AMPLINEX survey results

AMPLINEX issue 007 contained a survey which asked questions about the hardware and software which members owned and about the operation of the Hybrid Music System and AMPLINEX.

We have now consolidated the results of the 61 surveys which were returned to us, and this article summarizes some of the findings.

A profile of the average AMPLINEX member would show that he/she bought a Music 500 synthesiser and later upgraded it with the Studio 5000 software. Since then a Music 4000 keyboard has been added and two or three music discs and the AMPLE Nucleus Programmer Guide bought. The Music 500 is used with a BBC Model B computer which has Sideways RAM, standard DFS and one or two double-sided disc drives. A printer, colour monitor and joystick are likely to be attached.

As indicated in the profile, most AMPLINEX members own a Music 500 synthesiser - in fact, the ratio of Music 500s to Music 5000s is about 3 to 1. Just under three-quarters of members have keyboards, and of those, six out of seven have the Music 4000. So far, about one in six members have the Music 2000 MIDI interface, with another third of members considering purchase. Only one member has so far bought the Music 1000 amplifier, but there is a small amount of interest in it from other members.

Over half of AMPLINEX members have now bought the AMPLE Nucleus Programmer Guide and most members have bought one or more of the AMPLE music albums. The popularity of the discs seems to reflect the length of time they have been available with 'COSMIX' (68%) and 'AMPLE Bytes Back' (54%) being the most popular, followed by 'Music City' (42%), 'Notes' (39%) and 'Inside Stories' (31%). The later albums were not released at the time the survey was published.

As mentioned earlier, most members (71%) use a BBC Model B computer with their Hybrid Music System, the remainder using a Master 128 (24%) or a Model B+ (5%). Over 90% of members have a printer and word processing software; almost 80% have Sideways RAM; over three-quarters have a colour monitor; almost three-quarters have a joystick; half have Shadow RAM; and almost half have a mouse.

Four out of five members use DFS for AMPLE work with most of the rest using ADFS. Two-thirds of members have a dual disc drive and almost all (93%) have double-sided drives.

We had a variety of responses to our question about any problems experienced with the Hybrid Music System. The most common complaint was about poor documentation, followed by glitches in the music when using the Mixing Desk, and memory restrictions with large music files. Most minor software bugs seemed to have been resolved by Hybrid Technology. More than half of members had experienced no problems with the Hybrid Music System.

The responses to the question about AMPLINEX were happily, very positive. The most popular part of the AMPLINEX discs (respondents were asked to choose three) was the Music section (chosen by 70% of members), followed by Hints and Tips, Utilities, Questions and Answers and Features (chosen by about 40-55% of members). No section failed to be chosen by fewer than 20% of members.

There were a variety of responses to questions about aspects of the Hybrid Music System which members would like to see discussed in AMPLINEX. The most frequent request was for a beginners' guide to AMPLE programming, an area we are hoping to address in future issues of AMPLINEX.

There were several other areas of interest which we pass on for consideration by other members. On the hardware side we had requests for: a review of the Music 1000 amplifier; a description of the Music 500(0) hardware; opinions on the advantages of using the Music 4000 keyboard; a guide to triggering drum machines from AMPLE; help on using a joystick for real-time control; discussions about the possibility of running two synchronised BBC computers and Music 5000 synthesisers.

On the subject of software there were requests for information about designing instruments, avoiding timing problems in mixes, using the lesser-known AMPLE commands, unmixes, and waveform design. There were also requests for a bigger Notepad (perhaps using Sideways RAM), and printing out music without the Music 4000 software.

We would like to thank all those members who took part in the survey, and we hope that some of the subjects mentioned above will be taken up by AMPLINEX members in future issues.