doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/06/86)
Music Construction Set (Electronic Arts)
Commodore 64, 1 disk, 1 joystick
List: $24 Discount: $16
Description: Plays sheet music
Overall grade: C
A hard decision. If the other programs from Electronic Arts didn't
exist, this program would be above average. But by EA standards, it's
well below average.
There are too many things that Music Construction Set (MCS) can't do.
I'm not talking about expected limitations like being able to sound
only three notes at once (that's all the C-64 can do). No, I'm talking
about more basic capabilities.
For example, it cannot simultaneously sound a whole note and four
quarter notes, unless one is on the upper staff and one on the lower.
If they're both on one staff, you have to (by hand) break up the whole
note into four quarter notes and tie them together.
But that brings up another limitation. If the original four quarter
notes were all the same note, then you're stuck because when you tie the
broken-up whole note together MCS will tie all other "same notes" which
appear at the same time. You'll end up with two whole notes.
MCS can't tie notes which aren't the same. It can't handle triplets.
It has a somewhat limited range of notes. It can't change meters in
the middle of the tune... well, not quite true; you can enter music
which doesn't match the meter and then ignore the warning MCS gives.
It can't change the volume dynamically. The tempo control ranges
from moderate to absurdly fast; slow tempos aren't possible.
MCS provides a limited choice of musical instruments: harpsichord,
oboe, accordion, organ, "brass", and flute. These are constant for
the entire piece; MCS can't change in mid-tune. MCS doesn't have any
capability to create your own "instruments".
MCS has no "subroutine" capability to allow easy repeating of verses and
choruses. You have to enter the music multiple times. MCS provides a
"cut and paste" feature to allow you to copy the music, but it will only
copy a limited amount (4-9 bars) of only one staff at a time. And there
is no way to mark the music; you continuously scan back and forth
between where you're copying from (if you can find it) and where you're
copying to.
On top of those limitations, MCS is just plain clumsy to use. It is not
convenient either with the joystick nor with the keyboard. The joystick
is too coarse for positioning notes; you really have to use the keyboard
for that. But the positioning keys don't have an auto-repeat. If you
want to go down one note, you use the Z key; if you want to go down a
bunch, you use the CRSR DOWN key.
The disk routines aren't very refined. When you select the "disk" icon
(gee, if it has icons it's gotta be good!), the screen goes blank
except for a small arrow. It turns out that the arrow is sort of an
alphanumeric cursor. There are no prompts. The only way you'll know
what to type is to read the manual. There are no error messages. If
you mistype a command, MCS simply exits the disk routines back to the
main menu. If the drive returns an error, MCS doesn't tell you what
the error was; heck, it doesn't even tell you that an error occurred.
I was unable to save music onto a data disk unless I first turned the
disk drive off and back on. Apparently something happens while loading
the program that makes the drive refuse to save. But since MCS won't
print the error message, I don't know what the problem was.
Then we get to the manual. Actually, the information is divided up
into two separate documents, one with machine-independent stuff and one
for the C-64. You have to refer back and forth constantly, and they
aren't laid out the same so there's a lot of page flipping involved.
And as always seems to happen when the manuals are going to be read by
people with widely varying degrees of experience, nobody's going to be
satisfied. If you're a beginner, you'll be lost in no time at all. If
you understand music concepts and can read sheet music, you'll be bored.
This program really needs two manuals, one for beginners and one for
old hands.
You're probably thinking that the program is a dog. Not true. But it
isn't what it could be, and it's definitely not as refined as I expect
from Electronic Arts.
The problem that I have in recommending it is trying to think of a
need that it fills. In the end, I think that the quirks will prove to
be too troublesome to allow MCS to be used as a serious tool by
anyone. But as a toy... yes, I think so, provided that you either
understand music or are willing to learn about it on your own.
--
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {hardy,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!dougdoug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/08/86)
In my original review I wrote: > The problem that I have in recommending it is trying to think of a > need that it fills. In the end, I think that the quirks will prove to > be too troublesome to allow MCS to be used as a serious tool by > anyone. But as a toy... yes, I think so, provided that you either > understand music or are willing to learn about it on your own. Since then, it has occurred to me that it might be a serious tool for someone who writes advertising jingles. These are usually short and seldom "artsy". Otherwise, my comment stands: it's basically a toy for someone who wants to play at songwriting. -- Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {hardy,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug
atoy@watnot.UUCP (Andy Toy) (01/12/86)
In article <962@terak.UUCP> doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) writes: >Music Construction Set (Electronic Arts) >Commodore 64, 1 disk, 1 joystick >List: $24 Discount: $16 >Description: Plays sheet music >Overall grade: C > >A hard decision. If the other programs from Electronic Arts didn't >exist, this program would be above average. But by EA standards, it's >well below average. > >There are too many things that Music Construction Set (MCS) can't do. >I'm not talking about expected limitations like being able to sound >only three notes at once (that's all the C-64 can do). No, I'm talking >about more basic capabilities. I concur with what Doug has written. I've found it extremely time consuming and awkward to enter music with MCS. On some pieces, I can't even enter the sheet music unless I re-interpret the music because MCS can't handle all the stuff that's in the music (ie. triplets, changing time signatures and key signatures, dynamics, etc...). This is too bad since I like to fiddle with computer music and enter classical pieces, like Bach's fugues and Pachelbel's Canon. MCS is just too limited. >The problem that I have in recommending it is trying to think of a >need that it fills. In the end, I think that the quirks will prove to >be too troublesome to allow MCS to be used as a serious tool by >anyone. But as a toy... yes, I think so, provided that you either >understand music or are willing to learn about it on your own. Yes, I agree again. I recommend it only to those who want it as a toy or a beginners' musical learning tool. It's not good enough (in my opinion) for musicians or those wanting to have the 64 to play their sheet music. -- Andy Toy, Mapping Analysis and Design Group (MAD), Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA N2L 3G1 (519) 885-1211 x6563 UUCP: ...!{utzoo|decvax|ihnp4|clyde|allegra}!watmath!watnot!atoy ARPA: atoy%watnot%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa CSNET: atoy%watnot@waterloo.csnet EAN: atoy@not.waterloo.cdn BITNET: atoy at watdcsu
grab@osu-eddie.UUCP (Charles Grab) (01/14/86)
Have you tried Music Shop from Broderbund software? It avoids many of the
probles that you're having with MCS. It allows you to change time
signatures and meter in the middle of a piece. You can use one or two staves
on a piece. Each staff can carry either clef, though once you've set them
you can't change in the piece. It allows for tripelets, repeats with or
without second endings. You can also get music up an octave from where you
have written it. Custom sounds are possible. It has provisions for
adjusting attack, sustain, decay, wave form, etc. Tempo and volume controls
are also adjustable.
The manual is a lot easier to read. Most of the music theory is in one
section, with the program instructions in another. The program is mostley
run by pulldown menus, and the whole thing can be convieniently run with a
joystick, though I've found a combination of both joystick and keyboard
works best. Once you're all done composing, you can print the darn thing
out. All in all, it's a pretty nice little program. Offhand I don't know
what the price is, but I'm sure the average computer store can supply that
information for you.
May your fifth never be diminished
Charles Grab
PS Anyone who wants to talk about nothing in particular, feel free.
It'll give me more reason to learn how to work this *@!$%^$$^ mailer.pugsly@isrnix.UUCP (David A. Roth) (01/14/86)
...So if anyone is interested in buying my copy of MCS send me EMAIL. David A. Roth ...decvax!pur-ee!isrnix!pugsly ...ihnp4!inuxc!isrnix!pugsly Indianapolis,IN
mykes@3comvax.UUCP (Mike Schwartz) (01/22/86)
Try Bank Street MusicWriter from Mindscape. I wrote the C64 version for them last year, and it seems to answer all the criticism I have seen about MCS. BSMW is keyboard driven (a word processor for music), and featues repeats, first and second endings, piano, forte, ties, etc. The only drawback is that BSMW doesn't make very interesting sounding music, because (I didn't design it, I just programmed it) it uses the SID chip like it had one hand tied behind its back (given a choice, I would have made it do real nice sounds). To me, everything sounds like a calliope. It is an excellent music program, however, and it obeys all the rules correctly. It also has 0 known bugs. I also recommend Music Shop from Broderbund, which looks (visually) like Bank Street MusicWriter. I have not used it, but it appears to have a few more songs with it, and it probably sounds better (it aint hard to do that) than BSMW. I would be interested to see a review of BSMW from someone out there. It got a pretty good review in Compute.