| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ CREATION MUSICAL ★ THE MUSIC BOX (MELBOURNE HOUSE) ★ |
| THE MUSIC BOX (MELBOURNE HOUSE) (Hebdogiciel) | THE MUSIC BOX (MELBOURNE HOUSE) (Amstrad Action) | THE MUSIC BOX (MELBOURNE HOUSE) (Popular Computing Weekly) |
Music Box is an uninspired attempt to produce a complete synthesis and composition package for the Amstrad. To much time has been spent on the presentation, and too little on the real musical necessities; it looks like it was designed by a programmer rather than a musician. That said, there's little left out; the disk contains two main routines, Music Composer and Synthesiser, a number of music demos and some sound presets. To kick off, you select which program you wish to run, then (after absorbing the four-page explanation of music theory) you are ready to create. Icons The Editor screen is a bit messy, based around the “if it's too obvious, design an incomprehensible icon” principle. The right hand side displays the treble and bass staves, the key and time signature are shown to the left, two icons give access to the editing and playback routines, a digital clock shows elapsed time (!??). and two panels show the major commands available from the keyboard. The 0 key toggles between rests and notes, which can be placed on the staff using either the keyboard, a joystick or a light pen. Envelopes are chosen from the seven available, and you can move through the music either a note at a time of a bar at a time. There are eight tempos settings available, and full transposition facilities, as well as repeat commands which allow you to build more complex tunes without having to repeat whole bars of writing. There are no bar copy, block copy or more complex chaining facilities, and the printout module is unimplemented at the moment, due to technical problems. The review copy crashed if you try to load a non-existent file. The Synthesiser section, which has to be entered separately, allows you to define sets of seven instrument sounds, which can then be filed and used in your compositions. The main display allows you to select the envelope on which you want to work. 1-7. then define a five-stage amplitude shape using the cursor keys or lightpen. You can then define the waveshape ( “tone envelope") which allows such effects as vibrato to be incorporated. There are several demonstration pieces provided on the disk, ranging from classical pieces to the Eastenders theme. Despite the three-part harmonies, the lack of a music scroll routine makes it fairly impossible to learn anything from these, so I can't really find anything in the Music Box to recommend it to either serious music students or amateurs who just want a quick and easy composition system. Popular Computing Weekly |
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