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Computer Musician

Rumblings

Article from Electronics & Music Maker, April 1984

Fairlight, Drumulator, MIDI software.


Graphic Rhythm




The sampling drum machine that's always guaranteed to get nice things said about it, by both punters and pundits alike, is the Drumulator from those awfully nice E-mu people in Santa Cruz, California. Old E-mu aren't to be done out of the micro-interfacing bit, so they've now released a software/hardware package called the Graphic Rhythm Composer for running the Drumulator via the RS-232 serial link from the Apple II/IIe (and probably also the Commodore 64). From what I can gather, the long and the short of this communications freeway is a 'Page R'-type rhythm sequencing set-up, whereby notes can be seen on the monitor screen as well as heard. A big point in favour of this visual approach is that it's a darn sight easier to work out where to put all those 15 levels of dynamics that the Drumulator waves at us on in the spec sheet. Not waving, but drowning... in dynamic subtlety...

On the same front, E-mu are now putting the Personal Computer Interface on the Emulator to work in some sort of way. When I last spoke to Dave Rossum (el designero of both the Emulator and Drumulator) in mid-1982, he said there wasn't sufficient interest in this side of things to go ahead with a proper software development programme for micro control of the Emulator. However, times they are changing, and E-mu are now saying that they'll tell those well versed in the art of software how to use an Emulator and a computer to create custom Drumulator ROMs. Interesting, but an expensive way of burning your own EPROMs, all the same...

For more on the explanation front, contact either E-mu Systems at (Contact Details), or Syco Systems, at (Contact Details).

Fairlight Upgrade



Even the jolly old Roller needs a lick or two of paint now and again, and the Roller of the synth world is being treated to a right royal going over by its Australian designers. First off is the imminent arrival of some music printing software that'll take in your melodies from Page 9 (the sequencer), Page R (the multi-layered rhythm generator), and the MCL, and then turn out camera-musician-conductor-ready copy. And there'll be an option shortly available that effectively turns the guts of the CMI into a Lamborghini lookalike. Well, as far as speed is concerned, anyway...

The point is that the machine we all know and love currently centres its activities around a pair of 6800s, an ilk of 8-bit processor that predates even the much-maligned 6502. The upgrade option instead offers us the delights of a pair of 6809s (as used in the Dragon micro) and the PPG Wave 2.2 entering the Fairlight ark. That's on one card. In addition, there'll be four other new cards as part of this upgrade: a double-density disk interface (doubling the capacity of the drives), a bigger and better video card, a de-bugging card, and a 256K system RAM card (compared with the present 64K).

And the price for all this? Well, this is the amazing bit (considering that you're actually getting a pretty impressive minicomputer, albeit in card form) - just £1,500. The good news extends to the fact that the price is likely to hold true whether it's a retrofit to a model of yesteryear or as a souping-up option for a current system.

Third on the Fairlight wash n' brush-up agenda is a further option that'll add SMPTE code reading and writing for tape synchronisation. This card will also be tempting us with - you guessed it - MIDI. Four channels of it, in fact, and this'll work with either MCL or Page R. Now, bearing in mind that MIDI is on the slow side (did you know that the data for an eight-note chord takes 11.6 ms to get from one bit of MIDI equipment to another?). You might be forgiven for thinking that marrying the super-dooper dual 6809s of the Fairlight GT with MIDI is a bit like, er, running the aforesaid status symbol of the Cannes set on paraffin, but there's method in this madness, because there's yet another upgrade option on the cards for later in the year, which centres around the CMI's other synthetic half, the voice cards. Now, the original voice cards were possessed with 16K of RAM for sound storage. That's OK for short sounds, but not too great for longer ones or anything with lots of HF. Over the years, these have seen various improvements, and now the claimed frequency response for the 'Series II' voice cards goes right up to 20,000 Hz, along with an 85 dB dynamic range and a ten-fold improvement in transient response.

The 'Series III' option goes much, much further. First, the cards will provide for 16 channels (rather than the present 8) of 14-bit audio from a shared memory system that'll accommodate up to 4 megabytes of waveform RAM. On top of that, software will greatly expand Page R so that it works on 64 channels. And that, of course, is where those MIDI channels come in. Imagine a trio of DX7s, the 'Series III' Fairlight, and something like the new SCI Drumtraks all working in perfect harmony... Oh well, one can but dream. In the meantime, Syco Systems can provide more food for thought at the address above.

More Music Center



Following on from what I mentioned about Music Center's MIDI software in the December issue, it transpires that Digisound are negotiating the UK distribution rights of Music Center's products. In fact, this German firm have developed two MIDI interfaces. One is connectable to nearly all micros (whether with Z80, 6502, or 6510 processors), while the other is specifically for the Commodore 64. Using the former as the synthetic umbilical cord, they're developing a range of Sinclair Spectrum software, including a real-time sequencer, arpeggiator, cassette interface for the Yamaha DX7 and DX9, a polyphonic composer, and what they describe as 'computer-made sounds for DX7' (whatever that means). All the above apart from the arpeggiator should also be available for the Commodore 64 within the very near future.

No doubt Digisound would be delighted to answer any queries anyone has about the availability and operation of these programs: they can be reached at (Contact Details). Alternatively, try the direct approach by contacting Music Center themselves at (Contact Details). By the way, we're still waiting to get a package for review. Whether that's a sign that development isn't entirely finished, or that someone's being recalcitrant about exposing it to the eagle eyes of E&MM's editorial staff is anyone's guess...



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Talking Shop

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The Gentle Art Of Transcription


Publisher: Electronics & Music Maker - Music Maker Publications (UK), Future Publishing.

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Electronics & Music Maker - Apr 1984

Computer Musician

Topic:

Computing


Editorial by David Ellis

Previous article in this issue:

> Talking Shop

Next article in this issue:

> The Gentle Art Of Transcript...


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