Instant Music
by Jeremy D. Weinstein
INSTANT MUSIC S29.95 Elecironic Arts 1820 Gateway Dr. San Mateo CA 94404 415-571-7171
Instant Music is the first creativity program to use artificial intelligence to give users the illusion of being a real ex-pert-in this case, by letting them play and compose music that sounds good.
In "mouscjam" mode, IM lets you use your joystick or mouse to play the lead (in real-time) in a disk-loaded piece of music. The computer does not necessarily play the note you hit, but picks the closest one that is in key. It also automatically keeps you in rhythm. There are three independent voices
(versus four on the Amiga), and you can pick new instruments from a wide and expandable selection. The sound is rich, and the controls have a good feel.
The color-bar music notation is not conventional, but, like most of the program, il's intuitive. An optional keyboard display helps clarify things for established musicians. In edit mode, you "draw" the music directly on the screen, with options on pull-down menus.
Program author Bob Campbell says in EA's own Farther magazine, "doing the Amiga version first made for a better C64 version. In some ways, the C64 is best of all, because it's MIDI compatible and there's a built-in synthesizer for creating your own instruments."
The C64 version does not seem flexible enough for serious music, because of its practical limit of 24 measures. It allows 32, but the screen resolution makes editing impossible.
C64 Instant Music from EA.
So, does IM let the user create music? It doesn't "give" the user talent, but supplies him with a bank of talent to draw from. This "expert system" provides the "artificial intelligence" that lets him produce nice music. But it's an open question whether he's really creating the music or simply selecting acceptable variations of pre-programmed songs. Either way, it sounds great!
Jeremy Weinstein (JeremyW on Q-Link) is 26, married to Debby Weinstein, and practicing corporate law in San Francisco.
ET TU, VIDEO TITLER!
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by Sue Albert
VIDEO TITLE SHOP DataSoft Electronic Arts 19808 Nordhoff Place Chatsworth, CA 91311 (818)886-5922
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