MIDI IN THE HOME

Talented? Musically frustrated? Read on...

There is a growing trend towards using the computer as a tool in the composition and performance of music using the new range of low cost keyboards and synthesizers. We decided to keep up with this trend and present a guide to what is available and how it can be used for both expert and newcomer alike.

As we are a computer magazine we are concentrating on this aspect and our information on the instruments is not "in depth" - this could be the subject of a magazine in its own right!

Arguably, CASIO are the Sinclair of the keyboard world, three years ago their £40 machine caused as much stir as the ZX81 in its day, and even now their CZ101 is the cheapest MIDI machine on the market at around £350.00. I know several people personally who owned an early Casio, went into computing and, returning to bigger machines have now linked both interests together, and they are not all millionaires either - one is a schoolboy and another is unemployed!

£108.00
XRI Systems

(Including Step and Real Time Interfacer).

This is one of the cheapest on the market and it shows in the rather functional look of the interface, but don't be put off, it works perfectly and is easy to use. The Interface is a large plastic box which stands upright and is connected by a small plug, the DIN sockets are fitted at the top of the unit and consist of MIDI IN, two MIDI OUT, and SYNC IN and SYNC OUT. This arrangement may pose problems if a lot of lead swapping is required during a program run and buying an extender cable helps eliminate this, otherwise it is stable enough.

STEP TIME SEQUENCER

The Software is top quality, especially the Step Time sequencer, this allows for ten onenote tracks to be recorded either singly or in blocks of chords.

The procedure is to select which track you want to record on, indicate how many other tracks you want to involve (2/3 for chords perhaps), press the note(s) and tap the Space bar to enter it. The note(s) appears on the stave in the base time length - down to 1/32 of a note, as previously decided by you - and further taps of the space bar increase the note length in steps of the base value. This can be repeated until all ten tracks are used, previously written tracks can be edited or completely overwritten.

This is a very powerful piece of software, and all the control options you could think of are included, such as Tempo, Patch change, Replay with or without music displayed (time is not accurate, but acts as a "trace on"), and individual channel assignment to each track. A copy to microdrive facility is included and I converted it to Disk in about ten minutes.

REAL TIME SEQUENCER

The Real Time Sequencer acts as a simple recorder which replays the music as you play it. It worked perfectly but I found that it didn't have the same interest for me as the other program. It performs a task similar to the sequence record option built in to most keyboards. I must add though, that it does allow ten individual recordings to be made, a far greater number than usually supplied, and this ability is not usually included on synths.

ON TEST

I tried it with the POLY 800 and the JVC KB600 and it worked well on both. The JVC disappointed me because it only functioned in OMNI Mode, ie accepted and played the music from ALL the channels. This means it is not suitable for playing specific parts of a composition. It also only played in one voice and the drum/rhythm unit was not triggered, this means that all the sophisticated extras were unavailable when using Midi.

However, some impressive single voice stuff can be produced, (after all, a Piano only has one voice!) and by splitting the keyboard so that all the keyboard is the left hand and then splitting the voices, you can record a chord and rhythm backing and add a live melody in a different voice.

The Korg performed as expected, except that I had problems making the patch-change operate mid-way through a piece of music.

ASSESSMENT

Impressive, especially the software, and well worth the money. My only real criticism is that the instructions, although well written are supplied on single sided computer printout paper, and trying to find something by searching through twenty four joined sheets was most frustrating. In the end I pulled them apart and filed them in a ring binder - end of problem.

XRI Systems, 10 Sunnybank Rd, Sutton Coldfield, W. Midlands.

AND FINALLY...

The prices of the instruments will vary quite a lot from place to place so don't take them as gospel, they are meant as a guide.

I must say a sincere thank you to all those who lent me all this very expensive equipment, Vince Hill Associates and Siel, Mr. Chapman and Rosetti, Richard Young and Casio, XRI (who have just brought out a Juno 106 and DX7 editor and are about to release a composer program) and Paul Waby for lending me his Korg.