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ATARI Sing-Along: A Review of Atari Music Files
By Robb Murray
SoftSide Magazine, 1984
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PREFATORY NOTE: In looking back through some old material
tonight, I found this review I was asked
to write about some computer music files, back in 1984. It is so
nasty that I was amazed the magazine ran it -- but they did. Some kind of
justice was probably served, though, when the magazine went bankrupt the next
month and I was never paid for the work.
I hope that you will find yourself confederated into sadistic glee at
these barbed comments that were, I assure you, very well-deserved.
--Robb
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If you
own a music editor for your home computer, you probably enjoy playing music
files created by other people. No matter which computer you own, creating your
own music on it involves a lot of work, and you never have enough time to put
in all the selections you’d like to hear.
Most
hobbyists trade disks or swap files over the bulletin boards, but some companies
are now offering music files for sale. Such “canned music” is our home computer
equivalent of the old-time piano rolls. The added fun today is that users can
customize the files to fit their taste.
When it
comes to music files, people seem to feel one of two ways. Either they see
music editors as great computing and are so excited about music on microcomputers
that sound is beside the point; or they see music editors as simply another way
of creating music, and they judge the results by standards they apply to other
musical forms.
I must
confess that I fall into the second category. If you fit into the first group,
stop here. You’ll probably love all the files critiqued here and will enjoy
playing them for your friends. Even I must admit that, though I found most of
the music discussed here to be lacking, I had a great time playing and
replaying each piece, taking it apart to figure out why it sounded as it did. I
should say, too, that many friends who heard these files thought they were
fine.
Perhaps
I should explain the thinking underlying my perceptions on this subject. If
someone offers a music file for sale, the file should have something more to
offer than the garden-variety files traded around at users’ groups. Above all,
files for sale should sound superb! If possible they should showcase the editor
they run on, and certainly should be completely free of wrong notes. Collections of files should be statements in
themselves, much as literary anthologies are. That is, they should have clear
identities and make strong product statements.
The
files under review here were handicapped from the beginning by the Atari Music
Composer itself. The quality of the Composer’s instrumental colorings is
raucous. The editor is limited in note range to just three octaves plus one
note. It can’t execute triplets. Gradual increases or decreases in the tempo of
its music, or graceful transitions from louder to softer, are impossible.
As Randy
Kottwitz pointed out in his November, 1981 SoftSide review, the Atari Music
Composer is simply not a good, programmable musical instrument. Randy
estimated that it would require a “serious hunt” to find “a sheet of music
capable of being input to Music Composer without serious deleterious effects.”
Does
this state of affairs automatically consign all music files for the Atari
Music Composer to the pit? Not really.
Musicians
have created graceful and pleasing music on steel drums, the glass harmonica,
and the tuba. As solo instruments, these contraptions all have characteristics
that work against them. Music performed on them must minimize carefully
anything unpleasant about their normal sounds.
People
have varying degrees of luck making music on odd instruments. If you can get
charming sounds from a row of shaving mugs, you are something of a genius. If
you try to do so, but cannot, you should go back to making lather.
The
folks at Computer’s Voice had their clearest shot at success when they chose
four Bach selections for their “Music I” disk. You can play Bach on a set of
cap pistols and, if your timing is perfect, you will move the very stones to
song. Bach can sound angelic on all music editors, even this Atari one. But
taste decisions enter in; and, if they’re mishandled or ignored, the results
are sub optimal.
One of
the Bach selections on this music disk is the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto — but
just two voices of it. Why would anybody want to hear just two voices of a
Brandenburg Concerto?
Another
question arises concerning “Fugue 16.” I haven’t seen a score of this piece,
but here it’s coded in B-flat (G-minor) and the bass line almost certainly goes
down to a low B-flat — a B-flat that is out of range for the Atari Music
Composer. I displayed the bass line and found several runs that would logically
have gone to B-flat, but with rests where the B-flats belonged. Perhaps the
piece could have been transposed to compensate.
But no
matter; as you listen, everything’s still sounding very pleasant indeed until
the last chord. It gets strangled! It just flips past you, the piece thuds to
the ground, and in your mind’s eye you see a loose end of tape flapping on a
whirling take-up reel. Regardless of what any sheet music might have shown
here, was such abruptness necessary?
The
“Music I” disk also contains seven songs, with words supplied in an accompanying
booklet. But the choppy, staccato sound
of the music makes an uncomfortable and unlikely vocal accompaniment.
(Despite its choppiness, I did like “Alouette.”) The Stephen Foster songs are
marred by literalism in the use of rests. “Kum Ba Ya” blasts on for eight
agonized verses. “Amazing Grace” is missing notes; “Shenandoah” is a travesty
of bad pauses, as is “Long, Long Ago.” “Amazing Grace” careens from verse to
verse, with nary a pause for breath, and I never could get “Oh! Suzanna” to
load.
The
Christmas songs (“Set 1”) are plagued by such thorns as range problems (notes
drop out), inappropriate choral-style arrangements, and an occasional wrong note.
“I Saw Three Ships” is pleasant, with a solo effect in alternating verses, but
it’s spoiled by a wrong note and an abrupt ending. “Joy to the World” ends
strangely with what sounds like a descant note in the loud soprano part. In
“Hark, the Herald Angels,” the bass part frequently drops out — even in the
very last chord of the song!. “What Child Is This” has patches of unaccountably
sparse lower parts. A less-familiar version of ‘‘While Shepherds Watched” is a
nice choice here. But, in almost every selection, the abrupt breaks between
chords give the feeling of Christmas on a pogo stick.
“Christmas
Set 2” offers more of the same. In “Deck the Halls,” “Foom, Foom, Foom,” “It
Came Upon A Midnight Clear” and “We Three Kings,” the lower parts drop out like
elves gone into hiding. The jerky motion of “Good King Wenceslas” and “The
First Noel” is especially pronounced and, honestly, hideous. “Away In a
Manger,” apparently another stylized choral arrangement, just doesn’t work.
Even the right notes sound wrong, and it ends on an inappropriate chord
inversion.
Musical
files are worth creating, in any stage of experimentation. Once you start
sailing them, however, it’s a different story. People expect, and deserve,
high quality sounds. Some files really deserve wide circulation and sale, but
-- let’s face it -- most of them should stay close to home, where
there is more fun for the creators and less disappointment for the buyers.
Product
details:
Music I,
Christmas Music, Set 1 and Set 2 (Computer’s Voice, 2370 Ella Drive, Flint, Ml
48504).
System requirements:
Music I — Atari 4001 800 with 24K
(disk) and 16K (cassette), Atari Music Composer Cartridge.
Christmas Music, Sets 1 and 2 —
Atari 4001800 with 16K (disk) and 8K (cassette), Atari Music Composer
Cartridge.
Suggested retail prices:
Christmas Music — $24.95 per set;
Music I — $34.95.