editing. a track survey window let you
.
see a visual picture of the data present. while a
•
track content display provides detailed event-by-
•
event info. Location markers make it possible to
•
mark out specific areas of a sequence and, in
•
conjunction with the editing facilities, this forms an
r
easy-to-use yet powerful arrangement.
a
RIGHT u TRACK
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A subu atk murk enables incoming data to be
h
split and redirected to specific tracks and of course
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all the
p
usual things like channel reassignment on
output, automatic purictms arid punch-out etc. are
provided
Pro 24 Amiga, like its original ST counterpart
has as own grid-StVe drum editor, provides some
comprehensive Sysex facilities, support Midi file
load/save options and (surprisingly) can even
handle SMUS format. There are also plenty of nice
touches like a score editor. alternate channel echo 4
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effect, and powerful 'logical edit facilities which
allow all sort of event translation operations to be
carried out.
Its possible to split multi-channel tracks and redirect
the data to alternative tracks on a channel-
by-channel basis. You can also remove 'empties'
and doubles 'duplicate Midi events which you
sometimes get when combining sequences), and
Meres a whole range of cut/expand. pattern Split
track mixing, tempo change and step-input options
in addition to the usual types of copy/move/delete
block
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window which provides details of Midi
events orienas
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ecThe ' o bottom line
s m m
e e n Product Pro 24 Amiga
v d e Price: E239 Inc VAT
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Supplier: Harman Audio
Tel: 0181 207 5050
Ease of usal
Implementation
Value for money
Overall
-
Amiga Computing
MAY 1995
The Pro 24'•
drum asap
pinto, is
particularly usalui
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Paul 0
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Pin 21 Amiga
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