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Amiga l.pusic
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overcome by using accidentals and adjusting
durations but doing Barry Manilow tunes, for
instance, is a real hassle. And using Append to
play one song after another can result in some
strange stuff since all songs play in the key of
the first one. Other complicating factors are
that durations are columnar in effect which
takes some getting used to, and the
documentation doesn't explain how to move
instruments between sound palettes.
Music Studio's five screens are beautifully
done with color being used to differentiate
voices. It's very attractive on a good color
monitor, decent on a Commodore 1701 or 1702,
but you can forget it on a monochrome box --'
it shows 16 shades of green! It uses standard
music notation and while note stems overlaying
others on the screen doesn't effect its
functionality, music printouts don't look as
good as they could. Music repeats and printed
lyrics are nice features but the printouts break
scores any old place (not just at bar lines)
which isn't so nice.
An alternate screen lets you compose on the
grand staff but rather than using notes and
rests, color-coded blocks are used in a literal
representation of tone colors. This can be
swapped instantly with the main composition
screen where the music is shown in standard
notation. For educational purposes, it's real
handy.
Music Studio offers MIDI-out and has several
Casio CZ-101 patch programs in the
documentation for altering the sounds on that
synthesizer. It was designed and programmed
by Audio Light, the company that did many
good programs for the Koala Pad. In view of
that and versions of Music Studio for other
computers, I think they could have done a
better job for the Amiga. It's available for
$59.95 from Activision, 2350 Bayshore
Frontage Road, Mountain View, CA 94043
213/306-0735.
ADD A LITTLE MIDI MUSIC
As you've probably gathered, the Amiga can
control and coordinate another kind of sound,
those generated by MIDI-connectcd music
synthesizers. During the past couple of years,
MIDI has revolutionized professional music. It
lets electronic devices (synthesizers, drum
machines, mixers, etc.) communicate with each
other, putting them all under the optional
control of a computer. Among other things, a
computer can store preprogrammed instructions
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for all of these devices, and strike up the band
on command.
If you're thinking about getting a synthesizer
to fool around with at home, get one that's
multi-timbral, like the Casio CZ-101. Multitimbral
means that under program control, a
synth can play more than one kind of
instrument sound. The CZ-101 has four
octaves of keys about 2/3 the size of those on
a piano, eight voices total of which four are
MIDI, and can be purchased used or by mail
for substantially less than its $495-or-so
suggested retail price. Whether you get Deluxe
Music or ProMIDI Studio to use with it depends
on how serious you arc about music; a number
of professionals have ProMIDI Studio,
Fleetwood Mac and Frank Zappa, to name a
couple, and Chuck Fisher, who recently
replaced several computers in his professional
recording studio with a single Amiga and
ProMIDI Studio.
All of these programs offer MIDI-out but
only Deluxe Music and ProMIDI Studio have
MIDI-in as well. With MIDI-in, music can be
entered by playing on the keyboard of a MIDIconnected
synthesizer. Remember: You can
play very slowly, with one finger if that's all
you can manage, since increasing the playback
speed of digitized music doesn't alter its pitch
Deluxe Music and ProMIDI Studio will also
mingle and mix synthesizer voices with Amiga
sounds, and since the Amiga can play samples,
it makes a dynamite drum machine (something
no synthesizer can claim). You'll be amazed at
the relative ease of making good music with
the Amiga playing drums on its four channels
while a synth plays different instruments along
with it. And with the CZ-lOTs four additional
non-MIDI voices, you can perform live, using
MIDI sounds as prerecorded backup, which is
precisely what MIDI was designed for.
Whether or not you go MIDI, rest assured of
one thing: the Amiga's speed of operation and
multitasking, coupled with its ability to play
sampled and internally generated sounds in
stereo, (to say nothing of the strength of IFF
compatibility) makes it the musician's
computer. Now that software is available to
capitalize on all that power, no other personal
computer on the market can touch it - and if
someone says otherwise, they're just whistling
Dixie.