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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!
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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
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