The AMPLINEX story

Kevin Doyle

In early 1987 I had tried to found a group to allow users of the Music 5000 synthesiser to exchange music and ideas, under the title of the ‘AMPLE Music Exchange’. The response was very disappointing and I wrote an apologetic letter to the few people who had contributed something, lamenting that ‘it seems that other users of the system are consumers rather than contributors’. One of those people who had contributed, Roy Follett, wrote back to say that he too had been thinking on similar lines about starting an ‘exchange’ and invited me to contact him if I was still interested in pursuing the idea. After contacting Roy, he sent me some drafts he had made for a small self-printed magazine containing articles and program listings for use with the Music 5000 system.

My original idea for a group had been based on exchanging music programs using floppy disks (this was long before the emergence of the internet). Even though Roy’s magazine had some different requirements, the disk-based approach still seemed to have several advantages over paper: users could provide the media themselves, avoiding central printing costs, along with return packaging and postage; they would have instant access to the contents (without typing in printed program listings); their contributions could be used more easily without having to consider conversion into print; and duplication of the magazine would be faster. Although a print magazine would allow us to include high-quality graphics, writing about music and programming did not seem to demand the use of pictures, and the Music 500 software itself had no graphics to speak of (other than the Staff Editor).

To illustrate my preference for discs I developed a program, written in AMPLE, which was a ‘shell’ that accessed other files on the disc to present a magazine via a series of menus. I sent this to Roy and used some of the content and structure he had shared with me in his print-based magazine mock-ups.

One of the restrictions of the disk-based ‘shell’ program was that it used the ‘MENU’ module of the Studio 5000 software which was not compatible with the older AMPLE BCE software (sold with the original Music 500). We guessed that most Music 500 owners who still had any interest in the synthesiser would have bought the AMPLE Nucleus upgrade and decided to make that our only format.

There was already an AMPLE User Group in existence, with 200-300 members, run by musician Nigel Sixsmith, but we discovered that he had faced difficulties ensuring that users contributed to, as well as received from, the group and was considering winding it up. The group had also provided a telephone contact number and this has led to it becoming a clearing house for user queries and requests for assistance which was in danger of turning the organisers into an unpaid technical support desk.

We decided that we needed a way both to encourage contributions and to allow group members to respond to each other’s questions. If we made people put their queries and comments into written form (via disc of course) then it became reasonable to expect every member to be able to make some contribution, no matter how small, towards each issue. Roy also proposed that we impose a small charge for non-contributors to create an incentive to send something in.

To keep things interactive, we decided on a two-month publication cycle. When an issue was published, a deadline for contributions to the next issue (which would qualify the user to receive it for free) was set one month later. That gave us another month to review all the contributions and compile the new issue.

By the middle of 1987, the basic magazine format and subscription model was worked out, and Roy and I started to work together on the first issue. We agreed that I would take on the role of editor and would develop the magazine software, and Roy would set up and run the membership and distribution process and be the contact point for contributions. His address – 26 Arbor Lane, Winnersh, Berkshire, RG11 5JD – thereby became the public contact point for the project.

We decided that the name that best described the nature of the project was the AMPLE Information Exchange and we decided to shorten this to the snappier AMPLINEX.

The first issue was to be made up from articles already collected by Roy and some contributions of our own, and we decided it would be launched in September of that year. During June and July we publicised the launch through letters to BBC Micro computing magazines of the day (Acorn User, Micro User, and A&B Computing), the BBC’s CEEFAX service, and via Hybrid Technology, makers of the Music 5000 system.

September’s issue went out to about 25 people, most of whom, to our relief, sent back a contribution to the next issue. By the time we came to the second issue, two months later, we had sent out about 50 copies and we were confident that it was going to work.

Over the following issues the membership gradually grew, and finally numbered over 400. Over the next five years we received hundreds of contributions, the majority being music programs, and we published 28 issues (with some issues having supplementary disks when we had more to publish than disk space allowed).

By 1991, however, the rate of contributions was starting to decline as users moved away from the aging BBC Micro in favour of the Acorn Archimedes range or the IBM PC and there was no sign that the Music 5000 software would be ported to other platforms or hardware. Our final issue was published in September 1992 as, shortly afterwards, Roy contacted me to tell me that he had been diagnosed with leukaemia and was about to undergo surgery followed by chemotherapy. Sadly, despite the treatment, Roy’s health declined and he died in early January 1993.

By the time the discs, files and paperwork associated with the distribution of AMPLINEX were passed over to me, later in 1993, it was clear that AMPLINEX could not continue. A note was sent to all those who had made contact since the last issue and AMPLINEX was closed.