My Experiences with DeLuxeMusic v.2.0 by Don Stones 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 Way back in April of this year I made enquiries about the availability of the oft-promised update of DeLuxe Music Construction Set, the original version of which is now some ten years old. I would not have bothered if I didn't find entering music easier and quicker by using the mouse and clicking on the appropriate screen piano keyboard and pressing the numeric keys to alter note durations. This was fine if the durations were divisible by two and ranged from whole notes to thirtysecondths. Being into classical music I not only needed shorter note duration but dotted notes, double dotted notes, triplets, quintuplets and other more bizarre note durations. The limitation of tempo to a maximum of 240 also produced problems as doubling the tempo to give the effect of a sixty-fourth note if the original tempo was in excess of 120. Music in triple time at double speed was even more difficult - as well as being very time consuming by having to tie notes over measures as well as the other calculations. The new DeLuxe Music promised to solve most of problems. Nonetheless I continued to use DeLuxe Music for note entry as my keyboard ability is not great and I still find the more modern notation used on many other programmes difficult to read and check at speed. Having entered the notes I usually do not bother with adding expression marks, alterations in tempo and so on, but save the file in .smus format so that I can port it over to Tiger Club for the much more time consuming editing and balancing of volumes on different tracks. The dealer had promised to let me know when the new version arrived but, after reading two recent reviews of DeLuxeMusic2, I rang to see when it would be arriving and found it was already there! The dealer lost at least two grades on his previous A triple plus rating but I was over in a flash to get it. What did I get? A pretty (well, passable) cardboard box with two discs, a manual, installation instructions, a registration card and advertisements - all for NZ $270 - certainly not cheap but, if it performed as promised, possibly worth it. There was no mention of a reduction if you returned the original version and after ten years that was reasonable enough if the new version was radically different. As you read on it should become apparent that there are differences but radical they are not! Being long in the tooth I resisted all temptation to boot up until I had read the manual through twice - my normal learning practice. Once quickly, to get the general drift, and once slowly to understand the detail. Amongst other astonishing statements I was advised (as I do not have a hard drive) to dispense with Arexx as it is too difficult or complex - I forget the precise terminology. As far as I know you might have problems using Workbench 1.2 but, with the right libraries etc. Workbench 1.3 can support Arexx and of course it is one of the features of Workbench 2 and up! With Workbench 2 and two and a half megs I did not see that I needed to dispense with Arexx but I never got round to trying as I ran into all sorts of other difficulties. Installation. "Insert a copy of DLM2 in df0: and click on the installation icon." For a starter the disc is not bootable! Load up Workbench 2 and try again. The installation procedure includes entering your name, business organisation and unique (?) codenumber - certainly a more acceptable form of copy protection than the old disc drive grinding but I wonder if it achieves the desired effect? Next you are asked what boards you have attached (if any) and mentions two specific ones of which I have never heard (then I don't live in the U.S.A. so it's probably not surprising) - one of these boards is now no longer available. Having answered in the negative I was informed that installation was complete. The First Boot-up. Double clicking on the DeLuxeMusic icon now brings up a screen not very different from the original version. We need some music so we select Load from one of the pull down menus and get a requester to insert the Samples disc - the second disc supplied with the programme. Here we find - did you guess? - old familiar names like Cleopha - in fact all the scores on the original V.1.0 disc and NOT A SINGLE NEW SCORE! The manual tells you that it may take a while to load old DMCS scores - it does! What's more, when you save it back to disc in the new DLM2 format (WITHOUT making any alterations) it takes up around 50% more memory! The old DMCS is not exactly a memory conserver and my fully edited Tiger Cub scores are around 20% less than the old DMCS unedited scores - I am already NOT impressed but there's much more to come. Having played one of the scores, I decided to try cutting and pasting. After selecting and cutting a section I tried to paste it in another position. Of course when asked to insert the sample disc I had removed the Workbench disc - I only have two drives! A requester asked me to replace the Workbench disc - it then pasted as requested - big deal. Further experiments. As those of you who are familiar with the original DeLuxe Music will know, the instrument samples supplied have only a vague resemblance to the originals which they are supposed to represent and, if you play them back through the Commodore 1084S monitor, that resemblance almost completely disappears. The answer is to forget the monitor and the samples supplied and use a decent playback system using better (and memory hungry) samples or a good synthesiser/keyboard. The latter of course needs a Midi interface and much better results can be obtained if you use a multi-timbral device - I often use three or more different piano tones according to the pitch and timbre that I like best. Similarly with other instruments. This brings me to the next problem. When using Midi you have to open one or more channels - I usually use eight - to send the appropriate information to the synthesiser. For example I might use Channels 1-4 for the Acoustic Piano No.1 - this might be for notes higher than say, middle C - Channels 5-7 for Acoustic Piano No.2 for notes down to two octaves below middle C and Electric Piano No.4 for the very low notes. The reason I use more than one channel for each instrument is to enable me to get the balance in volume of different notes in a chord or parts. The inner parts often need to be quieter and if you have each part on a separate track it is much easier to edit. When using a selection of instruments - say strings, woodwind and brass - the instruments need even finer balancing. Until DeLuxeMusic 2 came along I had never had any difficulty in allotting tracks to the appropriate instrument. Each instrument has a Midi number so - on my set up - if I tell my top stave to be Midi Channel No.1 and to play instrument number 15, all notes on that stave will be played by an instrument called Pipe Organ No.3. The original DMCS follows such an instruction with no problem - so does Sonix, Music-X, Bars and Pipes, Dr.T's Tiger Cub and any other Midi compatible programme I have ever come across - until DLM2 came along! The instructions do warn you that you must load an instrument sample BEFORE you attempt to send Midi messages. Having done that you would think that there would be no problems - just activate the Midi functions you need, allot the channel and instrument and that's it! Not a bit of it! When you pull down the menu to allot the channel and instrument number to the notes you have entered into the score you are presented with a "requester" saying that the CAMD library is not available! Of course it's sitting there in the Libs BUT because you have had to boot from a Workbench disc the programme is looking in the wrong libs! Copying this over to the Workbench libs directory solves that but solving one problem uncovers another! To save time and to simplify things as far as possible I entered a single bar of three note chords - each note on a separate stave, clef, track or whatever - loaded each track with the Piano instrument from the samples disc - and then changed track 1 to Midi Channel No.1 with Instrument No.1 (Acoustic Piano 1). Lo and behold it played! Next I set track 2 to Midi Channel No.2 with Instrument No.25 (Violin 1). Now BOTH tracks played the Violin. Changing Track 3 to Channel 3 and Instrument No.41 (Trumpet) now had ALL THREE tracks playing the trumpet! You may be amused but, at the time, I was most certainly NOT! I was even more upset when I checked, via the pull down menu, that the original instructions to play three different instruments on each of the three tracks were still there! Both my keyboard and my ears didn't think so and DLM2 was lying! Working on the principle that if you make a mistake and repeat the pattern you are likely to get the same wrong answer, I tried every alternative I could think of, only to end up with no sound whatsoever - other than that of my own heavy breathing which, I can assure you, was NOT related to sexual fantasies. Nor was it related to the physical exertion of sitting in a comfortable chair and taking the mouse for a training run round the mouse mat with occasional depression of a button to simulate jumping imaginary hurdles on the track! Telephone calls to the dealer did not help. Some questions I was asked were of the "Did you remember to turn the computer on?" category and another answer I was given suggested that many programmes these days are non-bootable, quite ignoring the fact that instructions tell you that this programme is. However I had already learned that DLM2 was not averse to uttering untruths, so maybe this was another one. I rather resented inferences that I did not know how to talk to my Roland keyboard after more than three years experience with it and no problems with any other Midi compatible programme but I ended up by taking DLM2 back to the dealer together with my keyboard and Midi interface as they had offered to try to sort out my difficulties. Several days later I received a phone call to say that all was solved. If I came over they would demonstrate the set up and supply me with a new disc based on their hard disc version which worked satisfactorily. Guess what? Their version only worked if you programmed the keyboard FROM the keyboard. Imagine having to sit and insert programme (instrument) changes at the appropriate point every time you wanted to listen to the music! In any case this was no improvement on what I had already achieved. The dealer had to admit defeat - just as I had. The only other option was to fax the distributor of the programme and the dealer kindly offered to do this on my behalf. I composed a brief account of the problems for onward transmission. The eventual reply was totally useless - merely repeating what I had already said about copying the CAMD library to the Workbench disc, denying knowledge of any previous similar complaints and making suggestions that I might have omitted to click on the insert data button on the start up screen. To give my dealer credit where credit is due, he eventually did all he possibly could and did refund my money. He has not regained his A triple plus rating - which was unrealistic anyway - but it is now a lot higher than the B triple minus which I awarded at one stage. Still more to come. Another grizzle. The manual tells you that you can load other than DeLuxe Music 2 ones (these are yet another format with Cmus suffixes - yes, yet another format to get you to reach for the bicarbonate of soda when you want to shift files over to another system) but I was reassured when I was told that I could save my files in .cmus, .smus or .mid formats. It sounded great, no longer any need for a trip to the video shop and come home with a full length movie to watch whilst DeLuxeMusic 1 was completing the conversion of a 100,000 byte plus file to .smus format - provided of course that you have EXACTLY the right note and rest durations in each bar of every track. The note durations usually don't pose a problem as your ears can pick them up but I am now very careful to make sure that incomplete bars of notes are padded out with the appropriate rest duration symbols! Naturally I was thrilled to think that I could save a .cmus file in .smus or, even better, in Midi format. So I loaded up one of my old DMCS files, converting it to .cmus format and then saving it to disc successively in .cmus. .smus and .mid format. The latter conversion was particularly pleasing for the speed with which it was accomplished. Turning to Tiger Cub, I asked it to load the .smus file and play it - it did BUT all the tracks were out of sync! - a problem I had not met with the old DeLuxe Music. Not to worry, who wants to convert to .smus if it is easier to convert to Midi format and to transfer more information into the bargain? Tiger Cub duly loaded and played the Midi file - but not until I had altered the Midi channel numbers which, instead of reading 1-8 had been altered to 1, 3, 5, ...... to 15 and my keyboard supports only channels 1-8 with an extra track for percussio. instruments! Not a major problem, and easily overcome. BUT, you guessed right once again, in bars where I had used triplets ALL the notes had been converted to triplet durations with totally undesired playback characteristics. The thought of examining each track and altering all the affected note durations was enough to make me want to become very violent. It is just as well that the perpetrators of all this live several thousand nautical miles away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Finale. Unfortunately I have been unable to find another copy of DeLuxeMusic2 to check out. It is quite possible that the disc I had was faulty but, if it was, this does not say much for Electronic Arts quality control. In any case there are many bugs in the programme which have been carried over from the original version with a few more added for good measure. For a much-heralded update after ten years I find it to be very shoddy - the repeated delays of release would, I thought, be forgiven if the finished product came up to scratch. It doesn't even begin to relieve the itch and, in my opinion, is most certainly not worth the asking price. I will be interested to hear of other's experiences with the programme. Don Stones. Auckland, New Zealand. 3rd December 1993. 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38 *^* 38