** Review / 1 page / 947 words ** Midi arpeggiator v1.11 ** MIDI_ARP.GIF here ** Ed Mcglone discovers the analogue sequencer is alive and well - living somewhere in his Atari Falcon... Mention of the word "sequencer" probably conjures up the image of Cubase or one of the Yamaha or Roland hardware products but the first electronic synthesisers appeared back in the 70's, before micro computers became available, and some included sequencer modules enabling the synthesiser to play itself! These early machines typically provided eight or sixteen controls, with a corresponding red LED below each one. Each knob controlled the pitch of the synthesiser - the note played - and the sequencer played each of the notes in turn before looping back to the beginning and starting again. The combination of the steady, hypnotic rhythm and the red light tracking from left to right fuelled the imaginations of musicians from Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream through rock giants like The Who to keyboard wizards like Vangelis and Jean Michelle Jarre. The arrival of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) and the Yamaha DX7 around 1983 followed by the release of the Atari ST with standard Midi sockets helped change the way music is written and recorded forever. Yeah but... What has all this got to do with Midi Arpeggiator? Well, Midi Arpeggiator is a faithful re-creation of the early analogue sequencers on your Atari computer using modern midi gear. It has the same sixteen controls, using more accurate digital display instead of knobs, and the same little "lights" tracking along with the sequence, black in mono resolutions, yellow in colour. Best of all, Midi arpeggiator is just as much fun as the early sequencers were! On launching the program I was immediately impressed by the slick inviting interface including familiar tape transport style buttons, more of which later. Below these are some buttons to switch playback of the sequence between modes - forwards, backwards or ping-pong which plays forwards to the end, then backwards to the beginning again. Alternatively, the notes in the sequence can be played in a random order if you're looking for something a bit more chaotic! Along the bottom are the sixteen note slots in two rows because Midi Arpeggiator can play back two separate sequences simultaneously and if you have more than one midi channel available on your sound source these two sequences can play back different sounds. To set up a sequence, simply enable record on one of Midi Arpeggiator's channels then play the notes on your midi keyboard or using the mouse by clicking on notes using the "virtual keyboard" to the right of the transport bar. The keyboard can even be transposed to access all the notes (0 to 127) midi allows. A slider to the left lets you choose the velocity values entered. As notes are played the note number appears in the box and the program moves on to the next step - it couldn't be simpler. Mistakes can easily be erased by moving backwards and forwards through the sequence using the mouse or the cursor keys. The two sets of controls which look like mixer channel strips down the left hand side are the midi equivalent. Using these you can balance the two sequences using standard midi messages for volume, pan and effects sends - usually reverb and chorus but it does depend on the implementation in keyboard or sound module you are using as your sound source. It gets better, using the "Set Auxiliary" boxes, on the right hand side, different midi controllers can be assigned to the aux1 and aux2 controls on each channel strip. For example you could assign modulation and portamento to the two aux controls. If these were previously used for reverb and chorus, the settings for those remain unaffected by the new controller messages. Midi Arpeggiator can interact with other midi programs in several different ways. Firstly, an Arpeggio can be saved as a standard midi file. These are one or two bars long depending on the settings used and can be imported into most modern sequencer packages including Cubase, Logic and so on. Secondly, a midi file can be recorded to disk complete with your "performance" of it. The settings and controls within Midi Arpeggiator can be adjusted while it is playing and the results are faithfully recorded in the midi file. Occasionally Midi Arpeggiator becomes overloaded, accessing a menu item can cause this, and the timing of the sequence suffers but I am pleased to report the timing on the exported midi file is always rock solid. Thirdly, Midi Arpeggiator can send a midi clock signal to synchronise playback with another software or hardware midi sequencer - or even another copy of Midi Arpeggiator! Unfortunately it cannot currently act as a slave to an external midi clock so it's not possible to synchronise it to a tape machine or another sequencer package sending out variable tempos. Midi Arpeggiator is supplied on one floppy disk in a nice CD style box with both printed manuals and ST Guide format hypertext. Amazingly Midi Arpeggiator only costs £10.00 direct from the publishers, Electronic Cow. The software is continually under development and updates are free to registered users. I've had hours of fun exploring Midi Arpeggiator and I am quite sure some of its classic analogue style sequences will find their way into my Cubase based compositions sooner or later. ** Product boxout ** Midi Arpeggiator Author: Danny MacAleer Publisher: Electronic Cow 350 Broadwater Crescent, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG2 8EZ Tel: 01426 281347 Email: abi91@dial.pipex.com URL: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/abi91/cownet.htm Cost: £10.00 + P&P (50p for UK orders) Pros: Great fun, amazing price, ongoing development Cons: Occasional timing glitches, external sync as master only Rating: 85% ** end boxout **