| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ CREATION MUSICAL ★ E.M.U: ELECTRONIC MUSIC UTILITY ★ |
| E.M.U: ELECTRONIC MUSIC UTILITY (c) DISCOVERY (AM-Mag) | E.M.U: ELECTRONIC MUSIC UTILITY (The Amstrad User) | E.M.U: ELECTRONIC MUSIC UTILITY (Amstrad Action) | Music-Pro vs. E.M.U (Amstrad Cent Pour Cent) |
This Discovery package could be the first to give The Music System a run for its money. It isn't just a simple music program by any means - it could come in very handy as a utility for anyone wanting to add music to their own programs. But let's take a look at the editing and playback side of things first. MAKING MUSIC EMU is a menu-driven program: to choose an option, you have to move a highlight up and down or from side to side in a list of choices, hitting the enter or return key when you've found the one you want. This is a deliberate deéparture from the more fashionable icon system, and does avoid those annoying 'guess what this symbol means'problems. 1 don't think it really makes much difference in the long run, but it does make things a little easier when you're learning to use the system. Selecting 'Music'from the main menu gives you the main editing screen, with a new sub-menu running across the top of it. Sub-menu options include edit, record and play. 'Edit' gives you direct access to the scores for the different voices. All three of these are visible at once, so it's easy to create decent harmonies without too much voice switching. This is probably just as well, because there is a slight problem with voice-switching on the EMU: infuriating, it returns you to the start of the piece every time you move from one voice to another. This is a shame, because the editing is otherwise very nice indeed. Using the numeric keypad as an extended cursor pad you can rapidly select the pitch and length of note or rest you want, and facilities for deleting and inserting are the best I've yet seen on a music package. If all that musical notation seems a little daunting, there's a very effective Music System -style 'Record'option using the top two rows of the micro's keyboard as your piano. Once you've recorded your music onto the stave, you can bring all that lovely editing power to bear on it - and that's a strong combination.
USING THE MUSIC When it comes to doing things with the music you've created, EMU may not be able to print the stuff out but it does have another trick up its sleeve. By selecting the option 'Save-RSX' from the tape/disk sub-menu, you can create a 'stand-alone' file. This is a machine-code routine which you can use with your own Basic programs, quite independently of EMU itself. All you need to do to use such a file is write a simple piece of Basic into your program - about five lines all , told. Run these to set the system up, and you car. then use the bar command PLAY to play a particular piece of music. The music will keep going while you do other things, so you could use it quite easily for adding music to Basic games. The only thing it won't play through is a tape load or save, and that's hardly likely to spoil the package for you. It's an easy system to use, and vastly less effort than writing your own music routines. As for space, the demo file of the Radetsky March took up 6K - not bad for a substantial piece of music plus the system to play it. VERDICT As a straight music-composing program, EMU would come second only to The Music System for performance and value for money. It lacks the scrolling display and overall simplicity of Rainbird's offering, but you can see all three voices at once and there's that slick insertion and deletion too. Of course, EMU isn't just a composing program. It's also a great way to add music to your own Basic programs, and that's something The Music System can't do for you. If you're a musician you might well prefer TMS, but if you're a bit of a programmer then EMU'S got to be well worth a look. TAU |
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