Making music in the 80's

Before the advent of the classic drum-machine, we had devices like the Sound Master SR-88 which was cheap, cheesy and easy to use. It didn't sound very convincing and it was only capable of creating very simple rhythms but it was a welcome addition for many budding musicians at the time.

The SR-88 could make 16-step rhythms patterns(for 4/4 time) or 12-step patterns (for 3/4 time). It had 6 memory locations for 16-step and 2 memories for 12-step. Each memory location could hold 2 separate patterns (bars) called A and B. The SR-88 had some useful playback modes: "A" played A only; "B" played B only; "AB" played A then B; while "Fill-In" played A several times and then B last, depending of if you selected 4, 8 or 16 bars.

Patterns are created in Write mode, where "Start" would play a note and "Stop" would insert a rest. There were only 4 sounds being BD = Bass-Drum, SD = Snare-Drum, HH = High-Hat (Closed), and CYM = Cymbal (Crash).

Example: | ' ' ' | ' ' ' | ' ' ' | ' ' ' | BassDrum BD - - - - - BD - BD - - - - - BD - | SnareDrum - - - - SD - - - - - - - SD - - - | HighHat HH - HH - HH - HH - HH - HH - HH - HH HH |

For live concerts, we would use the SR-88 in it's simple "AB" mode as rhythm backing. For music recordings, we would be more adventurous and change pattern-memory during the song.

The Roland TR-808 was the first drum-machine which gave you a fair amount of control over its 16 drum-sounds. It had 16 pattern memories with A/B variants and it was incredibly easy to programme using its 16 buttons with LEDs.

The Roland SH-101 was a monophonic synthesizer using 1 oscillator but with a mixer section allowing tonal mix of pulse-wave, saw-wave and a sub-oscillator. Plus it had a built-in 100 note memory sequencer.

Together, you could create a synchronised Drums & Bass set-up simply by routing one of TR-808's trigger-outputs, like CowBell Trigger-Out, and plugging that into the SH-101's sequencer EXT CLK IN (External Clock Input).

TR-808 Trigger Output ------>------ SH-101 Ext Clock Input

In this set-up, you would programme the TR-808's Cow-Bell to trigger the SH-101's sequencer; where the TR-808 pattern tells the SH-101 "when" to play a note. The SH-101's internal sequencer contains the information as to "what" note to play. Together, they make music.

Example: | ' ' ' | ' ' ' | ' ' ' | ' ' ' | 808 Trigger Out CB - CB CB CB - CB - CB - CB - CB - CB - | 101 Notes Played A2 - A2 A2 A2 - A2 - G2 - G2 - F2 - G2 - |

The TR-808 actually had 3 trigger outputs being CowBell, Clap and Accent so you could have a more elaborate set-up with more synthesizer sequencers.

This set-up was very ideal for music recordings as we could be more expressive by changing to numerous fill-patterns during a song. This set-up was impractical in a live-concert scenario because the SH-101 only had enough memory for 1 song. Our live-concert solution was to use this set-up to pre-record the backing music onto magnetic-tape reel; and then play-back the tape-reel during the (mostly) live concert.

Popular 4-track cassette recorders included:

● Teac 144 - Cassette speed @ 2 x Std. / mixer with 2 fixed band equalisers / with Dolby B noise reduction

● Fostex 250 - Cassette speed @ 2 x Std. / mixer with 2 fixed band equalisers / with Dolby C noise reduction

● Tascam 244 - Cassette speed @ 2 x Std. / mixer with 2 band parametric equalisers / with dbx noise reduction

● Yamaha MT-44D - Cassette speed @ Std / no mixer section / with Dolby C noise reduction

The Yamaha CX5M computer ran on the japanese MSX platform and the "CX5M II music computer" version had a Yamaha SFG-05 FM module attached underneath. The SFG-05 module was a 4-operator FM synthesis unit with 8-voice polyphony (same spec as Yamaha FB-01) and added MIDI capability.

To enter music notes, you would have to attach a music keyboard; either YK-01 mini-size keys or YK-10 std-size keys. All software came via ROM cartridges and the notable music cartridges were:

YRM-101 Music Composer with up to 8 parts;

YRM-102 Voicing Program for the internal FM sound editing; and

YRM-103 DX-7 Voicing Program.

Your data could be saved to UDC-01 RAM Cartridge -or- to cassette tape (seriously).

CX-5M MIDI Output ------>------ TR-707 MIDI Input

By routing the CX-5M's Midi Out to a Roland TR-707 drum-machine's Midi In, the two devices would be synchronised by setting the TR-707's Sync Mode to "MIDI Sync". In this set-up, the Roland TR-707 would play the drums while the CX-5M Composer would play the rest of the music.

In my set-up, I used the CX-5M internal sounds for Bass and Piano / Bell sounds (remember it's 8-voice poly) and then used MIDI to also connect a Casio CZ-101 for Strings/ Brass.

Introduced in 1985, the Atari ST was a home-computer which featured MIDI. It had limited popularity with other functions like graphic design and desktop publications but it was rock-solid with MIDI timing.

Popular music software for the Atari included Steinberg Pro-24 (1986), Cubase (1989), C-Lab Creator (1987) and Notator (1989). C-Lab also released a Unitor dongle for the Atari giving SMPTE synchronisation.

Alesis ADAT came out in 1992 and was a cost-effective way of recording 8 tracks of digital audio using a S-VHS video-tape format. Adding the Alesis AI-2 allowed the ADAT to sychronise to SMPTE.

You could achieve seamless synchronisation with a "composer set-up" of Atari ST & C-Lab Notator & Unitor plus a "recording set-up" of Alesis ADAT & AI-2.

Yamaha ProMix-01 came out in 1995 and was the first affordable digital mixer (18 input). This combined with the above allowed for a fully digital audio environment which was within reach.

Year of Release

• • 1978 : Sequential Circuits Prophet-5

  • 1979 : Oberheim OB-X; Teac Portastudio 144

  • 1980 : Roland TR-808, SH-09

  • 1981 : Roland Jupiter-8, Juno-6; Korg PolySix; Elka Synthex; Oberheim OB-Xa; Simmons SDS-5

  • 1982 : Roland SH-101, Juno-60, TB-303, TR-606; Korg Poly-61; Sequential Circuits Prophet-600; Moog Memorymoog; Linn Drum

  • 1983 : Roland Jupiter-6, JX-3P, MKS-30, TR-909, MC-202; Yamaha DX-7, DX-9; Korg Poly-800, KPR-77; OSC Oscar; Oberheim OB-8; Chroma Polaris; Simmons SDS-7, SDS-8

  • 1984 : Roland MKS-80, TR-707, Juno-106; Yamaha DX-1, TX-7, TX-816, CX-5M; Korg EX-800; Casio CZ-101; Sequential Circutis Six-Trak; Crumar Bit-One; Oberheim Xpander; Akai AX-80

  • 1985 : Roland JX-8P; Yamaha DX-5, DX-21, DX-27, DX-100; Korg DW-6000, DW-8000; Korg Poly-800 II; Casio CZ-1000; Crumar Bit-01, Bit-99; Oberheim Matrix-12; Simmons SDS-9

  • 1986 : Roland Alpha Juno-1; Yamaha RX-5; Oberheim Matrix-6, Ensoniq ESQ-1; Sequential Circuits Prophet-VS, SCI Multi-Trak; Akai AX-60, AX-76

  • 1987 : Roland TR-626; Yamaha DX-7 MkII, TX-802; Oberheim Matrix-1000,

  • 1988 : Korg M-1; Ensoniq SQ-80; Cheetah MS-6

● Making MF2-DD 3½" disks (on PC)

To format a 3½" Floppy Disk from "2HD" High Density -convert to- "2DD" Double Density

At DOS Command Prompt C:>, type "FORMAT A: /F:720" - microsoft/KB/75131

● PC doesn't read Atari floppy disks

Atari uses MF2-DD disks which have a hole in one corner for write-protect.

Modern PC uses MF2-HD disks which have an additional hole to identify it.

To make a PC read an Atari floppy disk, stick tape over the second hole.

● Atari Mega STE - Booting from Hard Disk

By default, Atari STE looks to boot from Floppy Drive

To boot from Hard Disk : Switch on Atari, wait 15 seconds, then press [ESC] Escape

It is also good to wiggle the mouse a bit to prevent boot crashes.

● C-Lab Notator crashes at start-up (Atari)

C-Lab Notator needs its dongle to run, eg. Unitor hardware attached.

Most likely, the contacts on the dongle need to be cleaned.

● Using Roland MC-202 as a Sound Module

While holding [PLAY MODE], switch on [POWER], and wait about 2 seconds for lights to stop flashing.