| ★ HARDWARE ★ AUDIO - MUSIC MACHINE ★ |
| MUSIC MACHINE (c) RAY (CPCINFOS) | MUSIC MACHINE (Amstrad Computer User) | MUSIC MACHINE (Amstrad Action) | MUSIC MACHINE (Amstrad Sinclair Ocio) | Töne für den CPC: Music Machine (CPC Magazin) |
Issue 17 corned a full review of Ram's beat box — the only other alternative Midi device for the- Amstrad It's basically an interlace with standard Midi ports However, underneath hides a smattering of other intriguing facilities for the musician and enthusiast alike. Six connections can be found at the bade of the Music Machine That's no bad thing. What is annoying is that none of them are labelled. This means you have to refer to the manual every time you wish to plug something in. Three Midi ports are present Midi-in, Midi-out, Midi-thru Headphone, microphone and audio-out sockets are similarly placed.
You may have guessed by now that the Music Machine is more than just another Midi interlace Indeed, it provides «Sound sampling, various drum beats, echo and even lets you compose and store compositions Midi plays a small part in this package any reference to its Midi capabilities are concealed at the back of the manual, and few pages are devoted to the subject. The sampler and drum sounds are the most exciting aspects to the package. If you wish to sample your own voice or other noises then you'll have to lose the drum sounds (they are sampled). A mere 1.1 seconds of sampled sound can lit in memory This isn't limiting if you realise that short words are spoken on average, in a 20th of a second Sample rate is fixed. which is disappointing. By entering the drum of bar editor you can compose pieces of music — restricted to memory availability All the usual editing facilities are provided. For example, the time signature, tempo, note values and so on can be altered. If you have a Midi keyboard you may play a captured sound over the keyboard's full musical range Composed tunes may be sent to the synth. but little else You can't store edit and then playback musical compositions using a Midi instrument. In fact the Music Machine is very limited in this deépartment Ram promised software lor the Midi user This has not appeared so ten and there seems little chance that it will. The Music Machine is not of much use to the Midi musician You may have sampled sounds to play with, but not much use to the Midi user who wishes to edit or store keyboard compositions Best for the home user who doesn't want to stray from the CPCs beeps and squeaks. AA |
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