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It's an interesting idea to use the Spectrum to write and store musical notes, display manuscript and playback tunes. In this case, though, the idea doesn't work out in practice.

Any key signature can be chosen and a variety of time signatures. Notes are then entered one at a time to the stave, pitch and duration selected by the operator. Most musical notation is catered for, but some knowledge of music is necessary to use the program effectively.

But Music Maker is disappointing in three ways.

Editing is almost non-existent. You can only delete the last note entered on the stave; if you enter a lengthy tune and discover an error - tough.

Playback, even at the fastest of the 10 speeds, is very slow with an irritating pause at the end of each stave and a quite lengthy one when the screen is redrawn. A sound only option may have helped.

A printout facility is not provided. I am sure this would not have been too difficult.

The three main potential uses for this program - composing, replaying tunes and producing manuscript - are all spoilt by these problems - a great pity.

R.E.