Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!esosun!net1!sdcsvax!sdcc6!sdcc3!ma168a
From: ma168a@sdcc3.ucsd.EDU (John Wavrik)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: music
Message-ID: <3672@sdcc3.ucsd.EDU>
Date: Sat, 15-Nov-86 01:42:30 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcc3.3672
Posted: Sat Nov 15 01:42:30 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Nov-86 00:46:58 EST
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 51


>                                                      I am including here
>a .com version (uuencoded) of the best effort of the Piano-Man folks which
>I know of to date.  I would appreciate it if Mr. Wavrik, or anyone else with
>access to it, would compare the effect of this version of the William-Tell
>overture with the package Mr. Wavrik mentions, as well as with the little
>package I posted last week and let me know if the effect of the "Music
>Construction Set" is essentially like that of Piano-Man (as illustrated
>in willtell.com) or like my system.
 
When I first played this piece on my Tandy 3000 (an AT compatible) I thought
this was a joke.  Fortunately Jim Greenlee posted a patch for AT users:
            -e0152,f4,01  -e016f,f4,01  (using DEBUG)
 
   If you were to hear Issac Stern play the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and a
beginning Suzuki student play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it would be hard to
tell which was playing the better violin. I highly recommend the rendition of
the William Tell Overture. It is a virtuoso piece. It is an excellent example
of the fact that a gifted musician can do amazing things even on a kazoo.
But am I really being asked whether it's good?  In comparison to what comes out
of my stereo system???!!?
 
  Perhaps it would be a good time to explain why someone would be interested in
having a computer play music. I am not a musician. If music were my main
interest I would probably have bought an Amiga (where I would not only have the
William Tell Overture in beautiful four part harmony, but the Lone Ranger and
Tonto simultaneously riding across the screen!)  In my spare time I sing in a
choral group. My former computer was capable of producing one voice ACCURATELY
in the proper octave. I used it to make sure that I was getting pitches and
timing just right. I had expected, when I "moved up" to the AT, to be able
to hear how my part fit in with others. So far I've been disappointed.
 
  There are a lot of things involved in a useful music system: Music seems
inherently hard to enter. I'm not convinced that the mouse-like system rep-
resented by the Music Construction Set is the answer. It may be that a
"command driven" system like the one being built by Mr. Holden will be
better. And, of course, there is the question of accuracy of pitch.
 
  Someone who would like to use a computer as an aid to composition (a music-
ians analog of the word-processor) will not find any of the systems under
discussion worthy of consideration. I expect that if something in this class
were available for PC computers, it would have surfaced in the month or so
that this topic has been on the net.
 
  I mentioned the Music Construction Set because no one else had. It is cheap.
It is a complete music system. It is fun to use. It will play polyphonic music.
However, if you are strongly prejudiced against the MacIntosh environment, you
will hate it!
 
                                          --J Wavrik
                                            UCSD