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Graphically Yours | |
Article from Electronics & Music Maker, August 1985 |
It's now some 18 months since the company first produced MIDI software for home micros, and now SIEL have come up with two of their most attractive packages yet. Trish McGrath has the details.
The writers at SIEL's software lab have been working overtime to come up with two new MIDI packages. The first is a DK editing package with dramatic graphics, the second a complete patch memory database.
Using a home computer to edit parameters on a synth is an unexpected, but very welcome, spinoff of the MIDI revolution. At a time when every new polysynth is coming equipped with a digital parameter access system, any means of giving musicians more programming information is a real godsend.
SIEL were among the first to realise the potential of putting a synth's parameter system on a computer screen, and their Expander 6 editing package was impressive enough to give a good many doubting Thomases a nasty shock as to what MIDI was capable of achieving. A year later, they're offering the Graphic Editor as an almost irresistible temptation to Commodore 64 owners and their DK80 polysynths. It's available on either disk or cassette, and has broadly the same hardware requirements as the Data Base package reviewed later on.
Once loaded, the program displays an Options Menu housing such goodies as Panel, Load, Save, Free, Play, Chord, Old Setting, New Setting and End of Job. All selections are cursor-controlled by way of moving a curious representation of the SIEL logo around the screen and pressing Return (or 'fire' on a joystick, if you have one) when it's hovering over the required option; a highlight line confirms your selection. While this system worked well enough in practice, having to play The Golden Shot every time I attempted a selection wore on my patience eventually. I also can't help thinking that if SIEL's cursor was a little smaller and simpler in composition, it wouldn't take so long for the Commodore to tell it to move around - as things stand, it's a decidedly sluggish little beast.
Anyway, from the main menu you can Load one of the DK80's programs, while Panel displays the parameters of the chosen sound in glorious technicolor. Seeing as the DK80 is bitimbral, the two timbres are presented in different colours side by side, which is rather neat. And you have to commend SIEL on the way they've managed to cram all the synth's parameters (it isn't the world's simplest polysynth, remember) onto one screen - even if they are a little difficult to read at times.
Options on the Panel menu comprise Menu, Help, Play, Chord, Graphic, Old Setting, and New Setting, apposite titles all.
Selecting Play instructs the program to play a monophonic sequence (entirely separate from the sequencer in the DK) when you hold the Return key down, while Chord triggers a chord sequence. Both these options are designed to let you hear the sound you're creating without having to play the keyboard, which is pretty smart.
To begin editing the sound you've loaded, you simply select a parameter with the wandering cursor and press Return. This displays the current value, which you can then alter using the +/— keys. That's all utterly simple and logical, but SIEL have incorporated a few extra niceties to make life easier still.
Selecting Help and one of the eight parameter blocks, for example, presents you with an explanation of what each parameter does. Useful when you can't quite suss out the screen display, or you're suffering from mild amnesia.
"Editor: You have to commend SIEL on the way they've managed to cram all the DK80's parameters onto one screen."
In essence, the Graphic Editor is a bold attempt at counteracting the ergonomic limitations inherent in digital access synths. It's questionable whether a system as slothful as this will ever make for speedier sound-changing, but one thing is certain: editing this way is a lot more rewarding than struggling blindly through the DK80, with just a two-digit LED window to guide you on your way. And with a number of excellent (just look at the pictures) array of graphic displays, using this package means you're a lot more likely to make the right changes first time, which makes things a lot less laborious. If you've ever felt frustrated at the hands of your digital access DK, you'll need some willpower to resist splashing out on the Editor.
Just as the programmable synth put an end to the arduous task of memorising patch changes for regurgitation during a live performance, so the home computer and the MIDI are conspiring to put an end to the task of filing heaps of patch chart information. First indication that this is taking place is SIEL's Data Base package, a computer-assisted filing system that allows storage and manipulation of a MIDI synth's program memory.
The idea behind the program is simple enough: given that just about every MIDI synth is capable of sending patch-change data out of its DIN sockets, there's no reason why the information from several machines couldn't be pooled into some central reserve of synth voices. Once that's done, the lucky MIDI system owner can order the voices into 'families' for particular sets of applications.
The SIEL software should work with any MIDI synth with the exception of the Yamaha DX series, though Casio synths remain uncooperative until you give them the opportunity to have an initial conversation with the host computer before releasing data. If at all possible, assemble your own setup in the shop and rest easy.
In total, hardware requirements are a suitable MIDI synth, Commodore 64 and disk drive (or cassette machine), SIEL MIDI computer interface, TV or monitor, and the necessary leads for connecting them all together (that's when the fun starts). Preparation consists of enabling two-way MIDI communication and disabling the memory protect - if you have such a thing - on your synth.
"Data Base: The Family option allows you to store single voices for filing into as many as 32 groups of sounds."
Using the Family part of the database is simplicity itself. One-character key presses select a new option, a white highlight line homes in on a sound for deleting or renaming, and the f1 and f3 function keys serve to move this line up and down as required.
Niggles? None really, though I'd have found a search facility really useful in helping to locate a specific sound post haste, and a method of printing out program directories wouldn't have gone amiss, either.
Gear in this article:
Software: Editor/Librarian > Siel > DK80 Graphic Editor
Software: Editor/Librarian > Siel > MIDI Data Base
Gear Tags:
Review by Trish McGrath
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