Rewind back to the 1980s and home music production was really starting to take off. It started with cassette based machines likes the Tascam 244 and Fostex X15. For many we thought this was as good as it got. Then one computer brand changed everything, it wasn't a Mac or PC!
The computer is the Atari ST, which came in two versions the 520ST and the 1040ST, both had built in MIDI ports, a MIDI in and out.
Despite it being a fully fledged computer that could run regular software like word processing, DTP, and games, for the majority of music production owners the Atari ST had one job… the MIDI powerhouse in their studio. There were Apple Macs and Windows PC, but they were costly compared to the Atari ST. which sold for less than $1000!
The two developers that really powered the Atari ST to the forefront were C-Lab, with Creator and Notator (Later Emagic and the forerunner to Logic) and Steinberg, with Pro 24 and later Cubase. Other developers had success too, Passport with Mastertracks Pro and Dr T with KCS, short for Keyboard Controlled Sequencer.
For those too young to remember the state of the market at that time, up until the advent of a machine like the Atari ST, all tracks were recorded on tape, be that cassette or open reel. For most mere mortals that meant 4 or 8 tracks, or if you were really wealthy then 16 tracks. There were some hardware sequencers from brands like Roland and Yamaha. These units were both costly and quite difficult to use. The information was displayed on small LED or LCD screens which meant a lot of menu hopping, something like wallpapering the hallway through the letterbox. Here’s an excellent video from Espen Kraft showing them in action.
The Software That Changed Everything
Depending on who you ask you’ll be told that the software that changed everything for musicians was C-Lab Creator and later on came a more powerful score based version, Notator, or Steinberg Cubase. To be fair, both were very similar, offering patterns and songs so that the user could build up a song fast. There were no sounds inside the computer, so owners used MIDI synths and expanders to grow their sound arsenal. However, it wasn't long before some cost effective multitimbral sound expanders came to market; The Yamaha FB01 and TX81Z, the Roland MT32 and U110, and later the original Emu Proteus. Each unit usually consisted of around 8 channels of separate synth sounds, in most cases these also included drum sounds, often residing on MIDI channel 10.
If you want to see C-Lab in action then check out another Espen Kraft video.
As I’ve already said, more software came to the Atari offering synth patch editors, some basic sampler/editors and other music related stuff, however in most cases Creator/Notator and Cubase were the stars of the Atari show.
The Kitchen Sync
The next part of the puzzle was getting the Atari 1040ST to sync with the tape machine. This allowed both MIDI and audio to be recorded and mixed. Various sync boxes were created by C-Lab, a popular one was the C-Lab Unitor SMPTE/EBU unit.
What made the Atari so brilliant was the simplicity of use and the rock solid MIDI clocking. Even now the timing of the Atari is still rock solid and has made even modern DAW sequencers seem sloppy in comparison.
The simple looped based creation of song sections, in the case of C-Lab, of varying lengths, then the construction of songs made it a breeze to create with.
36 years later, despite the huge gains in processing and graphics, I’d argue that machine is still one of the best music computers ever created for sheer rock solid MIDI music creation.
Image: ExtremeTech