Voice Editor and File Manager

Crash

Jon Bates

This month, JON 'N-N-N-NORMAN' BATES steps into the shadows of the Motel's parlour for a didactic review of Quasar's Yamaha DX7 programmer plus more on those wild 'n' whacky samplers... Quasar Software have been busy again and have dished up another program for the omnipresent Yamaha DX7. It takes the hassle out of programming a digital synthesizer from the front panel and a 17 character LCD. It follows along the design of their DX21/27/100 Voice Editor which was delivered to the motel for Issue 53. Quasar's software currently only runs on the Music Machine but there are plans to release it for other interfaces soon. The main screen display shows the six operators and the shape of the envelope for each one. SPACE bar jumps the editing marker around the screen. Once in the main editing area the left and right cursors take over to define the peripheral you're working on. Maybe it would have been nice to have a display of exactly which peripheral of the envelope you are working on, as quite often you want to copy voices in from printed out 'patches' (as the sound charts are called by the cognoscenti). The graphic display reacts quickly to any changes and the definition of the small graphs is good. Bar graphs are used to show the output of each operator as well as the low frequency oscillator, keyboard scaling facilities and velocity sensitivity (that's the bit for the touch sensitivity). A display of the algorithm shape and transposition is also on the one screen and you can compare any alterations with the original. Other functions of the program are what is termed as library management. This is the creation of banks of voices to load into your DX7 so that you can assemble suitable sounds for different uses and change voices from bank to bank. The program comes with 120 or so voices, all Japanese I'm assured. If you load up the whole lot in one greedy go you can reorder any of the banks and send or recall any bank for individual voice) to the library or the synth. Pretty smart stuff - just like the real thing, ha-ha. In fact only a couple of features separate the Quasar voice program from more expensive ones (like £150 ones!) for other micros. Only a few niggling omissions - like that lack of voice list printer dump - prevent this from being a very competitive package. But at only £9.99 it should prove a worthy purchase. Oh dear.. I think the water level in the swamp at the back of the cabins is going down and Mr Arboghast's car roof is very nearly visible. Mother will be angry if she can see the car from her window.

Crash

Jon Bates

HOUSEHOLD HINTS AND SYNTHS Jon Bates discards his blood-stained Marigolds gloves in favour of a DX programmer and an equally blood-stained letter-opener... Hey! I'm beginning to like this magazine - they've even got hold of pictures of my, sorry, our house for my articles. Whilst hunting through the waste bins in some of the cabins of the motel, I found wrapped up in a three-day old copy of the Los Angeles Times the most marvellous DX21/27/100 programmer. It's the one released from Quasar Software and in comparison with some of the supposedly upmarket software for the 16-bit machines it takes quite a bit (pun incidental) of beating; in short it was better. And you get a whole load of new sounds to boot - about 150 in all. Quasar have taken a very visual approach to the program. Following a loading screen, the main work area pops up. Down the left hand side of the screen appear graphic wave displays of the envelopes for the four operators (I make no apologies for not going through an FM synth primer as there is a time and place for everything - and this ain't either. Sorry.) Underneath that is a scrolling window through which access can be gained to all the functions - basically either editing or transferring to and from the library, tape or the synth. Just to the left of centre, a set of four vertical bars show you the relative outputs of each operator in the form of bar graphs of the levels which are essential to the final sound. This principle follows through in the smaller areas on the right hand side of the screen. A display in the top centre of the screen shows the algorithm defining the configuration of the operators currently in use. The tiny little figure to it's right is in fact the level of feedback set on operator four and not, as I thought, the algorithm number. At the top of the screen is the name ascribed to the sound. In edit mode you can move around the different sections, each being highlighted in yellow when activated. One small niggle here is that you can only run round the screen in one preset order, since editing is usually a matter of fine tuning just a few peripherals, dodging between the two or three alternately; this editing procedure proved a little constricting. What, I wondered, were the chances of having it work from the cursor arrows - or even better, the joystick control? However, this is only a minor hiccup in what is a very excellent utility. I particularly liked the ability to get the DX to play other melody chords or bass from an on-screen command. It would have been even better if after each edit alteration it sent a single note command so that you didn't have to keep taking your hands off to see what the editing alterations were. It has a copious and very neat file/voice management system that takes advantage of the DX's ability to 'bulk dump' (a phrase that has been taken out of context by several coarse friends of mine). This means transferring many voices at the same time, and is a great time saver; any synth programmer worth its salt should do this. All files and voices can be saved to tape, but Quasar have not simply stopped there. You find, on consulting the handbook, (which although tacky and rather quaintly spelt is very straightforward) that the program is adaptable to a large degree. It can be obtained in a variety of permutations: RAM or MICON (XRI) interfaces, 128 or Interface 1 network and will store on cassette, Microdrive, OPUS Discovery, Disciple, MGT Plus D or the +3. So pay yer money and take yer choice; it's a snip at £9.99. Quasar are at pains to let you know that they have been on the move and can now be sent lots of money at their new address listed at the end of the article. Soon they will send me a DX7 programmer for review and the results of exhaustive testing by myself and mother will be revealed at a later date.

Detailed loading screen from Quasar's Yamaha DX 100/27/21 voice editor and file manager.