by MARD NAMAN
What makes the ST better than the rest? Basically, its superb built-in music/MIDI capabilities coupled with its low cost. Who could ask for anything more? Certainly not any of the musical celebrities you'll read about here!
its being called the musician's computer and the rock and roll computer. And it is now receiving the respect and accolades it richly deserves. The Atari 1040 ST is the computer of choice for top recording artists such as B.B. King, Mick Fleetwood, The Pointer Sisters, Dave Mason, Tangerine Dream, and Jay Ferguson. "It's fantastic," says blues great B.B. King.
Jay Ferguson, the former leader of the rock group Spirit who now writes soundtracks for Hollywood films, summed up his feeling about the marriage between music and the ST. "I love it. Frankly, it's a wonderful time to be making music."
What exactly is MIDI? MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, enables electronic musical instruments to communicate with each other and the computer As a musician plays an electronic instrument, the computer keeps track of which notes have been played, how long they were, how hard the keys were pressed. The software that does this is called a sequencer. With the proper software, your computer can then make your synthesizer play back the notes you played on the synthesizer. Good sequencers allow you to edit each note much like a word processor edits a manuscript. You can add notes, take them out or change existing notes. You can also take out rhythmic imperfections, change the tone or loudness or set up repeating patterns.
B.B. King
The King of the Blues and his guitar Lucille: his favorite lady now has a new companion
- an Atari ST.
One might expect that an old blues purist like B.B. King would want to stick to the old-fashioned way of making music. Not so. He recently purchased an Atari 1040 ST complete with $14,000 worth of equipment. B.B. laughs and says, "I'm one of those guys who likes to do things people don't expect me to do."
The man who got B.B. excited about MIDI and the ST is record producer Jimmy Hotz. (See the sidebar on Hotz.) Last year, he was asked to help produce five songs on BBs new album. He was in the studio playing around with the ST using Hybrid Arts software. "B.B. heard it and was so flipped out by it he had me put together a similar system for him," says Hotz. "The first time he heard it, it opened a whole new reality for him. He was moved in a very big way"
Hotz set B.B. up with the Atari 1040 ST with Hybrid Arts software and sound samplers, and believes the Atari's MIDI capabilities will really open new creative possibilities for B.B. "When you think of B.B. King, you think of a blues guitar player. Well, B.B.'s got a lot of wonderful ideas that go way beyond blues guitar. The Atari has opened a window of creativity that was never before available to him, except in his mind. Once he gets a chance to work with it awhile, you're going to see some incredible stuff coming out of him."
B.B. says that five songs on his new album employ MIDI technology But he seems certain that all future albums will rely heavily on MIDI systems. He loves what MIDI does when he's composing: "Not only can you hear what you play right off, but you can also loop it and play different things with yourself so it's like having a whole orchestra. In fact, if I stack everything that I've got together, I can have at least 60 different sounds. And I don't need anybody to play with me. I can lay down tracks and with sound samplers I can put everything on it, even drums.. . There's no end to what you can do once you get started with it. You might say I'm just an apprentice, I'm just getting into it. But it's fantastic."
Once B.B. familiarizes himself more with his system, he intends to take
it on the road with him. And maybe- maybe if he gets really familiar with
it, he can give his MIDI a nickname. He doesn't think his guitar Lucille
will mind at all.
| JIMMY HOTZ: ST PRODUCER
Jimmy Hotz is the man professional musicians go to when they want to know about the latest electronic equipment and what to buy. He recently completed Dave Mason's new album using MIDI technology throughout and is setting up Fleetwood Mac with a MIDI system for their current tour. According to Hotz, the reason some professional musicians have shied away from MIDI is because "no one made it usable to them personally in a user-friendly way. If you present it in a way that functions, that makes it real to them." But, of the Atari ST. Hotz is unequivocal in his praise. He's used the Macintosh. He's used the IBM. In fact, he's tried every computer available. Compared to these other machines, Hotz says "the Atari is cheaper and works faster. Of all the computers I've used, Atari seems to react the fastest and have the best MIDI timing to make it sound the most natural with what you put in there." Hotz says the newer Mac II, if completely loaded down, approaches the Atari. But such a system will retail for nearly $7,000. The same features on the Atari: only $2,000. Another reason Hotz feels so strongly about the Atari is the number of companies supporting the ST with excellent software. Leading the pack, says Hotz, are Hybrid Arts and Dr. Ts. Hotz also sets his people up with synthesizers and especially samplers, which make accessible sounds that would otherwise be too complicated for a reasonably priced synthesizer to produce. He says that the most exciting aspect of the samplers for B.B. King, for instance, is that "he now has access to saxophones, clarinets and real sounds, as opposed to just being able to synthesize something. "You find that a lot of musicians like B.B. King, Dave Mason and Leon
Russell really prefer natural sounds and the reason they never got into
synthesizers before was because they always sounded synthesized. But with
the samplers and synthesizers like the new Roland D-50, suddenly a window
has been opened to real sounds."
|
Jay Ferguson
Jay Ferguson is a good example of a musician who has made the successful
transition from leader of a rock band to composer of Hollywood film scores.
And the Atari ST has been an integral part of that transition. Ferguson
was the major creative force behind Spirit, a California rock band that
enjoyed tremendous success in the sixties with hits like "I Got a Line
On You." More recently, Ferguson had some solo hits like "Thunder lsland"
and "Shakedown Cruise," but like other rockers, he grew tired of constant
touring. With the help of the Atari ST, Ferguson sees his career in films
now. "The benefits of having my own studio, working at home with the computer
and being able to be with my family are tremendous," he says.
At first he placed songs in films like Perfect and The Terminator. Then he was hired to score an entire film, a foreign movie called Deadly Passion (Ferguson says it should have been called Dudly Passion). That was almost three years ago, and it's been a steady rise since then. He scored last year's Best Seller, starring James Woods, and has several films set for release this year, including Pulse, a science fiction drama, and Johnny B. Goode, a rock film.
The Hybrid Arts package Ferguson uses is SMPTE-based. SMPTE (which stands for Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which developed the system) is a time-code standard for video, film and multi-track use. The Atari's ability to easily use SMPTE gives it a big advantage over other computers like the Macintosh and IBM. It's perfect for Ferguson's film work. Says Ferguson, "It's locked to three-quarter inch video, and every time I roll picture, I'm rolling computer. I sit watching the monitor with the keyboard directly in front of me. I literally watch the picture and anything that comes into my mind in terms of an idea, a rhythm, a part, I can just lay it down and the computer catches it all and it's all locked to picture. So in terms of the creative process, you can really fly.
Jay Furguson, rock musician and composer.
(Courtesy Capital Records)
"Sometimes they change a scene by just a few frames, and that involves just a simple tightening up by increasing the tempo in your sequencer," says Ferguson. Without the computer, of course, the entire score would have to be rerecorded, a time-consuming venture. Ferguson continues, "Other times, they make wholesale cuts in a scene. If you've input properly into your sequencing program, you can just cut and splice and take out neatly whatever you want."
will never replace
the flesh-and-blood
player holding an
instrument.
Ferguson warns, however, that "the computer is not the cure-all for the film editor's razor blade. Sometimes editors make so many small changes you just throw up your hands and say let's start again."
Ferguson acknowledges it's difficult to know when and what to buy, especially for newcomers. "The potential is there to sit on the sidelines forever because you know everything that appears may be superseded in six months. Fortunately." says Ferguson, "the industry produces some classics, such as the Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer, as well as the Prophet VS and Roland D-550. (Ferguson's own equipment includes these and more!) But the greatest example is the Mini-Moog, which has never been matched for what it does," says Ferguson. "The thing that's helped me the most is to really read, ask questions. listen and look around before you spend your money."
But to the argument that computerized music will replace live musicians, Ferguson responds, "it will never replace the flesh-and-blood player holding an instrument. It will reduce it. The automobile did not make the horse extinct. It just made it more of a special experience. That's what MID! and electronics will do for the world of music. . . Also, anything you can conceive putting on an album you can now pretty much duplicate on stage if you work on it."
Jim Purcell
Not everyone who uses the ST has a name that's a household word. Some
are just really good at whatever they do. Fifty-three-year-old Jim Purcell
is such a man. He's really a Renaissance man. He's been a stockbroker and
a film producer Today, half of his professional life is spent as a successful
clinical psychologist. The other half is spent as a professional musician.
He composes musical scores for educational films, TV commercials and public
television.
Jim Purcel, clinical psychologist and composer, surrounded by his
tools of the trade:
an Atari ST, a grand piano and a multitude of synthesizers.
Purcell has four keyboard synthesizers and a drum machine that's also a synthesizer. He owns the classic Yamaha DX-7 and the updated DX-7, Mark II. He also has the Yamaha TX-7- like the DX, but with no keyboard. Then he's got a Roland D-50 and a drum machine, the Yamaha RX-15. And finally, he plays a Rhodes Chroma, which he calls the "old Cadillac of keyboards." He uses it as his controller keyboard, the one that controls all the others. He likes it because, unlike the others, it has wooden keys and feels like a real piano.
B.B. will nickname
his MIDI equipment.
He doesn't think his
guitar Lucille will
mind at all!
His computer? The Atari 1040 ST, of course. Like other creative musicians, Purcell says he needs flexibility in his musical system because he likes to experiment, or as he puts it, to "pop in and out of every gear available." And the ST fits his needs perfectly. "I'm in love with it," he says.
Purcell uses Dr. T's (Emil Tobenfeld's) software. "I looked around for an excellent sequencer to do anything I wanted it to. This is it. I think Dr. Tobenfeld's a genius." He uses a librarian program called the Caged Artist and has collected over 2,000 voices in his library.
"The fundamental use of the MIDI system for me is access to the sequencer in the computer, which gives me total control over every element," enthuses Purcell. He has recently completed the music for an educational video on math manipulatives. Each segment in the film called for nine seconds of music. To show how MIDI could make life much easier, Purcell offered an example. "Let's say the director called me and said, 'we blew it on the timing. Each segment has to be seven seconds instead of nine.' I'd ask 'when do you need it?' Shed say 'how about a week from Friday?' And I would say 'how about this afternoon?'
"I would simply go into the system, pull up each segment and start retiming it until the beats per minute gives me seven seconds instead of nine. Next I record it and make a master Then I'd put on my shoes and drive it over. Not only that, if they have a modem, I could send the whole thing to them over the phone. Of course, all they would get is the MIDI data. They would need a studio to actually duplicate the music."
Behind the Screens
Hybrid Arts, which makes software to support only the ST, has grown
up with Atari. Hybrid Arts' first products were designed for the 8-bit
Ataris. Before the ST was out, they made the only MID! interface for Atari
computers. Nowadays, they're releasing a new ST product every two months.
Frank Foster, who heads up the marketing department at Hybrid Arts, says, "In the old days, a professional would take a piece of tape and put it over the Atari logo if he brought it into the studio. That way no one would make jokes about video games. Now the ST has such credibility in the market that people are proud to use it."
De rigeur for the modern musician - a personal computer and an electronic
keyboard.
JIMMY HOTZ: ST PRODUCER
Jimmy Hotz is the man professional musicians go to when they want to know about the latest electronic equipment and what to buy. He recently completed Dave Mason's new album using MIDI technology throughout and is setting up Fleetwood Mac with a MIDI system for their current tour.
According to Hotz, the reason some professional musicians have shied away from MIDI is because "no one made it usable to them personally in a user-friendly way. If you present it in a way that functions, that makes it real to them."
But, of the Atari ST. Hotz is unequivocal in his praise. He's used the Macintosh. He's used the IBM. In fact, he's tried every computer available. Compared to these other machines, Hotz says "the Atari is cheaper and works faster. Of all the computers I've used, Atari seems to react the fastest and have the best MIDI timing to make it sound the most natural with what you put in there."
Hotz says the newer Mac II, if completely loaded down, approaches the Atari. But such a system will retail for nearly $7,000. The same features on the Atari: only $2,000. Another reason Hotz feels so strongly about the Atari is the number of companies supporting the ST with excellent software. Leading the pack, says Hotz, are Hybrid Arts and Dr. Ts.
Hotz also sets his people up with synthesizers and especially samplers, which make accessible sounds that would otherwise be too complicated for a reasonably priced synthesizer to produce. He says that the most exciting aspect of the samplers for B.B. King, for instance, is that "he now has access to saxophones, clarinets and real sounds, as opposed to just being able to synthesize something.
"You find that a lot of musicians like B.B. King, Dave Mason and Leon Russell really prefer natural sounds and the reason they never got into synthesizers before was because they always sounded synthesized. But with the samplers and synthesizers like the new Roland D-50, suddenly a window has been opened to real sounds."
According to Tom Jefiries, who programs for Dr. T's, ST MIDI software is better because it's easier to write MIDI software for the ST. "TOS provides some functions that work very well for sending and receiving MIDI data," he says. "Usually a programmer has to write some very knotty and time critical code; Atari has taken care of that work for us. Anyone who's written MIDI software for other micros appreciates how easy Atari has made these things on the ST."
Companies like Passport and Sonus, who have been in the MID! software market for other computers, have recreated their best MIDI programs for the ST. And there's a whole raft of new software companies that have built themselves from the beginning on the ST's MIDI power and popularity.
The Million-Dollar MIDI
Perhaps the strongest endorsement of the ST comes from the Pointer
Sisters. Last year, they were paid $1.2 million to make an endorsement
for Coca-Cola. Recently, they endorsed the Atari ST and all they asked
for in return was an ST with lots of MIDI software.
love with my ST,"
says Jim Purcell.
Clearly MIDI is changing the way musicians make music. And increasingly the ST is playing a major part in these changes. For topflight professionals like B.B. King or for weekend hobbyists just having fun, a whole new world of sound is literally at their fingertips.
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Mard Naman, a freelance magazine and TV writer, recently interviewed Linus Pauling for Image Magazine.
If you would like further information on products mentioned in this article, see pages 96 through 99.