Computer / Software

Many of you were caught out by our 1995 April Fool preview of a fictitious piece of software that could modify the musical style of a MIDI file to create specific emotions in the listener. Now, however, it seems that fact may have caught up with fiction. Martin Walker tries out Ntonyx's innovative Style Morpher.

Martin Walker explains how to clear out all the drivers, utilities and Registry entries associated with an old, discussed soundcard, leaving you with a clean machine in which to install your new, upgraded hardware.

The idea of a virtually silent, compact and portable PC recording workstation has obvious attractions, and it is possible to build such a system around a laptop PC. Martin Walker explains the options available and how to avoid some of the many potential pitfalls.

Dave Shapton explores part of the MPTEG4 specification: Structured Audio, which allows music to be streamed with absolotely no loss of quality at extremely low data-rates. Is this the way that all media will be encoded in the future?

A Swedish soft synth is on the way, a New Zealand developer plans to introduce the Atari to the wonders of Ethernet, and US company Dr T's finest hour becomes shareware. Derek Johnson goes global.

Having explained some of the audio and MIDI interfacing problems facing owners of new-style Macs, Paul Wiffen looks at practicalities, testing one USB MIDI and one USB MIDI + Audio interface to see what pitfalls await the unwary...

Vic Lennard signs-off as SOS Apple Notes columnist with a look at VM.