What is EZVision?

EZ Vision is more than a spin-off of Opcode’s professional sequencer, Vision (see review, December ’89, page 82). It includes most of Vision’s basic components plus color, an Arrangements window, and the ability to view and edit different tracks at the same time.

EZ Vision’s main Edit window contains the transport controls, step-editing functions, measure and tempo indicators, track and sequence selectors, zoom buttons, and quantizing options. Click the mouse, and the controller Strip Chart appears. The Strip Chart allows you to graphically edit controller information such as volume, velocity, program changes, and modulation. Although this may seem like a lot of stuff to jam into a single window, there’s no sense of clutter. Other windows include Track Setup, where you assign instrument names, MIDI channel, octave transpositions, and serial ports; and the Program and Note Names window, where you name patches either through subscription to Galaxy (Opcode’s universal patch librarian — see review, November ’90, page 92) or by using the Mac keyboard. EZ Vision also includes a Mixer window, where you control and record the volume or velocity of each of the 16 tracks for automated mix down.

With regard to track setup, EZ Vision takes a different approach from Trax, In EZ Vision, 16 MIDI tracks per sequence are available and you can have as many as 25 sequences per file. You can shuffle these sequences in an Arrangement window, where each sequence is viewed as a movable block. For example, sequence A is the verse, sequence B is the chorus, and sequence C the bridge. To create an ABACA B song, select each sequence from the pop-up submenu and click it into place.

EZ Vision’s extras are what really make it special. For example, the program assigns 1 of 16 colors to the note and controller information and the mixer channel of each track, so you can distinguish multiple tracks in the same window. You can skip backward or forward in the track, with a feature called Scrubbing (similar to a tape recorder playing while rewinding or fast-forwarding). Playable Quantize quantizes your material in an impermanent way. If you don’t like the quantizing results, just choose a different value from the pop-up window or skip quantizing altogether.

Breen, Christopher. (February 1991). Trax and EZ Vision. MacUser. (pg. 94).

Download EZVision for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II