Introduction to MIDI Programming
Len Dorfman and Dennis Young (Abacus)
270 pages soft cover £14.95
ISBN 0-916439-77-1

With so little generally available information on MIDI programming, any book devoted to the subject must be welcome — right? Well, let's see. Musical notation, bits and bytes and the MIDI data format are explained in 50 very big print pages fragmented with a large number of tables. The 'C' source code for three example programs is then given: one plays a four octave scale on each of sixteen instrument voices, another displays the raw MIDI data stream from a synth and the last coaxes a voice dump from a CZ101. The programs serve as examples of writing for the Atari ST environment but do appear to fall short of useful MIDI utilities.

The bulk of the book is devoted to the code for a MUSIC BOX AUTO-PLAYER which appears to replay notes previously entered by clicking a mouse around a keyboard graphic. Triplets and velocity information are not supported and the code is less than elegant. But Len and Den are proud of their work and continually adopt a 'please don't crucify us — we're trying to help you' tone which becomes very wearing.

Considering the generous reviews that this book has received, I was hoping for something better. All the real issues of MIDI programming are side-stepped ('By not programming a Real Time Capture option on our ST MUSIC BOX disk, we have left the avenue open for YOU to write the program...') and I would urge that potential purchasers look very carefully before they buy.