MAKING MUSIC LTD

Keyfax 4: Synthesisers, Samplers & Controllers

by Julian Colbeck

The first edition of Keyfax, Julian Colbeck's guide to the world of hi-tech musical instruments, came out way back in 1985. Keyfax 2 followed only a year later, adding an index, omitting some previously-included instruments and covering the advent and growth of affordable sampling, the Atari ST and 16-bit MIDI sequencing software. Keyfax 3, published in 1988 by our own Music Maker Books, dropped the monosynth and organ coverage and gave more prominence to computer-based sequencing software.

While essentially keeping to the same formula, then, Keyfax has always shifted its coverage to reflect the changes which have taken place in the industry. Some six years on, Keyfax 4 continues in the same vein, only this time the shift is much greater: as the book's title indicates, its coverage is confined to just three areas. Apparently, other areas such as digital pianos and keyboards are to be covered in Keyfax 5, which will be more a complementary book than a successor to 4.

As in previous editions, each featured instrument gets a header picture followed by a spec list which includes information on polyphony, multi-timbrality, effects, onboard memory and outputs together with release date, original price and second-hand price. This is followed by a sometimes quite lengthy review/retrospective section in which the author describes the instrument's functionality, usability, strengths, weaknesses and historical position. Rounding off each instrument's coverage is some information on editors, sound cards, books and videos.

The synth section of the book covers keyboard, workstation and module versions, but, while it includes a good selection of analogue polysynths, monosynths haven't been reinstated - a fact which will no doubt disappoint a lot of people, given the current resurgence of interest in these instruments. You'll just have to hunt around for an old second-hand copy of Keyfax 2 - while the 'Warehouse' section of MT will give you as good a guide as any to current prices of second-hand gear.

Although the sections on samplers and controller keyboards take up only a third of the book between them, they still manage to be fairly comprehensive. Of course, it's always going to be possible to nitpick with a book such as this - no Akai MX73 or MX76 controllers, for instance, while Novation's dinky little mm10 and mm10-X controllers are included but not Roland's useful entry-level PC200 MkII.

In a vain attempt to avoid being instantly overwhelmed by the tide of change, Keyfax 4 includes a number of 'pre-release reviews' eg. Alesis Quadrasynth, E-mu Morpheus, Novation Bass Station and Roland S760 sampler. However, already there are synths such as Yamaha's innovative VL1 and a whole swathe of new Roland JVs which presumably were unknown to the author at the time of writing. But then, being up-to-date is a function of magazines, not books.

Like its predecessors, Keyfax 4 is incisive, well-informed, balanced and accessible, and a valuable addition to any hi-tech musician's bookshelf - where it really needs to sit alongside the complementary rather than redundant Keyfax 1, 2 and 3.

Price: £12.95
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MUSIC OF LIFE

George Clinton: Sample some of Disc sample some of DAT

Volume Two

Produced by George Clinton! 99 killer classic sample-tracks from the undisputed heavyweight champion of funk! Ensemble and solo instrumental tracks! Wow! Perhaps George has got hold of the original P-funk master tapes and decided to give all the sample freaks a dose of The Real Thang, instrument by instrument.

Alas, no. Anyone expecting raw undiluted '70s P-funk will be sorely disappointed. This is the real world, after all, where major artists don't have control over their own material (just ask George Michael).

Basically, the format of this sample CD is: ensemble track lasting up to two minutes (guitar, horns, keyboards, bass and drums) followed by several 15-20 second tracks which isolate individual instruments or various combinations of instruments from the ensemble. You want to sample that funky guitar riff but not the bass and drums? No problem.

Yes, there are some reasonably funky guitar riffs on this CD, along with some reasonably funky drum beats, basslines and horn riffs. But, this is studio-clean session music without attitude, everything that the original P-funk wasn't. Words like 'bland' and 'bloodless' spring to mind.

If they were honest, 9 out of 10 sampling musicians in search of a funky groove would choose Pedigree P-funk any day. And don't think that just because this is a 'purpose-built' sample CD it comes with a licence to use its contents for free in your own commercial recordings. No, it comes complete with a 5-point instruction booklet entitled 'How to license this record for sample use'. George intends to be paid in full, y'all...

In its favour, you can get this CD for a normal album price rather than the more usual £30-40 charged for sample CDs. If you want to check its sample value for yourself, try putting it up against your favourite Parliafunkadelic album/compilation and see which gives you most sample satisfaction.

Price: £12 inc p&p
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QUE CORPORATION

Windows Stuff Microsoft Forgot!

By Ed Tiley

Have you noticed how many PC books have 'grabber' titles these days - DOS For Dummies, I Hate PCs - and so on. Makes you wonder if the authors actually like PCs. Anyway, here's another grabber title... Windows Stuff Microsoft Forgot!

Of course, no one would argue that Microsoft forgot lots of stuff when they were designing Windows. Forgot to give it a decent user interface for a start. The book doesn't actually mention this, leaving Windows users blissfully unaware of how friendly a good interface can be. In fact, the book tackles none of the main issues and contents itself with outlining the utilities Microsoft forgot. To which end it includes a disk of 16 programs, most of which are Shareware.

Windows makes much use of icons but has no icon editor. "Windows uses a bewildering array of initialisation files" (to quote from the book) but no easy way to edit them. So there are utilities to do these jobs for you...

Meta-Mouse helps improve the visibility of the mouse cursor by changing its size and making it blink (ever had problems with your cursor, missus?).

Other utilities include indispensable functions such as the ability to cycle between windows with the right mouse button instead of the Alt+Tab, alternating screen savers and a util to play several WAV files one after the other.

Changing your desktop and creating animated icons is the sort of thing nerds do in the office when the boss isn't looking. Normal people may try it but most go back to the originals when they realise how much RAM/disk space the utilities consume.

OK, so this is lightweight stuff but there are heavyweights here, too.

FontSee lets you take an inventory of the fonts you have installed; NoteBook can load files larger than 64K (unlike Windows' NotePad); Paint Shop Pro is a superb graphics utility which converts between most graphics image formats and has many manipulation functions; WinBatch is a batch language (or Windows (for Power Users, this one); and WinZip manipulates compressed ZIP files. There are also utilities for launching your most-used programs.

The book is essentially about how to use the programs - the sort of handholding Mac users have come to expect but isn't so common for the PC. Personally, I think the fripperies outnumber the serious stuff, but you may disagree - in which case I heartily recommend you rush out and buy it. In any event, the program plus written instructions are pretty good VFM.

Price: £18.77
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