MIDI And The Musical Micros From 1986

Micro Live was a BBC2 TV series which was part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project which was broadcast live in the 1980s. In this particular segment, we look at the MIDI technology of the day, featuring Steinberg Pro24 on the Atari ST and some of the cheaper alternatives, including the Commodore 64. We get to see how music is sequenced as well as some of the functions of the software used. 

This episode was originally broadcast 19 December, 1986:

Micro Live's Fred Harris and Lesley Judd test out the latest computer hardware and software packages, which can help you make the most out of MIDI. At the higher end of the market, Tony Hastings of Steinberg Research demonstrates Pro24 for the Atari ST, while Lesley Judd shows some of the cheaper alternatives available for the humble 8-bit systems.

The Commodore 64 has a Music Expansion System, while even the Spectrum can be made to sing with a little help from the Casio CZ101 synth and Cheetah's MIDI Interface and MK5 keyboard. Finally, there is the Music 5000 Synthesiser box for the BBC Micro, which negates the need for a keyboard altogether, ably demonstrated by Fred Harris.

More from the BBC archive youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BBCArchive

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