More than just a story about software, MIDI composing and music - this is a story about friendship, brotherhood, the Universal Pyramidal Network (UPN), and fun projects with no anxieties (FPNA). Read on ...
Once upon the time (1982) Fabio had his first Roland Drumatix auto drum machine. It was nice to build up patterns and play the guitar with it. It was a very basic instrument (6 or 7 percussive voices - 16 divisions per beat - 1 bar), and it introduced the concept of the pattern in the mind of Fabio
Later on, around 1988, Fabio bought his first MIDI keyboard. While setting up songs, he recalled his old drum machine decided "why do not exercise his C-language skill with a software to compose real-time patterns for my keyboard"? The result - the first pattern composing software: "The*Drums" for DOS was born. It was just an educational project to put drum events into a pattern. From that came "The*Drums", released in 1992 as shareware to be followed by The*Drums Professional" - the first drum pattern composing programs for Windows.
In the spring of 1993 Ron, a long-time electronic music enthusiast, was searching to develop a business in the realm of MIDI and electronic music, and started a business called MediaTech Innovations. To make a very long story short, Ron and Fabio connected and began the work to migrate the core technology of The*Drums into a commercial product that was called Rhythm Brainz. With the Rhythm Brainz effort, the "midibrainz" product line was born. Rhythm Brainz was released early in 1994 then followed by "Rhythm Brainz PLUS". Rhythm Brainz PLUS had the genesis of an idea for a true multi-instrument pattern composing environment, which gave birth to the projuct to develop "The*Muzical Wizard". Two commercial products came out of this project release in 1996: The*Drumz Wizard (a single track pattern composing tool, just from composing drum tracks) and The*Muzical Wizard. While version-1 of The*Muzical Wizard was a triumph, the restless and tireless efforts of the*midibrainz guyz drove them to take the technology and product even further. The pinacle of our achievements is The*Muzical Wizard, version-2.
With the close of the year 2000, it became clear that running MediaTech Innovations and improving the software to meet the evolving standards and needs of computer-based composing products was no longer feasible ... because our lives and primary careers took us away from the MediaTech Innovations activities. So MediaTech Innovations was closed on 12/31/2000. But midibrainz and The*Muzical Wizard live on! And the*midibrainz guyz have more chapters yet to write in the journal of their synchro'd lives. During a relaxing vacation in Santa Fe, NM, USA in late summer of 2001 the*midibrainz guyz decided to freely make The*Muzical Wizard available. We hope you have fun with it and make great music!
Through it all (and aided by the UPN), the*midibrainz guyz have shared their interests, their families, their passions, their frustrations, their talents, and much much more.
Unless you have ever done such a project, you likely may not appreciate the magnitude of what it takes to develop a technology such as what powers The*Muzical Wizard as well as to design, develop, document, test and release such a project. Its an accomplishment to be sure, and one that we are very proud of. If you feel so compelled to compensate us for our sacrifices and years of hard work to bring this software to you, here are some options:
Best regards and "rock on",
the*midibrainz guyz