I have been producing music for many years. I don't have formal training or skills with using a music keyboard, but I have always enjoyed playing around and trying a few things.

I started playing around with producing some music using my father's electronic organ as a teenager. I remember enjoying exploring the range of different voices that were available, and using the two manuals for getting interesting combinations of sounds.

When living on my own (back in 1983 or so), I purchased a mini Yamaha Synthesiser. The keyboard could only play one note at a time (no chords), but it did have a good range of controls over the sounds it could produce. The only example provided here that uses just the mini Yamaha Synthesiser is My Comp 1 (produced using a Yamaha mini keyboard synthesizer, recorded live in layers along with one cassette player playing the previous results and then being recorded on another cassette recorder).

I later purchased a Casio mini keyboard that used a small range of preset instrument sounds (such as piano, church organ, pop organ, etc.), but it could play multiple notes at the same time. It could also record note sequences, and play those recorded note sequences back, using the timing from pressing a key down multiple times. This was an interesting introduction to programming a keyboard performance, and I certainly did produce some pieces this way, but I no longer have any recordings of these.

When I was later given a Commodore Vic-20 computer from my father in 1989 or so, I eventually wrote a program to produce music from the computer's in-built sound generators. I could now program quite complex music pieces, but only using the limited in-built sound generation sounds of the Vic-20.

A screen from my Vic-20 music editing and playing program. This version of my music software uses just the 3 sound oscillators of the Vic-20, plus its white noise voice.

Eventually, I thought I might be able to use the Vic-20 computer to control the note outputs of the two mini keyboards I had. I took the keyboards apart and tried to work out how pressing the keys actually sent the signals to the rest of the keyboard to play the appropriate notes, and see whether I could control that process remotely. I found that both keyboards' keys were simple switches that made connections between 2 small sets of 'bus' lines. I knew then that it should be possible to control the notes being played on the keyboards from the Vic-20 computer.

I designed, built and tested the hardware required to interface between the Vic-20 and the two keyboards. After successful testing, I modified my music editing and playing software to include notes going to those keyboards. I now had quite a powerful music playing system, that was a little like having a MIDI sequencer (the Vic-20 computer with my music editing and playing software) controlling MIDI keyboards (my two mini keyboards). I entered and saved a number of music pieces using this system, and after making a simple sound mixer, I was able to combine the audio signals coming from the Vic-20 and the two separate keyboards to record some of the results. One such result is provided here ("My Romance"). The Yamaha keyboard was used to play the lead melody, the Casio keyboard was used to play the organ-type chords, and the Vic-20 provided the bass notes.

I purchased a new Commodore Amiga 1200 computer back in 1993, and started playing around with editing/producing some music on it using 4 channel sequencer programs such as "Soundtracker" and "Octamed". Those programs used 8-bit samples of instruments for combining into the 4 channels, and the results sounded pretty good. "Octamed" was eventually developed by its author to include the use of MIDI.

Soundtracker type sequencer, which combines 8-bit sound samples. 4 channels of samples, displayed as 4 vertical lists that scroll vertically as a complete unit as the music plays.

As mentioned on the first page, my father was always very keen on music, and he had been getting into producing some music using an Amiga-based MIDI sequencer driving a MIDI sound module. After getting a new sound module, he asked if I'd like his original sound module, a Yamaha TG-33. He also recommended trying a MIDI sequencer for the Amiga computer, called "Bars and Pipes Professional", by Blue Ribbon Software. I did enjoy creating MIDI arrangements using the combination of those two components. After the demise of Blue Ribbon Software, they released their premium sequencer as freeware. I picked up the freeware version and still use it for my sequencing today, running on a virtual Amiga computer (through the "WinUAE" Amiga emulator). I can run "Bars and Pipes Professional" on my virtual Amiga and send MIDI signals out to the Yamaha TG-33 sound module for 16 track arrangements of music.

I now also use a freely available Windows-based "Virtual Studio Technology" (VST) host program called "Cantabile" and virtual MIDI cable to route the MIDI signals from the virtual Amiga to the virtual instrument (all running nicely on my Windows computer).

I can record the sound output from any of these instruments directly into the freely available "Audacity 2.1.1" for basic editing and normalising the sound signals. Files can be converted to mp3 format from there, and that is how all the files in this special display were created.

The track window of Bars and Pipes Professional, by Blue Ribbon Software. The individual instrument tracks are displayed as horizontal pipelines. Individual tracks can be played alone, or in any combination with the other tracks. The numbers on the end of each track shows which MIDI channel the track will be sent to.

A wide range of tools can be added into the track 'pipelines' for processing the MIDI controls in various way. For example, here a modulator tool has been added to the end of most of the pipelines to raise (or lower) all notes coming from the track by 1 (or more) octaves, or by part of an octave.

A 'note map' tool has been added to the drum track and the tambourine track to re-map the notes from the 'General MIDI' standard file to the way that the Yamaha will expect the drum notes to be played (the Yamaha TG-33 sound module is not a 'General MIDI' compatible sound module).

The tempo map allows you to change the tempo used in the playback of the piece. The numbers along the left hand side represent beats per minute, so the higher the line, the faster the tempo. The numbers across the top represent the bar number.

The software includes a mixing console for controlling the level and pan position of each track. You can change levels during playback, and the changes are stored on the appropriate tracks with MIDI messages.

I have always been impressed with the sound quality of the Yamaha TG-33 sound module. I tried for many years to find a sound card that included a high quality General MIDI sound module. It seems that the power of modern computers meant that such devices could be produced in software. I now have a good range of freeware VST instrument collections (including General MIDI, Yamaha XG, and Roland GS collections). I can use these instruments in a freely available VST host program called "Cantabile 3".

In fairly recent years, I have come across some freely available virtual pipe organ instruments that offer very good results from MIDI messages. I was always keen to look at virtual pipe organs, because my father was keen on a range of organs, including pipe organs and electronic organs, and played a lot of organ music to us over the years. He had a good collection of organ music produced on some marvellous baroque pipe organs.

The Miditzer 216, virtual Wurlitzer pipe organ console. Sound combinations can be stored on various 'pistons' for recalling at any time.

The ultimate virtual pipe organ engine - Hauptwerk, shown here with the default organ, from St. Anne's Cathedral from Moseley, UK. This virtual organ combines samples made from each key, including the sound of the key press or pedal press. Organ stop noises are captured as well. It's an impressive virtual instrument.

This is jOrgan running with a display of some of the organ stops available on the English Cathedral Organ Disposition by Paul Stratman. This virtual organ has excellent samples as well as various reverb settings, to emulate a variety of spaces.