A Would-Be Modern Minstrel

- by Darcy Moore

(first published in Australia's "Your Computer magazine", December 1993)

Centuries ago, in 1986, I knew nothing about computers, nothing about music except how to play records without scratching them, and had no grey hairs. Whether the first two contributed to the grey hairs depends on whether you believe aging is unavoidable or something you catch from the environment.
        By 1991 I was getting compuworldly wise and, as two family members used an electric piano with midi capabilities, I decided to brave the digitised musical waters. Basically I wanted a setup that would allow diagnosis of key-board technique, composition of original material with appealing arrangements, and the printing of standard musical notation. Being greedy I also wanted a sound module supported by most games. Oh, and it had to be user friendly or my wife would never touch it
        To the uninitiated midi concepts and books on midi can seem quite incomprehensible. But I read doggedly, and asked questions, mainly of Geoff Grantham, then of Brisbane's Music Junction (07 369 9033), because he was one of the few local musicians comfortable with midi on IBM compatibles. (Atari was THE music computer)
        Because of a chronic reticence to spend hugely on mere SOFTWARE, I bought a cut-down version of a sequencer for composing and editing and a notator which imported midi files and allowed them to be printed as musical script. However I splurged on the sound module - the Roland Sound Canvas Card which was, quality wise, well ahead of anything on the market and had its own midi interface (which allowed other midi devices to talk to it and the computer). That was my first serious problem No matter what I did to addresses, polls, interrupts, dip
        switches and such obscenities, or what Geoff did, or what Roland in Sydney did, the card did not want to know about my 386-SX mother board. We concluded that because it was of a vintage when a standard was something used to rally the troops, it was incompatible with the card. Motherboards were not cheap then, so goodbye card. Music Junction kindly exchanged the original package for a Dr T starter kit (comprising a generic midi interface card, Copyist Apprentice notator, and a basic sequencer) and a Roland CM-64 external sound module. We novice and not-so-novice musicians struggled with that setup for a while. However to
        people who were comfortable with standard musical script the sequencer with its tape-recorder controls and tracks of rectangular madnesses was not inspiring. Neither was the notator which was slow to manipulate and print, and went catatonic over triplets and other musical conventions
        Things improved slightly when we changed sequencers - to Trax V2 which ran well under Windows 3.0. However when I upgraded to Windows 3.1 the Dr T midi-interface card, which by their own admission had turned out to be not so compatible with Roland's standard, would not work. Neither would Trax V2
        Around this time I became interested in the music and sound capabilities of CD-ROMs, and discovered a deficiency in the sound module - it could not synthesize voices; and voices are a key feature of many educational CD-ROMS. Keeping in mind the limitations of the previous music/sound package I was determined to get this one right
        YOUR COMPUTER was my chief source of information, through informative articles on CD-ROM technology and software by Jake Kennedy and associates, and the many musical reviews, with singing and dancing, by the eternally enthusiastic Eric Holroyd. I also went to the annual Queensland Computer Expo in Brisbane, to observe and discuss CD-ROM drives. When it came to musical software the 'try before you buy' wisdom was practical thanks to $5 demo disks of most up-market titles from Rhythmic Bytes (02 948 402?). My musicians and I spent six months making up our collective mind. It was worth it.
        From Greg Holloway of Peripherals International (03 894 4000) I purchased an NEC-CDR 84 internal CD-ROM drive. It transmits data at twice the speed of most on the market and should minimise the many moments of reflection which this technology currently allows. I say should, advisedly; perhaps 300 k/bytes per second is still too slow to generate fluid moving pics. Also from Greg I bought an Audiomaster soundcard (reviewed by Eric Holroyd, Dec '92) which included an ADLIB-compatible FM Synthesis module It conforms to midi standards and reproduces 128 quality sounds (excluding rhythm). A 1MB RAM expansion module is available which theoretically allows you to add to the number and complexity of sounded. However I was recently informed the Australian distributors, Omnilabs Australia (02 3 19 2022), no longer carry the module, because the essential and long-promised software is unlikely to eventuate. Getting the CD-ROM drive to talk to the soundcard had its moments. When I bought the
        significantly cheaper Audiomaster (SCSI) CD-ROM interface module rather than the NEC beast (which would have consumed another precious slot) Greg managed to track down compatible device driver software from Future Domain. Next was the problem of the internal sound-signal cable, the one supplied with the Audiomaster did not fit the NEC drive. As a mix-and-match one sent by Omnilabs fits but does not work, I still use the exterior sound hole for some non-Windows programs
        Another problem with the Audiomaster card was getting the optional midi-breakout box which lets exterior midi devices communicate with the computer It took 4 months - on an oh-so-slow boat from China, scout's honour. Just as well I was able to postpone the release date of our first family album!
        For music software I settled on Musicator GS (reviewed by Eric, in August '92 and again in April '93) which I originally dismissed until I saw its Windows incarnation. It costs around $41O, and loses nothing by comparison with more expensive packages like Encore and Finale. It's marketed by the Roland Corporation (02 982 8266), my copy coming from the Australian Academy of Music (07 83 1 0283). I can't fault its versatility - composing, editing, arranging, importing recording, printing and user friendliness. Plus
        Am I happy now? What a ridiculous thing to ask in a capitalist society! But yes, I am, and so is one musician in our family. Although he prefers to practise on the acoustic piano my son spends hours orchestrating classics like Rudolf, and pummeling his own fledgling masterpieces; that is after he's used his quota of game time. (My wife still avoids the computer, as if it was a homewrecker. Hmmm.) Also the sound and speech from CD-ROM programs like MS-Encarta and World Atlas are excellent.
        From my digital operetta I've learnt that a difficult-to-use cheap program is a waste of money, reading is not yet an outdated skill, and there are reasonable compromises between quality and cost. And, yes, concerned salesmen do exist,
        A final word of advice It helps if you know a little bit about music before you decide to compose, arrange, script and record your first number one album with computer help. I should have paid more attention to the school music teacher, and maybe not laughed so much at the one boy with enough guts to stick it out in the school band. You just never know when the musical bug will byte!