The Music Studio was very well received when it was launched on the Commodore 64 because it was one of only a handful of programs - along with others like Rainbird's Music System and Broderbund's Music Shop - that combined ease of use with a comprehensive range of functions and features allowing even the musically naive to get started immediately.

While there are undoubtedly a number of more sophisticated music packages available for the ST, these, though, tend to be targeted towards the more musically inclined amongst us who already know a quaver is not just a cheese snack.

Still other ST music programs turn your keyboard into an editing/mixing board (a kind of musical terminal) making use of the Atari's in-built MIDI ports to talk a common language with many other MIDI compatible keyboards. For all Hitchhiker freaks out there, think of a MIDI port as a kind of musical babel fish!

Activision's ST version of The Music Studio certainly makes good use of the Atari's midi compatibility but never forgets that many of us don't have a Yamaha DX7 or a Casio CZ-101 synthesiser sitting around. This then is a program that can be used in a number of different ways by people of varying musical competence and talent.

Each instrument is represented by a different colour so it is easy to see which notes will be played by which instruments by their colour on the stave.

MS comes with five pre-programmed instruments but you can create and store your own or tweak existing ones to get the effects you want.

The Music Studio was one of the first music packages for the ST and is still one of the best and easiest to use. For the musically innocent, it serves as a perfect introduction, while still offering enough depth to please all but the professional musician.