via
this auction
This one was spotted and sent in via xonox, who translated the recent
EEH Zaunkönig article. Note this is the first post to mention the DIGIGRAM MC 5 or rebranded Farfisa MC5.
The following description from the listing appears to have been pulled from Music Technology - October 1987, captured on
Mu:sines. It also appears to have been rebranded as the Farfisa MC5 as seen
below the ZYKLUS here. [
Update: link fixed]
"The Musical Composer from French company Digigram combines sequencing and music printing functions in a single unit. Is it the answer to every composer's dream?
CREATING A SCORE from a musical performance is an area of music production well suited to inclusion in a MIDI sequencing system. The advantages are numerous: a composer can print out compositions, an improviser can print out a performance, an arranger can print out parts. And any musician, regardless of whether or not they can read or write music, can have a printed score of their music for others to play or for copyright purposes.
While an increasing number of MIDI software companies are writing music printing programs for the Apple Macintosh, IBM PC and Atari ST, French company Digigram have chosen to combine sequencing and printing functions in a single dedicated unit which needs the addition of an IBM PC-compatible printer (at around £200+) to become what the manual describes in a burst of enthusiasm as "a high performance tool, a veritable digital MIDI studio". Well, we shall see.
The MC5 Musical Composer has a 12-track sequencer which can store upwards of 11,000 notes recorded in real and step time. Ten of these tracks are polyphonic (each up to eight notes) and the remaining two - labelled Melody and Chord - are monophonic and, er, chordal respectively (more on these later). The MC5 allows you to mix two tracks onto a third empty track, copy a track onto an empty track, chain two tracks together to form a new track, and erase tracks either individually or all together. Mixed tracks can't be edited or printed, however.
