By AMY WARD
What could Mozart or Beethoven have done if they had a computer to print their compositions as they played them?
BYU composition students who use the Advanced Lab for Music Applications can have the experience daily thanks to the cutting-edge technology that ALMA offers.
'In most academic areas, if we're not learning and grasping the direction that technology is taking us, we're going to find ourselves behind,' said Richard Anderson, associate professor of Music and supervisor of ALMA. 'Technology provides us with such wonderful tools ... that we haven't had before.'
ALMA, located on the fourth floor of the Harris Fine Arts Center, is a room full of keyboards linked to computers that provide a full scope of programs which make composing, transposing and printing music much easier.
'We have a number of programs in the lab to help (students) develop their dictation skills or their listening skills,' Anderson said.
FINALE, one of the programs the lab offers, 'is by far the finest and most sophisticated composing program,' Anderson said.
'It allows students to write their pieces very quickly and have immediate playback,' Anderson said. 'It comes up like it was professionally printed -- before it had to be done by hand.'
On FINALE, students can transpose, change, edit, insert, cut and paste all within a short time, said Aaron Mitchell, a junior from Ramona, Calif., in choral education.
With this program, students can have their music orchestrated which gives them an idea of what their compositions sound like, whereas before they'd only have an idea in their heads, Anderson said.
Another program the lab offers is PERFORMANCE, which provides students with a multi-track recording. This allows students to record musical scores for different instruments and play them back all together.
Students can also use the lab to record piano accompaniments. For instance, Mitchell plays his vocal accompaniments for his lessons on one of the lab's keyboards. He then saves them on his disc and can play them on his teacher's computerized piano during his lessons.
Like most labs on campus, ALMA is available for all students to use.
'Students can come in and apply what they've learned,' Anderson said.
However, it is mostly a teaching lab, Anderson said. Music theory, Composition, and Keyboard Harmony classes are all taught in the lab.
If the lab is full, students can go to the LRC in the HBLL where there are similar computers.
Roland Music Company supplies new electronic keyboards for the lab each year, Anderson said.
Students also have access to Word Perfect and the Internet in the lab.
There are only Macintosh computers in ALMA, but the updated LRC lab will provide access to PC computers.