Imagination Music

Neil Wakeling talks about his deepest love

I was first introduced to the Atari as a Music Technology student at York University, England in 1990. York had a pioneering Music Technology course, one of the first in the country. I had recently graduated with a degree in Electronic Engineering, and was delighted to be in a roomful of computers and various keyboards û studying my deepest love. The course was truly groundbreaking and mixed students from any discipline û we had musicians, engineers, chemists, philosophersà this resulted in some great discussions! Subjects included: the mechanics of sound and the inner ear; acoustics and room design; electronic circuit theory; harmonics; MIDI; music composition; CSOUND system; computer programming in C; and MIDI programming.

There were 10 or so workstations, each with an Atari , MIDI keyboard (assorted Kawais, Yamaha Dx7, Korg M1à) and various effects units. Each Atari was equipped with a massive and fragile 300MB hard disk (this was 1990), and the departmentÆs own invention û a 16-bit digital sound system using a Betamax video recorder going through a custom electronic board into the cartridge port. The department had their own software suite, with graphical sound recording and editing software on each Atari û many of those tools that we now take for granted were developed here.

York also had the CSOUND music system û an immensely powerful music language, in which you define all the parameters making up virtual instruments along with frequencies and duration, and then set the computer to make up the sound. Any synthesis method can be implemented so long as you can work out how to program it! Unfortunately, extreme dedication was required, as the system would take many hours on the AtariÆs 8MHz engine. Frequently we would leave the system running overnight with the monitor turned off, to achieve just a few minutes of sound. CSOUND is a platform-independent system and can be run on Mac, PC and Unix. These days it runs in real-time on a modern PC. I would not recommend anybody to use CSOUND on an Atari û keep it for what it's good at, namely MIDI!

In 1992 I bought an Atari STe system with 4 MB RAM, Canon Bubblejet printer, and later adding in a SCSI 100MB drive, with Cubase. The Falcon had been rumoured for so long but they were just impossible to get hold of, and computer shops were dropping the Atari, making it difficult to keep in touch with the Atari scene. My partner started a PhD in Highland History at this time, so the Atari disappeared from the music studio! I bought ThatÆs Write 2, in my opinion a first class word processor which easily handled the task of writing an academic thesis, with many features that I find lacking in Word.

Using my knowledge of MIDI and C programming, I wrote several programs (using the excellent freeware Sozobon C compiler, and a registered copy of "Everest" text editor. This editor has many features that make it an invaluable programrÆs tool. The major project was a projector controller. Using two slide projectors, I designed the electronics and control software for the Atari to run an audio-visual show, with crossfades, transport control, and independent brightness control for each. I have successfully given many public performances with the system, synchronised to my music. The system uses the modem port, with the serial signal being decoded to give the voltages for each projector. A future version (if it gets that far) will use the cartridge port, to allow greater bit-resolution and also the ability to control more than two lights at once.

The next project was "Pulsar". This started as an experiment to write something different, and is a recreation of an old analogue-style sequencer. There are three rows each with up to 16 notes, with various playback controls. The feature making it stand out is that each row has an independent tempo control - prompted by my experiences at York where we were encouraged to think beyond the obvious. I have continued to develop Pulsar in my spare time with much help and feedback coming from Tim Conrardy and the Atari-MIDI mailing list. The computer keypad can now be used for example to transpose sequences in real time. Pulsar is available from my web site, and is now up to version 1.5. The latest improvement has added a control row, to send strings of control messages as part of each sequence. Unfortunately this has had an impact on the timing tightness so it is only available as a Beta. Pulsar is free to anyone who wants to use it - although it has turned into "CD-ware" - several users have sent me CDs of their music featuring Pulsar, or have bought my CD in exchange.

Although the Atari was my only computer (running e-mail, Internet and desktop publishing with Timeworks and Calamus), eventually I moved with the times and built a PC for my work as a self-employed computer consultant and technology trouble-shooter. There are still a few web sites around that I created using Everest, hand-coding the hard way! This training has been invaluable for fixing the code generated by some bloated Windows WYSIWYG web creation programs. I teach Mac and Windows, Microsoft Office, graphics with Photoshop, design databases and still find time to do some music. Atari runs under TOSBOX, which I find an excellent emulator for non-MIDI work. Incidentally, I have found some of the Atari disk tools to be invaluable for reading Mac and PC disks for data recovery, which have become unreadable on their native systems.

My music making these days uses the strengths of each system - Cool Edit Pro on the PC for multi-track recording, wave file editing, and CD recording, while the Atari runs MIDI composition software and various editors. Only on the Atari platform is there such an array of intriguing and sometimes off-the-wall software. For full details of these programs I suggest you check out Tim ConrardyÆs extensive site at http://sites.netscape.net/timconrardy/index.htm.

The internet has become the saviour of the Atari platform, bringing enthusiasts and newcomers together. I meet many people who fondly remember their Atari systems from 10 years ago whilst swearing at Windows, and are amazed when I tell them that my Atari is up there, still e-mailing (no danger of viruses) and going strong.

Finally, remember to switch off the computer sometimes and go play with real people! My music making also involves playing Scottish Highland fiddle and didgeridoo. I recently helped with organising a weekend festival of traditional music workshops, sessions and concerts. See http://www.strathspeyinmay.com for more details of this to-be annual event.

Equipment

• Ensoniq VFX-SD û my main keyboard, with a great interface, deep sounds and well thought out internal sequencer.
• Korg Poly-800
• Home-made voltage controlled monosynth circa 1985, fabulous sounds but unplayable as the keyboard contacts are so incredible to maintain!
• Yamaha TX81Z expander û IÆve gad it from new and love the possibilities of FM synthesis.
• Alesis Quadraverb.
• Tascam 4-track
• Atari STE running Cubase, TX81Z editor and librarian, fantastic VFX editor by Marcus Grimm and various composition programs.
• PC running Cool Edit Pro, Guillemot ISIS 8-track audio card.
• Fiddle
• Didgeridoo by Bruce Rogers

MyAtari magazine - Feature #9, May 2001