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POINTER SISTERS CHANGE SIDES AGAIN:
Last year at NAMM and other shows, the Pointer Sisters band appeared to
promote ATARI. Much of their album and show performances relied on MIDI
equipment controlled by Atari. So when the Pointer Sisters appeared at
the now-infamous floating house of Amiga on the TV ads, we wondered why.
More recently, the Band is back in the Atari camp, appearing again at
NAMM. Members report that they did indeed get AMIGA equipment, and
actually used it. It took experience to lead them to finally sort out
the Atari disks from the Amiga ones, and retire the Amigas to the
closet. From now on, it is ATARI all the way for the Pointer Sisters.
* NAMM EXCLUSIVE REPORT
-----------------------> ATARI ONCE AGAIN THE COMPUTER OF CHOICE
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Eyewitness Report by John Nagy
[Note: Pictures of the Atari booth and a number of the people and
products mentioned in this article are available in the GEnie,
Compuserve, and BBS libraries. They were made using the VIDI-ST
digitizer and can be viewed with any DEGAS compatible picture viewer.
Z*Net is proud to be able to continue our tradition of not just telling
the news, but actually SHOWING it to you!]
The National Association of Music Merchants show (NAMM) is a lot like a
visit to the Twilight Zone... a peculiar mixture of tight leather and
Brooks Brothers Suits... just what you would expect to see at the corner
of New York's Wall Street and Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard. You
quickly pick up the protocols, though: don't stare at the pink hair.
Apparently it is more acceptable to stare at the women in the revealing
outfits that are plentiful both in the exhibits and in the audience.
NAMM, the "international music market", is where music dealers,
performers, integrators, manufacturers, etc., meet each year to set the
agenda for the coming sales months. Everything musical is here, from
banjo string companies through to the million dollar studio mix
consoles. It draws big name performers both to see what the industry
has new to offer and to support various companies with their
endorsements and performances. The crowd is a wild mix of users and
business persons sporting the full range of tattered levis and torn tie-
died T-shirts with a safety pin in their nose up through immaculate 3-
piece suits. And of course, music is coming at you from everywhere.
This year's Winter NAMM is no different. Held in the Anaheim Convention
Center next door to Disneyland January 19-21, it had close to a thousand
exhibitors and maybe 100,000 visitors and sprawled into the Hilton and
Towers and Marriott hotel convention facilities. There are literally
miles of isles. It is a CES of music. In the midst of this, a 54'
banner hung over the central snack bar, announcing "BEYOND MIDI - THE
NEXT GENERATION FROM ATARI". A two room suite above the main floor
beckons to show goers and offering a private meeting lobby and a
completely outfitted recording studio.
Atari brought nearly 20 STACY laptop ST machines to NAMM, and 10 of them
went directly to the floor display of DR. T, a leader in MIDI software.
Others were on display in the Atari lobby, and one was controlling
sounds in the Atari studio next door. On hand for Atari were Donny
Osmond, Jimmy Hotz, and Mick Fleetwood, who are also associated with a
small Atari quarterly project called MIDI MAGAZINE. Hotz and Fleetwood
are also involved in a project that many thought had died off... the
ATARI/HOTZ MIDI TRANSLATOR.
The keyless keyboard of the Hotz box was central stage at the Atari
studio. This is said to be a real production version of the first model
HOTZ box to be commercially available. All that was lacking on this one
was the silk-screening on the back to identify the ports, and discussion
overheard at the show indicated that some internal bracing should be
beefed up, but what we saw, touched, even played with at NAMM will be
shipping very shortly. This particular unit was used in the latest
FLEETWOOD MAC LP and would be heading back into the real recording
studio for more work as soon as NAMM was over.
Whatz a Hotz? Well, it is sorta like a keyboard, but there are no
moving pieces. The play surface is hard plastic, with no apparent give.
Ridges and colors mark off different zones and rows of places to touch,
but no marking are on any. The concept seems to be that you decide what
does what. The box is an input device, but the heart of the HOTZ is the
software. This program controls the ranges and harmonies available at
any given time to match that of whatever music you are playing with.
Set up properly, any child will be able to use the device and make/add
pleasing music, playing with standard CD records. Encoded on the CD
will be a few inaudible electronic bursts that tell the Hotz what to do
when to keep things in tune. NO, it's NOT a "player piano" idea at all.
You can choose the instrument and depth of chords, and choose the timing
and notes to play. Hotz just makes sure the harmonies match and the
notes are in the right chord structure. The result is that any
improvisation, any guitar solo, anything you can imagine (hear) in your
head, you can play without the usual "clashes" of mistakes. In the
studio, the input parameters would be keyed in before performance, with
the same result. Perfect keying on solos and fills, with the musician
free to create mood, depth, and accent. Musicians are by and large VERY
interested in the Atari/Hotz device. It can be ordered NOW for a mere
$7,000 by calling Atari at 408-745-4966. A consumer version is to be
announced later in the year.
The STACY drew plenty of attention as well, plugged into the MIDI setup
and controlling the remarkable music that Hotz and Fleetwood
demonstrated for small groups of visitors throughout the show.
The other star of the MIDI studio was an audio-visual setup at the far
end of the room. With it, Scott Gershin of SOUNDELUX showed how he did
the sound and music for the Golden Globe Award winning movie "BORN ON
THE FOURTH OF JULY" starring Tom Cruise. Scott did the sound for the
blockbuster film using ATARI and MIDI equipment. To demonstrate, Scott
showed us a raw edit of part of the movie with all the original sound
recorded at the time. Although the visuals were great, the sound was
horrid. Scott started tweaking, "sweetening", and adding sound effects.
The Atari's whirred, and Scott described how Tom Cruise re-dubbed the
lines for later insertion. In minutes, we viewed the same clip with
fabulous stereo sound, stirring music, and clean clear voices and
effects. Then Scott popped a cart out of the Atari Megafile 44
removable media hard drive and said, "Everything you just heard came off
this drive. I can non-destructively re-edit, extend, move any part of
it as many times as I want with no degradation in the digital quality
sound." He said his full set of sound files for "BORN ON THE FOURTH"
run a total of nearly 55 GIGABYTES of data, almost impossible to handle
before the removable media made it easy. About four minutes of full-
sample finished stereo mix audio can be held on each 44 megabyte
cartridge. Scott says it is the commercial sound media of the future.
SoundDelux can be reached at 7060 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 711, Hollywood,
CA 90028, (213) 463-3855.
Another neat discovery in the Atari Studio was the SYSTEM SOLUTIONS
modified MEGA machines. They are rack-mountable and a sexy BLACK color
(even the mouse!) to better travel with road musicians. The MST2-RACK
(2 meg) runs $2299, $2999 for the MST4-RACK. Rackable hard drives and
monitor equipment is also available. Contact Henry Bahr at System
Solutions, PO Box 433, West Chicago, Illinois 60185, or call (708) 690-
0930.
Visitors to the Atari lobby found plenty of good literature, informed
people (including Jay Crosby, Frank Foster, Wayne Smith, Bob Brodie,
Diane Goralchec, Charles Cherry, and John King Tarpinian), and a stack
of PORTFOLIOS. But the item that was the biggest disruption to progress
was undoubtedly the pair of LYNX games that absolutely everyone HAD to
get their hands on.
Atari's booth looked pretty good, considering the machines and supplies
needed to assemble it barely made it to the show. Workers and
volunteers from Orange County Atari User Groups arranged to have three
days to set up... one more than anyone thought would be needed. Well,
the equipment was mixed up and sent to the wrong airport, arriving two
days late. Yikes. Long and hard work paid off with a good display, and
Atari rewarded volunteers with Portfolios and even a pair of MEGA 4
computers for their outstanding efforts.
The Atari exhibit did not draw the traffic that it might have on the
main floor, but that was a trade off for privacy and ability to let the
demos really scream. Some visitors were put off by the relatively "off
limits looking" entrance door and stairs up to the booth, thinking that
this was for employees or by invitation, despite the large ATARI sign
above it. On the other hand, no one that came to the show LOOKING for
Atari (lots!) would have missed it, and Atari had plenty of floor
exposure in third party booths. This is one major show where the
AVERAGE person knows who/what/why ATARI is about.
What about the "other" computer companies? Well, it turns out that
COMMODORE did in fact sneak a last minute booth into the show, but it
was at the furthest corner of the furthest hall... and was largely
boring. One Amiga was running some sort of sequencer (in color of
course) but most of the display had nothing to do with MIDI or music.
As a result, few attendees had time for browsing there. NO OTHER
computer maker was there at all.
Friday night's concert was also delayed by the equipment foul up, but
went on as planned, featuring the members of the band CREAM at the
Disneyland Hotel. Now called the JACK BRUCE BAND, they played after the
MICHEAL SHRIEVE BAND (including POLICE guitarist Dave Torn). Frankly,
most of the Atari people were so worn out from the hectic day, no one
we talked to stayed for the whole concert! Lots of music industry
people did, though, and seemed to be very happy with the performances.
The concert was co-sponsored by MUSICIAN MAGAZINE.
European music magazines are said to be "fighting" over who will get to
co-sponsor a concert and presentation with Atari at the upcoming
Frankfort Show. Sort of a German NAMM, it is the continent's most
prestigious music event of the year. We'll keep you posted as we find
out more.
We already know that ATARI will be sponsoring the 24th anniversary WORLD
TOUR of Fleetwood Mac, and Atari's Frank Foster will be going along on
part of that tour. The largest tour ever for the band, it will begin in
March in Australia. Atari will be the technology provider, and Frank
will go along to conduct seminars and "grassroots" level support for the
MIDI market of Atari. The HOTZ box will be a key part of the musical
support Fleetwood Mac will use on tour.
There was lots more to NAMM... more than one week's worth of news. So
next week, Z*Net will tell you about the MIDI developers meeting and
some exciting details about MIDI-TASKING. Yes, as we exclusively
reported 2 weeks ago, Atari did show their endorsed multitasking system
to developers. It looks -REAL GOOD- and we'll tell you what we can
about it next week. Suffice to say for now, this system is REAL and can
be ready to ship to consumers in the next 3-6 months. It is expected to
be part of a bundle of MIDI software, including a HOTZ startup package,
to be included with the STACY laptop ST... which should start shipping
to dealers by February 1!
We'll have a lot of other announcements and reactions from the
developers at NAMM, all -an ONLY- in next week's Z*Net.
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| Some new stuff coming in from NAMM:
Acoustics have made a big comeback with a 20% sales growth rate.
Ovation is releasing the Elite guitar (ala Richie Sambora) with the
double neck, 6 & 12 string. It is a solid top with built-in
electronics, hardshell case, and lists for a cool $8,000.
Takamine showed their 1990 Limited Edition Koa wood model with a spruce
top.
Fender displayed the U.S. Strat Ultra which features, an ebony
fretboard, 1 blue, 1 gold, and 2 red Fender Lace-Sensor pick-ups, a
figured maple top, locking keys and a list price of $1,399.
Ibanez & Steve Vai were on hand to show the Universe Series (the Vai
guitar with the added B string in the bass). This guitar comes with
DiMarzio (7 string design) pick-ups and two models are offered at
$1,399 and $1,499.
Rickenbacker is releasing a John Lennon Limited Edition guitar in 3
different configurations: short scale neck 6 string, full scale neck 6
string, and a full scale neck 12 string. Prices are $1,699, $1,729,
and $1,829 respectively. All are black & white w/pickguard (of course)
and come with certificates of authenticity.
ADA, Mesa-Boogie, and Marshall were all reported to show well in the
amp and pre-amp displays.
Roland introduced a DR-550 drum machine with 16 bit resolution for only
$295.
Yamaha won the most expensive drum set award with a Tony Aldridge
carbon composite kit retailing for $38,000.
Effects processing was reported to be another bloodbath between ART,
DigiTech, Alesis, Yamaha, Peavey, and Lexicon. The bottom line now is
features vs. sonics. How many effects can you do at once vs. how did
those effects actually sound while your doing them all at once?
Challenge for the '90s by the industry:
- pro-audio in regards to amps, mixers, and speakers and accurately
reproducing the sound of today's keyboard technology.
- home computer market and giving musicians more flexibility in
playing, writing, and recording.
Mike
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