SoftStep MIDI Step Sequencer for Windows Released
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August 13, 1999
Algorithmic Arts has released SoftStep for Windows 95/98, a modular MIDI step
sequencer patterned somewhat after the modular analog step sequencers - the big
ones, with lots of knobs and blinking lights.
The composing elements in SoftStep are modules, which are math and logic functions
that you treat as physical boxes with knobs and sliders, that you can create,
destroy, move around, connect, and disconnect.
To create a MIDI composition with SoftStep you create the modules and connect
them together to produce a MIDI data stream that will in turn drive any MIDI synthesizer,
or Windows MIDI sound card. SoftStep allows you to set up interactions among the
traditional elements of music -- melody, harmony, rhythm, thematic development,
instrumentation -- in an infinite number of imaginative ways, and to capture the
products of your imagination in a MIDI file.
SoftStep allows you to create melodies as a user-defined series of notes or
discover them in the output of random number generators, mathematical (both arithmetic
and geometrical) operations or data input from sources ranging from weather tables
to DNA sequences. You can work either with conventional Western scales or create
your own scales.
A composition can begin with a musical sequence, and then be repeated, modified
or combined and recombined with other sequences. You can modify any compositional
element of your piece in real time and immediately hear the effects of your changes.
You can make a MIDI file at any or all stages of composition. The file can either
be used directly or imported into a composition program for further modification.
Tutorials and extensive help files are included with SoftStep to demonstrate
the potential of each modular element. SoftStep is accessible even to users with
no previous experience with synthesizers, but also provides experienced users
with a friendly and flexible creative environment.
SoftStep is available as free, fully functional, 15 day evaluation download
from Algorithmic Arts. Registration is $129 U.S., and documentation can also be
viewed on-line.
To download the demo version, visit the Algorithmic Arts web site at geneticmusic.com.
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