For many musicians taking a computer on stage is still the stuff of nightmares. But with some well-designed software (and a little hardware) on your side, it might just be alright on the night...

As soon as technology solves one problem, it causes another. Or so it seems. For many musicians, sequencers can be more powerful tools than multitrack tape recorders and enable them to produce professional results in the proverbial cupboard-under the-stairs. First-generation sound quality every time. The problem, of course, is playing live.

Though neither method has much to recommend it, there's something that bit more 'immediate' about playing to a sequencer than playing alongside backing tapes. The punter may not appreciate the lack of tape hiss or the rapport you've built up with your 'band' - but you certainly will. Of course it means carrying your synths and expanders around with you, possibly with a separate mixer and the inevitable signal processors, but what price art and perfection?

The decisions get harder to make, however, where software-based sequencers are concerned. Musicians have never been keen to subject their computer, monitor and possibly hard disk to the rigours of the road. And perhaps in response to this, the market for hardware sequencers did perk up a bit. Then dedicated units appeared - MIDI data filers.

But is this extra hardware expense really necessary? Hands On think not. And to support their belief they have developed OnSTAGE as a means by which you can take your Atari ST 'on stage' and use it like a dedicated data filer - without a monitor.

There are three programs on the disk. One simply switches the LEDs on and off to ensure they are working. The second is the OnSTAGE edit program from which you set up the files and parameters, and the third is the playback program which you use live.

The edit program is actually a very sophisticated file organiser. The screen shows four banks - A to D - each with eight slots and each holding a song title. Fill them all and you have (I'll save you digging out your calculator) 32 songs. This is known as a 'set'. (Software that uses established musicians terminology? That must be a first - Ed)

The procedure for creating a set is very simple. You highlight a slot in a bank and select 'load song' from the File menu. The program works with standard MIDI files so you can use ones you've created in your own sequencer or MIDI files from third parties (or Hands On themselves). The disk contains short extracts from twenty Hands On arrangements for you to practice with.

You can easily change the order of the songs in a set by clicking and dragging them around the bank slots. Double clicking on a title reveals extra information about it and lets you alter the tempo and set MIDI Thru on or off. Drag a song to the track window on the left of the screen and its individual tracks appear. Here you can set the tracks' MIDI channels and program change numbers. You can also mute tracks, which could be useful with third-party MIDI files for muting the melody or lead break, for example - unless you decide to mime. You wouldn't, would you?

Double click on a track name and up pops another window which lets you mute it, change its MIDI channel and initial volume, adjust its relative volume and velocity, and transpose it. These changes only affect playback from within OnSTAGE - not the file itself. But why have all these parameters if you are going to use files you have already created and set up? Well, you can fine tune a song here without reloading your sequencer and, dare I suggest it, use OnSTAGE with third-party MIDI files - even if you don't have a sequencer. You can't edit the note data but you can edit the playback parameters.

The 'About OnSTAGE' info box (accessed from the Atari menu) tells you how much song space you have used and how much memory is free. The main screen has 'tape' type transport controls so you can check that the songs playback okay and also adjust the tempo. A timer tells you the elapsed time and is particularly useful for timing a spot. (More muso-speak? - Ed.)

When you've organised a set to your satisfaction, you save it to disk. OnSTAGE doesn't actually save all the song data with each set file - rather, it saves a file which tells it where to find the songs along with a list of any performance changes you may have made. This is both quicker and more efficient.

The playback program only occupies 20K of disk space so you have almost 690K for song data - a little more if you use an extended disk format. It makes sense to save the set and songs onto the same disk if you can. As you will probably have realised, however, if you only have a 1Mb ST, you won't be able to save all the song data onto one floppy. To help get around this, there's a set overlay function which will not delete a song from a bank unless the incoming set also has a song in that slot. This lets you build a set containing only songs in bank A, for example, and overlay it with one which only has songs in bank B - and so on.

The program will also work with a hard disk, although unless you have amazingly large and complex files there should be no need to lug a hard drive around with you. A reasonably complex song file will probably be between 50-100K. There is also a fast set mode which only loads the song names and not the song data. This is useful if you simply want to reorganise a set, but do so without loading all the songs.

In use, you must boot the playback program from a floppy disk - copying it to create as many working disks as you need. It's a little time consuming, but there are advantages to saving your songs on a working disk rather than a blank one - as we'll see in a moment.

The program will boot from a hard disk if you copy it to your Auto folder, but it has been designed not to run with any other software and if you want to use a hard disk, it might be a good idea to use one dedicated to OnSTAGE. If you have a monitor connected, you will see a text display of the banks and songs which helps you familiarise yourself with the program before going monitorless.

If you wish, you can control the program from your MIDI keyboard. You can define the keys which will be used to control playback, change banks and select songs. You must also specify an Activate key which must be pressed while performing any of the remote functions. Choose it carefully or you may find yourself at the start of another song during an inspired bout of improvisation.

The program will merge incoming MIDI data with the song data it's transmitting, so you can use the same instrument(s) for playback and for any live playing you may be doing on top. To ensure continuity, it's possible to load a new set while a song is playing.

An Autoplay function will automatically step through and play all the songs in a bank - useful for segue-way sets (sic) or for instrumental music during the bingo in the intermission! You can also activate a clock send which will control a drum or another sequencer.

OnSTAGE is reset proof. If you accidentally press the reset button on the back of your ST, the song data will remain intact and the program will re-appear after doing a few housekeeping chores. Clever. To accomplish the task, however, there must be a working disk containing the program in the drive - and that is why it's a good idea to save your songs onto one. You may have to suffer the ignominy of the dreaded MIDI drone, but you can stop this once OnSTAGE has regained control of your ST by pressing the panic button - 'Esc'.

This reset feature may save you from the ravages of a spiky mains but obviously is no protection against a complete power failure. However, whereas most hardware or software sequencers would either crash or lie down and play dead, OnSTAGE at least gets you back up and running very quickly.

The manual is well written, well laid out, full of illustrations - and actually has an index. I could be picky and suggest a couple of areas be given a little more detail (such as the remote keyboard control section) but the program is well enough designed that I suspect few users will read much of the manual anyway. Do they ever?

Like many people, I suspect, I was genuinely surprised to find that I could use the ST without a monitor. We're so accustomed to the mass of information that a VDU supplies, working without one sounds like riding a bike down the street with your eyes closed (...don't try this at home children). However, the LEDs on the display unit keep you well informed. The only thing you have to remember - or write down - is the songs in the banks.

The weakest part of the system is not the software (which performed perfectly) but the ST itself. I know that STs had a reliability problem in the early days and I know musicians who simply will not take any computer at all on the road with them - full stop. For them it's the reassuring solidity of the hardware sequencer or a MIDI data filer.

But ST reliability has improved and I know musos who already tour with an ST, monitor, et al. And if you already have an ST why not use it on the road as well as in your studio and save a few hundred big ones on the cost of a data filer to boot?

Well, that's the pros and cons of the system. The decision, as ever, dear reader, is yours. But if you're happy about taking your ST on the road, OnSTAGE will serve you very well indeed.

Price: OnSTAGE £99.95 plus P&P. Price inclusive of VAT

More from: Hands On MIDI Software (Contact Details)