Composing with AMPLE

This feature is a collection of comments on the subject of AMPLE composition. Some of them were prompted by Richard Nevill's comments which were mentioned in the previous issue's Update section.

A fuller version of Richard Nevill's comments begins the discussion:

The music files on the issue 002 disc reinforce a suspicion I have long had that the Music 500/0 demands to have music especially composed for it, rather than to have pale conversions of popular and classical 'standards'. If the standard set by "Terra Cotta Army" and virtually all the other contributions is maintained, I for one will be well pleased!

Richard Nevill

I refer to Richard Nevill's comment regarding a possible need for the Music 500(0) to have specially composed music rather than to have 'pale conversions of standards'.

Whilst I think we all must be aware that this synthesiser has its limitations, this should not stop us from attempting to produce 'authentic' types of sound. After all, so many sounds in 'popular' music these days have been produced by other synthesisers. True orchestral sounds are another matter, of course, but why shouldn't we try to emulate the Berlin Philharmonic if we want to?

Conversely, we do not HAVE to try to produce the same sounds as particular groups or bands. Instead, we can produce unique performances and arrangements for our own enjoyment if no one else's. It doesn't matter for whom or for what the original music was composed.

Having said the above tongue in cheek, I must admit that, because of the limitations of the actual synthesiser (and Richard does say 'Music 500(0)'), he has a point. This is why I have high hopes for the MIDI interface which should enable much better (and VERY much more expensive!) synthesisers to be driven by AMPLE Nucleus, a programming/software combination it would be hard to beat at any price, including, for example, the Atari ST/Steinberg Pro24 set-up. This applies especially to non-musicians such as me who rely on step-time entry.

Ted Royffe

Re Richard Nevill's comment on composing for AMPLE, I couldn't agree more. Sometimes I think I'll scream if I hear yet another tedious version of Bach or Scott Joplin. I like Bach (I'm not so sure about Joplin!) and I've transcribed one or two pieces myself, but I don't think other people are likely to find them very exciting. Pieces like 'Terra-cotta Army' show off the capabilities of the Music 500/0 much better. I'd like to see AMPLINEX supporting this kind of work, which is trying to explore the new musical medium of AMPLE in its own terms, not imitating other media.

David Westbrook

In the nicest possible way I should like to take issue with Kevin Doyle when, in his review of Music City by Ian Guinan, he says "AMPLE versions are not meant to be soundalike versions of the original" and "The value of creating AMPLE copies of well-known music is questionable".

As a frustrated composer and conductor with equally frustrated ambitions to become a decent pianist and violinist, I am at last, through the medium of AMPLE, beginning to realise some of these forlorn hopes. I can now interpret and conduct light orchestral pieces to my own liking.

I can play piano and violin pieces with almost virtuoso accuracy including those of a difficulty which put them way beyond my own amateur technique. I can play virtually the whole range of instruments in an orchestra. I can arrange and hear performed with differing instruments the small number of simple compositions I wrote in my heyday over forty years ago. I might even start writing music again and be able to hear it played in various forms.

How else could I do this except through AMPLE?

I think AMPLE has tremendous possibilities and if the progress and improvement of the last ten years is continued over the next ten, as I am sure it will be, I can see electronic music becoming indistinguishable from authentic musical sounds. What a boon AMPLE would have been to the Beethovens and Mozarts of the past.

If we accept that all sound is music of one sort or another, it is equally clear that different sounds appeal to different people and at different ages. For some years now the popular teenage trend has been the reproduction of weirdo electronic sounds against a background of heavy rhythmic thumping played at about 140 decibels.

If that appeals to them - OK; but don't let us forget the more gentle type of melodious music of which there is a vast repertoire.

AMPLE can accommodate both, and the fact that AMPLE can produce an electronic representation of a well-known piece should not, in my humble opinion, be frowned on. In fact, if the representation and interpretation is good enough, it might even be greeted with raised eyebrows by the 'highbrows' as I am sure will be the case in years to come. In the meantime some of us continue to strive for that elusive perfection.

G H Richardson