The A3000 is an unusual beast Ö with two expansion ports, Econet and serial (optional), and parallel ports, it offered quite significant potential for expansion, in its day. Although Acorn has replaced it with more up-to-date architecture, there are many satisfied A3000 owners for whom the only criticism is the lack of suitable upgrades. Sure, they could fit a standard podule into the external connector, but there are few products which have been designed for the smaller internal expansion port.
Despite having this internal expansion port in common with A3020 and A4000 machines (and A3010s, although the PowerWave draws too much power for those computers), there have been few dedicated cards Ö really only SCSI, micropodules, and simple Midi ports.
Audio Dynamics will delight A3000 owners as they have developed a full Midi Synthesizer, two Midi ports and a User interface port, all on one small card.
Whatæs so special?
By offering all the different ports, the card is ideal for the educational or home user. In the past, one of the few upgrades that an educational A3000 would see was an internal User port card. The PowerWave 30 card gives all the functionality of the User port, and adds in the Midi support, which is what really makes it so attractive.
To many people, the term Midi is an immediate turn-off. Well, it was for me until I had my eyes opened. In the early days, Midi had meant merely a way of communicating between an external electronic keyboard and a computer. To a classical pianist, this was off-putting, as a keyboard could never compare with a proper piano.
Enter General Midi
Recent innovations have resulted in the General Midi (GM) standard, with wide-ranging effects on musical playback. GM defined a fixed set of 128 voices (instruments) which should always be available for music, and 16 channels, with a total of 32 notes playable at a given time. Each voice would be stored in ROM, sampled at 16-bit (44kHz) quality, on the particular piece of equipment (keyboard or synthesizer card), so that music created on one system could be played back on any other.
The result is music quality that stands out above the Acornæs internal 8-bit sound system in the way that it, in turn, stands out above the old BBCæs audio.
On the PC, GM has become the standard way of creating music for every purpose, from multimedia presentations to games. Indeed, VTI have recently released Dune 2 on CD for Acorn owners, with a complete Midi score. GM is filtering its way into our world too!
The PowerWave 30
The Audio Dynamics card offers full GM compatibility, using the popular Ensoniq voice set. Whilst not perfect, this is far superior to many of the voice sets found in electronic keyboards. Of course, if you buy a professional keyboard (costing well into four figures), you would expect it to sound better, but then the full PowerWave 30 only sets you back ú200!
If you just want to listen to high quality music, you can obtain Midi files from many sources, ranging from the alt.binaries.sounds.midi newsgroup (highly recommended) on the Internet, to PC CD-ROMs.
However, to make the most of the card, you should really use one of the Acorn music creation packages Ö Serenade or Rhapsody 3 from Clares, or Sibelius 6 or 7 (but not Digital Symphony and the like, as they will still use your 8-bit internal sound system!).
You can enter music into one of these three packages either via an external keyboard, using the Midi interface on the card, or by hand. Either way, once youæve begun to create your masterpiece, you can play it back through your Ensoniq voice set. Of course, getting top quality reproduction from your hardware, makes creating scores much more pleasurable, and you will get a much clearer picture of how the finished product will sound.
The Ensoniq voice set
Playback of standard Midi files using the Ensoniq voice set is via the !Conductor software supplied with the package. Whilst the review version was still a little rough around the edges, the level of control was very impressive. The software allows you to adjust channel volumes, the instruments, and the stereo positions at any time during playback. You can mute channels, or select one for solo playback.
The software also provides a 10 track jukebox, for setting up playback lists, and an on-screen keyboard for trying out the individual instruments. This allows you to listen carefully to the voices provided. Whilst they often sound good together, perhaps in a modern dance track, the reproduction of most voices is very synthetic and a far cry from the tonal quality of the real instruments/voices they claimed to be. As a result, the card is less suitable for composers of classical orchestral music, as this often relies on the tone of the individual instruments.
However, I was comparing the card to the VTI VTX2000, costing at least ú100 more, which uses some very high performance instruments for which you would expect to pay more. (Stop Press: the VTX2000 has just been discontinued as they cannot get one of the vital chips it contains. Ed.)
Future expansion
You can buy the Audio Dynamics card with or without the Ensoniq voice set. Without, you have to have an external keyboard (or voice module), which will probably be less suited to music playback. This will, however, work with an A3010.
The card does have the daughter-board connector needed for the Ensoniq voices, and this is industry standard. As a result, you can purchase a daughter-board from well known companies such as Roland, Yamaha or Turtle Beach, and they should work straight away. Indeed, Audio Dynamics plan to produce a version of the PowerWave using the latest Yamaha extended Midi sound set later this year, but this will cost at least ú50 more.
Conclusions
The PowerWave 30 (or DMI 30 without the voice set) is a superb addition to any A3000 owneræs armoury. Not only does it bring great sound quality to the home user, but it should be viewed as an essential purchase for school Music departments with A3000, A3020 or A4000 machines.
Whilst the card isnæt up to the quality of the VTX2000, it is considerably less expensive, and the VTI card will only work in machines capable of taking normal sized podules. This rules out the A3020 and A4000 straightaway!
Oh, and donæt forget to buy some large speakers if you want to get the most out of the card!
The PowerWave 30 costs ú215 from Audio Dynamics or through Archive.áuá
