11/21/2023 0 Comments Midi sysex librarian![]() ![]() The open-endedness of a computer and the limitations of dedicated hardware are being juxtaposed more than ever, such that the whole way that users look at equipment is changing. For others, bugs, crashes, and gremlins are an acceptable part of everyday music life. To many people, these two fundamental 'features' are still a pre-requisite for any equipment which lays claim to being 'professional'. Dedicated hardware still offers robustness and, hopefully, 100% reliability. Even today, after a few years of practice, the software manufacturers have been unable to instill the necessary confidence in a product such that bands will happily tour with a computer. Obviously there are both pros and cons attached to music software as the current situation stands. It has become apparent that to ignore this technology is to ignore a music tool with the biggest creative potential seen this century. The combined effect of these and other related factors has been to push software-based samplers, sequencers, voice editors and librarians into the limelight, and forced the music industry to sit up and realise that computers have finally come of age. This has had an enormous knock-on effect for other software manufacturers, who have been forced to become more and more innovative and to exploit the music capabilities of whatever computer they write for. The popularity of the Atari ST machine has given the music software manufacturers the necessary impetus to provide advanced and relatively inexpensive music tools. The advent of a cheap but powerful computer in the shape of the Atari 520/1040ST, which could fulfill the needs of both professional and home user alike, has radically altered this situation. There was no middle ground presence of a high performance, low-cost computer to attract a pool of software affordable and available to the masses. ![]() ![]() Additionally, the original software situation was such that there were only a small number of software manufacturers, who tended to market towards extremes such as providing an advanced IBM-based sequencing system for the professional studio user, and an extremely stripped down budget version for the home Sinclair Spectrum/Commodore 64 user. The unreliability of early music software meant that a great number of studios were slow on the uptake of software-based music systems, preferring to stick with the tried and trusted hardware sequencers. However, it was not until the past year that there has been a substantial national interest in this particular area of music. Since the Commodore 64, and to a lesser extent the BBC micro, first introduced MIDI to the personal computer user in the UK, the music software market has steadily grown and become (reluctantly in many cases) accepted as a serious, almost invaluable tool for music making. Mike Barnes provides a comprehensive rundown of available music software for the Atari, Macintosh, IBM PC, and Amiga computers. ![]()
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