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THE I PIANO TEACHING SYSTEM Learn to play the piano from a computer? Well, that's exactly what you can do with this . amaz1ngnew package. It combines a 4-octave stereo keyboard with your PC, Amiga or Nintendo to produce a system which could revolutionise the way music is taught. By DARREN YATES O YOU REMEMBER as a 10 year-old being trundled off to piano lessons for an hour every Wednesday afternoon? Invariably, you had to miss out on the after-school fun to learn "Good King Wenceslas" and to practice scales, and you wished you were somewhere else. Or maybe you're from the other side of the coin as I was, telling your mum you don 't want to learn the piano and then later regretting it. This may be a bit of an exaggeration but whatever the case, the new Mira- D 6 SrucoN CHIP cle piano teaching system is an exciting and affordable way to get into the world of music in the privacy of your own home computer. The Miracle was developed and designed in the USA and is imported into Australia by Mindscape International. It is currently available for the IBM PC and PC compatibles from all Dick Smith Electronics stores throughout Australia. When we first laid eyes on our review sample for the PC, we mistakenly thought it was just another key- board but a quick look over the packaging showed it was much more. It even included a glowing recommendation from the famed Julliard School of Music in the US. Inside the package In addition to the 4-octave keyboard, the package includes a 12VAC plugpack, a sustain foot pedal, an RS232 cable with a DB9 computer plug, a pair of headphones, software on 5.25inch and 3.5-inch discs, and the user manuals. The computer requirements for the PC version are MS-DOS version 3.1 or later and at least 512Kb of RAM if you are using a CGA monitor, or 640Kb RAM if you have EGA or VGA graphics. The software comes on two 1.2Mb 5.25-inch floppy discs and three 3.5inch 720Kb discs to suit either format. At least one serial port is recommended but we found that you really need two, to use the Miracle to its full potential; one for the keyboard interface and one for a mouse. Itching to see what it could do, we immediately grabbed the discs and started loading them into our workshop 286. Installation To get the most out of the Miracle, the software is best installed onto your hard disc. It occupies about 2Mb or so of space but this dramatically speeds up the operation and saves you swapping discs. After connecting up the Miracle keyboard to the computer, all you need to do is load in disc 1 and type INSTALL. The installation program then automatically loads the program into a directory called MIRACLE. During this process, it tells you when to change discs and confirms the type of system set-up you have. Running the Miracle When the tedious bits have been done, you're prompted to go to the MIRACLE directory on your hard disc and type MIRACLE. A couple of seconds later we were enveloped in music, with the keyboard playing a classical orchestration to some very high quality VGA graphics. In fact, the graphics were very impressive all the way through the program, particularly in VGA format. After going through the initial personalisation screens, you come to the main menu which contains six options: Classroom, Arcade, Studio, Administration, Performance Hall and Practise Room. Classroom This option allows you to go through the 40 lessons that are available on the initial discs. Further discs will be available in the future to extend the number of lessons to 250. The Miracle initially shows you to Lesson 1, but if you're adventurous, This is the Classroom chapter menu. You can select any of the 40 chapters at any time and, at the end of each chapter, you will know how to play another piece of music. You can use either the tab key or the mouse to select an option. you can go through and select any of the "chapters" you wish from 1-40. It also keeps track of which lesson you were going through the last time and allows you to pick up where you left off. During the lessons, the Miracle screen display is very much like a blackboard. It teaches you where the keys are by way of a keyboard shown on the screen, with the keys you are to press highlighted. One of its clever little tricks is that whenever you press a key, the corresponding key is depressed on the keyboard shown on the screen. Even in the first lesson, you get some hands-on practice by learning to play Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". The Miracle first of all demonstrates how it is played by showing both the sheet music and the keyboard, as well as each individual note as it is being played. After you've had a go, the Miracle then tells you how well you played, keeping track of your tempo, the number of wrong keys pressed and even how you pressed the keys . For example, if you don't hold a key down for long enough, the Miracle tells you. In fact, the Miracle checks each mistake you make against 200 error types which it splits into 41 main categories, including notes played too fast and those that have been held for too long. It also decides whether you played it well enough to progress to the next lesson by keeping score in these main categories but you can always bypass it by using the self-select method! Arcade This section is perfect for kids (both big and little) and uses arcade-style games to teach you which notes on the keyboard correspond to those on a piece of sheet music. There are three games: Ducks, Ripchord and Aliens. Ducks is very much like the game you would see at an amusement park. The idea is that ducks swim across lines representing a staff (the five lines on which notes are placed) and when you press the right key on the Miracle keyboard, the duck blows up! Ripchord is a similar style game where you have a certain time limit to play a set of notes or a chord. If you play them in time, the parachutes open for the little men, otherwise they hit the ground head first. Aliens lets you practise note sequences and is a minor variation to the above games. Also included in the arcade section is a Jukebox, which allows you to select and listen to any one of the 100 practice pieces of music (with full backing). Some of these include the themes fromM* A *S*H, Star Wars and a number of Beatles songs. The Studio This is one of the more interesting DECEMBER 1991 7 the whole thing used only just over 5Kb of disc space. Not bad, huh? The only negative thing is that there are no instructions that appear on screen when you first run the Studio. This means that you have to refer to the user manual to start off with but we found that one picks up the rules fairly quickly anyway. Administration This takes care of adding and deleting users, changing the system setup parameters, and checking the progress of a student via the number of lessons started and completed. You can even print out certificates when you have finished a particular section of the Miracle course. You also use this section to exit the program and return to DOS. Performance Hall One of the interesting ways oflearning is through the arcade games. Here, you have to press the correct keys on the Miracle keyboard in order to open the parachutes before the men hit the ground. sections of the program. The Studio turns your computer into an 8-track tape recorder, allowing you to record your own compositions. You simply record one track at a time; eg, bass, then lead, then accompanying background, etc. Each time you record a new track, the Miracle replays the other tracks you have recorded so that you can listen to your composition take shape. What's more, you can feed the stereo output from the keyboard into your hifi gear using the two RCA sockets at the back of the unit. As might be ex- pected, we had quite a bit of fun with this section! The Miracle gives you a choice of 128 different voices, from pianos to guitars to rap drum beats which are selectable from the software. As well, you can change the tempo and the volume of the keyboard by using the tab and arrow keys. You can also store your composition on disc and load it back again later. It uses surprisingly little memory. As an example, we made up a small piece of music using four tracks that ran for about three minutes and A view of one of the lesson "blackboard" screens. Each screen discusses a new topic. The keyboard display at the bottom of the screen is interactive with the Miracle keyboard, showing the keys you have pressed. 8 SILICON CHIP At the end of each lesson, you have learnt to play a new piece of music. The Miracle then takes you to the Performance Hall to play it with an accompanying orchestra, to test out how well you know it (rats!). On the screen is the sheet music of the piece you are about to play, with a small arrow indicating which note you should be up to, as well as the keyboard to show you which note you should be playing. This may sound a little intimidating but you can slow the tempo right down to a crawl if you're not confident. A metronome plays in the background to advise you of the tempo. You can even decide to play with only one hand if you want to. When you come to playing a piece, both the manuscript of the music and the keyboard are displayed. Small arrows indicate which note you should be playing at any one time both on the keyboard and on the sheet music. Electronics Workbench® This screen view shows the Miracle's Studio option. You have an 8-track recorder at your disposal to record, store and playback your musical masterpiece. You can select the instruments as well as the tempo and volume via the mouse or keyboard·: The block in the centre simulates an 8-channel LED bargraph display. The Practise Room The practise room is where you go to practise the pieces you have learnt during the lessons, but you can also choose your own piece out of the 100 available. There are five options here. You can try your hand at playing solo, or you can play a duet with the Miracle or listen to the Miracle play a piece in its own in demo mode. You can also practise playing notes at your own · pace or just practise getting the right rhythm and playing any note. The keyboard The keyboard itself looks rather plain on the outside but considering it has 128-tone stereo sound, velocitysensitive keys, digitally controlled volume and a MIDI interface , it still beats many currently available keyboards. And if you ever get sick of going through the software, you can switch off the computer, pull out the RS232 cable and use the keyboard on its own. The only problem you have is that there is no specific way of telling which tone you have selected, other than counting through the voices one by one and looking up the selei;;tion table. But many of the voices, particularly some of the vibraphones, are very sweet indeed. The system also comes with two well-written manuals that don't require you to be a computer programmer to figure out what to do. All instructions are followed through step-by-step with ·s mall graphics of the video screens as you come to them. The software can be run using either a mouse or the keyboard and is very easy to drive. Overall, the Miracle piano teaching system is a winner. It's the perfect way to start yourself or your children on the road to learning music. It not only allows you to learn how to play in the privacy of your own home but also includes many features to keep children of all ages interested enough to persist and not give up too early. The Miracle piano teaching system is available from all Dick Smith Electronics stores and, at $699, it's a great investment in either your own or your children's musical education. We loved it! SC ~ _, ., . . . .-- _ I, I: _lJ.E__;~~.~~i~~~:~ ,.~ ...~..~..u""l, ,_,_. -· - ' = .;. "':-d:-.. 1 "'·,. C .. :~ .. , : : --•1.. '• ) K~ U .. N A i_j Q 0 <at> , ..... ~ ~~~~~ == 00000 000 MU I Build and simulate both analog and digital circuits, complete with simulated instruments on your computer! FEATURES • Quick and simple circuit entry • Digital and Analog Modules included, complete with all components • Simulated instruments: dual trace scope, spectrum analyser, function generator, multimeter, digital word generator and logic analyser • Complete control over all component values and parameters • Print: circuit schematics, parts list, instrument readings, macros • Logic conversion -truth table to Boolean formula to logic gates • Customisable hypertext help system THREE VERSIONS • Professional Version: EGNVGA colour display; unli mited components • Personal Plus Version: Monochrome display; unlimited components • Personal Version: Monochrome display; limited to 20 components per circuit ----------------I YES ■ I want ELECTRONICS WORKBENCH in my computer Professional Version Personal Plus Version Personal Version $429 $229 $149 Plus $7 Delivery Enclosed is my cheque/money order for $_ _ ___ or Please debit my Ca rd No.J O Bankcard O Mastercard IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Signature _ _ _ _ __ _ _ Expiry Date _ _/_ _ Name _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ Street _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ __ Suburb/Town - - - - -- - - Postcode - -- Send to: Emona Instruments, PO Box 15, Camperdown, NSW 2050. ·-----------------~ Tel: (02) 519 3933 Fax: (02) 550 1378 DECEMBER1991 9