In this issue we have a review of a new AMPLE music disc, further discussion about music on the Acorn Archimedes, and a reaction to Hybrid Technology's showing at a recent exhibition.

'5000 Notes' by Ted Kirk

Roy Follett

'5000 notes' marks a departure for Ted Kirk, this being his first AMPLE disc of music. Members are no doubt aware of his Theory of Music (grade 2 to 5), Level 1 Theory of Music and Play What I Play software. Those who are not aware of these titles might like to be reminded that it is his jingle that greets them on starting up their AMPLINEX issues.

There are eight original tunes, arranged under two group titles: 'Wishful Thinking' and 'Instrumentals'. This disc is suitable for either the Music 5000 on its own or in conjunction with a Music 3000 expander. The software of course detects the presence of the expander if it is fitted.

A nice touch is the four page A5 leaflet with brief notes about each piece together with some of Ted's wishful thoughts.

I am a softie when it comes to original works - I am convinced that AMPLE comes in to its own when it's not being compared with familiar tunes which bring with them familiar arrangements and preconceived ideas. That does not mean I do not like 'standards '; I do, but only when the programmer has thought out new ideas and given the oldie a new lease of life.

So top marks to Ted Kirk for this disc, I hope this is the first of many.

'5000 Notes' costs £3.95 inclusive of postage and packing from:

Ted Kirk

33 Humber Crescent

Sutton Leach

St Helens

Merseyside

WA9 4HD

Music on the Archimedes – continued

Jack Wrigley

In reply to Jim Redfarn's comments in AMPLINEX 022 News and Reviews, I must disagree with his criticism of the 'tedious' operation of the A3000's graphics programs. Try running the main Apple Mac DTP programs on a Mac Classic if you want to define tedium!

2 Mb A3000s can be purchased for the basic list price from several sources these days and are well suited for a variety of applications.

I've just managed to output some text and graphics through to high quality typesetting (via the Impression Business Supplement) and the results are very impressive indeed. All from a 2 Mb machine with single disc drive!

I think most of Jim's criticisms of 'Rhapsody' have been fixed in release 2 of this program, but it was as a 'taster' of the Staff editor of a future implementation of AMPLE that I mentioned it.

On this long running subject, two recent replies to my enquiries might be of interest to members.

The first was from Unilab Ltd, who market the 'I/O Box 3000' a hardware upgrade giving the A3000 User Analogue and 1 Mhz Bus ports. They said:

If your music system uses the BBC User, Analogue and 1 Mhz Bus ports (in any combination) and you are using software which uses legal Acorn calls, then the software should run under the !65Host emulator.

Feeling as if the 'holy grail' was finally coming into reach, I asked Hybrid Technology if the above was the case and Chris Jordan replied:

We have indeed indicated that a Hybrid Music System will be available for the RM Nimbus PC 186, but not said anything specific about AMPLE.

Because the Nimbus is not PC compatible (having different card slots), Nimbus add-ons will not work on PC-compatibles, or the RISC-OS PC emulator.

The RISC-OS BBC emulator (either version) has proved incapable of running AMPLE and Studio 5000.

All of which seems to put us back to square one, needing a custom written application of AMPLE, making the best use of the speed and convenience of the Archimedes.

I wonder what Chris Jordan looks like in a Santa Claus outfit?

Selling Hybrid Technology

Jim Redfarn

I went to the Hybrid Technology stand at the Acorn User Show to look at ArcRecorder, which is Hybrid's new sound sampler for the Archimedes. It was nowhere to be seen! Mr Jordan was not there either, and perhaps it is reasonable for such an outstanding computer programmer not to use up his valuable time doing a selling job, though I have always found his low-key sales approach far more convincing than Mike Beecher's prancings on the EMR stand.

It was more of a surprise not to find Hybrid's Roger Curtis or Val Cutting. The attractive young person in charge of the stand apparently had not heard of ArcRecorder and was vague about any other recent Hybrid products, such as the Music 6000. Instead, this person seemed only interested in trying to sell me a re-hashed version of an old game called, I think, Elite. Can someone reassure me that all is well at Hybrid?