Welcome to the zoo. Things have been fairly hectic here at the Bates Motel and what with letters to answer and programs to review, I've really been pushed to find time to stab people in showers and push cars into swamps and as to buying all those old ladies clothes... there simply aren't enough jumble sales to go round.

But seriously...

As promised last month, here are two overviews of programs designed to run on the Ram/Flare Music Machine and brought to my attention by RAMM!, the users' club. Both concentrate on developing utilities that form part of the original package and they're both really useful additions to the original.

First on the stocks is the Sample Editor from Quasar Software. It comes in two configurations on the same tape, for the 48 and the + Spectrums, and the basic idea is that it can look at samples you've made using the Music Machine in greater detail and do a lot more to them than the Ram product alone can.

When you've put samples through the treatment they can be reloaded back into your sample files for instant use - well, nearly. The honest introduction to the manual does tell you the shortcomings of sampling on the Spectrum and acknowledges that by necessity any sampling on it is a sort of compromise.

On loading up there are no voices present, so this means digging out your sampler files. It would have been nicer and more immediate for the first-time user to have some samples to play with, but never mind.

Once a sample is loaded, several options give you access to peripherals of the sample. Any alterations at any stage can either be displayed as a waveform or played from a screen keyboard display. 'Equalize' has a representation of a graphic equalizer and you can emphasise or de-emphasise particular harmonics over a very wide selection of 28 narrow harmonic bands, thus pruning odd harmonies and inharmonic frequencies.

Overall volume and pitch can be altered; changing the latter is important if you've sampled at a weird pitch which renders that sample useless to anyone but a dab hand at transposing.

But the real smartie part is the wavefom display and 'manual alteration which spreads the sample waveform over several pages. Microscopic sections of the sample can be chopped out, inserted, and the join made smooth by carefully checking the values at the new splice. At each juncture the part or whole of the sample can be played so that you can aurally check your handiwork.

And at any stage in any of Sample Editor's functions you can restore the original sample if you go wrong; whatever you do, you have a backup. Sample Editor is well worth the £9.99 that will bring it to you from: Quasar Software, Clerkenwell Road., London EC1 tel (01) 987 3908. They threaten us with more goodies in the near future. (By the way, Quasar lads, my name is NOT Tony.)

Label: Quasar, 83 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1
Author: Keith Turner
Price: £9.99 (mail-order only)
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: None
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Quasar's sample editor expands the capabilities of the Ram Music Machine. The Ram unit itself - a combined sampler/MIDI interface/sequencer - is perhaps the best bargain for musicians in terms of functions per pound, and the Quasar editor program is a neat extension.

The Sample Editor display shows a two-dimensional plot of the sample you have made using the Music Machine's own software. This can then be trimmed, renamed, changed in pitch and volume, or manually re-drawn, and re-saved to tape.

Useful in itself, but Quasar also promises further programs - a real-time/step/time MIDI sequencer, with clock sync and parameter passing, dedicated drum machine sequencing and score display/print. Also lined up is a sample synthesis program, which will be the first time this sophisticated technique has been possible on computer as inexpensive as the Spectrum. Music Machine owners - check out Quasar on 01-9873908.

RAGE HARD!

You wanna know what's hardest in hardware? Once again YS whips out the magic screwdriver in our first hardware round up of '88.

It's been ages since we did a really ripping hardware spread, so we thought it was about time. After a bit of barking at Phil Snout to get his screwdriver out and look at these beasts, we've pulled together a positive cornucopia of hoopy hardware and super software, to turn even the most soft-boiled trainspotter into a hard-boiled egghead.

The star of our show is Miles Gordon Technology's Plus D disk interface, the only real alternative for tape users to upgrade to a +3, from the designers of the Disciple. Check out the review further on.

Other contenders for the hardware crown are the Multiface family from Romantic Robot, the plastic pal who's fun to be with; a couple of wacky Multiplugs for those of you who work all your household appliances from one socket; an aerial switch so you can plug all your computers, game consoles and videos into your telly at the same time; and Computer Cupboard's nifty little Trojan Light Pen for you to scribble on your screen. Worra lorra lorra stuff.

As well as all this hardware, we've got a brain-boggling selection of the most fascinating hardware-based software. So, let's cut the babbling and launch into the reviews.

Music Machine Sound Sample Editor
Quasar Software
£9.99 cassette

Although this isn't a legitimate Ram Electronics product, it does work marvellously well with the samples from this excellent sound sampling sequencer. Using key letters (the same as the Music Machine's little menus) to activate various buttons on the screen, you can change the pitch of a sample, alter the volume and actually edit individual points in the waveform. You can also equalise the sound, shifting certain harmonics to make the sound easier on the ear. Brill for the closet Jean-Michel Jarre.

In summing up, it's nice to see so many good British products in this hardware lineup. There's not many computers you could say that of, and fewer that could match the quality and design of the peripherals represented here.