You will probably find the follow-up to Commodore's Music Maker 1 a lot simpler to use. Gone is the scrolling stave and tricky editing. Instead, Music Maker II has been geared to easy use rather than spectacular results. The familiar overlay keyboard is still in evidence, with a professional model being promised for 1986.

The software is so easy to use that you will probably throw the manual out without even reading it. The screen is divided into roughly three parts, the top third given over to the stave section. Under this is a graphic representation of the Music Maker keyboard, with the pop-up menus popping up all over the lower third of the screen.

The 'demo' menu offers a choice of three popular tunes, and allows you to play your own melodies instead of the originals. As the music plays, the various notes are shown on the stave, their colour indicating which voice is playing which note.

The 'synth' menu offers you the opportunity to play all by yourself (if you feel up to it) and you can even play three notes at the same time. Ten sound presets are available, none of them sound like anything in particular, and you must fiddle around with ADSR envelope values to alter the sounds.

The sequencer menu offers two recording modes, 'easy-play' lets you play in all the notes of your composition without having to think about the rhythm. When you have all the notes in, you simply tap any key to produce the rhythm of your choice and when you play it back (hopefully), all the notes are in the right places. Realtime recording is just that. Whatever you play is recorded just as it would be on a tape recorder. No editing facilities are offered, but finished compositions can be saved on to tape or disk.

The accompaniment menu allows you to select a rhythm, with or without a bass line, and adjust the tempo to suit. The accompaniment is played (or not, as you choose) when you are in either record mode, and the overall effect is quite impressive.

Overall, a neat package aimed at those who just want to have fun with music without taking things too seriously.

Stave notation: yes Record modes: step/real MIDI: no Edit rhythm: yes Load/Save: yes Printer: no Tempo: yes Transpose: no Tuning: no Edit sounds: yes Graphics: 8 Easy use: 10