About
It was 1991 when I bought the bundle Atari was then selling as
"Happy Music": an
Atari 1040 STFMAtari 1040 STFMCPUMotorola 68000, 8 MHzMemory1 MB RAMDrivebuilt-in 3.5″ floppyMIDIIN/OUT built inOutputTV and monitor
computer with the
SM124Atari SM124Typemonochrome CRT monitorResolution640 × 400 pixelsRefresh71 HzReputecrisp display, a pro favourite
monochrome monitor, a
Kawai MS710Kawai MS710Keyboard49 mini keysSounds20 presets + 4 user, 16-bit PCMRhythms24, with auto-accompanimentExtrasOne Finger Ad-Lib, Top Note DualMIDIIN/OUT, 4+1 channelsPolyphony13 voices
keyboard and music software by Steinberg.
Three companies — Atari, Kawai and Steinberg — had joined forces to make
MIDI music affordable for everyone; the German magazine TOS dubbed them
"the three Musketeers of music".
These days I use Windows and a
Yamaha PSR-E383Yamaha PSR-E383Keyboard61 keys, touch responseSounds650 (GM/XGlite), AWMStyles260 with accompanimentEffects15 reverb, 7 chorus, 41 DSPMIDIover USB, 16 channelsPolyphony48 voices.
Thanks to AI, though, I decided to bring my old keyboard back to life —
so I now make arrangements for the Kawai MS710 as well.
You can also watch how they sound played live on the keyboards on my
channel.