Virtual Symphony; Attila Mezei JV1080ED; Avalon

The Atari ST is more than 10 years old, but its high suitability for music and the enthusiastic support of users means that it's still going strong. Derek Johnson takes a look at some current software, reflects on some older software available at bargain second‑hand prices, and reveals those all‑important Atari Show dates.

Last month's mention of M, the algorithmic composition software for Macintosh, in our Crosstalk pages, reminded me that the software was also available for Atari ST at one time. This is no longer the case, but the adventurous amongst you who would like to explore this kind of software on the ST do have a choice: I recently found (on Compuserve's Atari forum) a demo of a package called Virtual Symphony, from German company Galactic. VISY is an interactive composing program for all STs (with 1Mb RAM or greater); interactive, in this case, means that you can alter any parameter during playback until you find a combination that fits your needs. Initially, the results can be pretty chaotic, but a couple of demo files illustrate what can be achieved. The retail price, as of the version I downloaded, is DM600 (which translates to US$350 or £210). Contact Galactic (Klarastr. 33, 45130 Essen, Germany, Tel/Fax 0049 201 27 32 90, email 100720.1344 @compuserve.com) for up‑to‑date details. Obviously, you can locate a demo copy of Virtual Symphony on CompuServe's Atari forum, but it can also be found at www.keys.de/ftpout/cdtos.html.

The same web site turned up two other neat bits of software: JV1080ED comes from Hungary's Attila Mezei, and offers basic but useful editing features for the Roland JV1080 module. One patch can be edited at a time, and sent to the module or stored to disk — no librarian features yet. However, the software is designated 'patchware': if, after downloading it, you like it, you just have to send Attila some of the patches that you create with the software.

I found another rather useful piece of software (too late to cite in this month's Crosstalk, where a reader's letter asks about Atari software for use with the S330): a Roland S330 editor. Unfortunately the documentation for this is all in German, but luckily it has a fairly straightforward front end: you can load Patches and Tones from the S330, save Tones to ST disk (or hard disk), and edit names and loops on the computer, before beaming them back to the S330. This package is shareware, so if you use it make sure the author (Ingo Debus) knows about it.

Remembrance Of Software Past...

The Atari ST as a platform is well over 10 years old now. In fact, if it were a synth, it would probably be due a place in SOS's RetroZone series! Many pieces of Atari soft and hardware have come and gone over the years, disappearing in a haze of support‑free ennui due to the platform itself lacking the backing of its manufacturer. One such package, which has made a few appearances in the SOS Free Ads lately, is Steinberg's Avalon. This package can be made up of a maximum of three parts: the sample‑editing software, the 16‑bit D/A monitoring cartridge, and the SCSI/DMA controller box for sample transfer via SCSI, if your sampler supports it. The most common configuration is software and monitoring cartridge only, which typically had a price of around £600 in its heyday (SOS reviewed v2.0 back in December 1991); recent sightings have been at a rather more user‑friendly £195 and £295. The only downside is that sampling has to be done on your sampler and transferred to the Atari for editing, although this means that your sample quality is as good as the converters in your sampler. Avalon offers superb editing and synthesis facilities, and provides dedicated support for a wide range of samplers; such facilities make Avalon more comparable to Digidesign's Sound Designer (which was also an Atari product in its earlier versions) than to, for example, Microdeal's Replay 16 package, which is extremely good value for money, but not as sophisticated.