Answer: £500 synthesiser

In reply to Peter Miller's question in AMPLINEX 012, I can recommend the Kawai K1 synthesiser, which has an RRP of £595, but which I purchased for £505 and have seen advertised for even less. The K1 has full-size keys and has velocity and after-touch sensitivity. It comes with 64 Single preset sounds which include some excellent vocal, string and piano sounds. There are also some great synthesised sounds, ranging from the really nice 'Reflection' to the definitely weird 'Terminator'.

Up to eight of these Single sounds can be combined into a Multi patch. The K1 comes supplied with 32 Multi patches. A Multi patch can be a split, layer, velocity split in any combination. Each section of a Multi patch is assigned to its own MIDI receive channel, so from the Music 2000, you could play bass on channel 1, piano on channel 2, and guitar on channel 3.

There is also a feature called 'variable polyphony' which redistributes voices not in use. What this means is that while the K1 is only eight-voice polyphonic, you need not worry about how many voices you assign to each part in a piece of music, because the K1 gives voices to parts as and when required. The K1 is also very easy to program and it was only a short time before I was modifying the preset sounds to suit myself and storing them on to RAM cards.

Overall, I would say that the K1 is a great instrument for the first-time synthesiser user (like myself) because of its ease of programmability. It is also powerful because of its flexible multi-timbrality. Other instruments in the same price-range that I would recommend a look into are the Yamaha DX11 and YS100 and the new Roland D5 - but do shop around because prices of these instruments can vary greatly. All these instruments have retail prices around the £600 mark, but they can very often be purchased for less.

C Needham

Question: Using Solidisk Sideways RAM

I have got the Solidisk 128K SWRAM board in my BBC B. No matter what I try I have not been able to use it as a RAM disc in the AMPLE environment although I have successfully used an image of the AMPLE ROM in Sideways RAM.

I can use the RAM disc in BASIC, and my AMPLE System disc copies to the RAM disc OK. But as soon as I type *AMPLE, the SWRAM is corrupted, and none of the modules can be INSTALLed from the RAM disc.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Do I, for example, need to connect a write-protect switch to my SWRAM?

Andrew Leahy

Answer: Transposing instruments

Further to the discussion in AMPLINEX 012, it has been brought to my notice that in orchestral scores the tenor and bass trombones and the tubas are not written as transposing instruments. Whereas in band scores, of these three, only the bass trombones are written as non-transposers.

I see that in an Elgar score which I have timpani are written without a key signature but they are not transposers. Otherwise the key signatures shown are our best clues.

As regards saxhorns (abbreviated horns) in band music here is a table of transpositions:

Soprano in Eb sounds 3@ Cornet in Bb -2@ Horn in Eb -9@ Euphonium in Bb -14@ Bombardon in Eb -21@ Bass Tuba in Bb -26@ (Helicon is the same)

Saxophone transpositions are similar.

Lol Taylor

Question: Korg DDD-5

Does any member who owns a Korg DDD-5 drum machine know how to access via MIDI the 'intro/fillin' and 'ending' function as provided by the two Preset panel buttons?

I'm not sure if it actually possible. When I asked Korg the same question at a recent music fair in Wembley, I got the impression that they didn't know, and wondered why should I want to do that anyway instead of using the Programmable mode.

Has anyone managed to find out if there is a way to do it? I find the technical section on MIDI at the back of the manual somewhat lacking. (Maybe it's because I don't know enough about MIDI).

Ivor Abiks

Question: Voice dumps

Does anyone know of a source of a librarian/editor or even a simple voice dump program for the Yamaha TX81Z or the PSR 70, which would enable me to load to and from disc on the BBC computer.

I would prefer to do so via AMPLE and/or the Music 2000 interface but would consider purchasing or making another type of interface if necessary.

To send system exclusive bulk data on the TX81Z you have to send a checksum as part of the data. This checksum consists of 'twos complement of the lower 7 bits of the sum of all databytes'. Can anyone please explain to me in plain language what this means and how to work out such a checksum?

Ken Hughes

Editor's note:

This is one of the shortest Questions and Answers section I think we have ever had. Does this mean that all your questions about the Hybrid Music System have been answered? If not, please send those which remain to us in time for the next issue.