Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!ginosko!uunet!mcsun!mcvax!waal
From: waal@cwi.nl (Peter de Waal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: MIDI software for Atari ST
Message-ID: <8410@boring.cwi.nl>
Date: 15 Sep 89 15:06:57 GMT
References: <34269@grapevine.uucp>
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 45

In article <34269@grapevine.uucp> sgrimm@sun.com (Steven Grimm) writes:
>I bought a Yamaha PSR-47 keyboard yesterday, just to play around with some
>basic musicmaking.  I'd really like to drive the thing from my Atari ST,
>too; can anyone recommend good software?

I can recommend Steinberg's Twelve sequencer. It's supposed to be a stripped
down version of their PRO-24. It has 12 tracks and you can compose a song in
pieces (called patterns). Basically each pattern has a track (just like on a
tape deck) and a MIDI channel assigned to it, plus a begin and end position.
You can play back a song in either track mode, i.e. like an open reel
tapedeck, or you can use one of the available tracks as a sequencer track,
where you can glue different patterns together to make a song. This allows
you to have e.g. one pattern repeated as the chorus of the song.  Input of
notes can be done either by a MIDI keyboard or mousewise on an edit screen.
The latter is done by putting notes on a musicscore.  Lots of copy, cut and
paste functions are available.  The song files are compatible with the ones
used by PRO-24, so you can still use them when you ever want to upgrade to
PRO. (You get a discount coupon with the program for the upgrade, but I'm
satisfied with 12 for now.) The song files can thus also be used by
Masterscore (I'm not sure this is the right name?) to be printed on whatever
printer you have.

Differences with PRO-24 are:
-Twelve can only record sysex and controller messages from a keyboard, you
 can't edit them. You can, however, put program and volume changes in a
 track, so you can have your computer select the right voice to play back a
 song.
-Twelve has only 12 tracks (as opposed to 24 in PRO).
-Twelve comes on a non-copyprotected disc. No hardware key needed in you
 cartridge port.

I don't know which resolutions it runs on, but since this is not mentioned in
the manual I suppose a colour monitor is no problem (I use it on a
monochrome system)

The best thing of all is: it costs only Dfl. 99 (~US$ 46)

#include <disclaimer.h>
I don't have anything to do with Steinberg apart from being a satisfied
customer.

#########################################################################
#  Peter de Waal, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, Amsterdam.	#
#  email: waal@cwi.nl							#
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