If you have a copy of this software please respond to the thread!!!!!
by Sight & Sound Music Software Inc.
IBM PC MIDI Editor
MIDI Ensemble, a new software package from Sight & Sound for owners of musical equipment with a MIDI interface, consists of three main program modules: Recorder, Event Editor, and Phrase Editor. The Recorder module can be used for recording and overdubbing tracks; the Event Editor enables precise editing of pitch, start time, duration, and key-strike velocity; and the Phrase Editor allows copying, moving, deleting, combining and modifying musical phrases of any length. Also included is a text and graphics editor for creating diagrams or comments with a song file.
MIDI Ensemble runs on the IBM PC; list price, $495.
MIDI Ensemble, like sequencer plus, presents its finest musical ideas in a piano roll format most of the differences between the two programs involve finer points concerning the user interface. a musician choosing between these two programs has a plight similar to that of a pianist choosing between a baldwin and a steinway grand piano.
Sight and sound adopted an unusual form of software protection for this product. you can make as many copies of the program disk as you want but the softwar can only run on a system which youve attached the sight & sound hardware key to the cable between the computer and the roland mpu-401. thsi 2 inch long 25 pin connector contains codes that must match those embedded in your copy of the software i found that the key could remain attached without interfering with other music software that uses the mpu-401.
Before you can run the MIDI ensemble program, you must first configure it. A setup program asks you questions about your hardware configuration display options such as screen color and musical default values. this configuration procedure is easier to use than most because you can move freely through the options. a few of the options that you can set only at this stage, such as chord parameters, might be more conveniently adjustable from within the program.
six option menu -- midi ensemble starts up with a six-item menu. here youll find options for recording, the event editor, the phrase ditor, a directory, a text page, or a return to DOS. you choose from these items by moving the highlighted cursor and pressing return, or by just typing your selections initial letter. this meny gives you hte first evidence of MIDI ensembles handy command structure. which usually offers several ways to do any task.
in the recording mode, you have up to 256 tracks of music at your disposal, of which 8 can be played back at a time. the main benefit of this huge track capacity is the freedom it gives you to hold onto a lot of different tasks and fragments while editing a composition.
you can divide the recording modes screen into windows, allowing you to monitor many musica factors at a glance. in the console window, basic information for 16 tracks can appear at one time. the cursor and function keys move you fluently among these trakcs so that you can specify which you want to record on, play back or mute. if you ask to record on a track that contains music, the program automaticlaly assumes you want to "punch in" or record over only part of hte track and gives you appropriate prompts. theres no looping capability however.
the console window lets you make immediate changes in each tracks channel assignment and pitch transposition. you cant, however indicate voice program changes for each channel, as you can with sequencer plus's basic track table.
midi ensemble lets you indicate the length of tracks and punch ins either in standard measure and beat units or in clock time and frames--more suitable when synchronizing soundtracks for film + video tape. you can specifiy three tempos that can be called up at a keystroke during recording or playback of music. during playback function keys let you mark the beginning and end of a phrase to be dealt with later in the phrase editor.
in its event editor, midi ensemble displays notes in piano-roll format. as in sequencer plus, each screen displays one measures worth of notes froma single track. midi ensemble however represents pitches with thinner lines which enables it to display a 88 pitch range on a single screen. this greater detail is made possible by the color/graphics adapter which this mode alone requires. Sequencer plus uses a coarser monochrome compatible character graphics
as you move the cursor within a measure it hops in rhythmic order from note to note (or chord to chord) sounding each pitch it lands on you can ask the event editor to show you the cursor touched notes in two other ways with noteheads on a muasical staff or as donts on a piano keyboard displayed at the bottom of the screen. these two visual aids can be displayed concurrently but they cover over the function key command meny and much of the status information that would otherwise be visible.
Editing options. once you memorize a few editing commands, which are described on a seperate screen you should find it easy to manipulate individual notes you can insert new pitches of a preset length the currently available rhythmic unit is set by cycling through the choices displayed in that item on the status line the displayed measure is tehn sliced into this note lenth by a superimposed grid you can delte the existing note or change it pitch timing and length first you move the cursor onto the note and grab it by pressing the enter key you then use the cursors keys in different modes to move it to another pitch or position you can change the notes length to a standard rhythmic unit or expand and trim it by midi counts - the smallest time measurement in the midi language. the event editor however doesnt seem to have an easy way to seize a note and replicate it (say, to fill out a chord) without disturbing the original note.
the event editor also allows you to view and change certain other types of midi data besides teh notes themselves you can deal with program changes which tell a synthesizer to switch to another voice or you can change teh channel assignment to the middle of a track. if the music was originally input with a touch sensitive keyboard, you can see the velocity data for each note and can change this value to affect the notes loudness. although midi ensemble is able to record just about any type of midi data on its tracks. it doesnt offer you a way to do detailed editing of input from such devices as pitch bend wheels and sustain pedals.
in the event editor you can insert phrase markers in a track or move markers that were placed in the recording mode. such phrases can be called on and manipulated later in the phrase editor.