Welcome to AMPLINEX issue 004

This issue should reach you before the end of March, putting us back on track after the delayed issue 003.

As the issues go by, we are gradually getting better at turning the contributions into a new issue and returning it to you quickly. As Jackie explains in her article on the Data Protection Act, we rely on computerised records to keep a track of the 80+ members and the scores of contributions to date.

I would like to make a plea to all members to read the notes on 'Making a contribution' which are included in this section in every issue. We do change these as we discover better ways of using the contributions and a few simple checks made before any contributions are sent can save us many hours during the preparation of the next disc.

One plea in particular is to those contributors of music who have included comments about the music in accompanying text files. We encourage such comments, not just for our own information, but for that of the other members who are to receive a copy of the music - but we face the task of transcribing them into AMPLE format to include within the music program. So, please keep sending the comments, but put them in the program.

In this issue we have another interesting collection of original AMPLE music as well as a promotional track from the disc 'Inside Stories' by Peter Chase (reviewed in AMPLINEX 003) supplied by Hybrid Technology.

We have the first in a series of AMPLE guides to 'music theory in action' from Roger Cawkwell and a collection of instruments to try in your own music.

We have a feature on using the AMX mouse with the Studio 5000, another on saving memory in AMPLE programs and a comprehensive index to the first 3 issues of AMPLINEX.

Prompted by the comments in the 'Update' section of the previous issue, we have an interesting collection of comments about AMPLE and the music it produces. We also have the largest ever 'Questions and Answers' section - 40% bigger than in issue 003 (which itself was over double the size of issue 002). Happily, there are about as many answers as questions.

We have a review of the new waveform design software which has just been released and an index to the AMPLE Nucleus Programmer Guide (reviewed in AMPLINEX 003).

We also have a couple of utility programs to monitor the activity on the AMPLE number stack - an excellent way to understand and use this feature of the AMPLE system.

Thank you for your excellent response to date – it’s a pleasure to have to worry about whether or not each issue's contents are going to fit on to one side of an 80-track disc!

I look forward to your contributions to AMPLINEX 005.

Kevin Doyle