One of the more encouraging aspects of the current boom in computer music applications has been that the owners of unusual computers haven't been too badly left out. Admittedly there's nothing unusual about an Atari in the States, but you're likely to be looked at sideways for owning one over here (the sort of look you get when someone sends you one of those joke letters with 'VD Clinic — Confidential Report' written all over it in subtle neon letters); which isn't to say that there's anything the matter with owning an Atari, or a Research Machines Z80A, or even a BBC Model A.

A couple of issues back, for instance, we looked at Hinton Instruments' MIDIC interface which allows any home micro which can speak RS232 (so, any home micro) to speak MIDI as well. RS232 was one of the communications standards which inspired MIDI in the first place, differing mainly in the fact that information is transmitted in parallel form which requires expensive multi-pin hardware for connection. MIDI, as we all know from the most cursory inspection around the back of the brother-in-law's 'contemporary keyboard', uses a simple DIN socket, and the fact that hi-fi DIN leads aren't in fact wired the same way as honest-to-goodness MIDI leads doesn't make much difference to the operation of the system.

If you have more intractable machines, or want to interface lighting or other equipment into a musical setup, there are one or two new ways to do it on the market. You could start with a Banana, which doesn't represent the first use of fruit in digital music, but is simply the name of a new interfacing unit from Castle Associates.

The Banana is a micro interface which is fitted with 54 4mm banana plug sockets which provide various voltage and logic signals which can be controlled from a Commodore VIC 20, CBM64 or BBC. Use of Turtles (motorised drawing machines for marking up paper on flatbed plotters) is a major application of the Banana, but it could equally well be adapted to controlling lighting faders, maybe audio faders or stage effects like pyroflashes. The Banana puts out eight relay control signals and eight +12V logic signals, and has independent control of up to eight motors in On/Off Mode or four in Forward and Reverse Mode. More information from Castle Associates on (Contact Details).

Another computer tie-up to the outside world is the JL Cooper MIDI Lighting Controller. JLC have been turning out MIDI interface units for a good few years now, and have specialised in adding MIDI facilities to machines which have previously lacked them. One example is their MIDI Oberface, which gives the Oberheim drum machines all the basic MIDI facilities, and the company have many specialised interfaces for individual machines.

The Lighting Controller converts MIDI information from a computer interface on a MIDI sequencer such as Roland's MSQ700 into voltages capable of controlling all standard lighting dimmer packs up to 100W capacity. 12 packs can be controlled and the unit has 12 memories, which can be selected from MIDI in the same way that a computer MIDI sequencer package would call up a synth patch during the course of a sequence.

The possibilities are endless, although of course you'd have to be happy about using your home micro on stage in the first place. If you were running a computerised MIDI sequencer package as part of your performance you could write in up to 12 lighting patches, which would be called up to exactly coincide with any point in the music.

Negotiations with JLC to market their products over here haven't been too successful so far, but you could consult Computer Music Studios on (Contact Details). Price of the MLC should be around £850 depending on the dollar exchange and import costs.

Going a little down market, Music Sales via Commodore have introduced three new Play Along albums for the Commodore 64 with Music Mate keyboard. Each package costs £9.95 each, and the titles are Popular Classics, Pop Hits and The Beatles. Each is available on tape or disc, and the packages claim to have educational as well as entertainment value.

Has it got MIDI?

You can simply allow each package to play in a Juke Box mode, or accompany it in one of two ways, with two of the three voices playing accompaniment normally, or waiting for you to play the next melody note before going on.

You're provided with a simplified score to follow in the handbook and all the sounds are preset. The packages are MIDI compatible using an RMS or other interface, and any or all of the three voices can be replaced by MIDI synth(s) playing in Omni, Poly or Mono modes.

The software is compatible with future releases, which will include a six-channel compositional program playing three channels on the computer and three via MIDI, and with a synthesis programme called ProSynth which will use all the facilities of the computer's SID sound chip. There's also a possibility of compatibility with MusicSales' forthcoming monophonic sound sampler for the 64.

More information from Commodore, (Contact Details).

The Works

For the increasingly popular Apple Macintosh, Softsel have launched Music Works, which is a powerful composition and synthesis package using the Mac's familiar pop-up menus and 'mouse' control. The Mac has a four-voice sound synthesizer circuit and you can select the voice type wanted using the mouse, pick the length of note from a menu, move it down onto a music stave displayed on the screen and position notes as desired using the mouse. You can copy bars and sections of bars and create loops; the line you're working with appears in black and previous ones in grey so that you can distinguish them on the stave, and you can control the tempo of playback, number of beats per bar and so on during or after composition.

The Mac's provided with a minijack audio output as well as its own speaker, and allows you to printout scores prepared with Music Works. Information from Softsel Computer Products Ltd, (Contact Details).

Decisions

Of course, the Mac is attractive because it interfaces with the Emulator II and Kurzweil synths for complex sound sampling and composition. On the other hand, the upcoming Ensoniq Mirage works with the better-established Apple II, an old faithful available at very good second-hand prices. On the whole, choosing a home computer, even for the single purpose of music applications, isn't getting any easier!