A music-writing program which has features very similar to those detailed above, all neatly laid out in a very long and rather confusing manual. With effects like ring-modulation incorporated it seems designed to show off the capabilities of the micro's Sound Interface Device chip more than anything, and again there is no stave in the display - tunes are shown in graph forms.

In the book it says it does a lot, and there are some interesting rhythms - one facility of the program lets you use the computer like a rhythm box. But it's very hard to get it all to work for you, and it doesn't seem too useful as a tool. It doesn't do anything which I can't get but want from the other music programs available.

It's difficult to write sound on computers and, in a way, these are all filling in something that should be present on the computer anyway. Probably the ideal thing would be to have a program that converts the keyboard into a 'proper' keyboard, playing on-line, watching the notes appear on screen as you play them and printing it out afterwards: and there's nothing here like that.

It's interesting that they've all taken different approaches. The only one that really teaches you about music is the Musicmaster. But they should all be easier to use. It should be a fun thing, not something you have to plough through huge manuals to understand. You should be able to just pull the music out with your fingers!