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!

£459.00
Siel (UK) Ltd.

Spectrum users will feel at home with this one as the control buttons have the same kind of rubbery feel that the original Spectrum had!

However, this is no criticism, the thinking behind it being that a musician wishing to change something during his performance would not be over gentle in hitting the button and for this they are ideal. This instrument features 61 keys (5 octaves), 10 voices, a rhythm unit which includes drums, bass, rhythm and arpeggio and 10 preset rhythms. You can program your own rhythmic sequences from the manual drum option which has four percussion effects. One finger chording, which the rhythm pattern follows is available on the left hand part of the keyboard which can be split into any of three preset positions.

The power supply unit is separate from the instrument and is plugged in in a similar manner to the Spectrum's PSU. A 4 Watt per channel stereo amplifier is built in, which is very loud! A counter melody option adds harmonies to the melody line and an interesting feature called "left to mono" plays the top note of right hand chord as a separate single note in the left hand voice.

The drums are not very realistic and rather limited, however the rhythm patterns are very good and have a nice "feel" which makes playing along easier. After a little confusion the machine fell into place and I found it easy to get what I wanted, the five octave keyboard gave a healthy range and the sounds were very well created. In particular I liked the Pipe Organ, Strings and the Trombone, the latter not sounding quite like the real thing, but giving a great sound anyway. It is more for the player with added accompaniment, but versatile enough to enable an inexperienced musician to make good music.

Siel (UK) Ltd, AHED Depot, Hookwood, Reigate, Horley, Surrey RHG OHY.

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.