¢SLAMMIN'¢¢The S.M.P. Column!¢¢by Bryan Zillwood¢¢Part 1¢¢ Hello and welcome to the first in a series of articles looking at the impressive public domain music composer, Sound Monitor Professional (SMP). In this first article, I will introduce you to the software and what it can do. Future issues will cover the various sections to the program in greater depth.¢¢ Regular Futurians will already have the main SMP program with a few .SNG files. It was included on Futura issues 2 and 9. However, even if you do own one or both of these issues, I recommend you buy the complete P.D. disk (NOSAUG PD disk U31). This full version has, in addition to the main prog, 20 tunes and two German text files. Flip the disk and the directory reveals a couple more text files, this time in English, and some utilities for machine code programmers.¢¢ The English instruction file on the reverse of the disk is very useful, especially for reviewers trying to understand some of the features. Unfortunately, the article was written purely based on the author's own experimentation, so there are quite a few discrepancies and ommissions. These had me baffled for ages, and it was a case of having to refer to the original German instructions and pouring over a (very) large and (very) heavy German dictionary. Hopefully this series will fill in the gaps left and help to release those budding composers out there.¢¢ Anyway enough of the chit-chat, lets boot the disk. Upon loading, you are presented with the title credits superimposed on a twinkling starry background. Next is the main screen, where all the composing and playing is done, and very well laid out it is too. You will notice that some of the text is German, but don't let that put you off, the words are often very similar to their English equivalent.¢¢ When you first load SMP, the highlighted text is flashing and can be quite annoying. To toggle the flashing, press Reset and Select and then release Reset with Select still down.¢¢ At about the centre of the screen are two menu lines. Use < and > keys to highlight your choice in the top menu and the right and left cursor keys (without Control) to do the same in the bottom line.¢¢ I expect by now that you will want to hear what SMP can do, so without further ado lets load up a tune and play it.¢¢ As described above, select the DISK option using < & > and then Laden (load) using + & *, then press Return. You will be presented by a directory of all files on D1: with the extension .SNG. Using the cursor keys, highlight your choice of song and press Return. Your choice should then appear at the top of the list and after pressing Return twice more, your drive springs into action and the song Ladens, I mean loads.¢¢ Your Atari now contains a variety of sounds, which we shall call instruments. These are arranged into patterns which are combined to make songs. Four patterns can be played at a time using each of Atari's four sound channels. Now, as before, select SPIELEN (play) and Alles (Position 0), sit back and enjoy. At the top of your screen the sounds will bounce up and down like a spectrum analyser, below that the patterns slowly scroll horizontally as the song plays and the final third shows the notes in the patterns scrolling vertically as they are played. Not only are your ears entertained, but so are your eyes!¢¢ Try all the songs on the disk, most of them are very impressive, especially WONDER1 & 2, FOFT1 & 2, CRYSTAL and SYNTHY2.¢¢ I'll leave you to play around with these tunes for now. Next time, we shall be looking a bit more closely at the sounds which can be produced by SMP and how to create our own instruments.¢¢ Please write to me care of NOSAUG if you have any problems or tips for SMP and I will try to incorporate the answers into future issues.¢
