Labs

Q&D Multimedia is a British company that won an award at this year's BETT education show for its Noisy Things early years software. We tested Musical Monsters, which is aimed at foundation (pre-school) and Key Stage 1.

You can choose between 1,024x768 and 800x600 resolution; the latter suits machines with small screens. Once installed, the program can be run without the CD. It starts up with a cute animation before leaving you at the main screen, which presents a grid of squares into which you place singing monsters. There are no instructions, but there is a help button.

The grid works in the same way as more complex versions in music-editing

ADVERTISEMENT

programs. The rows represent notes on a musical scale. To add a note, choose a monster - each makes a different instrument sound, customisable from the Teacher Options screen - and click in a grid square to place it there. Placing two monsters in the same column makes a chord. When you press the Play button, each column plays in turn, so you can compose a tune.

Our five-year-old tester took a while to grasp the concept - she preferred filling the grid with monsters - but with help she created her first tune. As she continued to play, she realised how the patterns translated into music.

The initial grid offers notes tuned to the first, second, third, fifth and sixth of a major scale, giving a nice 'wind chime' feel. This can be expanded to a full octave, but we'd have liked to take it further to complete our testers' favourite tunes. You can save compositions as MIDI files as well as saving grids for future use.

We couldn't adjust the volume of a note by dragging it up or down as instructed, and the Loop button didn't work properly. We also missed an Undo function. These glitches, and the price for a single activity, prevent Musical Monsters earning a higher score, but our testers would certainly use it again.