Chunnel by-pass surgery

Let's face it, the least expensive way to get into sampling is to carefully scour the free ads in search of some vintage digital sampler that's done more mileage than an Ford Zephyr.

Take for instance the Akai X7000. Here lies the door to a wealth of potential James Brown tomfoolery and the like (and all the legal proceedings that inevitably follow...) with a price that will leave you enough money to hire a good lawyer when the time comes.

The problem, as a quite irate friend of mine discovered when he was cajoled into buying one, is the medium on which it saves the samples; namely 2.8" quick disks. There can be nothing more daft than having to physically flip the disk to access side two, aside from perhaps the Channel Tunnel, but that's something else. But there is a cure for this horrible ailment, (no, not the Chunnel, unfortunately) and it comes in the guise of FileMaster QD.

Without having to quit, you can run the FileMaster program as an accessory, alongside your sequencer or other sample editor (like Avalon or Replay 16), or you can run it as a normal program. Nor does it require handshaking, so there isn't a great need to repatch your MIDI cables either.

There are two versions of the software on disk, one of which requires less RAM to run than the other, so there is something to suit your working set up, whatever you choose.

Perhaps the best reason for owning Filemaster is that you can store all your samples on inexpensive 3.5" Atari disks than those horrible quick disk thingies. In addition to this invaluable aid, you can also edit your samples using a far more intuitive graphic display, which makes cutting, pasting, and certainly looping a good deal easier. Filemaster has file compatibility with Avalon, Sound Designer, and Replay 16's .AVR formats, which gives you a veritable mountain of sample disks (including FMW's own library) that you can now use on your Akai S612, X7000 or S700, or Roland S10 or S220 samplers.

Requesting a sample takes a little time, but there is a progress bar that keeps you informed on how long it's going to take, and whether it is worth popping off to put the kettle on. Once in, a number of editing tools can be applied. You can zoom in and out on various segments of the sample, and perform fades and cross fades on selected parts.

One of the best features is the ability to apply a pitch sweep envelope on to the beginning of your sample, which is something that a lot of samplers don't have. You can use this for all manner of silly effects, and more sensible ones too, like creating a 'scratch' type sound effect on the start of a drum loop, or adding clarity to the attack portion of a sound.

Before you re-transmit your edited sample back to the sampler, you can audition the sound using either a Replay or Monster cartridge output, or via the STE's DMA output with the press of a button. There are a choice of audition speeds, which are accessed using the 0, 1, 2, and 3 buttons on the numeric key-pad. This saves an awful lot of time transmitting and retransmitting a sample, just to hear what your edit sounds like.

FileMaster QD is available from Four Minute Warning at the new low price of £19.95, which is about the price of a single 2.8" quick disk nowadays, isn't it? If you own a sampler with a quick disk drive, then you really ought to get this program. My friend is a lot happier now anyway.

Contact: FMW, (Contact Details)

A noisy stab for Tinkerbell

For those of us who have sometimes slid into utter laziness and sighed at the tumultuous task of filching a few samples from a sample CD, because it seemed like too much work, aside from needing a good kicking, you also need to know about The Sample Series from Software Technology.

Seven volumes are currently available in the 16-bit series for the Atari ST, and a further five for both Amiga and ST in 8-bit format. They feature everything from drums and percussion through to strings, synths and ambient sounds. Each of the 16-bit series volumes come on four disks, which further sub-divide the content into more specific areas.

'Ambient & Industrial' (volume seven), is divided up into bleeps, percussion, pads and miscellaneous disks, so finding a sample particular to your requirements is made that bit easier. Then again, I just threw the whole lot into one folder on my hard disk to rummage through.

Uses for these samples are numerous. If you have Replay 16, you can dump these samples to any module or sampler that conforms to the MMA sample dump standard. Breakthru users will also benefit from these new sounds to use in their sequences. Without exception, the sounds are all sampled at 48KHz which means that by and large, they all sound impeccably clean.

And tidy too. There is no need to edit any of the samples before you go off and use them for whatever application they are intended for, unless of course, you want to. The only sample that did seem a touch truncated was a sound called 'Tinklpad', but this is easily fixed by applying a fade-out to the end part. And perhaps the breathy stab of 'Utakata' is spoilt a bit by some rattling noises appearing as the sound decays. This might actually have been intentional, but sounds awful when the sample is transposed.

Enough about the negative points, especially when there are comparatively few. The selection of bleeps were among my favourites, particularly the 'thunk' sample, which sounds like one of those rave synth thip sounds, with a drastic amount of filtering applied to it. It worked very well as a bass drum, especially where a little less of an in-yer-face sound is needed for programming complex patterns. 'Clicky' is another sound from the bleeps disk; this one sounds very raspy, and is perfect for sequenced arpeggios.

Other notable samples are 'synth vox' which is a very well looped vocal pad; 'resonance', a classic analogue sweep with a bigger Q-factor than a bank on Monday morning; 'ChorusAh', a one shot choir sample overdosed with a chorus effect.

I could go on about how amusing the electric drill sample was, or how monstrously gritty a number of the industrial synth sounds were, but then I'd be writing for days. Suffice to say that £19.95 per volume is a small price to pay for having the sounds carved, prepared and served on a platter, as opposed to chasing the chicken around the yard yourself.

More from: Gajits Software (Software Technology), (Contact Details).

Out of your box

Public Domain and Shareware libraries are always the best places to begin looking for daft little programs designed to make your life that bit easier. Poking around amongst the disks from Omicron, you may very well discover a nifty little program called CaseLiner, that lets you create and print custom cassette and even DAT sleeves.

You can input the names of the tracks, title the 'album' and even specify your choice of noise reduction, which then automatically appears properly positioned on the sleeve ready to print out. It doesn't allow you to import any pictures, but as a labelling system for all your cassettes, it is an invaluable tool.

Boxplot, like CaseLiner is shareware, and so relies on people being honest enough to contribute some money to the author if they find the program useful. Registration often does mean that you get an additional program, or free updates that won't be available elsewhere, so it is always worthwhile.

Anyway, Boxplot is a rather useful Windows-based program that calculates frequency responses and maximum sound pressure levels for various types of loudspeaker enclosures. With this, you can custom-design your own loudspeaker setup in theory, to see if it works before you carve up a few Cornflakes packets and egg boxes to build it for real (Remind me never to come to one of your parties - Ed).

You can model six types of boxes, including closed and open, with first and second order equalisers. You do have to know a little about speaker construction, but a tutorial is provided for beginners, so there shouldn't be any reason why you should be 'infinitely baffled'. You might even begin inventing new models, or indeed customising existing speakers by inputting their values from specification sheets.

PC Software available from: Omicron Systems, (Contact Details)

Got a lite Mac?

On this month's CD-ROM for the Mac is a fantastic sample editor program called, er, sample editor. Well, no prizes for originality in the titles department, but full marks for a good selection of editing tools. You can load in any AIFF sample to manipulate until it sounds like a squashed raspberry, or even create your own using the internal Mac microphone.

Functions on the sample editor include block fade-ins and outs, reverse and delay. You can also take the contents of the paste buffer, and mix or crossfade it over specific sections of the sample. With a little practice, you can create some rather good effects with this.

Sample Editor supports the internal microphone with a choice of set sampling rates; either 11kHz or 22kHz which don't sound too bad, surprisingly, although I wouldn't record anything seriously with that silly round grey plastic thing you get with your Mac. Playback frequencies go up to 32kHz, and so support any samples taken with an AV Mac, or one fitted with some description of audio media card.

Perhaps one of the best features about the program is its ability to set markers and actually label them with something other than an unfathomable numeral. You can then use these markers to auto locate certain areas for playback, which is quite nice.

The other shareware program is a Yamaha DX7 editor by Takashi Suzuki. If you like the program, you can register it and get the software updated for the price of the registration. All the regular features are here, including a library storage page and individual sound editing pages. The editing page is set up in the same way as the path sheet layout in the back of the DX manual, so anyone with a bit of experience of editing with patch sheets should have no problem finding all the relevant functions.

The DX7 editor works with the standard apple MIDI manager and Opcode's customised MIDI driver, OMS.

For a full list of PD and shareware for the Mac, contact: Premium PD, (Contact Details).

For Mac-users, a sample editor, and a DX7 editor can be found on the CD:ROM this month. These are full working programs - not just demos - so get busy!

Wired for sound

There does seem to be quite a proliferation of powered speakers for multimedia applications at the moment, but equal to the supply is the demand. Yamaha's new YST-M10 10 Watt per channel monitors have joined the queue and are waving frantically for some attention.

The package comes complete with all the cabling necessary to wire up the monitors, as well as a power supply. You get a stereo mini-jack to mini-jack cable which is useful for connecting a portable CD or some types of soundcards, and a mini-jack to phono adaptor, so you can plug in any stereo phono cables into the speakers.

There isn't actually a phono cable, which is odd because they are so popular amongst computer applications, but this is no tragedy. The only catastrophe that the set up may have succumbed to would be in the cable that connects the two speakers together being too short. Fortunately, it is lengthy enough to space the YST-M10s sufficiently apart for a good stereo separation, so a disaster is averted.

The speakers themselves have a rather pleasant aesthetic appeal, sculpted as they are into curvy objets d 'art that colour-match most computers. The sound is quite good too, although I defy anyone to use them beyond the halfway point on the volume control (located on the front panel), as this seems to be the point at which bass sounds begin to force the cones out of their casing.

The bass response is a touch insubstantial, but then this seems to be the case with most multimedia speakers or even small monitors.

Also on the front panel (aside from the on/off button, of course), is a presence control, which whilst sounding very exotic, is (or sounds very much like) nothing more than a tone control to cut or boost midrange (±7dB at 10kHz) frequencies. Having said that, it does make a difference, especially to all types of film/TV dialogue, and even to music, giving it a crispier sound. Also, I discovered that it does have the ability to eliminate extraneous noise from dodgy recordings quite well.

During the review period. I plugged them into everything I could possibly think of from videos to computers. Films and Nicam broadcast television programmes sounded quite fantastic, as did the monster roaring sounds of my formula-one car during a seriously long (and loud) bout of computer-gaming on the Amiga.

The convenience of bypassing an amplifier means there's one less thing to wire up, so they are also the perfect partners for travel. There's at least a hundred things you could use them for, and I am sure they will probably be quite good at whatever it is. The YST-M10s retail at £69.

More from: Yamaha, (Contact Details)

Retro sequencing

Back in the days of control voltage, when sequencers looked like tanks and crashed more frequently than a labrador at the steering wheel of an XR3i, the arpeggiator was all the rage, simply because it did things that you couldn't play normally.

You can now get a program for your ST that will take you back years to those good old days again. The Phonix MIDI arpeggiator is an accessory, and can be run in either medium or high resolution, and can quite amicably run alongside any GEM sequencer like Cubase or Notator. It takes whatever notes you play into it via a MIDI keyboard set up on a specific channel, and creates a sequenced arpeggio dependent on the tempo, range, and direction settings you input in.

The tempo is definable with a large graphic slider. The range function defines how far the scales transpose in terms of octaves from the first note, which keeps your sequence from cavorting across the whole piano scale. The direction function sets which way your sequence goes; up or down, or both.

MIDI arpeggiator also features a MIDI sync, which once initiated synchronises to any external MIDI clock, including the sequencer program running alongside. Changing the values sets how many 'clocks' must pass before the next note plays. This way you can create some really quite bizarre rhythmic patterns.

The MIDI arpeggiator software is shareware, so if you use it, you ought really to register with the author, Richard Homme, although he does write in his documentation that you will not be damned if you don't.

Available from New Age PDL. (Contact Details).

Fuzzed out E-mu

Despite its £1500 price tag, the E-mu UltraProteus is bereft of a disk drive, and so the task of data storage and retrieval lies in the hands of the soundcard. At present there are four ROMs and a RAM card available. Each ROM card contains 128 new presets and at least 32 hyperpresets, which have been tailored to different musical styles to suit your needs. In fact, on the three cards I was able to try out there were 64 hyperpresets on the Proteus 1, 2, & 3 cards, 95 on the Expressive Orchestral set and a full 128 on the Dance/Techno card. As for the World ROM card, it has been living up to its name by remaining on the other side of the Atlantic, but should be winging its way over from the States by the time you read this.

At £79 each (£125 for the RAM version) you'll probably want to audition them first, although orchestral composers won't be disappointed, as the Expressive Orchestral card (No. 9212) has more than just great sounds. The first forty presets have been optimised for sequencing, as they are laid out in the order that they would appear on a conventional score. Starting with Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, Keyboards and Harp, and finishing with Strings, the more traditional composer can soon assemble a score; spending more time playing than prodding. MIDI controllers play their part too, as the presets have been programmed to recreate the nuances of the original instruments. You can of course customise these controllers on all the cards using the Midipatch facility in the UltraProteus. As for Dance/Techno (No. 9214), the hyperpresets (combinations of sounds) were somewhat disappointing, with the dozen or so 'House Splits' comprising mainly predictable basses and fizzy pads. Hyperpreset 005, 'FuzzOut 5th' is destined to become a one-finger favourite, while 031 'Lay it On' is a dense pad that brightens with the mod wheel. 097 'Tunnel' will no doubt be appearing on soundtracks throughout the land, with its shaped white noise and underlying pitch sweep. As for the presets themselves, 010 'Yello Bass' is a toughie, and so too is the TB303 impersonator, 020 'TB-like bass'. There's a good selection of organs and sweeping pads, though the vocal-type resonations were somewhat unappealing, except for wah-wah effects.

Proteus 1, 2 & 3 Presets (No. 9211) appear to be a selection of the best of the rest; namely the sounds that they couldn't cram onto the UltraProteus. This is a good all-rounder and perhaps the best of the bunch, with Hyperpresets such as 060 'Epic' (piano and slow strings) providing no surprises but just a great sound. Also 027 'Rave Split' has interesting slapback effects on the drums, but is let down by the nasal keys that accompany it. Presets include a fine selection of playable pianolike timbres as well as a Proteus 2 favourite, 023 'Divertimento' a delightful woodwind blend.

It's not a bad start to the Ultra Proteus library, but I look forward to hearing what the likes of Voice Crystal and Valhalla produce, as I feel that theres morph (sic) to be done here. BD

More from: E-mu (Contact Details)

DCC

Philips Update Their Range of Players & Recorders

'Move On Up' was the message from Philips at their recent DCC presentation at Decca Studios. Inventor of Compact Disc, the Compact Cassette and the innovative Digital Compact Cassette, Philips want the analog cassette community to eventually move on up to a digital system. DCC is capable of playing your existing analog tapes (with Dolby noise reduction if desired) and recording digitally on to the specially designed DCC tapes. As with virtually all new technology, the price was steep to begin with and put off many potential punters. But the former flagship, the DCC 900 is now sold out, while the DCC 600 and 300 are being sold at bargain prices of less than £200 to make way for the new, favourably priced 18 bit models, available from November.

A new portable recorder, the DCC 170 is bound to challenge the portable DAT market with its £249 price tag and enviable specifications. 18 bit digital recording, playback of your old analog tapes, Dolby B noise reduction, plus a digital input and output allowing digital recording at 32kHz, 44.1kHz (for direct digital copies of CDs) and 48kHz. A playback only version, the DCC 134 will sell for £149. Both have re-chargeable battery packs and in-ear headphones with remote control.

January '95 should see the introduction of the DCC 730, 18 bit home hi-fi 'separate' recorder at under £300. Track access times are much improved with the Turbo Drive tape mechanism and audiophiles will welcome state-of-the-art sigma-delta A/D and bitstream D/A converters. All the digital recording features mentioned above are standard, even for the old 16 bit recorders!

As for pre-recorded tapes, the prices of these is set to match CDs and they'll be permanently available from 300 DCC friendly stores throughout the UK. Sixty specialist dealers will take care of unit sales, as Philips hope to raise public awareness and acceptance of the format with DCC conversant retailers. Blank tapes (comparable in price to analog metal tapes) cost around a fiver for ninety minutes with BASF being a major manufacturer. Longer tape lengths are due out soon.

Next month in The Mix , we review the new breed of portable digital recorders - the Sony MiniDisc MZ-R2 and the Philips DCC 170 - so you can ponder the future of tape and whether it's time to move on up..? BD

Atari bits & bobs

On this month's CD-ROM partition for the Atari ST and Falcon is a veritable feast of software goodies. But don't panic if you haven't got a CD-ROM drive for your ST, because if you ask your PC-owning friend nicely, who just happens to have a CD-ROM drive and has since become your best pal, you can copy the files onto an MS-DOS formatted disk and then try them out.

Firstly, there is a selection of 16-bit samples in .AVR and .WAV format (for PC) for you to use either in Replay 16, Breakthru, or in any other sample editor you can load them into. Files include Cello.AVR, Loop1.AVR, Loop2.AVR, Bang1.AVR - the list goes on.

You will need at least 1Mbyte of RAM, as some of the samples are incredibly long. If you haven't got the programs necessary to use these samples, then you can either use SConvert or 525 to transfer them to a format that you can use.

SConvert, written by Chris Flint, can swap between most types of Microdeal sample formats (.AVR and SPL), while Harald Schonfeld and Bernd Spellenberg's 525 sample convertor can swap between a number of different formats including the PC's .WAV format.

Also on this month's Re:Mix is a really useful program called MIDIscope, by Phil Calvert, which monitors incoming MIDI data and displays it on the screen. If your keyboard/module has active sensing, then you would be well advised to filter it on the program to avoid a page of FE messages. You can print the output to screen in either binary, decimal, or hexadecimal, so if you are having any sorts of problems programming system-exclusive or controller messages for your keyboard, then this is the perfect remedy. Simple, but damned fantastic!

MIDImenu by Marc Bradley is another MIDI monitoring program, but instead of just checking incoming messages, this one actually tests to make sure your MIDI equipment (or indeed cables) are functioning properly. Infinitely useful, especially if you have a vast MIDI setup. Both programs are freeware, but if you find them useful do drop the author a line mentioning just how useful it was.

Atari Public Domain Software supplied this month by:
New Age PDL, (Contact Details).
Floppyshop, (Contact Details).

For Atari ST and Falcon users, we have two MIDI monitoring programs called MIDIscope, and MIDImenu - just the thing for troubleshooting your MIDI setup. Oh, and there's also some samples...

Sys Ex Satellites

For the few who have not yet discovered the Satellite PD accessory by Steinberg, this is a gentle reminder of what it is they are missing out on. With this program you can dump your entire bank of sounds and save them on to an Atari disk.

This is a useful function for keyboards like the Roland D-10 alone, which don't have an onboard disk drive, as a cost-effective way of storing patches. You can also get some patches available from the D-series User Group for use in the Satellite program.

Because it was written by Steinberg, it works perfectly with Pro24 or any of the Cubase programs ('though I have yet to try it out on Cubase Lite), so you can copy a batch of system exclusive dumps to reconfigure new sounds at the beginning of your arrangements.

You could also sequence your arrangements windows in such a way that you could completely reprogram your synth halfway through a live set up. Individual sounds can be tweaked using a page of sliders configured to certain voice parameters like the ADSR envelope, brightness, and vibrato.

The Satellite program works with every module I have tested including the Korg T3, Roland D-10, and Yamaha SY35, with no problems at all, and can run as either a stand alone program, or most usefully as a GEM accessory.

Available from Floppyshop. (Contact Details).

A Glimpse Of Heaven

Heavenly Music already have a huge amount of software, but they've managed to find another gap in the MIDI file market with the absence of any files for the Digitech VHM5. It was soon remedied, and now you can get at least a quarter of their existing 850 titles in VHM5 format. They're currently priced at £7.95 each, 'though they insist that the price will come down once the word gets around.

Also available now is a new series of pattern, phrase, and style disks specifically programmed for the Yamaha QY300, costing £19.95 per volume. And there is more. A new batch of Jean Michel Jarre MIDI files including 'Orient Express' and 'Zoo Look', and two volumes of Christmas tunes to munch mince pies along to, are now on the Heavenly list too.

If you want to get more out of your computer, sampler, or recording gear, then Heavenly Music also have a series of One-to-One software and hardware training sessions for things like Cubase and the QY300, as well as tutorials in music production and arrangement techniques. Each course costs £117.50, and is designed for any level of expertise.

For more information, contact Heavenly Music at (Contact Details).

Noisy Mothers

The Bits & Pieces CD Library is a collection of professionally recorded sound effects, designed for use in theatres and the like, its current batch of twelve CDs covering everything from cars to rain and miserable infants. If the CDs don't have what you want on them, a customised set of sound effects can be created by sound designer Simon Kahn, something which the BBC's 'The Archers' have used for an effect of a Christmas tree shredder.

The libraries are recorded digitally and in stereo, with a mix of spot effects and atmospheres which are up to eight minutes in length. The 'Bangs!' CD features a whole compendium of cacophonous catastrophes, crashes and militaristic booms, most of which are incredibly well recorded. There is also a selection of claps, both dry and effected, that perhaps sound a little thin and weedy, but still remain useful (just like our software editor - Ed). Other nice effects on this CD are the metalworks gongs and the crisp selection of rifle cracks.

The uses for such a library of CDs are varied. The most obvious user is the sound engineer of a theatrical, TV, or radio production, although these CDs should be by no means exclusive to them. Computer games soundtracks and adventurous musicians will also find a whole chunk of usable noises. The only alternative to these CDs is the BBC Essential Sound Effects CD, which, while boasting a larger palette of sounds on one CD, has neither the originality nor the quality of the Bits & Pieces range.

Buying a CD includes all the media rights, so Simon won't come around and practice one of his rifle cracks on you for using one of his effects.

More from Canford Audio, (Contact Details). For custom sound effects, contact Bits & Pieces direct on (Contact Details)

FREE Software

Here is some good news for those of you who own a Yamaha Hello!Music! package. Yamaha are giving away copies of the voice editing software for the CBX-T3 tone module. With this package you can say Hello! to a multitude of new patches, and also create, store, and retrieve complete libraries of sounds. The new voice editing software is available in PC or Mac format.

To get your free software all you need to do is send a copy of your receipt or proof of purchase to: Yamaha Pro Music, (Contact Details).

Take it to the Max

The new version 3.0 of MaxPak has just been released by Arbiter with a whole array of new facilities. Included in this version is a mixer page, a new set of library profiles including the Digitech effects processors, Quadraverb, Wavestation and the Vintage Keys among others. It also nows implements MMC with support for up to 16 ADATs, and Fostex MTC equipped multitracks.

The sequencing software also has a number of improvements like groove quantise, graphic arranging of patterns, track activity LEDs, step entry using the computer keyboard, and greater flexibility in MIDI file handling. The new version costs £269 and existing owners can upgrade for £29, which also entitles you to 373 free SeqMax drum patterns.

More from: Arbiter Pro MIDI, (Contact Details).

Powering up with Akai

The great thing about Akai samplers is that you never have to remember your sampler's operating system software to get started, as it's stored internally on a ROM chip. Other samplers will look nice but stay silent without their software disks to tell them how get on with the job.

But as new ideas and old bugs confront the designers, then changes need to be made. When 'Timestretch' became available for the S1000, it appeared on a disk. All you had to do was put it in and power up, and the new system was loaded automatically. Very little has changed, unless you have a hard disk to store the new system onto. The thing that Akai Timestretch fans had to remember for the first time was 'Don't leave home without it'.

The flexibility of Akai samplers' internal architecture allows the faithful to use the latest operating system at virtually no cost. The stopgap version 1.30 was available on disk, but v.1.5 comes installed on the ROM of new Akai models. The humble S900 user can still enjoy the benefits, but more on that later. There's been quite a few interesting changes, so let's start with the raison d'etre of the sampler, and look at the changes to sample editing.

In Edit Sample, there are two new trim functions. 'toLP' will cut/discard the audio that exists on either side of existing loops. In multiple loop situations, the cut will start at the beginning of the first one and at the end of the last one. Using 'toLP' and 'S»LP' will actually retain a few sample points extra on either side of the start and end points. 'S»LP' will use the start point that you have set manually, and the loop's end point when cutting sample data. These features not only save time, but a good deal of that oh-so-vital memory and storage space.

Another space-saving consideration is resampling. Using lower bandwidths may use less memory, but sound quality suffers as a result. Akai have included a 'Quality' control that works in a similar way to that used in the 'Timestretch' page. The quality range is from 1 to 10. A setting of 1 will resample with the same accuracy as found in Version 1.0. Higher values take more time to analyse the signal, but calculate the best interpolation characteristics for the sample being processed.

Akai haven't overlooked the current obsession for emulating all things analogue. The inclusion of the 'Random' (sample and hold) waveforms in both LFO 1 and LFO 2 bear this out. Combined with the new re-triggering feature, you can really begin to re-create some of the more quirky characteristics of analog synthesizers. With 're-trig' set to off, the LFOs can modulate a waveform continuously without being re-triggered by the incoming MIDI note data. This works particularly well when the LFO is applied to the filter section, so that sweeping effects can be produced. With re-trigger on, incoming notes will reset the oscillation cycle.

Still on the theme of emulation - setting up a convincing drum kit had its drawbacks, especially when you wanted a closed hi-hat to shut off the sound of an open hi-hat. Previously on the S1000/1100/3000, you'd have to create a separate monophonic program and give it the same number as the rest of your kit program(s).

With the Version 1.5 software, you can set up 'Mute Groups'. This has been available for kit programs on synths for a while, and put simply, you can assign certain sounds to a group so that only one within that group will sound at any one time; the incoming note will cut off the sound currently playing. The extremely well written documentation suggests that you can use this feature to re-create some of the less desirable (but possibly hip) shortcomings of limited polyphony drum machines, by using mute group to cut off the decay of snares played in a drum roll.

Packing so many features within such a limited display has given Akai's rivals a chance to improve on the user interface. Virtually all Roland samplers provide the option of working with a mouse and a colour monitor, which can be very useful for displaying the various envelopes available, superimposed on each other. Now, Akai offer the chance to view the same with an improved display for ENV 2 (for S2800/3000/3200) and ENV 3 (S3200 only). The enhanced display eases programming by showing the graphical relationship of both filter and amplitude envelopes.

What made the S900 and its stereo successor the S1000 the industry standard in Europe was undoubtedly the fact that you could save and load practically anything. Program and sample data could be stored independently, while other sampler manufacturers would only store the memory contents to blank formatted disks. An outdated scenario that unfortunately still exists.

Although hard disks take away some of the pain for non-Akai users, Akai are as keen as ever to improve upon their samplers' data handling and have included a 'Directory View' page, a 'Find' and a 'Tag' function. These features apply to the seemingly endless stream of samples and programs that can be stored on hard disks. As storage systems expand in capacity, keeping track of those precious sounds requires even more organisation.

Storing sounds in volumes is nothing new. It's like keeping computer files in folders and Akai's new 'Directory' page is a fast way of viewing what's on the hard disk. Choosing a volume and pressing 'Open' will reveal the contents of that volume. The 'Find' function searches for a matching name to that entered, and will list sounds that include that name anywhere in the title. The type of 'load' selected will decide what kind of data the sampler will search for.

'Tags' offer a way of sorting your files by type. You can tag all your bass sounds and a special sub-directory (which you can name) is created to contain all these sounds. You don't have to tag individual samples either, as the samples can be loaded with their associated tagged programs. Items can be untagged and you can observe which volume the tagged programs came from, while scrolling through the tagged files.

In use, tags simply mark the associated files with an asterisk. Unfortunately, you still have to sift through the volumes to see exactly what's been tagged. The system doesn't bring together all the tagged files in a list for you to view.

Other improvements include a safer DAT back-up default that reduces the possibility of accidental hard disk erasure. Also, the option to revert to the old disk mode is provided if you prefer it to the new directory system.

Summary

Akai have just about covered everything in order to keep their samplers competitive while technology marches on. Some of the new features have existed on other makes from day one, but their implementation now narrows the field, as rival manufacturers have appeared blind to some of the winning features that have also adorned Akai samplers from the beginning.

Even the trusty S900 has had a face-lift in the past and the Version 2.2 software is still available for this classic sampler - just send a blank disk to Akai UK and they'll do the rest. You'll even get some documentation! It's well worth getting hold of a copy, as not only is there a full ADSR dynamic filter section, but sample editing is infinitely easier with the inclusion of an automatic start point finder, crossfade looping and pre-trigger recording (when sampling using the audio trigger).

As for the version 1.5 software update, it's hard to beat. I've been using Roland samplers a lot recently, and returning to the Akai was a refreshing change. I just look forward to the day when dedicated mice and monitors become an option. After all, now that they're reading Roland and Emu disks, what else is there left for them to do?

If you would like to obtain an operating system update for any Akai sampler, then simply post a blank, formatted floppy (a DSDD disk is fine) to Akai UK (see below). And if you're unable to take advantage of the CD 'Power Up' software, then send another disk to receive this funky floppy.

For those of you keen to find out more about the 3000 series of samplers, then check out Pet Shop Boys' programmer, Pete Gleadall's assessment, in the February 93 issue of Home & Studio Recording - one of our former guises. Back issues can be provided by contacting the mail order hotline ((Contact Details)). BD

Akai UK Ltd, (Contact Details)

Happy Valley

This month we also have some Amiga bits on CD-ROM, kindly supplied to us by Valley PD, from whom a vast array of sample and MIDI programs and utilities are available. They include a rather useful Casio CZ editor, which we have been dicing with at the office.

Firstly, there is a program called Soundmachine which can convert samples in .WAV, .VOC, .RAW, and .AIFF file formats to whatever it is you use in the list. It also acts as a good player, so you can audition any of your new samples before you use them anywhere important.

The second program is a Mod2MIDI convertor, which takes the data in a tracker MOD file and coverts it to a SMF. Most useful. There is also a supply of samples in .WAV format for you to use.

More from: Valley PD, (Contact Details).

Just in case all you Amiga users out there were feeling a bit left out, we've got some software for you this month. See the box above for full details of what's on ROM...

Mixing up a storm

Sample sequencing in the form of tracker programs have been kicking around for quite some time now, so the concept is certainly not new (unless of course you have been hiding somewhere very dark), but it does seem that Stormtracker has something original to offer.

Unlike a lot of tracker programs in PD libraries, Stormtracker works in high resolution, which is definitely something to appeal to more serious musicians who have nothing but a mono monitor. You can run in medium resolution too, but at least 1Mbyte of RAM is needed for sensible operation. It also has a higher level of musicality than its number-crunching rivals, replacing enumerations of figures with a more conventional stave for note inputting, much like Microdeal's Quartet.

Quartet does have some advantages over Stormtracker, the most obvious of which is that proper note lengths and rests can be inputted, but this is something that updated versions of Stormtracker promise. Also, the digital sample editor that is packaged with Quartet does have more functions than the one provided within the tracker program. But Stormtracker does have these facilities all within one program; a sequencer, sample editor, and voice loader all in one, which is so much more convenient than Quartet's rather fragmented approach to handle. MOD files, which seems to be the standard tracker file across all platforms (PC and Amiga) are supported in Stormtracker, which makes it a rather versatile program - certainly more so than Quartet's custom fie format.

The playback quality is surprisingly good, considering the samples are 8-bit. STe and TT users can take advantage of the DMA (direct memory access) chip to replay their music, with a choice of frequencies; 12.5kHz, 25kHz, or 50kHz, the latter only really being available to TT, Mega STe and Falcon owners because of the strains on the hardware. There are no facilities within the program itself for EQ or balance control, but if you are running Atari's 'extensible' control panel (and if not, why not?!), then you can make adjustments from there. STfm owners can have it just as good if they have a Replay cartridge with playback up to 16kHz. Hardly surprisingly, the Falcon has the best output of all, with support for 16-bit CD-quality sound.

Anyway, making music in Stormtracker is as easy as falling off a bicycle. Firstly, select the sample you want to use from your palette of up to thirty noises (each can be up to 64k in length) and then click on the stave with the left mouse button. Transposing can be achieved by clicking and dragging the mouse up and down, whilst erasing the note is dealt with by the right mouse button. Samples can be any of three types; bass, percussion and normal voices. This prevents the staves from being overcrowded with notes. In addition to this, when a sample is labelled as a drum it appears on the stave as a cross, and a bass sound appears on the bass stave.

A number of effects can be applied to parts of your sequence, including pitch sliding, fades and other volume effects. Actually, the pitch bending is quite typical of tracker songs and does tend to sound rather tacky if it isn't done with any skill. Still, if you want the musical equivalent of dining room wooden panel boards, then slide away - it is fun, which is perhaps the most important factor.

Those of you who are not used to tracker programs might initially find the four note polyphony rather restrictive, but with a little flair and imagination it isn't really a problem at all. You could, for a start, sample in whole chords, or if your sample editor permits it, mix a bass drum and hi-hat together. I created quite a good dub version of one of my MIDI arrangements with Stormtracker, so sequences by no means have to be fully orchestrated.

If you don't have a sampler for your ST, there are so many places where you can get samples from. PD libraries have an abundant supply in .WAV,.SAM, and .AVR formats, all of which are supported by Stormtracker. PD libraries also have a lot of .MOD files, varying in quality from the absolute inane to the sublime, which you can take the samples from. A good set of samples and MOD files are also supplied with the program itself.

For £25 you may reconsider buying this tracker program in favour of a cheaper PD alternative, but for the extra cost you get a much friendlier GEM interface (so you can run accessories!) and excellent features that you would otherwise miss out on. It isn't perfect, by any means. There is no MIDI implementation, or real-time editing, but it certainly is one of the best tracker programs currently available.

Available from: Goodmans International, (Contact Details).

Friendchip phone number

If you were impressed with last issue's review of the Friendchip MM1 MIDI multi-port, you can find out more from Q-Logic on (Contact Details), not on the number printed last month.

Polestar Magnetics DrumTools

I confess that I am not, perhaps, the best person to review this new sample CD in an unbiased way. Roxette are one of my candidates for Worst Band in the World (they claim to be the new Abba, but had neither the songs nor the sense of humour to pull it off), and DrumTools has been assembled by members of the Roxette studio team.

The parentage shows. Like Roxette, the disc eschews contemporary dancefloor styles in flavour of classic pop and rock drum patterns. But that in itself is no bad thing. Discs claiming to be the last word in groovy loop sources are two-a-penny; classy rock drum CDs are something rarer.

The disc starts unpromisingly, though, with a series of 'Inspiration Grooves' in a range of styles from blues and country through to pop/rock (à la Roxette) and mainstream soul (à la The Commitments). These are tightly played and tidily recorded, but hardly original - although the inclusion of fills as additional 'index' samples on some tracks is interesting.

Where DrumTools really gets into its stride is in its generic patterns. These are straight-down-the-line, largely cliche-free loops, stripped of embellishments and offered - usefully - in both mono and stereo kit versions. Some feature a full rock kit, while others use Latin percussion or even just hi-hat and ride cymbal. The loops are grouped according to their broad musical application and tempo, and followed by the essential individual drum and percussion hits.

Now, these generic loops are not much to listen to on their own. But the makers of DrumTools intend them to be used as building blocks for custom drum patterns, or as parallel patterns to be layered over loops sampled from other sources. Once you get into it (and, as ever, what you get out bears a strong relationship to how much effort you're prepared to put in), this method of assembling drum tracks is very fulfilling - a cross between bare-bones looping and good old fashioned beatbox programming, with intriguing results.

Even if mainstream pop and rock not really your cup of Vimto, DrumTools offers such a fresh and potentially exciting way of assembling custom drum loops that it's hard to ignore. The CD-ROM version (available in Akai, Ensoniq ASR, Roland S700 and Samplecell formats) will make the whole sampling/sequencing process run a little quicker, but it you've time on your side and enough ideas in your head, the audio CD will do just fine. DG

More from: Time & Space, (Contact Details).

A collection of drum loops from the DrumTools sample CD are to be found on the CD this month. Sample the sounds, and then read the review to see what Dan thinks....

- Drumtools samples

Patching for posterity

Due to the overwhelming response to Mediacraft's budget priced sound disks series, the company has decide to form an 'Independent Association of Sound Developers', to help them meet the demand for the instruments that they do not already cater for. They are looking for any competent synth programmers to submit their patches for sale on a royalty basis. The only cost you have to fork out is the registration fee of £5 to cover administration. From there on in, if your sounds are good enough, you could be raking it in!

The eventual aim of Mediacraft's is to compile a vast catalogue of affordable sounds on self-loading disks (in SMF or Soundquest file format) on Mac, PC. Amiga and Atari ST formats. Also available is a Sys Ex data filer for the Amiga, priced £19.99.

More from: Mediacraft, (Contact Details).