*********************************** AM/FM *************************************       The Desktop Guide to Electronic Music      Produced by The Desktop Music Workshop Rob Baxter and Hugh Gammon There aren't many occassions when decent music appears within the Amiga Public Domain scene, and this tends to be more so of classical music. The Desktop Music Workshop intend to change all that with a catalogue of work that is simply wonderful. 'The Desktop Music Workshop' is the brainchild project of both Rob Baxter, from Manchester, England, and Hugh Gammon, South Wales, U.K. Both are Amiga users who produce music using the Aegis SONIX software, and have amassed quite a back catalogue of their work. The basic idea behind 'The Desktop Music Workshop was a combining of talents of both Rob Baxter and Hugh Gammon who previously produced classical scores as individuals. Rob and Hugh began communicating by mail, telephone and modem and decided to combine their talents as musicians, programmers, coders and writers to produce quality classical music for the Amiga computer. Rob Baxter is well known on the Amiga scene, and most Public Domain Libraries and BBS's has some of his work - even 17 Bit possess some of the originals from way back. I also believe that there are quite a few fans in the good 'ol U.S. of A. In the past, Rob was responsible for producing a series of Classical renditions produced using Aegis SONIX such as, CLASSIX 1 (containing J.S. Bach's the 'Brandenberg Concerto', 'Toccata and Fugue in D minor' and 'Prelude and Fuge in D minor'. CLASSIX 2 contains the works of Handel, J.S. Bach and Pachelbel. Rob Baxter's 'Amigadeus', 'Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition', Digital Debussy', 'Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue', Vivaldi's Four Seasons' J.S.Bach's The Brandenberg Concertos' (all six), and 'The Desktop Harpsichord Recital'. Hugh Gammon has also been responsible for producing some classical works using the Amiga computer and Aegis SONIX. Hugh's work includes renditions of Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite', 'Mozart's Four Horn Concertos' and 'Mozart's Flute Concerto in G Major'. The new concept behind 'The Desktop Music Workshop', is that both Rob and Hugh continue to produce classical scores but with Hugh producing an Assembled coded interface, which provides the user with options to read text documents and or listen to the music on the disks. In the majority of cases, Rob Baxter is responsible for the graphics and supplimentary text notes on the history and music of the composer for each project. This new found image has much improved the presentation of disks produced by both Rob and Hugh and to their credit most British PD Libraries cry out for copies. The resulting effect is that the more serious Amiga magazines are begining to recognise their hard work and talent and are reviewing 'The Desktop Music Workshop' releases as soon as they are acquired. Indeed, I have actually met Rob and his beta tester Ian lynacre at the Bowlers Computers Fair in Manchester and both are really nice guys. Equally, I have been provided with all the current and up to date Desktop Music Workshop releases including the series in which the music was produced by Hugh and can recommend these disks to any serious Amiga music collector. But with the emergence of 'The Desktop Guide to Electronic Music', Rob and Hugh have produced a 3 disk set which is truely a masterpeice. Inspired by the double album by Wendy Carlos, the New York Synthesizer Guru/composer responsible for 'A Clockwork Organge' soundtrack and some music for '2001 a Space Odyssey', they set about realising an educational 3 disk set which would stretch the capabilities of the Amiga's sound chip and at the same time communicate the deeper mysteries of what actually is 'electonic music'. To this end, 'The Desktop Music Workshop' employed a series of devices at their disposal. First, with the aid of the Amiga's graphics, electronic waveforms can be displayed pictorally. Next, Sound can be communicated exactly as was seen on screen and may be heard directly from the Amiga's sound Chip using structered waveforms or 8SVX samples. If that was not enough, Rob and Hugh decided to employ the Speech device to actually provide a forum for a pleasant and informative lecture on synthesis and waveforms. Again, Hugh has compiled an Assembly coded interface which provides the user with a series of options to either read text, run the guide or to quit. Equally, Hugh generally makes the Desktop Music Workshop's' disks HardDrive installable and each release is thoughly beta tested by Ian Lynacre. 'The Desktop's Guide To Electronic Music' is a peice of work which seeks to explain everything you need to know about synthesis of sound, and is done so in such an informative and entertaining way that both Rob and Hugh should be congratulated. The only stipulation with 'The Desktop Guide to Electronic Music', is you possess 2 drives, 1Mb of memory and the Fatter Agnus Chip. Apart from that the 3 disk set should work on any Amiga operating system from Workbench 1.3 to 3.0 and is HardDrive installable. If your feeling you would like to introduce yourself to the 'Desktop Guide To Electronic Music' then like me, you won't be disappointed. Simply a must for any Amiga users disk collection, especially music! 'The Desktop Guide To Electronic Music' available from the better Public Domain Libraries as a 3 disk set. Kevan R.Craft 12 Mount Road Halton Runcorn Cheshire. WA7 2BH. England. (U.K.) Tel: +44 0928 563762 *********************************** AM/FM *************************************