======================================================================= NAMM - A First Person View by John Nagy ======================================================================= Atari Corp was virtually the only computer being seriously shown at the National Association of Music Merchants show last week. Sounds simple enough, just another trade show, right? Well, yes and no. NAMM is held twice a year in fashion similar to that of COMDEX (computer trade) and CES (consumer electronics products). Its a conclave of everything from sellers of guitar picks to makers of turn-key recording studios for the stars. It's a trade show in the same sense and scale as the others, but the emphasis on the musical arts makes it a very different affair... in the people it brings out. The Winter NAMM is traditionally held in the Anaheim Convention Center, just down the street from the original Disneyland in metropolitan Los Angeles, California. This year, it was Friday through Sunday, January 10-12. Spanning three huge interconnected convention halls, this NAMM offered more, louder, and more varied music products this year than in the past. Last year's Winter event was quite subdued, occurring just after the start of the Gulf War. The Summer event (in Chicago) was still smaller and lackluster. Recession or no, this NAMM made up for lost time. But the mix of PEOPLE was different, too. Far less green hair and see- through leotards. About the same amount of leather. Far more suits and ties (Brooks Brothers with Dreadlocks was an "in" look). And more serious business attitudes all around. In the middle of this musical phantasmagoria was Atari Corp's booth. I won't repeat the details of the new Atari Music Division or the FOSTEX announcements, as they were given in depth last week in Z*Net. But the "feel" of the show is news in itself. The Atari area was the largest yet at any NAMM, apropos of Atari's new commitment to its official new Music Division headed up by James Grunke. An open area accommodated as many as 25 work stations manned in COMDEX fashion with a host of third party developers. They included music specialty developers Hybrid Arts, Thinkware, Roland, Steinberg-Jones, Dr.T's, C-LAB, Fostex, JLCooper, Interval, Pixel, Korg, Hotz, and many more, each showing off their latest products for the Atari platform. For a change, non-musical software was also being shown. Codehead products, Tracker-ST, Calamus, PageStream, DiamondBack, and many other productivity titles were shown to musicians who had, in many cases, not considered using their MIDI computer for anything else. About a third of the Atari booth was a glass sound studio in which musicians were able to witness real-time use of Atari computers and software in a live and recording studio atmosphere. Here is where fairly continuous demos and press conferences were offered, educating an eager public to the virtues of Atari. And eager they were. Where prior NAMM showings brought respectful attention to Atari, this one brought a searing spotlight. It may be that only now are musicians realizing their need for computerized help, and Atari was the ONLY computer company with a satisfying booth. Or it may be that Atari is increasingly understood as the overall winner in price, performance, and accuracy when it comes to MIDI applications. I expect it is both. No APPLE/MAC at this show. No AMIGA. A trifling IBM booth showing... windows? Atari alone had the music technology specialty offerings for the entire conflagration of Music Merchants to view. And they did more than view. They Bought. They Bought BIG. In the first half day of the three day show, Atari had already penned more deals at higher bucks than at the entire show last year. And the sales pace kept up throughout the show. A major piano and organ chain opened its first purchase of Atari hardware with a six-figure order. To start. The crowds never let up inside the Atari booth, even when the isles and surrounding booths were on the wane. That was unlike any trade show Atari performance I have ever witnessed. It was EXCITING. It got more exciting when COMPUTER CHRONICLES, the National PBS computer series, arrived to interview, tape, and profile lots of people in the Atari booth. While their special show on MIDI/MUSIC that will air the week of February 25 will feature all platforms, expect a MAJOR portion of it to be about the Atari. They were visibly impressed, and filmed for hours. It stayed more exciting as countless face-recognition entertainment personalities sauntered through the booth, picking out what they planned to get next -- for their Atari. The usuals, including the towering Mick Fleetwood, of course. Plus everything from jazz to classical to acid to punk to funk. I recognized many of them by face (thanks to MTV), but their names aren't part of my repertoire. They signed a big autograph board, but I couldn't read most of them. Sorry. The hottest news of the show was the new alliance of FOSTEX and Atari, with C-Lab, Dr. T's, and Steinberg working together to create the first automated/computerized control studio. Fostex has integrated MIDI control of multiple track tape systems. Now, from the Atari console, full control of any and all tape functions can be executed or assigned to infinite combinations of controlled MIDI events. The motto is "Thread it and forget it." The Atari makes it possible, for the first time. The impact of this was NOT lost on the endless legion of professional recording engineers that stood, mouths open and drooling, over the equipment. Nor did they miss the impact of the remarkable Hybrid Arts Digital Master direct-to-disk recording and editing system. Featuring an Atari ST as the head end, this unit RETAILS for under $5,000, complete, and can record with CD digital perfection, up to 12 minutes of fully editable stereo sound. The EX version, to be ready for sale shortly, will feature 16 tracks and 4 output tracks, for true full recording studio power in an noise-free ALL ELECTRONIC media. Cheaply. And the STBook wasn't missed either. As a replacement for the STacy, the STBook was a hit as the ONLY "notebook" computer anywhere with built-in MIDI. Atari promised shipping in quantity for March '92. The line has formed already. Innovative incentives made potential dealers into signed dealers. A promotion called "Do the Loop" invited dealers to visit each and every station in the Atari area, qualifying them for a drawing for a TT030 system. By the time they were qualified, they were typically convinced to be dealers, too. The TT gathered support as a new top professional option for MIDI work. All of Dr. T's products work on at TT, CUBASE has been upgraded for the TT, and C-Lab has committed to upgrade ALL of their products for use on the TT030 by year's end. A music developer conference, numerous press conferences, and a party in James Grunke's suite on Saturday night firmed up more contacts and contracts than Atari ever imagined or hoped. NAMM '92 was an unqualified smash sucess for Atari, establishing it as, if not the ONLY serious music computer manufacturer, at least the ONLY one who cared enough to come to the musicians with the tools they need, want, and can afford. If this is "Atari '92," we are in for a GREAT year. ======================================================================= * NAMM PRESS RELEASE REPRINTS ======================================================================= ATARI COMPUTERS: FIRST WITH FOSTEX CONTROLS From adding onboard MIDI ports in 1985 to offering computer control of three Fostex multitrack recorders in 1992, Atari Computer continues a tradition of leadership in bringing computer control to more and more MIDI devices. Available in 8,16, and 24 track configurations, these Fostex reel-to- reel analog multitracks allow users of Atari sequencing programs such as Dr. T's Omega, Steinberg/Jones' Cubase, and C-LAB's Creator and Notator, to operate all the machines' controls from WITHIN the MIDI sequencing environment. The key point behind this development was to allow musicians to control the recording process entirely from one interface, thereby minimizing technical effort and enhancing creativity. With the exception of threading tape at the beginning of a session, Fostex/Atari system users are freed from direct handling of the tape deck for the remainder of the session. Enthusiasts refer to this aspect of the system's ease-of-use as "thread-it-and-forget-it." Lockup to tape is achieved by the sequencing software's SMPTE "instructions" being read by the Fostex recorders' onboard SMPTE interface. By combining locking capability with full transport, record, and playback controls, the musician or recording engineer can automate punch-ins and punch-outs using note values, measures, SMPTE frames, or other timing cues resident in the sequencing software. A related bonus of the Fostex/Atari marriage is the ability to automatically "preroll" before punch-ins. Through a common feature of most MIDI sequencing programs, sophisticated automated "preroll" and other "autolocate" functions have heretofore been unavailable on affordable multitrack decks. For example, a system consisting of an Atari 1040ST, Fostex R8 8-Track, MIDI/SMPTE converter, and sequencing software, starts at $4500. With one tape trak reserved for SMPTE striping, such a system delivers 7 tracks of analog (with Dolby C noise reduction), plus 16 virtual tracks (the minimum virtual tracks of any of the above-mentioned software), yielding a 23-track automated recording system, (without bouncing) at less than $195 per track.** ** Note: The above cost breakdown is ultra-conservative. Most MIDI sequencing packages offer significantly more than 16 tracks, so cost- per-track in most cases will be much less than $195. STEINBERG INTEGRATES SOFTWARE CONTROL OVER FOSTEX MACHINES In an innovative move that will change the way people make music with computers and tape machines, Steinberg in cooperation with Fostex, have upgraded their already world famous CUBASE sequencing software with remote control capabilities of Fostex'x G16 and G24 multitrack tape machines. Studio control is available from an Atari ST computer running CUBASE software (Atari ST version also supports Fostex R8). CUBASE, already accepted as probably the most complete music software program with its ability to control virtually any MIDI component from its MIDI Mixer, now can control not only the basic G16/G24 tape functions like play, start, record, fast-forward, and rewind, but you can also auto- locate to any position, program punch-in and punch-out markers, stripe SMPTE to tape, and put tracks in and out of record. Sequencer users have long been aware of the ability to synchronize their MIDI tracks along with the audio tracks of a tape machine. Up until now, however, the tape machine was always the master transport control; the only way to play back the MIDI tracks while syneed to tape was to put the tape machine into play. Now, thanks to the cooperative efforts of Fostex and Steinberg, you can control playback and transport functions from either CUBASE or the G16/G24 tape machines. These new capabilities mean you have to walk over to the tape machine again, once the tape has been loaded all functions are available from with CUBASE. CUBASE offers this level of control by way of two seperate M*ROS (MIDI Realtime Operating System) software drivers, each designed specifically for the G16 and G24, respectfully. People using these Fostex machines can activate the appropriate driver. Then, a single button on the computer screen (appropriately labeled SYNC) is how the link between the computer and tape machine is made. These capabilities represent a milestone in computer controlled studios, and marks the beginning of a persperous relationship between these two companies, which engineers and composers around the world will enjoy as well. C-LAB SOFTWARE UNITES NOTATOR/CREATOR 3.1 WITH FOSTEX MIDI CONTROLLED TAPE MACHINES C-LAB Software announces a powerful integration between their internationally respected MIDI sequencing and notation software, NOTATOR /CREATOR 3.1, and the industry standard Fostex series of MIDI controlled tape machines. In magazines worldwide NOTATOR/CREATOR 3.1 has been praised as the most powerful, intuitive MIDI software on any computer, and has over 60,000 users worldwide. NOTATOR/CREATOR is available exclusively for the Atari series of coputers, and provides integrated realtime sequencing and notation capabilities. With version 3.1 the analog recording of vocals, guitars, bass and more become controllable via the digital world of realtime MIDI sequencing. Once connected the user need never touch the Fostex machine again, except to change a reel of tape - it's that easy. Complete control of the Foxtex R8, G16 and G24 MIDI controlled multitrack tape recorders is seamlessly integrated into version 3.1 of NOTATOR/CREATOR, with all commonly used functions supported. Play, record, rewind, fast-forward as well as track enabling for recording are all possible from with the C-LAB programs. Advanced programmable functions like Auto-Punch IN/OUT, Cycle/Loop Record and a unique "Scrub Chase" feature can be used in the new Graphic Arrange mode, all under realtime SMPTE control. The uniting of NOTATOR/CREATOR 3.1 and Fostex series of recorders provides musicians with the most powerful production package available for MIDI and tape-based music. C-LAB Software is distributed in the United States by Ensoniq Corp, for more information contact them at 155 Great Valley Parkway, Malvern, PA 19355 (215) 647-3930.