Copyright: midi brainz software ® MediaTech Innovations
Citation: The*Drumz Wizard, The*Muzical Wizard, and midi brainz are trademarks of MediaTech Innovations.


Contents

This is the top-level menu of help topics, select a topic from the list below.

Click here for Help on using the Windows Help

This on-line help system describes the user interface in detail, as well as the use and operation of all of the features of this software.  We sincerely hope you enjoy using this software and that it inspires & enables you to create wonderful music!

  The first topic below explains the unique and subtle features of this software
so that you may use this software to its fullest without unnecessary frustration
we strongly recommend you review the information in this entire topic!!!
Also, please review the Software License Agreement before using this product.

 Specificationz & Important Information

Provides information that is important to using The*Drumz Wizard to its fullest potential.  This topic and its sub-topics explain this software in detail.  There are many subtle aspects to this software, its operation, and the way it handles pattern and song files.  Before using the software and trying to understand its features, we strongly recommend that you review this information to best know what The*Drumz Wizard software is all about and how to best use it to create great music!

 Getting Started & your MIDI Music Studio

Provides information about: installing and setting-up the software as well as its interaction & operation with your electronic music equipment.

 Compozing music with The*Drumz Wizard & The*Muzical Wizard

Provides a set of topics that explain in detail how to use The*Drumz Wizard & The*Muzical Wizard products to compose music.  The following topics are covered: software features (and what they are used for), menus, buttons, modes, settings, and windows.

 Technical Support Information

Information about how troubleshoot and resolve problems that you might encounter and how to contact MediaTech Innovations if you need any assistance in setting-up and/or using this software.

 Miscellaneous Information

Additional information about MediaTech Innovations and this software.

All The*Wizard products share a similar architecture, therefore you will see references to specific features that are only available in a specific product.  Note that the "Band Manager" utility dialog is only in The*Muzical Wizard, for The*Drumz Wizard, any references to the Band Manager should be considered to mean the "Drummer Settings" utility dialog.  For more information on The*Wizard products, check-out the productstopic.

We would like to extend a special thanks to the many people who have assisted us along the path towards the ultimate design, refinement, testing, and release of this software, several of whom deserve specific acknowledgement:

Raffy & Betsy -	for their loving support of the tireless & endless endeavors of Team*Z

Mark Serotta -	for inspiration, suggestions, data entry, testing & musical submissions

Steve Uttley -	for suggestions, testing & musical submissions

Robert T. Ihrman -	for suggestions & testing

Fabian Feld -	for suggestions, testing & musical submissions
make sure to visit Fabian's worldwide web site at:
http://www.serviweb.com/drummer
and also check-out his DrumTips magazine (if you can read Spanish)


Copyright & Trademarks

Copyright  1993 - 1997 MediaTech Innovations (MTI).  All rights reserved.

The*Drumz Wizard, The*Drumz Wizard PLUS, & The*Muzical Wizard are copyrighted works of MediaTech Innovations, and are protected by US and international copyright laws.

The*Drumz Wizard while freely distributed as shareware is not free, nor is it in the public domain.

MediaTech Innovations, the MTI logo, midi brainz, Rhythm Brainz, The*Drums/The*Drums Professional, The*Drumz Wizard, The*Muzical Wizard, and The*Wizard are all trademarks or registered trademarks of MediaTech Innovations.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.  The software described in this document is furnished under a License Agreement or a Nondisclosure Agreement or both and use beyond that explicitly granted in the license is strictly forbidden and a violation of international copyright laws.

The software may only be used and copied in accord with the terms of those Agreements.  No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form and by any means without the express written permission from MediaTech Innovations.

Other brands, organizations and their products, are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be noted as such.

4995 Minas Drive
San Jose, California  95136-2651    USA

Telephone & fax: (408) 267-5464

email:	info@midibrainz.com
72662.1106@CompuServe.com

Worldwide Web:    http://www.midibrainz.com


Products

The*Wizard pattern-based MIDI music composing tools.    For PC's running Microsoft Windows.

General product information	Product Pricing for all of The*Wizard products	The*Wizard products versus older products	The*Wizard products, features comparison
The*Drumz Wizard (TDW) --  a single-player MIDI music pattern-based composing tool for creating drum & percussion tracks as well as emulating a drum-machine.  Distributed as shareware.

The*Drumz Wizard PLUS (TDW+) --  a single-player MIDI music pattern-based composing tool for creating drum & percussion tracks as well as emulating a drum-machine.  This version of The*Drumz Wizard has more features and capabilities as described below.  Sold as a commercial product which includes an installation disk, printed user guide, and many drum & percussion style templates.

The*Muzical Wizard (TMW) --  a multiple-player MIDI music pattern-based composing tool for creating drum & percussion tracks, emulating a drum-machine as well as composing entire musical styles and songs with up to 16 different simultaneous instruments.  Sold as a commercial product which includes an installation disk, printed user guide, and many musical style templates.

You can do serious song & style composing with
The*Muzical Wizard, check-out what can be done!

The*Wizard line of pattern-based MIDI music composing software products are our latest products and are the culmination of our years of developing such products.  We have been developing and publishing pattern-based MIDI music composing software products for over 5 years and this is our specialty .... we think that you'll agree that The*Wizard software products are truly a step forward in pattern-based composing.  While we are continuing to support our older products, they are no longer available for sale.  The*Drumz Wizard, The*Drumz Wizard PLUS, and The*Muzical Wizard share a similar architectural design, user interface, and operating characteristics.  Also, The*Drumz Wizard and The*Drumz Wizard PLUS use the same file format, therefore the files are completely interchangeable.  Similarly, The*Muzical Wizard can use files created with either The*Drumz Wizard or The*Drumz Wizard PLUS; however the reverse is only true as long as the pattern files have only a single "Drummer" player (in other words -- multi-player patterns cannot be loaded by either version of The*Drumz Wizard).  All of The*Wizard software products are backward compatible with respect to their file formats, so you can upgrade without any conversion.

Notwithstanding the above, The*Wizard products offer many significant enhancements over our older products.  Therefore it is with regret that we must tell you that there was absolutely no way to provide compatibility with any of our older software products .... so you will not be able to load The*Drums or Rhythm Brainz into any of The*Wizard products.  You can however transfer all the work that you have done to Standard MIDI Files then import them into The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard.  Not only do the powerful Standard MIDI File importing capabilities provide a method to transfer your work from a previous midi brainz product, but you can also easily import any drum patterns that are in a Standard MIDI File format!

The following are our older midi brainz products:

The*Drums	Rhythm Brainz

The*Drums Professional	Rhythm Brainz PLUS

You can upgrade from any of these older software products to any of our newer products at a reduced price (discounts of 25% to 50% off of the prices for our new products are offered to our valued existing customers).  Pricing for new customers and upgrades for current customers is shown in the tables below.  In order to qualify for an upgrade price you must be listed in our customer database, which means that: you must have registered The*Drums/The*Drums Professional shareware with us, purchased a Rhythm Brainz product directly from us, or purchased a Rhythm Brainz product commercially and returned the enclosed registration card; if you cannot provide proof of purchase then we cannot honor the upgrade pricing.

If you own one of our previous products (The*Drums Professional or Rhythm Brainz/Rhythm Brainz PLUS) and want to import any of your compositions from those products, you will need to upgrade to either The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard.  This is because in order for The*Drumz Wizard software to offer its powerful features, it was not possible to maintain compatibility with our older products.  You can use patterns and songs that you've composed with older software by exporting to Standard MIDI Files then importing; since The*Drumz Wizard does offer Standard MIDI File importing you will not be able to transfer patterns or songs into it.

Product Pricing & Ordering Information

Pricing for The*Wizard products, all amounts are in US dollars:

	New Customers	Upgrading from The*Drums	Upgrading from Rhythm Brainz	Upgrading from Rhythm Brainz PLUS
The*Drumz Wizard	$40.00	$25.00	$20.00	$20.00
The*Drumz Wizard PLUS	$59.95	$44.95	$39.95	$34.95
The*Muzical Wizard	$89.95	$74.95	$64.95	$59.95
If you first register The*Drumz Wizard shareware you can upgrade from it to either The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or to The*Muzical Wizard at a discount.  You can also upgrade to The*Muzical Wizard from The*Drumz Wizard PLUS at a discount.  The price for upgrading within The*Wizard product line is as follows:

	Upgrading from The*Drumz Wizard	Upgrading from The*Drumz Wizard PLUS
The*Drumz Wizard PLUS	$39.95	--
The*Muzical Wizard	$59.95	$39.95
The latest version of The*Drumz Wizard shareware can always be found on our web-site (www.midibrainz.com) and in our section (#2) in the CompuServe MIDI C Vendor forum as well as most major on-line services, bulletin boards, and other shareware sources.  If you do not have any form of on-line access let us know and well ship the current version free of charge with your registration payment (if have a version that is not current); TDW shareware disks will also be sent upon request for a flat $5 shipping and handling fee.

 Information on how to register The*Drumz Wizard is addressed in the registration topic.

 The*Drumz Wizard PLUS and The*Muzical Wizard are only available by shipping to you an installation disk and printed user manual; the shipping and handling charges are addressed in the ordering products topic.

What's new in The*Wizard software products

The following information lists the feature differences and advantages among the various The*Wizard products as compared to our older The*Drums/The*Drums Professional and Rhythm Brainz/Rhythm Brainz PLUS products.

While the differences and advantages of The*Wizard products are significant over our previous products, there are also differences among The*Wizard products that may be of importance to you.  Both The*Drumz Wizard (TDW) and The*Drumz Wizard PLUS (TDW+) are for composing drum-tracks and emulating a drum-machine, however in addition to the printed user manual the The*Drumz Wizard PLUS product offers more features and more sample style templates.  The*Muzical Wizard (TMW) may also be used for composing drum-tracks and emulating a drum-machine, however it offers up to 16 simultaneous players allowing the product to be used for composing styles and songs with full instrumentation.  The*Muzical Wizard has all of the features of The*Drumz Wizard PLUS with the added capability of 15 additional programmable band players.

		The*Drumz Professional	Rhythm Brainz	The* Wizard products
Operating environment	what are the system requirements to run and use The*Wizard software products	any PC system running Windows-3.1 or Windows-95 with 2 megabytes of free hard-disk space and a sound card and/or MIDI interface	any PC system running Windows-3.1 or Windows-95 with 3 megabytes of free hard-disk space and a sound card and/or MIDI interface	any PC system running Windows-3.1 or Windows-95 with 3 megabytes of free hard-disk space and a sound card and/or MIDI interface
Number of Windows device drivers that can be played simultaneously	how many devices (e.g., sound cards and/or MIDI interface ports) installed within your PC can be accessed and utilized at the same time	one	RB:  one RB+:  four	TDW:  one TDW+:  one TMW:  16
Note/Event resolution	similar to quantization -- the resolution with which you can separate MIDI events	16th notes per beat using a 4 beat measure (64 events per pattern max)	16th notes per beat using a 4 beat measure (64 events per pattern max)	up to 128th note resolution  (there are 128 ticks per beat)
Note/Event length	the ability to continuously vary an note's/events duration	hard quantized to cell boundary	hard quantized to cell boundary	variable from 1 tick to the length of the entire pattern
Note/Event swing	the ability to continuously vary a note's/events time position	No	sort-of if grid is set to a small number of beats and large number of divisions and a slow tempo	variable at up to 128 (tick) positions per beat
Triplets	the ability to create triplet feel	3/4  &  4/4 meters, at up to 16 divisions per beat for all patterns	up to 64 divisions may be partitioned in a continuously variable manner	Yes, an automatic triplet entry feature is also provided
Meter selection	the ability to have different and independent time signature settings for each pattern	one	one	variable, at up to 8 beats per bar and 64 divisions per beat
Number of bars per pattern	the maximum length of a pattern in bars (or measures)	No	Yes, quantized to cell boundaries	TDW:  variable, up to 4 TDW+ & TMW:  variable, up to 16
Intra pattern looping	the ability to set loop points within a pattern	No	Yes 16 quick-access values available at all times	variable from a minimum of 16 ticks
MIDI loudness values for the individual notes/events	the ability to use the full range of 128 MIDI loudness (velocity) values for events	Cut, Copy & Paste	Cut, Copy & Paste	Yes, all values available using a continuous slider control
Real-time pattern editing	features that enhance pattern editing in real-time	No	No, but pattern set files, song files, and kit files have a description field	Cut, Copy, Paste, Move & Transpose with rubberband type of selecting
Long descriptive names	the ability to give a name for patterns & songs longer than permitted by DOS	patterns and songs are stored together in one file	patterns are stored in sets of up to 100 patterns per file	Yes, regardless of whether you are using Windows or Windows-95
Patterns	how are the patterns stored on your computers hard-disk	simple sequence list; songs are stored together with patterns	sequenced pattern list with repeating sections; songs are stored as independent files  that reference a pattern set file	patterns are stored in categories as independent objects
Songs	how are songs constructed and stored on your computers hard-disk	must load patterns from another file using the librarian utility	must load patterns from another file using the librarian utility	sequenced pattern list with repeating sections plus tempo & volume changes; songs are completely independent files containing patterns
Pattern & Song management	the ability to use patterns in different songs and manage the pattern & song objects	patterns can be categorized into sets of up to 100	patterns can be categorized into sets of up to 100	an integrated library type category and management system
Pattern categories	ability to organize patterns into categories as well as manipulate patterns independently	Yes, using librarian	Yes, using librarian, but no song exchange capabilities	unlimited categories may be created; patterns may be added to, copied to, and moved among categories
Pattern & Song importing & exporting	ability to open and save patterns and pattern styles as category groups, also song exchange capabilities	1 track only, events must map to kit notes	1 track only, events must map to kit channels & notes	Yes, Pattern-group librarian.  Song exchange is also directly supported.
Standard MIDI File Import	imports from type-0 or type-1 Standard MIDI Files (TDW+  and  TMW only)	No	No	fully supported by mapping of SMF tracks to players
Standard MIDI File Export	ability to create type-0 or type-1 Standard MIDI Files from patterns and songs	No	No	fully supported by mapping of players to SMF  tracks
Revert/Undo	revert to previous saved version (to undo changes)	Custom drumkits only	Yes (using the Studio Manager)	Yes
Automatic saving	patterns & songs are automatically saved	No	No	Yes, force save also provided
Custom instrument patch maps & drumkit voice maps	ability to support patch & voice definitions for new instruments, custom drumkits, and sampler keymaps	only for drumkit voices (banks not supported)	drumkit voices and instrument patches  (banks not supported)	uses ASCII text databases files modeled after Cakewalks "instrument definition" format
Bank selection	ability to access different sound banks using embedded MIDI commands	No	No	Yes, Automatic bank selection is also supported
GM, GS, & XG support	direct support for General MIDI as well as (Roland) GS and (Yamaha) XG	No	No	effects, drumkit voices, instrument patches & sound banks
Mixer	ability to adjust volume & pan settings for each MIDI channel/player	No	Yes	Yes
Effects Control	supports GS & XG effects controls for each player	No	No	Yes
Transpose	ability to transpose notes	No	Yes	Yes, per player or for entire pattern
Automatic chord entry	automatic musical chord entry feature (for TMW only)	No	No	uses an ASCII text database file for custom chord definitions
MIDI Control	use of MIDI Start & Stop commands & MIDI Clock to synchronize with other devices	No	Yes send and receive	Yes send only
Differences among The*Wizard software products

		The*Drumz Wizard	The*Drumz Wizard PLUS	The*Muzical Wizard
Product type and availability	commercial products require shipment of an installation disk and printed documentation	shareware & OEM (license key-code required to unlock advanced features)	commercial, includes disk & user printed manual	commercial, includes disk & printed user manual
Number of players	Size of the band, where each band player can be set to play an independent instrument on a separate MIDI channel	one player ("Drummer")	one player ("Drummer")	16 players: a "Drummer" plus 15 independently programmable players
Pattern Settings	# of bars, all patterns can have up to 8 beats per bar, 64 divisions per beat at a resolution of 128 ticks per beat with intra-pattern looping	up to 4 bars per pattern	up to 16 bars per pattern	up to 16 bars per pattern
Song building	all products can build song sequences by dragging & dropping; some products have features for creating repeating sections and embedding tempo changes & volume changes	Straight sequence	repeating sections with embedded tempo changes	repeating sections with embedded tempo changes
Standard MIDI File Support	export to and import from both type-0 and type-1 Standard MIDI Files	Export only	Export & Import from a single track	Export & Import from up to 16 tracks
Chords	auto entry of chords from the root note	No	No	Yes
Documentation	end-user documentation, tutorials, etc.	on-line help only	printed user manual and on-line help	printed user manual and on-line help
On-Line Help	included on-line help system, with context links to the software	Yes minimal graphics	Yes	Yes


Ordering Products

Thanks for your interest in ordering one of our products.  Please use the following form to calculate the total cost of your order (all amounts are in US dollars):

Product ordered  ____________________ , and product cost	$  ______________
(make sure to indicate the exact product, in the case of
registering The*Drumz Wizard please include the version
number which can be found in the About information dialog)

Sales tax of 8.25%, only if you live in California	$  ______________

Shipping & Handling cost	$  ______________

Total cost for this order	$  ______________

The pricing for our products is shown in the table below, and is for new customers only.  If you are a customer of ours and have previously registered one of our shareware products or purchased one of our products then you are eligible to purchase any of our The*Wizard products at a reduced price (of 25% to 50% off of the normal prices for The*Wizard products), depending on what product has been previously purchased.  Pricing for customer upgrades is shown in the product pricing topic.

Pricing for The*Wizard products, all amounts are in US dollars:

The*Drumz Wizard (registration):	$40.00

The*Drumz Wizard PLUS:	$59.95

The*Muzical Wizard:	$89.95

If you would like to order a product you have the following options for payment:

1)    Check or money order.  Please mail your check or money order directly to MTIs address listed below.  Make certain that your check or money order is for the appropriate amount.  All checks (other than certified checks or cashiers checks) will be held for at least one week to clear before we ship any product or provide a registration key-code.  So please allow at least 1 week in addition to the selected delivery time for orders paid by check.  Orders paid using money orders, certified checks, or cashiers checks will be processed and shipped immediately.

2)    COD.  This applies only to US residents and for commercial products only (such as The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard).  COD is only available using next-day or express delivery service and carries a $5.00 surcharge in addition to the delivery fee schedule below (i.e., to deliver a COD package next-day in the continental US will be $15.00 + $5.00 = $20.00).  COD deliveries utilize United Parcel Service and they will only accept cash or a money order as payment.

2)    Credit Card.  If you have either a VISA credit card, MasterCard credit card, or American Express credit card you can register/order directly from MTI using any of the following methods:

- telephone: 1-800-MTI-MIDI  (orders only, this line only reaches an order desk);
international callers use: 408-267-5464

- fax:  408-267-5464

- snail mail (e.g., send us a letter; our address is listed below)

- email to:  sales@midibrainz.com or 72662.1106@compuserve.com (72662,1106 if you subscribe to CompuServe; this is obviously to fastest way to send an order request to us)

To process a credit card order we need:

- MasterCard,  VISA, or  American Express

- your name exactly as shown on your credit card

- the name of the bank or institution who issued the card (for MasterCard & VISA cards)

- the credit card account #

- the expiration date on the card

- your home mailing address

- your home phone number (also supply a fax # if you have one)

A brief note about credit card orders using email over the internet.  Unless you are ordering through a web-site with a secure transaction link or other type of secure internet commerce application there is always a danger of your credit card information falling into the wrong hands.  Having said that, most of our orders over the past several years come via email over the internet, and to our knowledge there has never been an incident.

For orders of The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard, you must select one of the following shipping methods (all amounts are in US dollars):

	Continental USA	Alaska & Hawaii	Canada & Mexico	Other International
Standard (ground):	$5.00	$5.00	$7.50	not available
Express (2-3 day):	$7.50	$7.50	$10.00	not available
next-day:	$15.00	$20.00	not available	not available
international air*:	--	--	--	$7.50
*  International air delivery is generally 5 to 10 days.  Fast (global priority) delivery service is available from the USA to many countries resulting in delivery times of less than 5 days; we will automatically use the global priority delivery service if it is available to your country.

MediaTech Innovations

4995 Minas Drive

San Jose, California  95136-2651  USA

telephone & fax: (408) 267-5464

orders only: 1-800-MTI-MIDI

sales@midibrainz.com

72662.1106@CompuServe.com  (72662,1106 directly on CompuServe)

Fabio Marzocca

Via Prassitele 16/b

00125 Axa (Rome)    ITALY

telephone: ++39-6-52.35.40.65

fabio@midibrainz.com

72662.1106@CompuServe.com  (72662,1106 directly on CompuServe)

on the WorldWide Web at:  http://www.midibrainz.com


Registration

If you use The*Drumz Wizard software beyond a brief evaluation period of no more than 30 days, you are required to register the program.  We have established a very small fee for registration of The*Drumz Wizard so that everyone who is interested in this program can affordably use and enjoy it.

Once a valid registration key-code is entered into the program, all features will be fully enabled and the reminder messages will no longer appear.

Registering this software will:

  Stop this help system from automatically opening to this ("Registration") topic each time the program is run.

  Stop the occasional reminders when patterns & songs are started to play.

  Enable creation & editing of patterns greater than 1 measure (actually up to 4 measures in length).

  Enable pattern cloning and other advanced pattern editing features.

  Enable importing of patterns from pattern-group exchange files.

  Enable exporting of patterns & songs to Standard MIDI Files.

  Enable the revert to last saved undo feature and all other features that have been disabled.

  Allow you to receive technical support.

  Allow you to purchase upgrades and other MTI products at a discount.

The*Drumz Wizard is not a free program, but is being distributed under the shareware concept .... so please register this software if you plan to use it on an on-going basis.  Distribution of software as shareware allows you to obtain and evaluate the program at little or no cost to determine whether it is suitable for your needs, and then buy it if you like it and intend to use it (purchasing shareware is generally referred to as "registration").  You must register the program if you are going to use it on an on-going basis.  The general concept of distributing shareware software is to provide a fully functioning product which in most respects is what we have done as you can use all of the important features and freely save any work that you do; if you go through this on-line help system you will also come to know that we have provided full detailed descriptions of all of this software's features and how to use them.  However, to better insure that people who use this software on an on-going basis do indeed pay for it -- we have disabled a few key features and inserted a reminder message that appears occasionally when a pattern or song-sequence is started to play as well as launching this help-registration topic when the program is run (yes we know the reminder message is annoying, but by registering you can disable it if you wish .... and frankly, its only annoying if you use the program on an on-going basis).  The decision of whether or not to disable some features and use annoying screens versus not to is a very difficult decision, we hope that you will recognize and appreciate the years of hard work that was put into developing & publishing this software (yes we do mean "years" ....  it has taken over 2 years of very hard work to develop this software).  We therefore hope that while evaluating this software that you will be understanding of our choices in this matter.

After your registration payment is received & processed, you will be promptly forwarded a registration key to enter into the registration screen (accessed from the main File menu) as well as instructions on how to enter the registration key-code.  Once a valid registration key-code is entered into the program, all features will be fully enabled and all reminder messages will be disabled.  With this shareware, you have all of the materials necessary and will only receive a registration key-code after making your registration payment -- you do not need to receive a new disk nor a printed user guide as all of the program's components and documentation are supplied in this on-line help system and accompanying "readme" files; only The*Drumz Wizard PLUS and The*Muzical Wizard products are shipped with an installation disk and printed user guides.

Before you register for The*Drumz Wizard, we would like to make sure that you are aware of our  other products that have more features and capabilities .....  OK, tell me more about the other midi brainz "The*Wizard" products.    If you like The*Drumz Wizard, then you will love The*Drumz Wizard PLUS, so check it out before you register.  If you need to do full instrumental style and song composing beyond just drum-tracks, then The*Muzical Wizard is the answer!

The registration fees for The*Drumz Wizard is:

New customers:  $40.00  (US dollars)

If you are an existing customer of ours, you can upgrade to The*Drumz Wizard (or purchase one of our other The*Wizard products) at a discount.  Existing customer upgrade pricing is listed in the products topic.

Special pricing for educational institutions and other such organizations.  Please contact for group or multi-user licensing.

We also encourage "bundled" distribution for complementary products!  Pre-registered versions are also available when used for bundling -- please contact for bundled pre-registration pricing.

When contacting us to register The*Drumz Wizard supply us with:

•	the version that you wish to register  (the version number is found by opening the About dialog found under the main Help menu)

•	your name

•	full mailing address

•	email address (if you have one)

•	and telephone number (include a fax number if you have one)

•	if you are paying with a credit card, additional information is required as described below.

If you would like to register The*Drumz Wizard shareware:

Click here for product registration information!

CompuServe on-line Shareware Registration using SWREG:

If you subscribe to CompuServe and prefer the convenience of their on-line (SWREG) shareware registration, you can also register The*Drumz Wizard online (note that we can process a shareware registration and get a key-code to you faster by a direct email than by using the CompuServe SWREG procedure); you cannot use the CompuServe SWREG process to purchase a commercial product (such as The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard).  To use the SWREG process, type GO SWREG at any CompuServe ! prompt and fill in the form.  The registration fee will automatically be added to your monthly CompuServe bill and we will receive a notification from CompuServe, after which we will email your registration key-code information to you.  You can find the SWREG number in the header of the download file (were assuming that you have downloaded this directly from the MIDI/Music Forum on CompuServe).  You will receive e-mail on CompuServe, containing your registration key within a couple of days.  Also note that due to the high discount withheld from us by CompuServe, the price for using the SWREG process is $45 which is $5 more than cost of registering directly with us.  The most recent version of The*Drumz Wizard shareware can always be found in the MIDI/Music Forum (go MIDI) and our section (#2) of the MIDI C Vendor forum (go MIDICVEN) on CompuServe, in library 11.

A note about upgrades to our shareware products:

If your current key-code works with any new version of The*Drumz Wizard shareware that you download or otherwise acquire, then you do not need to pay a registration fee to use that version.  For example upgrading from The*Drumz Wizard version 1.0 to version 1.1 does not require a registration upgrade fee, however upgrading from version 1.x to version 2.x will likely require a registration upgrade fee because the key-codes are different between major revisions.  In general upgrade fees from previous version of The*Drumz Wizard to a new or current version will be generally quite inexpensive and the amount of any particular upgrade will be clearly indicated.

You can always upgrade within The*Wizard product line (e.g., from The*Drumz Wizard to The*Drumz Wizard PLUS, etc.).  There are also upgrade paths from our previous products to our The*Wizard products.  Please review the products topic for additional information on the differences between our products and the upgrade pricing.


Shareware

The*Drumz Wizard is a copyrighted work of MediaTech Innovations.
The*Drumz Wizard is not free, nor is it in the public domain.

Unlike most things that you purchase, software is often easy to duplicate and pass along.  This creates the unique opportunity for the "shareware" method of distribution; however this does not in any way mean that shareware software is free or in the public domain; it only means that the distribution is free (or nearly so).  Shareware is not a type of product, but rather a method of distribution; in fact, shareware is a very efficient means of software distribution (but of course you know that if you are reading this).  Unless explicitly placed into the public domain by its authors/owners, software is never free -- just like developing any other product it takes time, money, and extraordinary effort to create a software product that people can use and enjoy.  Developing and/or distributing a "crack" to this shareware is software piracy and software piracy is theft!  Selling, sharing or otherwise distributing registration key-codes to this software is also forbidden.  Please don't abuse the trust inherent in the shareware system or contribute to software piracy.

Think about why you acquired this product and why you continue to use this product ..........
Part of the answer is because this is a good product.  A software product does not come into being by magic, it takes a lot of very hard work, time, and money.  Furthermore, a software product does not just become a good program, this is a result of dedication, even harder work, and again -- money.  We hope that you will agree that The*Drumz Wizard is a good software product!  Also please know that through the years of developing and publishing MIDI music composing software, there have been several enhancements & upgrades, as is clearly illustrated by this latest series of "The*Wizard" products ....  thanks to all of our past registered users for keeping the product alive by contributing!

Just like you, we work for a living to feed ourselves.  If people don't contribute to our shareware, then we need to find some other line of business to feed ourselves (we cannot develop good products if we are hungry) and we will find other fun projects & activities to do which means that there will never again be any new features, capabilities or bug fixes.  In either case, if our software is not paid for by its users, then you the consumer eventually looses out because we then will abandon it altogether.

We also know that sometimes we do not always have the money to spend on items that we want or need, even though our intentions are good.  So if you acquire The*Drumz Wizard and begin using it regularly but cannot pay for it right away, then feel free to forward your registration fee when your personal finances permit (after all, one of our goals is to help you to have fun).

We sincerely hope that you appreciate the convenience of shareware and do not abuse our trust and that of other developers choosing to distribute their products via the shareware method.

Go to the Registration topic for more information on registering The*Drumz Wizard shareware.

Thanks for listening.  Thanks for using our software.  And, thanks for registering The*Drumz Wizard.


Software Piracy

Software piracy, like any other form of theft, hurts everyone.   Please do not pirate software.

Sparing you the long drawn out lecture, copying and distributing this or any licensed software product not only is wrong, it is an illegal violation of copyright laws!  Selling or distributing registration key-codes is also illegal as is developing and distributing "cracks"!   Of course, for shareware, distribution is not only allowed but it is also encouraged so long as: no fees are charged beyond the cost of the media (e.g., the cost of a floppy diskette) and the entire set of files that comprise the software are included unmodified; registration key-codes must not be distributed or shared.  This software itself must not be altered in any way!

Unlike most things that you purchase, software is often easy to duplicate and pass along.  Though we have taken some steps to prevent this, we have balanced the desire to protect our product from illegal copies with your needs as a customer and composer to utilize the software unencumbered.  We sincerely hope that you do not abuse our trust, and that you understand the choices we have made with respect to helping to insure that people who like and desire to use our software make payment for it.

Think about why you use this product and hopefully purchased it.  Part of the answer is because this is a good product as it allows you to easily compose music and is fun to use.  A software product such as this does not come into being by magic, it takes lots of hard work, lots of time, and lots of money.  Furthermore, a software product does not magically become good, this is a result of dedication and personal sacrifice by its developers, harder work, listening to the needs of composers (such as yourself), and again -- money.

Just like you, we work for a living to feed ourselves.  If people steal from us, then we need to add security measures or find some other line of business to feed ourselves (we find it very difficult to develop good products if we are hungry).  In either case, if our software is not paid for by its users, then you the consumer eventually looses out because we then will either restrict the flexibility of the product, or abandon it altogether.

We know that software sometimes tends to migrate onto people's computers.  We also know that sometimes we do not always have the money to spend on items that we want or need, even though our intentions are good.  For this reason we understand if you borrow a copy, but if you do use our software on a regular basis please pay for it (or any other software for that matter).  We have set our prices at a low and reasonable rate so that anyone and everyone who wants to use it may do so.

"The ball is in your court!"  Play fair, and please do not steal software or assist in stealing software.

Thanks for listening!


Product Related Topics

  MTIs  The*Wizard  Product Line Information

  How to order products from MTI

  The*Drumz Wizard  Shareware Registration

  What is shareware?

  Software piracy .... please don't do it


TMW Demos

Select one of the samples below that will
automatically be loaded into the Windows
Media Player.  These samples were composed
with The*Muzical Wizard program and then
were exported to Standard MIDI Files.

  TMW  Sample #1

  TMW  Sample #2

  TMW  Sample #3

  TMW  Sample #4


Specificationz & Important Information

There are many unique aspects to this software as well as subtle features.  While we strive for an intuitive and friendly user interface, there is always a balance with providing useful and advanced features.  We strongly recommend that you review the following topics to learn the many great capabilities and features offered in this software.  An easy way to review this related set of topics is to use the topic browse buttons ( <<  &  >> ) above.

  System Requirements

What is required to install The*Drumz Wizard or The*Muzical Wizard onto your computer system and use it productively.

  Patternz & Songz

What The*Drumz Wizard & The*Muzical Wizard and pattern-based MIDI music composing are all about .... includes a primer on pattern-based composing.

  The*Wizard's Unique File System

We're talking about a Wizard that helps you compose music, not fuss with obtuse things like computer files, etc.  We hope that you'll find our unique approach to working with patterns & songs more intuitive than using explicit file commands.

  Using the Mouse with The*Wizard & Quick-key Shortcuts

Some common conventions for using the mouse and its buttons.
Also quick-key shortcuts.

  Unique Control Features

Some common conventions for using the various editing controls.

  Help, Assistance, Technical Support

What to do if you need assistance installing and/or using The*Drumz Wizard software.


Requirements to use this software

To run The*Drumz Wizard, The*Drumz Wizard PLUS, or The*Muzical Wizard requires an IBM compatible personal computer system running any desktop version of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows-3.1, Windows-For-Workgroups, or Windows-95.  While we do have reports that our software does indeed run on the various versions of Windows-NT we make no guarantees for those particular versions of the Windows operating system.

Your computer should have a hard disk with at least 3 to 4 megabytes of free space, at least 8 megabytes of RAM memory, and (color or monochrome) VGA or SVGA compatible video monitor; due to the graphical nature of this software we recommend against using the large font option with when selecting a video display mode for use with this software.  No particular CPU is required (such as an 80386, 80486, Pentium, K5, etc.), as long as your PC can run a desktop version of Microsoft Windows then our software will also run.

Also required:

  a sound card that has a Windows device driver enabling it to work with Windows (e.g., "Sound Blaster" or compatible, though cards using the wavetable technology will give you better sonic results than those using FM synthesis because FM synthesized percussion sounds are quite poor), or

  a MIDI interface (i.e., an MPU-401 compatible card), and

  a MIDI synthesizer, MIDI sound module, MIDI drum-machine, MIDI sampler, etc.

  a sound amplification system or powered speakers

If you are using external MIDI instruments (such as a drum machine, a sampler, or a synthesizer, etc.) then in order to connect your PC to that equipment, you will need a device known as a MIDI Interface.  Note that many PC sound cards have a built-in MIDI interface, though generally a special cable is required which can be purchased from most computer stores.  There are three basic types of MIDI Interface units, generally the latter two options are used with portable computers:

1)   Plug in cards.  These cards are sometimes identified as being MPU-401 compatible which was important in the old DOS days; nowadays so long as the interface has a Windows device driver it will work with any software.  Also, many sound cards also have MIDI ports in addition to their sound generating capabilities (this is likely why you will find 2 MIDI device driver names in your system; one for the sound engine and one for the MIDI I/O port).

2)   External parallel port units.  These units connect to the parallel port of your PC (the parallel port is the port that is generally used by a printer, and is therefore sometimes called the printer port).

3)   External serial port units.  These units connect to the serial port of your PC (the serial port is the port that is generally used by a modem, and is therefore sometimes called the modem port).

The*Drumz Wizard, like any other Windows based software uses device drivers which are installed into the Windows system to communicate with specific hardware options -- so make sure that the driver for your particular MIDI Interface(s) and/or Sound Card(s) are properly installed.  And also make sure that if you are using external MIDI equipment that your interface is properly connected to your PC and to your MIDI equipment.  We recommend that you connect directly to a MIDI device's driver and not use the Windows MIDI Mapper.

The Input ports of your MIDI Interface are used to input MIDI information into The*Drumz Wizard.  The Output ports of your MIDI Interface are used by The*Drumz Wizard to transmit MIDI information to generate sounds from your sound device(s).  In the case of a sound card, the connections are within your computer.

Manufacturers of MIDI interfaces also manufacture multi-port interfaces.  Where such interfaces may have two pairs of IN & OUT ports or four pairs of IN & OUT ports or some other combination.  This gives you the opportunity to connect different physical devices to different ports.  Also, you may have more than one interface unit connected to your PC giving you more than one pair of IN & OUT ports.

Sometimes the terms port, device, and device driver will be used interchangeably.  This is because The*Drumz Wizard can either direct its MIDI output to a specific device (such as a sound card) by selecting its device driver in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog.

Some PC systems that use large fonts for the display may exhibit some display problems .... if you are experiencing some display problems (typically incorrectly drawn dialogs), then change your display settings to the normal or small fonts setting.


Patternz & Songz

Pattern versus linear composing	Pattern-based composing	Patternz, Categoriez & Songz
The*Wizard Patternz		The*Wizard Songz
  Below is an overview of the unique and subtle features of this software.
So that you may use this software to its fullest without unnecessary
frustration we strongly recommend you carefully read all of the information in this topic!!!
Also, please review the Software License Agreement before using this product.

All of the sample patterns and songs have been composed and configured to use General MIDI patches & drum-voices, if you are using a non General MIDI compatible device, then it will be necessary for you to make appropriate patch and/or drum-voice changes (using the Drummer Settings utility).  If your electronic musical instrument offers a General MIDI compatible sound-bank, then you should select the General MIDI sound-bank when initially previewing this software as well as any of its supplied samples.  If your electronic musical instrument does not support General MIDI compatible sounds then make sure to select a patch or patch number using the Drummer Settings utility to select an appropriate drumkit patch for your electronic musical instrument.  Once you become familiar with the many flexible advanced features of this software, you will find it easy to use and configure it to support any drumkit of any electronic musical instrument as well as custom drumkits that you may create with a sampler.

This is a pattern-based music composing tool, and as such your primary activity will be to compose musical patterns.   Many tools are provided for creating & editing patterns, as well as managing & categorizing patterns.  From your collection of patterns, you will likely create song-sequences -- and so appropriate tools are provided for creating & editing songs, as well as managing & categorizing songs.  Management of patterns in categories and songs is your responsibility.

If you own one of our previous products (The*Drums Professional or Rhythm Brainz/Rhythm Brainz PLUS) and want to import any of your compositions from those products, you will need to upgrade to either The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard.  This is because in order for The*Drumz Wizard software to offer its powerful features, it was not possible to maintain compatibility with our older products.  You can use patterns and songs that you've composed with older software by exporting to Standard MIDI Files then importing; since The*Drumz Wizard does offer Standard MID File importing you will not be able to transfer patterns or songs into it.  For more information on The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard refer to the "Products" topic.

Before we describe the architecture and unique features & capabilities of  The*Drumz Wizard software, it will help to have a firm understanding of what pattern-based composing is all about, and how it differs from other types of MIDI music composing tools (such as typical sequencing software).

Lets first make a few important aspects of The*Wizard's architecture & capabilities very clear ....

•	The quality of the sound produced by this software is solely dependent on the type and quality of the sound hardware that you are using -- such as your speakers, sound card, electronic keyboard, etc.  It is particularly the case with Sound Blaster and compatible cards using synthesis technology known as "FM" that the sound of instruments will be quite thin and unrealistic .... if you are not satisfied with the quality of your system's sound, then you might want to consider upgrading your Sound Blaster (or compatible)/FM-based sound card with a daughter-card or purchasing a new card that utilizes "wavetable" technology for its sound generation as well as better quality speakers.

•	This software is a composing tool.   It is not a recording & editing tool.  Therefore you cannot input MIDI data into the program by recording.   The reason the software is designed around a rich grid-based user interface is to support interactive pattern-based composing on your PC.

•	Even when registered, this product does not support importing from Standard MIDI Files.  Only The*Drumz Wizard PLUS and The*Muzical Wizard products offer a Standard MIDI File importing feature.

•	Each pattern is an independent entity with its own settings and music.

•	Each pattern not only has its own configuration and meter settings, but can have its own band settings as well.

•	You can have multiple copies of a pattern in different categories (also in the same category but the names must differ).  You can also have multiple copies of a pattern that reside both in one or more pattern categories as well as one or more songs.  It is very important to understand this, because the ultimate responsibility to manage patterns is yours.

•	Patterns are stored in categories for easy reference.   All of the tools necessary to work with pattern objects are provided in this software and you will not have to use, nor should you use, DOS or the Windows utilities to manipulate files in the directory folders that are part of this software as The*Wizard provides you with its own Pattern-File Management utilities.

•	Each song is an independent entity, that contains a set of patterns and sequence list of how that set of patterns will be played.

•	Except for the tempo, all of the MIDI settings of the individual patterns will change or take effect when a particular pattern is played within a song-sequence.  For example: if one pattern's band uses patch #4 on MIDI channel #1 and another pattern's band uses patch #10 on channel #1, then the appropriate MIDI patch change commands will be sent so that each pattern (and its band-players) play as you would expect them to.

•	When you add a pattern to a song, a copy of the pattern is place into the song.  Changing a pattern from your pattern categories has no effect on a pattern copied to a song, unless you re-copy the pattern from a category into a song (actually you must first remove all instances of a pattern from a song in order for the copy to occur).  Similarly, you can alter a pattern that belongs to a song without affecting the original pattern in some category, unless you copy the altered pattern from a song's pattern set into a category (which you might want to do if you want to keep your patterns synchronized).

•	This next point is very subtle, so please read carefully and make sure to understand it ....  There is only one copy of a pattern in a song-sequence!!!  Even though there may be several instances of the pattern in the song-sequence -- all instances of the a pattern in a song-sequence are the same and any instance beyond the first instances is in actuality a reference pointer to the first instance.  When you first add a pattern into a song-sequence, that becomes the song's copy of the pattern and all subsequent additions of that same pattern into the song-sequence list create reference pointers to that song's copy of the pattern (even though you are physically adding additional instances of the pattern by dragging from a category).  So, for example, if you add a pattern from some category into a song then later change the pattern in the category and add new instances of the pattern from that category into other areas of the song-sequence -- all instances of the pattern in the song-sequence will be identical.  A function is provided (using the right-mouse popup menu) that lets you easily update all instances of a pattern in a song-sequence from its original source category.

•	The following limitations pertain to the creation of song-sequences:

−	Maximum number of objects (e.g., patterns) in a song-sequence list:  65,534

−	Maximum number of measures created by a song-sequence:  4,294,967,295
(depending on the resources available in your system, such as memory, you may not quite be able reach this limit)

The uniqueness of patterns and building song-sequences from copies of patterns presents great flexibility to you - the composer - in using this software.  Having copies of patterns embedded in song-sequences gives you the freedom to modify, move (or even delete) patterns from your library of patterns without affecting your song sequences!  You can also update patterns in your songs, and visa-versa.

There are many options for how we could have implemented the ability to create and manage your patterns, and we have opted in favor of that which gives you the greatest flexibility.  However, with this flexibility comes some responsibility on your behalf in how you manage your patterns, pattern categories, and songs.  If you are unclear on any of these aspects, please read the bullets above until you are sure that you understand how The*Wizard lets you manage patterns & songs.

Pattern-Based Composing  versus  Linear Sequencing

Pattern objects and linear MIDI tracks as are created with typical sequencing programs and are stored in Standard MIDI Files are two entirely different things and to a large degree the two formats are incompatible.  In fact, so-called Standard MIDI Files have no provisions for pattern structures and related data.   For this reason, The*Wizard software offers several features and capabilities to integrate Standard MIDI Files, however it is important to recognize that the limitations of what this software can do with Standard MIDI Files is entirely a result of the limitations inherent in Standard MIDI File formats.

This software is a pattern-based MIDI music composing tool which will be explained in detail below.  It is primarily designed for composing songs as a sequence of patterns.  The essential element of this software as you probably can infer is to create independent patterns live in real-time, then order specific patterns into a song-sequence.

As you are probably aware, the most common type of MIDI music composing tool is called a sequencer -- to be specific they are typically linear track-based sequencers.  We use this verbose term because sequencers are modeled after multi-track recording systems which are used to produce finished recordings and performances where each instrument is recorded from start to finish onto a particular track of a tape (or in the case of MIDI -- a channel).  However, this is not necessarily the way the music was initially created, but rather just how the finished recording is produced.  Don't misunderstand us, we think that sequencer programs are great tools, however they are not the only tool that musicians should have in their toolbox.  The fact that you are evaluating or using this software should make it clear that there are advantages to composing using a pattern-based environment, especially if you are composing songs.

The reason that this software does things that most linear track-based sequencers cannot do (or cannot do well) is because this software specifically lets you create musical objects that we call patterns.  You can manage your patterns independently on your computer's disk as well as use them as measures or sections of songs.  Is pattern-based composing better than linear track-based composing?  There really is no absolute answer here .... depending upon how you compose and how you are inspired one type of tool may work better for you.  Most people, however, will find that having both pattern-based and linear track-based composing tools that inter-operate is the best solution.

Lets digress for a moment .......  many years ago when the MIDI specifications were developed, they were primarily designed for interconnection of electronic music synthesizers and rudimentary hardware sequencers.  Computers integrated with MIDI was an extreme exception as there were no PC sound cards at that time and very few people had computers.  Mapping of drum voices onto MIDI notes is more of a common conventional usage of MIDI than an integral aspect of the MIDI specifications.  As a result, the MIDI specifications were originally developed without too much thought given to computer music applications beyond basic sequencing.  The notion of a Standard MIDI File was also born at that time when the only concept of MIDI applications were linear track-based sequencers, and so that file format is in reality a linear track-based sequence interchange format and not really a standard MIDI file for all types of MIDI software applications (there are some subtleties in these points, so we hope that we have not confused you).  Anyhow, the fact of the matter is that music patterns and linear MIDI tracks are two entirely different things and Standard MIDI Files are not a universal standard for all types of MIDI applications.

There are two reasons for the preceding discussion.  First because this software is primarily for composing drum-tracks and since superimposing drum voices onto MIDI is somewhat of an extension to the MIDI specifications this understanding should help you in your use of this product.  Also because it is likely that you will want to import Standard MIDI Files .... the notion of importing a Standard MIDI File into a pattern is analogous to the difference between an escalator and an elevator; an escalator takes a continuous stream of people from one point to another whereas an elevator takes only a small group of people at a time -- however both accomplish the same task of moving people from one point to another.  The situation with pattern-based composing tools and linear composing tools is somewhat more complex in that both result in a song, however the notion of importing is to try and load variable-length linear stream of MIDI events associated with tracks into quantifiable patterns -- the two formats are not compatible.  We have made great efforts to achieve interoperability between patterns and Standard MIDI Files.  Because a song in The*Wizard software is an ordering of patterns, it is not possible to import an entire song from a Standard MIDI File; you must import portions of the song into individual patterns mapping tracks to players.

It is relatively straight-forward to export MIDI events in conformance with the Standard MIDI File formats.  It is an entirely different matter to take the linear format of a Standard MIDI File and import it into a pattern-based format.  So, when using the Standard MIDI File Import feature, be aware that the process is somewhat complex .... just because there is no other way, and also be aware that we have achieved the best bridging of the linear & pattern formats possible (many other non-linear MIDI editing products do not even attempt to provide Standard MIDI File importing capabilities).  In the case of The*Drumz Wizard PLUS, you will import a single track of drum & percussion events (usually associated with channel #10) to the "Drummer"; in the case of The*Muzical Wizard, you will map each track of the source Standard MIDI File to one of the pattern band's players.

Note that Standard MIDI File importing is not available in The*Drumz Wizard, but is available in the: The*Drumz Wizard PLUS and The*Muzical Wizard products.

What is Pattern-Based Composing?

There are basically two methods of composing with MIDI composing tools: using linear track-based sequencers and using pattern-based sequencers.  With linear track-based sequencers you generally compose music as a set of related tracks where different instruments are set to different tracks; there are also hybrid so-called "trackless" linear sequencers as well.  In other words, the general idea with a linear sequencer is to compose your music from start-to-finish one instrument at a time.

The*Wizard software utilizes the pattern method of composing which is primarily suited to songs and jingles (as opposed to music such as suites, symphonic compositions, etc.).  Most songs and jingles in actuality consist of several patterns such as: introduction & ending, choruses, main verses, and solo verses.  For many composers, creating the verses and other components as individual entities is more natural ….  which is exactly the composing environment that The*Wizard software provides in its pattern composing wizard mode.  Once you have one or patterns, you then use the song composing wizard mode to sequence your patterns into a song.

Think about most songs that you listen to independent of the musical style (e.g., country, rock, hip-hop, techno, etc.).  Generally these songs are composed of sections, such as: an intro, one or more main sections, a chorus, often a solo section, and an ending.  With The*Wizard software you are able to compose each section independently as one or more patterns, then sequence your patterns into a song.  The structure of a song is merely an ordering of its patterns.  Therefore, unlike other types of MIDI music composing tools in which you create music as linear tracks, with The*Wizard software you create patterns with all of the instrumentation that you desire and sequence those patterns into songs.  Take a look at any of the songs supplied with The*Wizard; examining any of those songs and the patterns used in those songs should prove instructional to you. For example a song may take-on such a structure:

Intro

main measures #1 - #4

chorus measure #1

chorus measure #2

main measures #1 - #4

chorus measure #1

chorus measure #2

solo measure #1

solo measure #2

chorus measure #1

chorus measure #2

Ending

Now let us provide a few relevant definitions:

Event -- the smallest musical entity is what we call an event (actually "MIDI event" would be more appropriate), where an event generally corresponds to a musical note.  Technically speaking, a moment of silence is also an event.  In MIDI there are also other types of events that can control the various features of an electronic musical instrument or device; these events are control events, however a discussion of such advanced MIDI topics is beyond the scope of this guide.

Beat -- is a collection of musical events fitting into a unit of time.

Bars or Measures are musical structures which are defined by a specific number of beats, often four beats.  Generally speaking, a musical measure is the smallest independent portion of composed music.

Instruments, just like in a real band instruments are used for different sounds.  With MIDI systems, different instruments are generally assigned to each of the 16 different MIDI channels using an instrument ID known as a "patch".  There is one special instrument -- a drumkit, which consists of several instruments (such as cymbals, various drums, and other percussive instruments).

Bands & Players.  Players correspond to instruments and additionally contain other MIDI parameters that control the quality of the sound.  A band is merely a collection of players.

Songs are a structured set of  measures.  Need we really say more about songs?

The*Wizard software treats each musical pattern independently offering you great flexibility in the creation of your patterns and hence your music.  You are able to name each of your patterns so that you can easily refer to them by a meaningful name.  You can also attach a brief text description to your pattern category folders.

With The*Wizard software you can edit and sculpt a musical pattern in real-time until it sounds exactly as you want.  You can enter/add musical events, erase musical events, move musical events, transpose the pitch of one or more events, alter the loudness of one or more events, and much more .... all while listening to your patterns as the continuously loop.  One of the most important features of The*Wizard software is that you can hear any of these changes or transformations as you make them.

The*Wizard software allows you to easily create song structures from patterns using a visual song chart window.  To get an idea of how this works, load any song and watch the animated song chart display as The*Wizard plays!

Patternz, Categoriez, Songz, etc.

In order to get the most out of The*Wizard software, you will need to understand how the software handles the various objects that you use to compose your music. This section tells you several things about patterns and songs that will be helpful in your use of the The*Wizard program.

Patterns:

It is very important to understand what a pattern is.  A pattern is a collection of musical MIDI events organized in time and by musical instrument.  Essentially a pattern is a set of related parameters, such as: number of bars & beats, tempo, Player/Band parameters, and a collection of MIDI events.  The timing of the musical events are represented by the horizontal divisions allowing you to create the rhythmic structure of your music.  The rows of the Pattern Wizard grid represent either individual musical notes (organized as ascending semitones) or percussive voices in the case of the Drummer.  The Pattern Wizard is a pattern window and related tools providing a visual means of viewing and editing the events and parameters of a pattern; only one pattern may be open in the Pattern Wizard at a time.  There must always be one and only one pattern open and so you will be forced to load a pattern when launching the program or any time you switch to the Pattern Wizard mode; because of this restriction you will not be allowed to delete a pattern if it is open.

A pattern may have a variable number of bars (or measures as they are also called), as well as a variable number of beats per bar.  Additionally you can add visual divider lines to the beats in a bar that allow you to have up to 64 cells per beat.  If you would like to work on a specific section of a pattern, you may also set intra-pattern looping points.  When entering note events into the grid, the notes automatically snap into the grid cells; you may certainly move your events around the grid without lining them up to cell boundaries (in fact this is one of the great features of the software allowing you to swing your events for true realistic compositions).  The number of bars, beats, and divisions/beat are set using the Pattern Settings dialog.  While you are able to have up to 64 visual divisions per beat the software actually lines-up each event to a "tick"; there are 128 ticks per beat no matter how many beats or divisions per beat you setup in your patterns.  Therefore the smallest increment by which you can move an event is a tick, and similarly the smallest amount by which you can change the duration of an event is a tick.  Changing the length or starting position of events, by ticks, is done using the properties dialog (accessed using the right mouse button).  Consider the following examples:

•	If an event is 64 ticks in length, then it will extend for exactly one-half of a beat.

•	If an event starts on tick #32, then its position is one quarter of the way into the corresponding cell.

Lastly, a pattern uses players to connect to your actual MIDI sound generation hardware.  A player mostly corresponds to an instrument voice (or "MIDI Patch"), though other parameters that affect the tonal qualities of an instrument voice are set into each player. The*Drumz Wizard has only a single player -- "The Drummer", whereas The*Muzical Wizard can have up to 16 programmable players (actually 15 programmable players as one of the players must be a "Drummer").

Patterns & Categories:

Patterns are stored on your computer's hard disk in categories, allowing you to group patterns for easy reference.  In other words -- categories are folders for storing patterns.   Each time you create a pattern you will be forced to select (or create) a category folder into which you must insert the pattern.  You may freely create and name categories to your liking.

Pattern Manager:

The software provides you with the ability to work with patterns using long names and descriptions, as well as categorize your patterns.  To accomplish this we have developed our own file management utility specifically for working with patterns, songs, and categories.  Because of this you will not be able to see your patterns, songs, and categories if you look into your Wizard's disk directory folder.  Also, you should not attempt to copy, move, or delete files directly from your disk using the Windows File Manager or Windows-95 Explorer, because doing so may result in permanent loss of your work as well as cause the program to not operate properly.

The Pattern Manager is the utility that you use for all file-type operations with patterns and categories.  You can use the Pattern Manager to:

•	copy patterns from one category to another

•	move patterns from one category to another

•	create new patterns or remove patterns

•	create new categories or remove categories

Players:

Patterns use players to generate MIDI music that corresponds with specific musical instruments; in other words -- each pattern has one or more corresponding players.  Since MIDI is nothing more than commands sent to a sound generator, players are setup to communicate with particular MIDI devices using various MIDI settings such as channel and instrument patch .... just like in a real band where each band-member plays a different instrument.

There are two types of players -- a special player called The Drummer and normal/pitched-voice types of players.  The drummer is unique in that each row of the pattern-grid, while still corresponding to one of the 128 MIDI note numbers, is assigned a voice-name (e.g., cymbal, snare-drum, cowbell, etc.) that appears along the left edge of the pattern-grid.  A pitched-voice player shows a musical keyboard (or "piano roll") and each row plays the same voice at a different pitch.

A The*Drumz Wizard pattern can generate up to 128 different sounds or notes -- one for each row of the pattern-grid.  The specific sound or note generated is a function of the drumkit or drumset voices selected for the pattern using the Band Manager (Muzical Wizard) or Drum Settings (Drumz Wizard).  The voice-name to MIDI-note mappings are stored in a file called: VOICES.WIZ.

Bands:

A band is a group of players (did we really have to explain this?).  For The*Muzical Wizard  -- you can have up to 15 programmable players plus a "Drummer" giving you up to 16 players per band.  Anytime you use more than one player -- you essentially have a band (frankly when using 10 or more players you have more of an orchestra than a band).  Any player in a band can be set to play any instrument patch of your sound generator(s) as well as be configured to adjust other relevant parameters of the instrument's sound.  These settings are made using the Band Manager dialog (or the Drummer Settings dialog in the case of The*Drumz Wizard product).

Songs:

A song is merely a sequence of patterns; in fact we often will use the term: "song-sequence".  Another significant difference is that patterns can be edited in real-time while playing, and songs cannot be edited while playing; this is because a song is actually a sequence of patterns to play in a specific order and this sequence cannot change while play is active.

A song is constructed of patterns that then become a component of the song; in fact patterns used in a song are copies of patterns from the pattern categories.  Once a pattern has been included into a song, a copy of the original pattern is made and stored in the song's own envelope.  This means that you can and will have duplications of patterns.  The original pattern (stored in some category folder) and its copy (stored in a song envelope) are independent and changes to one pattern is not reflected in the other.

More about Patternz  ….

What makes The*Wizard software so unique are that they are true pattern-based composing tools.  You have the ability to configure any pattern to meet your needs.  Once you've created and setup a pattern, you can compose music in real-time while the patterns continuously loop.  All editing and modifications are possible while the patterns loop so that you can hear your changes as you make them  which makes for an incredibly intuitive method to compose (try it, you'll see).  You can even change MIDI Patch settings while patterns play in real-time so that you can hear how your music sounds with different instruments and/or voices.

Each pattern has two primary components:

1.	Settings.  The pattern settings specify the length (in bars or measures) and meter of the pattern.  You may freely select:

•	a variable number of bars; the shareware versions allow up to 4 bars per pattern, whereas the commercial versions (The*Drumz Wizard PLUS) can have a maximum of 16 bars per pattern,

•	a variable number of beats per measure up to 8 beats per measure, and

•	a variable number of divisions per beat up to 64 divisions per beat,
note that there are always 128 ticks per beat regardless of the number of divisions

•	intra-pattern loop; at times you may want to work on a specific portion of a pattern and so you have the ability to setup an intra-pattern loop which causes the pattern to loop between two configurable points

2.	Band.  As you might expect, a band is comprised of several players, where each player is assigned to a specific instrument (actually a MIDI Patch).  Note that for The*Drumz Wizard there is only one player  "The Drummer".  With The*Muzical Wizard you can select up to 16 players that will play simultaneously, each assigned to play a different musical instrument (if you like) -- so you can have a very large band indeed!  You can compose with any player independently by selecting its tab on the lower edge of the pattern-grid window.  A special split screen viewing mode lets you see & compose with any two players at once; or your can view separate sections of the same player which can be quite handy for the Drummer.  While you are composing with a particular player, you may do so while all of your other players are playing or you can mute all or selected players (muting all players except for one makes the one player "solo").  There are various settings that are used to setup and define a band, as well as an overall band mixer that allows you to set the relative volume and pan-position of each player.

The main composing mode of the software is "The Pattern Wizard".  When using the Pattern Wizard, there must always be at least one open pattern in memory which is displayed in the grid window.  If you have more than one open pattern, you can easily switch between patterns using the pattern selection control.  Patterns are stored on your computer's disk in categories.  The name of the pattern and the category to which it belongs is shown on the grid window title bar.  With the grid window, you can see the timing of your musical events spaced on the horizontal axis of the grid, and the notes or drum voices are shown on the left edge of the vertical axis.

The horizontal make-up and spacing of the grid window is defined under the pattern settings.  Special lines are used to visually separate divisions, beats, and bars; also each bar and beat is labeled on the upper edge of the pattern-grid window.  A header at the top of the pattern grid identifies the bar and beat and also displays a pair of markers if you are using an intra-pattern loop.  There is also a status bar at the lower portion of the grid window that has two displays that relate to the time structure of your pattern and its events:

•	a real-time counter that shows what bar, beat, and division are being played, and

•	a horizontal mouse position indicator (this is actually divided into 3 separate panes)

The vertical make-up of the grid window depends upon the player.  The*Drumz Wizard has only one player  "The Drummer".  The*Muzical Wizard can have a variable number of players, but there must be at least one player defined as a "Drummer".  Each row of the grid window corresponds to one of the 128 possible MIDI note values (128 notes is the maximum allowed by the MIDI specifications).  The choice of the instrument and its corresponding MIDI Patch determines whether grid rows are pitched as is typically the case with the exception of Drummer player.

Instruments are chosen by selecting MIDI Patches from the Drummer Settings/Band Manager utility, where a patch corresponds to a MIDI program change number; the mapping of patch-names to MIDI program change numbers are selected from the PATCHES.WIZ file which is a special type of text file that you may edit; this allows you to select, and if necessary  create  a mapping that matches your MIDI sound device(s).   Pitches are arranged from high notes on the top to low notes on the bottom and each octave of the keyboard is noted by a Cn designation on each C note, where n represents the octave number.  The vertical position of the mouse is always shown in the rightmost pane of the status bar (at the lower portion of the grid window); for the drummer it shows the voice name, otherwise the note value and corresponding MIDI note number are shown; you can also see the MIDI note value by right-clicking over the keyboard or voice-name.  For the Drummer player each note can map to a specific percussion voice, though it is not necessary to map all of the 128 possible MIDI note values to a percussion voice (most systems provide only 60 to 90 percussive voices).  The mapping of MIDI note number to percussion voices is selected in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog using the Voice names for the drummer control.  The MIDI note to percussion-voice-name mappings are selected from the VOICES.WIZ file which is a special type of text file that you may edit; this allows you to select, and if necessary  create  a mapping that matches your MIDI sound device(s).  For any player other than The Drummer, a keyboard is displayed as the vertical axis where each row represents a pitch of the instrument voice assigned to that player.

More about Songz  ….

After you have composed patterns (or imported them), you will likely want to sequence them together to make a song.  Therefore a song is merely an ordering of your patterns, and so songs are represented by a list of patterns that are played in the order shown in what we call the "song-sequence list".  Some versions of the software allow you to insert special objects into the song-list to create repeating sections and change the tempo.

Note that songs use a copy of your patterns, this means that you may have a few patterns replicated on your computer's disk  the files are actually fairly small and so the benefit of having the flexibility to freely manage your patterns is outweighed by the use of disk storage.

The use of copies of patterns in songs gives you the ability to modify a song's copy of a pattern without in any way affecting the original source pattern or other copies of the pattern in other songs.  You can copy a pattern from a song-sequence into any of your categories and even replace the original source pattern if you wish.   Note that if you change a pattern in a song-sequence that all instances of that pattern in the song-sequence will take-on the new changes.


The*Wizard's File System

With the design of The*Wizard products our goal was to free the composer from having to deal with computer issues so that the composer could concentrate on the making of music and not playing with the computer.  Therefore we have taken a unique approach to hiding the computer's file system from you.  Patterns & songs are automatically saved for you (though a forced-save function is provided).  And you work with patterns (loading, copying, etc.) using the Pattern Manager screen.  Similarly, you work with songs from within the Song Manager.

The Pattern Manager and the Song Manager are the utilities that you use to open or remove (delete) pattern and song objects as well as copy and/or move them among categories.  There is never a need to enter a filename since you work with the pattern and song objects by their name (which is longer than the 8 characters available for Windows-3.1).

Most people are used to typical Windows software where they have to use the File menu to open/load and save/store files.  The*Wizard takes care of saving things for you!  Any time you change patterns, switch to the Song Wizard, or exit the program  all open patterns are automatically saved to your disk for you.   So, there is no save option in the File menu; though there is a Forced Pattern Save option under the main Pattern menu (also accessed by pressing Control-S together on your computer's keyboard) -- just in case you get paranoid or have been working for a while on a pattern, its a good idea to force a save to disk!  An opposite function also exists called Revert To Last Saved, which will permanently and immediately erase any changes you make to a pattern and retrieve the version that was last saved -- you may consider this as a sort-of undo function.  Be careful, once you select the Revert To Last Saved function any changes that you make between the forced save and the reversion to the last saved are lost and cannot be retrieved!

Loading of patterns is accomplished using the Pattern Manager screen; a shortcut to that screen is also available under the Pattern menu.  You may also remove patterns from your disk using the Pattern Manager  be careful, once you remove them they are gone forever!

Loading and saving of songs is likewise automatic, you also have the ability to forced a save and to revert to last saved version of a song.

  Forced Pattern Saving & Reverting to the last saved version

  Importing & exporting patters using patterns-group files

Filez on your hard-disk

If you look in the directory folder of your computer's hard-disk you will see several oddly named directory folders; each one corresponds to a category.  And within each directory folder are several oddly named files that store information for the category, the category's song, and the patterns associated with that category.  Be forewarned  ….  do not alter any of these directory folders or files, especially do not rename anything except inside of the program!   All renaming, adding, copying, moving, and deleting of patterns, categories, and songs must be done using the tools supplied within the normal operation of the program (using the Pattern Manager).   If you do tinker with any of these directory folders or files you will loose your work and never be able to retrieve it!

If you need to exchange files with someone else using The*Wizard software, then you should use the pattern-group import & export feature which is part of the Pattern Manager utility.  Similarly, if you are supplied with a group of patterns (in a file with an extension of "PTG"), then you will need to use the pattern-group import & export feature to copy the patterns into your categories.

Backing-up your data

Notwithstanding the above warning, you may and should backup your data regularly.  To do so is very simple ….  just copy all category directory folders in your main The*Wizard program directory folder and contents of each directory folder unaltered and in its entirety to your backup media, whatever that may be (i.e., floppy, another hard-disk, tape, zip-drive, etc.).  Category folders are easily recognized  they generally have a filename that consists of 8 numbers and an extension of .CAT (e.g., 22435678.CAT).  Again, to backup your data, backup each entire category folder by copying it to your backup media.

Here are other options for backing-up your patterns and/or songs:

•	make a copy of any pattern or song by simply dragging it from its category into a backup category (e.g., "Pattern Backup" or "Song Backup") using the Pattern Manager

•	use the pattern-group import & export feature to copy your patterns to group files which you can then store on a floppy or any other backup storage device that you may have

•	copy all of your song files from the songs subdirectory on your disk to a floppy or any other backup storage device that you may have (it is easiest and probably best to just copy the entire songs sub-directory to your backup media)


Saving & Reverting to last Saved

Patterns & songs are automatically saved for you!  However as an added protection you have the ability to force a save of your patterns and songs.  The forced save function is accessed from the main Pattern or main Song menus (depending upon which Wizard mode you are using), by using the CTRL-S quick-key combination, or by clicking on the disk button on the toolbar.  Before performing big or destructive editing operations it is generally a good idea to force a save so that you can effectively undo your editing or other changes if necessary.

A backup copy of a pattern or song is automatically made when you open an existing pattern or song and you can revert to that version at any time.  If you do a forced save then the backup copy of the pattern or song is permanently changed.  A backup copy is not made when first creating new patterns or songs by any of the following means until a forced save is done:

•	creating a new pattern/creating a new song

•	cloning pattern (the cloned pattern is saved, the new pattern does not have a backup)

•	or new patterns created from a Standard MIDI Import

Reverting to the last saved version simply removes the current pattern or song, and replaces it with the last saved version.  Once a pattern or song is replaced using this function it is gone forever!  The revert function is accessed from the main Pattern or main Song menus (depending upon which Wizard mode you are using), by using the CTRL-R quick-key combination, or by clicking on the curved arrow button on the toolbar.  When you choose to revert to the last saved version, your pattern or song will be replaced with the last saved backup version which may be: the version when pattern or song was opened from disk or the version at the point of the last forced save.


Mouse Etiquette & Quick Keys

Left Mouse Button	Right Mouse Button	Quick-Keys
Like most other Windows software, the two mouse buttons are used for different types of operations.  There are correct ways to use the mouse with this software and not-so-correct ways (the correct ways are the "mouse etiquette").  We have tried to follow typical Windows conventions, however because of the rich graphical user interface of this software there are some conventions that pertain to this software.  The typical Windows convention is that the left mouse button is used for selecting (using single clicks), opening things for viewing and/or editing (by double clicking), and moving or copying (by dragging).  The right mouse button is used for augmented operations such as context-sensitive menus and displaying the status or properties of an object.

•	When using the Pattern Wizard in edit mode, the mouse cursor will be a pointer arrow.

•	When using the Pattern Wizard in select mode, the mouse cursor will be a cross-hair.

Below are the uses of the left & right mouse buttons that are particular to this software:

Left Mouse Button

In the pattern-grid:	click to create events
click & drag to the right to create variable duration events
drag from the right edge to change the length of events
drag from over top of an event to move it
while pressing the Control-key to delete an event (or group)
while pressing the Shift-key to select a group of events

On the transport Controlz:	click the play button to start or resume play from the counter
click the stop button to stop play & freeze the counter
click the reverse arrows to move back 1 beat at a time
click the forward arrows to move ahead 1 beat at a time

On the keyboard or voice name:	to audition the instrument at the pitch of the keyboard,
to audition the drum/percussion voice

On the Song Wizard toolbar:	drag to insert song enhancement objects into the sequence

In slider Controlz:	drag the slider to move it
on the slider track to changes its value by 10 units
on a tick-mark to move the slider directly to that point

In a slider value box:	to open a mini edit box allowing you to enter an exact value

On the pattern-grid title bar:	to open an edit box to set or change the pattern title

On the mixer module #:	to get a quickie view of the player's name associated with
("Volume & Pan")	that mixer module

On the real-time counter:	to select an exact location to move to, as well as to view
& start playback

On the separator between pattern-grid windows in split view mode to change the relative size of both grid views

In the song pattern-set list	to drag patterns into your song-sequence list, to be played as
a part of your song

In the song-sequence list	to set the starting point for where to begin the song playing
to select one or more patterns for editing (cut, copy, delete)

CTRL-Click:	to delete an event from the pattern-grid
to select multiple random items from a list of items

SHIFT-Click:	to select multiple consecutive items from a list of items
including patterns in the song-sequence list
you can also use the Shift key along with the up & down
arrows and the Page-Up, Page-Down, Home & End keys
to select a contiguous block of items

Right Mouse Button

In the pattern-grid:	to open a set of menu options
if you do not want to access a popup menu option, then use
the Cancel option at the bottom of the popup menu or
press the Escape key to close the popup menu

On the pattern-grid player tabs:	opens player options menu (add/remove a player & mute/solo);
the first line of the menu lists the # of events in that player
(only the # of events is shown for The*Drumz Wizard)

On the keyboard or voice name:	to show the note & MIDI note # at the pitch of the keyboard,
to show the note & MIDI note # of the drum/percussion voice

In the song-wizard:	to open a set of menu options
if you do not want to access a popup menu option, then use
the Cancel option at the bottom of the popup menu or
press the Escape key to close the popup menu

Quick-key Keyboard Shortcuts

Spacebar:	toggles start & stop of play

W:	rewinds the real-time play counter to the beginning

Esc:	the ESCAPE key on your computer's keyboard closes an open dialog,
or closes popup menus that are opened by right-clicking

CTRL-R:	revert to last saved version

CTRL-S:	forced saving

In addition to the quick-key assignments listed above, there are many other quick-keys that you will learn if you use the software regularly.  The quick-key assignments are listed to the right of the main menu options when the menus are accessed.  The quick-key assignments are a combination of a key (usually a letter) and the ALT key or the CONTROL key; where the ALT or CONTROL key must be held while selecting the option key to access the desired function.  A few functions are mapped to one of the function keys.  Each quick-key assignment has a main menu counterpart and the quick-key associated with each function or feature appears in the menu options.  Rather than list each ALT & CONTROL quick-key assignment here, we suggest that you review the main menu options to see the assignments; so as you become an advanced user you will likely memorize some of the quick-key assignments by first using the menu options.

Generally the quick-key assignments follow these rules:

•	functions that are performed immediately are a combination of the CONTROL key and a letter that is representative of the function (usually the first letter of the function)

•	functions that open a dialog are a combination of the ALT key and a letter that is representative of the function (usually the first letter of the function)

•	functions that cause some program action or launch a companion program are assigned to one of the function keys; note the following special unmarked function key assignments:

F1 - access the context sensitive on-line help (a help topic will be displayed that relates to the window, dialog, or function you are currently using)

F2 - switch to the pattern wizard composing mode

F3 - switch to the Song wizard composing mode

F4 - open the VOICES.WIZ file for editing the voice names for use by the Drummer

F5 - open the PATCHES.WIZ file for editing the patch names for use by the Band Manager/Drummer Settings

F6 - open the CHORDS.WIZ file for editing the chord names for use by the auto chord entry feature (The*Muzical Wizard only)

Other Keyboard Uses

When a control is active (i.e., it has the "focus" which is the dotted line surrounding the control), you can use the following keys on your computer's keyboard to change values:

Home:	moves to the first value in the range

End:	moves to the last value in the range

Page-Up:	increments the current value by 10

Page-Down:	decrements the current value by 10

Left-Arrow or Down-Arrow:	decrements the current value by 1

Right-Arrow or Up-Arrow:	decrements the current value by 1


Controlz

The*Wizard software uses various  to allow you to edit parameters and select values.  While we have tried to follow common conventions in Windows software, there are some special qualities about some of the .

  Slider  -- are used to continuously vary a parameter over a range of values.  There are small sliders (as shown here) and larger sliders.  Values are changed by dragging the slider with the mouse; in some cases it may be difficult to select an exact value by dragging the slider and so you can use certain keyboard keys to fine-tune the value or enter a specific value directly.  Also if the slider is the active control, you can use the Home, End, Page-Up, Page-Down, and Arrow keys on your keyboard to move the slider as defined in the quick-keys topic.  Each slider has associated with it a display-edit box that shows the current value selected by the slider; you may click on top of any slider's display-edit box to enter an exact value.

  Spin-edit  -- are used to select a specific value.  You can change the value either by clicking on one of the value-spin-arrows or edit the value directly in the display box.


Getting Started & your MIDI Music Studio

After installing the software, you'll need to set some things up so that things play as you expect them too.  We'll assume you've installed the software successfully since you are reading this help system.  Most of the setup has been automatic, though you may need to make some changes.

When The*Wizard software is installed it forces you to select a default device driver then setup all of the supplied patterns & songs to use that driver as the default.  Also when you create new patterns that will be the MIDI device driver that is automatically selected.  You can change your default MIDI device driver at any time via the MIDI Device Settings utility dialog.  When you select the "Default MIDI Device Selection" option for a pattern or song, it will be the default MIDI device driver that you select that is assigned to all of the players of the current pattern, or all of the players of all of the patterns of the current song.

We strongly recommend that you select the desired Windows Device Drivers directly and not use the MIDI Mapper.

MIDI Device Settings

The MIDI Settings dialog lets you do two things: select an input device, and indicate the type or mode of your MIDI output devices.

For output of MIDI data (for playing music) you may indicate to the software the type or mode of each item of equipment installed and registered in your PC.  Making the proper association of your MIDI devices to their type or mode is necessary for you to get the most out of your equipment using this software.  Using the MIDI Settings option under the Settings menu to set each of your devices.  You will see that this software directly supports the common architecture standards: General MIDI ("GM"), Roland's GS, and Yamaha's XG.  Provided that you have made the correct selection for your MIDI device(s), the software will auto configure your PC sound card or synthesizer.  If your device is neither GM, GS, or XG then you should select the "Normal" option.  A final option, the "Other" option will use a custom setup string that you can edit and add to the system.

For operations in this software where external MIDI data is required, it will have to come from some source.  You may select only one source of MIDI data, and you make this selection using the drop-down selection box (which lists all MIDI input devices properly installed & registered in your PC).  Simply select the MIDI input device you wish to use, so that it shows in the drop-down selection box.

 ... more information about MIDI Device Settings

  The MIDI Settings Utility

Creating Bands & Configuring Band Players

The*Drumz Wizard of course does not allow you to configure a band as it has only one player -- the "Drummer".

  You are able to select the device that you wish to use for your drum & percussion sounds from among your installed windows devices -- this is done by selecting a MIDI Device Driver in the upper right of the Drummer Settings utility dialog.  In the case of a sound card, the name of the driver will somewhat resemble the name or type of sound card in your system; in the case of external equipment, you will be selecting a MIDI output port.  We strongly recommend that you select the appropriate driver directly and not use the MIDI Mapper.

  After you have selected a Windows Device Driver to connect to your MIDI device, then you can select a drum instrument that is supported by your device.  For example: if you are using a General MIDI sound card, then select "General MIDI Drums" using the Instrument selection control.  If the instrument has been properly setup in the patches and voices database, then the patch and drum voice names will automatically be filled-in.

  After you select an instrument then, depending on the capabilities of your equipment, you can select among its available drum patches using the Patch selection control.  If the instrument & patch has been properly setup in the patches and voices database, then the appropriate bank(s) and set of drum voice names will automatically be filled-in.

 After you select a patch then, depending on the capabilities of your equipment, you can select among its available drumkits which maps the drum & percussion voices to names that appear on the left edge of the pattern wizard's grid.  The drumkit/voice-name mapping is selected using the Voice names for the drummer selection control.  If the instrument & patch has been properly setup in the patches and voices database, then a corresponding set of drum voice names will automatically be filled-in.


MIDI Device Settings Explained

Frankly, MIDI provides great capabilities for computer music integration, and as such it is quite flexible as well as quite complex.  In some cases the complexities are hidden from you and in other cases you - the user/composer - can be confused by  the complexities, incompleteness, and nonstandard uses.  Depending upon the types of equipment and your use of that equipment you may or may not need to get into the technical details of MIDI.  Settings for your Windows MIDI devices are made using the MIDI Settings utility.   So, for those of you who need this information .... here it is with no apologies.

General MIDI ("GM")  what does it mean?
GM is an industry agreed upon addendum to the MIDI specifications that attempts to achieve compatibility beyond just generic MIDI capabilities.  GM essentially specifies a means by which MIDI music played on any GM compliant equipment will playback in a reasonably consistent manner. This is accomplished by specifying the number of simultaneous voices that must be available and what the minimum selection of voices are as well as the patch/program number corresponding to each voice.  For example: if a MIDI device is GM compliant, then anytime patch/program #41 is selected the instrument sound will be a violin; similarly the MIDI notes mapped to percussive sounds on channel #10 are always the same.  Most PC sound cards that utilize the wavetable sound generation technology are GM compliant; many models of synthesizers, etc. are also GM compliant (or have a GM mode or GM sound bank).  If your equipment is made by Roland, then chances are it is both GM and GS compliant; and likewise if your equipment is made by Yamaha then chances are it is both GM and XG compliant.  Check the package and documentation supplied with your equipment to determine which of these compatibility modes your equipment complies with.

Enter GS and XG .…
While General MIDI is an industry agreed upon standard, GS and XG are extensions to GM and are in actuality manufacturer specific compatibility modes (despite what the manufacturers want to make us believe).  Roland Corporation decided that they could offer features beyond what is specified by GM and did so by creating their own superset of capabilities that they call: "GS".  Yamaha Corporation felt that they could also embellish upon the GM standard and created their own superset of capabilities that they call: "XG".  Being supersets of the GM specifications, both GS & XG systems will accept and play GM files just fine.  Indeed GS and XG do offer more compositional and sound-sculpting capabilities, however these modes are confined to specific devices from specific manufacturers ….  if you have such a device then you should use its capabilities to its fullest, though beware that music that you compose utilizing those capabilities may not be realizable by others to whom you intend to distribute your MIDI music.

So what?
The*Wizard has features that allow you to indicate whether any specific equipment complies with one of the above mentioned device types/compatibility modes.  Among other things, the compatibility mode determines how sound banks are selected and therefore how the bank selection controls in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog are used.  Some sound cards and sound modules, etc. offer several modes, for example some Yamaha XG products can be set to a normal GM mode, a GS compatibility mode, or Yamaha's own XG mode.  Therefore if you want to achieve a certain compatibility or take advantage of any special features or feature modes of your equipment, it is necessary to set it to its correct mode -- this selection is accommodated in the MIDI Settings utility dialog.  While you can change the setting at will (provided that a device has is capable of accommodating different modes), once a setting is made the MIDI device will operate in that mode for any player, pattern, or song-sequence until changed.

The mode/device type setting determines how The*Wizard software works with and treats particular hardware devices, as follows:

  GM - sets the device to General MIDI compatibility mode using a system exclusive message.  Since there are no banks in a true General MIDI device, the Bank-A and Bank-B controls in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog are disabled.

  GS - sets the device to GS compatibility mode using a system exclusive message.  Since there are 128 banks of up to 128 instrument patches in a GS device, the Bank-A control in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog allows selection of banks 0 - 127 as well as an option for nothing ("---"); the Bank-B control is disabled.  The nothing option will not send any bank selection message to your device.

  XG - sets the device to XG compatibility mode using a system exclusive message.  Since there (currently) are 4 types of 128 banks of up to 128 instrument patches in a XG device, the Bank-B control in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog allows selection of banks 0 - 127 as well as an option for nothing ("---"); the Bank-A control is used to select a bank type (currently defined XG bank types are: Melody, Sound Effects, Sound Effects Kits, and Rhythm Kits; for more information on XG banks and bank types refer to your XG documentation).  The nothing option will not send any bank selection message to your device.

  Normal - assumes the device to normal MIDI compatibility mode and does not send any system exclusive message.  In this case the device responds to MIDI bank selection messages as defined in the international MIDI specifications which calls for up to 16,384 banks (0 - 16,383).  The Bank-A control in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog allows selection of banks 0 - 16,383 as well as an option for nothing ("---"); the Bank-B control is disabled.  The nothing option will not send any bank selection message to your device.

  Other - is similar to the Normal setting, however it will send custom system exclusive message to setup your equipment.   The*Wizard will assume that the device responds to MIDI bank selection messages as defined in the international MIDI specifications which calls for up to 16,384 banks (0 - 16,383).  The Bank-A control in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog allows selection of banks 0 - 16,383 as well as an option for nothing ("---"); the Bank-B control is disabled.  The nothing option will not send any bank selection message to your device.

To use the custom system exclusive message, please follow these instructions carefully.  First, note that there can be only one custom system exclusive accommodated by the software.

1.	using your Windows Notepad editor open the file: TDWIZ.INI

2.	look for the section [MIDI Settings] and if one does not exist, then add a line with just the bracketed text shown here

3.	add a line immediately below the line: [MIDI Settings] starting with the word: "Other" followed by an equal sign

4.	following the equal sign enter the system exclusive string for your equipment, and make absolutely certain that you are using the correct syntax required by your hardware or strange things may occur; if you are not sure then carefully study your equipment's user documentation and/or contact the support department for the manufacturer of your equipment to obtain the exact syntax and commands to setup your equipment as you desire

5.	your TDWIZ.INI file should look like this:
[MIDI Settings]
Other=F0 ……………… 7F

6.	save the TDWIZ.INI file and close the Notepad editor

MIDI Clocks and MIDI-Start & MIDI-Stop commands ....
These items are useful if you want to synchronize other devices to The*Wizard software for real-time recording.  The*Wizard can send start and stop commands to another device, thereby causing that device to start or stop playing or recording.  You will want to use this feature if, for example, you want to record a pattern into a drum-machine or keyboard-workstation's on-board sequencer.  The MIDI clocks are sent so that your device can utilize the same timing base as The*Wizard software for as tight of a synchronization as is possible.  Enabling of this feature and selection of a MIDI output device to send MIDI clocks, MIDI-Start and MIDI-Stop commands is done in the MIDI Settings Utility dialog.  Note that The*Wizard software must be the master and therefore it cannot receive MIDI clocks from another source -- therefore The*Wizard software only sends MIDI clocks to allow other devices to sync to it.

 ... the relationship between MIDI Device Settings and Sound Banks

  The MIDI Settings Utility


MIDI Settings Utility

The MIDI Settings utility (accessed from the main Settings menu or the ALT-M quick-key) is used to setup this software for proper operation with your MIDI equipment, as follows:

1.	Selection of an active MIDI Input port -- for instances where The*Wizard software uses or otherwise responds to incoming MIDI data, it can only do so from a single MIDI device.  Select the device driver that corresponds to the MIDI device which you will use to transmit or input MIDI data to the software.

2.	Selection of a MIDI output device to send MIDI clocks, MIDI-Start and MIDI-Stop commands.  The first option in the drop-down device driver selector disables the transmission of MIDI clocks, MIDI-Start and MIDI-Stop commands.  These items are useful if you want to synchronize other devices to The*Wizard software for real-time recording.

3.	Selection of a default MIDI device driver -- is used for automatic selection of device drivers for each player when new patterns are created and when patterns are imported from pattern-groups.  When The*Wizard software is installed it forces you to select a default device driver, that device driver is shown with a check in the Default Driver box; to select a different device driver as the default -- simply select a device driver by clicking on a driver name in the list and click the Default Driver box so that it shows a check.  When you select the "Default MIDI Device Selection" option for a pattern or song, it will be the driver shown in this utility as the default that is assigned to all of the players of the current pattern, or all of the players of all of the patterns of the current song.

4.	Association of MIDI device drivers with a device-type/compatibility mode.  To assign a MIDI device driver to a particular type/mode -- simply select a device driver by clicking on a driver name in the list and use the Mode drop-down selection box to select the appropriate type/mode (the association is registered at that point).  You'll notice in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility that when you select a particular MIDI device driver, the type/mode will be shown.


Sound Banks

Synthesizers and sound cards, etc. offer the musician a large selection of sounds from which to choose (sounds are commonly referred to as: "programs" or "patches").   Many of these devices organize their sounds in sets referred to as "banks".  Therefore a particular sound is in many instances actually  referenced by specifying both a bank and a patch.

Every synthesizer, sound card, drum machine, sampler, etc., organizes its patches differently!  Some have many banks, some have only one bank.   Of those that do have multiple banks, there are several methods by which a particular unit will accommodate the ability to change banks via MIDI commands.

The  original MIDI specifications did not have a provision for sending bank changes, and so there is no explicit MIDI bank change command.  An addendum to the MIDI specifications defined a method to issue bank changes using a special sequence of existing MIDI commands, as described below.  This method (as defined in the formal MIDI specifications Addendum) is what this software will refer to as the "Normal" method of changing banks, using a linear range of 16,384 possible banks (0-16,383).

When Roland developed their GS functionality, they decided to embellish the GM framework of 128 sounds, and therefore came-up with an architecture of banks of sound variations that roughly line-up with the base GM bank of 128 sounds.  This is not the linear range of  banks described above, but just a subset.  Yamaha has similarly defined variation banks and sets of variation banks.  If you have a GS or XG device, please consult your user documentation or the manufacturer's customer support services for further details on exactly how these devices organize their sounds as well as accommodate sound bank changes via MIDI commands.

The gory details of bank changes using MIDI commands

MIDI patches are limited to a range of numbers spanning the range of 0 to 127 yielding a potential of 128 patches.  In order to accommodate more than 128 sound patches, a device must have multiple banks.

Since the original MIDI specifications did not provide for a bank selection command, a method was kludged into the specifications addendum.  This method has been designed to accommodate a range of banks that exceed 128 and therefore requires a value greater than one byte.  The bank selection command is actually implemented as a sequence of three MIDI commands:

•	Continuous Controller Message #0 which holds the Most Significant Byte of the bank number.

•	Continuous Controller Message #32 which holds the Least Significant Byte of the bank number.

•	A normal Program Change.  Thus it is absolutely necessary to specify both a patch number along with a bank; there is no way to change a bank without also selecting a patch.

Roland's GS and Yamaha's XG use the two Continuous Controller components of the MIDI bank selection command sequence in a manner which does not quite match the intent of the MIDI specifications.  If you have a GS or XG device, please consult your user documentation or the manufacturer's customer support services for further details on exactly how these devices organize their sounds as well as accommodate sound bank changes via MIDI.

Because different MIDI devices require bank change commands to be formatted differently, we have implemented some flexibility in the way the bank selection controls in the Band Manager Player tabs operate.  You will note that the Band Manager Player tabs have two controls:  Bank-A  &  Bank-B, which are used as follows:

 If the MIDI device specified is "GM",
then both bank controls are disabled (GM has no banks).

 If the MIDI device specified is "GS",
then Bank-B is active and allows selection of the desired GS tone bank.  The range of values is between 0 & 127 accommodating the 128 possible GS variation tone bank.  Please refer to your Roland GS documentation for details on Variation Tone Banks.

 If the MIDI device specified is "XG",
then both Bank-A  &  Bank-B are active allowing selection of an XG Voice Bank using the Bank-B control and an XG Extended Melody Voice Set using the Bank-A control.  Please refer to your Yamaha XG documentation for details on Voice Banks & Melody Voices.

 If the MIDI device specified is "Normal" or "Other",
then only Bank-A is active and allows you to select one of 16,384 banks.

Additional gory details about bank selection

The original international MIDI specifications did not include a native command for bank selection.  So later the specifications were amended to add a (ahem, cough cough) very clever bank selection method using a combination of 2 consecutive continuous controller messages to hold the LSB and MSB of a 14 bit value (16,384).  Just in case you run into this in your equipment's documentation, below is a description of how The*Wizard software uses the Bank-A and Bank-B controls in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog.

If only the Bank-A control in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog is active, then it transmits the entire 14 bit value in conformance with the international (MMA) MIDI specifications.

If both the Bank-A and Bank-B controls in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog are active:

 Bank-A is used to send the MSB of the linear bank value using Continuous Controller message #00.

 Bank-B is used to send the LSB of the linear bank value using Continuous Controller message #32.

 ... more information about MIDI Sounds


Patches

Most MIDI devices that you will use with this software such as synthesizers and PC sound cards are polyphonic  which means that they are capable of playing several sounds simultaneously.  The way they do this is to accommodate the assignment of sounds on each of the 16 possible MIDI channels.  Sounds are assigned to a MIDI channel by sending a Program Change number (embedded in a specific Program Change Command) on a particular MIDI channel.  Often program numbers (or "patches" as they are also called) have a corresponding program name (or patch name) so that you don't have to remember, for example, that program #41 is a violin …. you just pick the program name "violin" and the software automatically looks up the corresponding program number in its database.

The program name & number database is stored in a plain ASCII text file called:  PATCHES.WIZ

Selecting the according Settings menu option will automatically open this file into the Windows Notepad editor.  Note that the Windows Notepad editor can only accommodate small files and if your database gets to be large then you may need to use an alternate editor/word processor (such as Write or WordPad, also supplied with Windows).

In the context of this file and its related data, we will use the terms "device" & "device type" to generically refer to any of the following:

•	sound card or type of sound card

•	make & model of synthesizer, keyboard, drum machine, etc.

•	patch-set (e.g., loading a GM patch set into a K2000) where a patch-set is essentially a virtual device

•	a GM bank of a synthesizer (such as a Korg X5)

You will see in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog of the program that a list of devices is available for selection and use with the software (e.g., sound cards, synthesizers, etc.) are available for selection, as well as device types (e.g., GM sound cards, GS sound cards, XG sound cards, and so on).  Similarly once a device (or device type) is selected, then you also have the opportunity to select any of the patches that are associated with that device/device type.  The device (or device type) is selected from the "Instrument" control in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings, and the patches are selected from their respective control.  This database is what enables that capability and stores the data used in the program's selection controls.

If you want to add your own devices and patches to this database, you may do so!

If you wish to add patches or create new custom patches in this database please be very careful to observe the exact format and do not enter any stray characters into this file -- use only ASCII characters.  The program may not operate properly and/or you may not be able access patches if you introduce errors into this file!  A wise thing to do is to make a backup copy of this file before you make any modifications and/or additions just in case you accidentally introduce an error.

Carefully study the device & patches definitions that we have provided and make certain to follow the instructions below and match the format of the data that we have supplied!

We have provided a database of patches and drum-voice definitions that correspond to the most popular electronic music instruments.  However the database does not include every instrument or every drum-voice map, even for those instruments in the database.  The database does not include entries for upgrade patch sets or 3rd party patch sets (e.g., Voice Crystal products).  If you cannot find a patch or drum-voice map that matches your particular equipment or if you are using a sampler, then you will need to update the database supplied with this software.  There are several options for adding to the supplied patch & drum-voice database:

1.	Edit the patch and/or drum-voice database files, adding the patches and/or drum-voice mappings that match your equipment or what you have created with your sampler.  The instructions below explain how to do so.

2.	Update the patch and/or drum-voice database files from periodic updates from us.  Patch & drum-voice database file updates will periodically be made available on our web-site and CompuServe support forums.  Simply use an editor to copy any patch and/or drum-voice definitions from an update into the database files installed onto your PC.

3.	Our patch & drum-voice database file format has been intentionally modeled after the instrument definition files used by the popular Cakewalk sequencing software.  If you are also a Cakewalk owner you can copy the patch definitions directly from the Cakewalk database files into The*Wizard database files.  If you are not a Cakewalk owner, you can however, scan their web-site and CompuServe support forums for patch & drum-voice database files.  So aside from editing on your own, you can take advantage of many patch & drum-voice definitions that have been created for Cakewalk.  Simply use an editor to copy any patch and/or drum-voice definitions from an update into the database files installed onto your PC.

Format for the patches (patch-set) definitions:

Each patch definition *must* be on its own line!  To create new patches, you must first have a device to which the patches will belong (in some cases, your desired device(s) may already exist).  To add a new device to this database, simply enter the device name on its own line surrounded by square brackets, like this:  [Device Name], the device/device type name cannot exceed 25 characters including spaces.  This entry shows-up in the "Instrument" drop-down list of the Band Manager/Drummer Settings, and its corresponding patch definitions to show-up in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings "Patch" drop-down list.

All patch lists must start with a zero patch.  If your particular instrument does not have a zero patch (that is: the patches start at #1), then you will need to create a patch #0 that is a place holder.  Examples of a patch #0 placeholder are:

0=  --------
0=  None
0=  Nothing

In addition to the Device name, it may be appropriate for you to enter information about the bank to which your desired "device" corresponds.  There are several methods of bank selection in the world of MIDI (sorry we didn't create this mess, but we have tried to present you with a reasonably cogent method to deal with the inconsistencies).  Please refer to the software's documentation for a more detailed discussion of the Bank-A & Bank-B options and related Band Manager/Drummer Settings controls.  Please also refer to the documentation that came with your device for details on the bank selection operation of the device and which patch-sets are associated with each particular bank.

The Bank definitions in this database are optional for any patch-set definition group.  The beauty of entering bank definitions into this database is that when you select from the "Instrument" control in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings, the bank values will automatically be inserted into the Bank controls as well as automatically sent to your MIDI device to select that bank.  If you wish insert Auto-Bank-Select definitions, you will need two lines under the Device Name line as shown immediately below.  If you do not want or do not need any auto-bank-selection, it is better to use the "no-bank" code value of minus one (-1) for both Bank-A & Bank-B lines.  The auto-bank-select lines use the keywords "BankA" and "BankB" and are formatted as follows:

BankA=aaa

BankB=bbb

After editing the Device Name & Auto-Bank-Select definitions, then create the patch definitions of your choice, please carefully follow the format shown below (also study the "General MIDI" patches as an example).  The patch names can be any length, however you should try to limit them to be no more than a total of 40 characters including spaces or less so that the text is not too severely truncated in the drop-down list.

There are 2 components to a patch definition: the patch number and the patch name.  The patch number corresponds to a MIDI program change command that will be sent to your target device to enable a patch on a specific MIDI channel.  Along with your device, you will usually receive a chart of the patches that your device is capable of playing (this chart is usually found in the user's manual).  The patch number is listed as the first character or set of characters on a patch definition line.  The patch number is followed by an equal sign ("=") then the name of the patch.  If you leave the name of the patch blank, then the number itself will become the patch name (e.g., "Patch #48").  Once again, remember that you must start your list of patches with zero, even if your instrument does not have a #0 patch.

Note that most manufacturers (especially those compatible with GS & XG) allow selection of different drumkits using different program numbers.  Generally drumkits are selected automatically when using MIDI channel 10, however some devices let you set one or more channels to drum (or "Rhythm" channels) -- sorry but The*Wizard does not offer the capability to let you define alternate drum/rhythm channels (you'll need to use an editor or other tool for your device to do this).  If your device has more than one drumkit, then you will need to add a combination of device & patch definitions for the drumkits (closely study the Roland GS group of definitions).

Additionally, when a drumkit patch is selected, you can have a set of voices automatically selected (the drumkit's voice-name to MIDI note number mapping).  Use the "DrumVoice.nnn" keyword to have the Band Manager/Drummer Settings auto select the drumkit's voice-set names; where nnn is a numerical patch value and the text name of the drumkit voice-set is on the right of the equal sign and must exactly match a corresponding definition in the VOICES.WIZ file!  This voice-set name will reference a set of voices from the VOICES.WIZ file and will also appear as one of the selections in "drummer voice names" drop-down selection control of the Band Manager/Drummer Settings when you select the patch that references the voice-names (the patch will appear in the "Patches" drop-down selection control of the Band Manager/Drummer Settings).  Carefully study the example below, and it is a good idea to closely study the Roland GS group of patch definitions and the corresponding drumkit voice definitions (in the VOICES.WIZ file).

It is important for you to know whether the manufacturer of your device starts their patch numbering from zero or from 1.  All manufacturers use one way or the other, but there is no common standard on this.  This is important because the number that you select as the patch number may actually select a patch that is off by one.  If there's a problem, its typically that a manufacturer shows a particular patch as #1 but it really takes a MIDI program change value of zero to select this patch and so on (in other words, the MIDI command value is actually one less then the patch number).  If you have this problem, change the numbering of your patches down by one.  Consult your user guide or the manufacturer of your device if you are not sure or confused about its operation (sorry, but we can't help you any further than this).  And once again, remember that you must start your list of patches with zero, even if your instrument does not have a #0 patch.

Patch definitions examples:

Referring to the "Drumset Patches" example below, the "Band Manager"/"Drummer Settings" will operate as follows: if "Drumset Patches" is selected as the instrument, then Drumset1 - Drumset4 will be available in the patches drop-down selection control.  If either "Drumset1" or "Drumset2" are selected as the patch, then the voice-set names for "Drumset-A Voices" will automatically be selected in the "drummer voice names" drop-down selection control.  Similarly, if either "Drumset3" or "Drumset4" are selected as the patch, then the voice-set names for "Drumset-B Voices" will automatically be selected in "the drummer voice names" drop-down selection control.

[Device1]	<--  appears in the Instrument drop-down selection control

BankA=-1

BankB=-1

1=Patch Name 1	<--  appears in the Patch drop-down selection control

2=Patch Name 2	<--  appears in the Patch drop-down selection control

[Drumset Patches] 	<--  appears in the Instrument drop-down selection control

BankA=-1

BankB=-1

DrumVoice.1=Drumset-A Voices	 <--  appears in the Voice Names for the Drummer

DrumVoice.2=Drumset-A Voices	<--  appears in the Voice Names for the Drummer

DrumVoice.3=Drumset-B Voices	<--  appears in the Voice Names for the Drummer

DrumVoice.4=Drumset-B Voices	<--  appears in the Voice Names for the Drummer

1=Drumset1	<--  appears in the Patch drop-down selection control

2=Drumset2	<--  appears in the Patch drop-down selection control

3=Drumset3	<--  appears in the Patch drop-down selection control

4=Drumset4	<--  appears in the Patch drop-down selection control

 ... more information about Sounds and Voices


Voices

Most MIDI devices that you will use with this software such as synthesizers, PC sound cards, drum machines, etc. are polyphonic  which means that they are capable of playing several sounds simultaneously.  With the notable exception of drum machines or drum sound modules, most synthesizers and sound cards support special patches for drum & percussive voices.  These special patches cause a separate voice to be played for different MIDI note values (unlike pitched instruments where the same voice is played at a different pitch).  Often MIDI note values for drum programs have a corresponding voice name so that you don't have to remember, for example, that MIDI note #38 triggers a snare drum …. you just pick or use the voice name "snare drum" and the software automatically looks up the corresponding MIDI note number in its database.

The program name & number database is stored in a plain ASCII text file called:  VOICES.WIZ

Selecting the according Settings menu option will automatically open this file into the Windows Notepad editor.  Note that the Windows Notepad editor can only accommodate small files and if your database gets to be large then you may need to use an alternate editor/word processor (such as Write or WordPad, also supplied with Windows).

You will see in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings dialog of the program that a list of devices is available for selection and use with the software (e.g., sound cards, synthesizers, etc.) are available for selection, as well as device types (e.g., GM sound cards, GS sound cards, XG sound cards, and so on).  Similarly once a device (or device type) is selected, then you also have the opportunity to select any of the patches that are associated with that device/device type.  One special patch or patch type is the "drumkit".  We will use the term "drumkit" to generically refer to drum & percussion kits, or any other patch that has a different voice or sound mapped to a MIDI note number (as may be the case with a sampler or sound card that supports user loadable samples).  At times you will also see a similar term: "Drumset" which is used interchangeably with the term "Drumkit".

This database is what enables the capability of selecting a "drumkit" mapping and displaying each voice name on the left edge of the pattern wizard's composing grid.

If you want to add your own drumkits & voices to this database, you may do so!

If you wish to add voices or create new custom drumkits in this database please be very careful to observe the exact format and do not enter any stray characters into this file -- use only ASCII characters.  The program may not operate properly and/or you may not be able access patches if you introduce errors into this file!  A wise thing to do is to make a backup copy of this file before you make any modifications and/or additions just in case you accidentally introduce an error.

One of the things that may not be immediately intuitive is that different drum instruments can use the same drumkit mapping, as is the case with instruments that are GS compatible and XG compatible.  The patch is used to select a tonal variation of the drums even though the same MIDI note number is used to trigger the generic sound (e.g., one drumkit patch may use dry drums and another may use drums with added effects like reverb).  Hence a device can have several drumkit patches with same voice list.

Carefully study the drumkit & voices definitions that we have provided and make certain to follow the instructions below and match the format of the data that we have supplied!

We have provided a database of patches and drum-voice definitions that correspond to the most popular electronic music instruments.  However the database does not include every instrument or every drum-voice map, even for those instruments in the database.  The database does not include entries for upgrade patch sets or 3rd party patch sets (e.g., Voice Crystal products).  If you cannot find a patch or drum-voice map that matches your particular equipment or if you are using a sampler, then you will need to update the database supplied with this software.  There are several options for adding to the supplied patch & drum-voice database:

1.	Edit the patch and/or drum-voice database files, adding the patches and/or drum-voice mappings that match your equipment or what you have created with your sampler.  The instructions below explain how to do so.

2.	Update the patch and/or drum-voice database files from periodic updates from us.  Patch & drum-voice database file updates will periodically be made available on our web-site and CompuServe support forums.  Simply use an editor to copy any patch and/or drum-voice definitions from an update into the database files installed onto your PC.

3.	Our patch & drum-voice database file format has been intentionally modeled after the instrument definition files used by the popular Cakewalk sequencing software.  If you are also a Cakewalk owner you can copy the patch definitions directly from the Cakewalk database files into The*Wizard database files.  If you are not a Cakewalk owner, you can however, scan their web-site and CompuServe support forums for patch & drum-voice database files.  So aside from editing on your own, you can take advantage of many patch & drum-voice definitions that have been created for Cakewalk.  Simply use an editor to copy any patch and/or drum-voice definitions from an update into the database files installed onto your PC.

Format for the voices definitions:

Each voice definition *must* be on its own line!  The voice names should be no more than a total of 16 characters including spaces or the text will not fully fit into the pattern wizard's grid.  Also note that most drumkits do not use the full range of 128 MIDI note numbers (actually numbers 0 - 127).  You only need to enter voice definitions that correspond to note numbers.

To create new voices, you must first have a drumkit to which the voices will belong (in some cases, your desired drumkit(s) may already exist).  To add a new voice to this database, simply enter the drumkit name on its own line surrounded by square brackets, like this:  [Drumkit Name], the drumkit name cannot exceed 30 characters including spaces.  The name entered in the brackets shows-up in the selection controls of the Band Manager/Drummer Settings, and for the drumkit's corresponding voice definitions to be showed in the pattern wizard's grid.

After editing the Drumkit name, then create the voice definitions of your choice immediately following the bracketed drumkit name.  Carefully follow the format shown below (also study the "General MIDI" drum voices as an example).

There are 2 components to a voice definition: the voice number and the voice name.  The voice number corresponds to a MIDI note number that will be sent to your target device to trigger the desired sound on a specific MIDI channel while playing.  Along with your device (e.g., synth, sound card, drum machine, etc.), you will usually receive a chart of the drumkit(s) that your device is capable of playing (this chart is usually found in the user's manual).  You should also receive the MIDI note to voice-name mappings for each drumkit (contact the manufacturer of your device if you did not receive such information).

The voice number is listed as the first character or set of characters on a voice definition line.  The voice number is followed by an equal sign ("=") then the name of the voice or sound. If you leave the name of the voice blank, then the number itself will become the voice name (e.g., "Voice #48").

It is important for you to know whether the manufacturer of your device starts their voice numbering from zero or from 1.  All manufacturers use one way or the other, but there is no common standard on this.  This is important because the number that you select as the voice number may actually select a voice that is off by one.  If there's a problem, its typically that a manufacturer shows a particular voice as #1 but it really takes a MIDI program change value of zero to select this voice and so on (in other words, the MIDI note value is actually one less then the voice's note number).  If you have this problem, change the numbering of your voices down by one.  Consult your user guide or the manufacturer of your device if you are not sure or confused about its operation (sorry, but we can't help you any further than this).

Some devices have several drumset patches.  Often it is the case that many of the voices in the drumsets are the same with just a few variations.  So, we offer a shorthand method whereby you need only enter the master set of drumset voices and their corresponding MIDI note numbers once.  Then you can default to the master drumset and only enter those voices which differ from those in the master.  The voices inserted into your Drummer grid are then a merged combination of the master drumset and the voice changes in the drumset that references ("defaults to") it.  You may use any drum set as a master drumset by just referencing it with the "DefaultTo" keyword.  Using the example below, if Drumset2 was selected, because only the first two voices in the master have been overridden the Drummer grid would show:

VoiceA

VoiceB

Voice2

Voice3

Voice definitions example:

[Drumset1]

0=Voice0

1=Voice1

2=Voice2

3=Voice3

[Drumset2]

DefaultTo=Drumset1

0=VoiceA

1=VoiceB


Chords

Since chords only apply to musical players,
and The*Drumz Wizard / The*Drumz Wizard PLUS are for composing drum-tracks,
the chord insertion feature is not available in this product
.... the chord insertion feature is only available in The*Muzical Wizard.


General Information

  Requirements to run and use The*Drumz Wizard

  Primer on Pattern-based Composing

  Computer Files and The*Wizards file system

  Automatic File Saving & Reverting to last saved

  Using the mouse in The*Drumz Wizard

  Editing Controlz

  Shortcuts (using quick-keys)

  MIDI Instruments & Studios

  MIDI Devices, Device Types, & Device Settings

  The MIDI Settings Utility

  Patches

  Patch/Sound banks

  Voices (for drumkits)

  Auto Chord entry (for The*Muzical Wizard only)


Using The*Wizard software

There are actually 2 "Wizards" in this software -- this is because pattern-based song composing by its very nature means that you compose songs by developing sections ("the patterns"), and then putting the sections ("the patterns") together into an overall finished song-sequence.  One Wizard -- The Pattern Wizard presents you with pattern-grids that you use to compose musical patterns.  The other Wizard -- The Song Wizard presents you with sequence building & editing tools to create song-sequences.

Specific details of how to use the Pattern Wizard and Song Wizard are provided in the respective topics below:

  Menus & Menu Options

Describes in detail what each of the main menu options do/are used for.

  Using the Play Controlz and the Real-time Play Counter

Describes in detail what each of the controls on the play-control bar do/are used for.  This includes the Pattern Wizard and Song Wizard mode selection buttons and the real-time counter.

  Compozing patterns:  understanding & Using The Pattern Wizard

Composing patterns is the heart of this software; therefore the topics in this section are among the most important for understanding and using this software to compose music.

  Sequencing songs:  understanding & Using The Song Wizard

Songs are created as a sequence of patterns.  The topics in this section describe what a song-sequences actually are and how to create/edit them.

  If you need to troubleshoot your installation, then click here

Information about how troubleshoot and resolve problems that you might encounter.

  If you cannot figure something out or something is not working properly, then the MTI staff is always available to answer your questions and assist you.  Click here for details on how to contact MTI for support

Information about how to contact MediaTech Innovations if you need any assistance in setting-up and/or using this software.


Welcome to The*Wizard

When you first start this software you will always enter The*Wizard's lobby!

From The*Wizard's lobby you are able to choose from 6 options to begin your next great music composing session:

1.	Open the last pattern that you worked on .... The*Wizard remembers what pattern you worked on last and will automatically open it for you .... from that point you may of course listen to it and/or edit it.

2.	View the patterns in your pattern library and select one to open to listen to and/or edit.

3.	Create an entirely new pattern and add it to your library of patterns.

4.	Open the last song that you worked on .... The*Wizard remembers what song you worked on last and will automatically open it for you .... from that point you may of course listen to it and/or edit it.

5.	View the songs in your song library and select one to open to listen to and/or edit.

6.	Create an entirely new song and add it to your library of songs.


Menus & Menu options

The main menu changes slightly depending upon whether
you are using the Pattern Wizard mode or the Song Wizard mode.

Click on a menu option below to expand the description of that menu.

Main menu options when using the Pattern Wizard:

Main menu options when using the Song Wizard:


Pattern-File menu


Song-File menu


Pattern-Pattern menu


Song-Song menu


Settings menu


Help menu


Registering

When you register The*Drumz Wizard you will receive a registration key-code that is matched to a name and address that you supply as part of your registration request.  When you receive your registration key-code, open the registration utility from the main File menu and enter the 3 fields of information provided.  The registration fields are case sensitive, so enter the information exactly as provided.  After your registration has been set, the registration menu option becomes disabled.

The registration key-code supplied to is your personal key-code.  You may use it on more than one computer as long as they are your computers.  You may not give your registration key-code to anyone!

Of course this option is only applicable to The*Drumz Wizard shareware and not the other non-shareware products.


Transposing Events and Patterns

Two options for transposing are provided:

1.	Transposing a group of selected events (accessed from the right-mouse popup menu).

2.	Transposing all events in a pattern except the Drummer's events (accessed from the main Pattern menu).

For more information on transposing and instructions on how to use these two features, refer to the "Transposing Events" section of the topic: Pattern Editing Operations


Default MIDI Device Selection

This function is provided both for patterns and for songs.  When selected from within the Pattern-Wizard, it will operate on all of the players in the current open pattern.  When selected from within the Song-Wizard, it will operate on all of the players in all of the patterns in the current open song.

If you install a new device into your PC or want to use a different device, then you may find this feature useful.  When you import patterns from a pattern-group the patterns are automatically configured to use your selected default MIDI device driver.  If you wish to use a different device for imported patterns or any other patterns in your pattern library, then use this function.  Similarly If you import a song, all the players of the song's patterns will be automatically configured to use your selected default MIDI device driver.

When The*Wizard software is installed it forces you to select a default device driver.  When you select the "Default MIDI Device Selection" option for a pattern or song, it will be the default MIDI device driver that you have selected that is assigned to all of the players of the current pattern, or all of the players of all of the patterns of the current song.  You can change your default MIDI device driver at any time via the MIDI Device Settings utility dialog.


Song Wizard Display Toggle

This menu option alternatively toggles the Song Wizard's main display area between a single song-sequence list and both the Category-Pattern List and the song-sequence list.

The Category & Pattern List which is placed at the left side of the Song Wizard.  The display of patterns within a category may be expanded or contracted by clicking on the plus or minus sign icons to the left of a category name, respectively.  The Category & Pattern List is used to select patterns for inclusion into song-sequences.

The song-sequence list shows you the current structure of a song, and the pointer (shown as a right-facing arrow) shows the pattern that is currently playing while a song-sequence is actively being played.


The*Wizard Help

This menu option opens this on-line help system.  Accessing the on-line help system from the Help menu always opens this on-line help system at the main ("contents") page.

Pressing the F1 key on your computer's keyboard will always open this on-line help system, depending where you are in the program when you access the on-line help using the F1 key you will be shown a relevant topic or if a relevant topic cannot be found then you will be shown the main ("contents") page.


Help Topics  &  Search for help on

In addition to opening the on-line help system to the main ("Contents") page, you can also use these two options to more quickly locate a topic.

The Help Topics options opens a topic map is designed to assist you in more quickly locating the help topics that you need by listing the major topics of this software, separated by sections.

The Search for help on option opens the topic & keyword search utility of the Windows on-line help system.  If you need help on a particular feature, this can be a quick way to navigate the on-line help system to more quickly find the information that you need.


About The*Wizard software

Provides brief information about this software and its developer/publisher.

Also provided is the software version number.  Any time an upgrade is released the version number will change, so it is important to know or refer to this number if you to determine whether a particular version of software can be considered current.


Exit

Saves any open patterns or songs to your computer's hard-disk.
Then closes and exits the program.


Play Controlz & Real-time Play Counter

There are 4 sections to this bar (which is moveable):

1.	The Wizard selection buttons.  This pair of toggle buttons are used to select the Pattern Wizard mode or the Song Wizard mode.

2.	The play controls.  The rewind, backward, and forward controls are only operational in the Pattern Wizard and are not operational in the Song Wizard.  From left to right the buttons are used to:

-  (rewind) moves the play pointer to the start of the pattern

-  moves the play pointer backward by individual beats

-  moves the play pointer forward by individual beats

-  starts the pattern or song-sequence playing from the current play pointer position

-  stops the pattern or song-sequence from playing and in the Pattern Wizard moves the pattern-grid display to view the position where the pattern is stopped

3.	A "panic" button that should be used if you experience hanging or stuck notes from any of your sound devices.  Pressing the panic button will automatically stop playing and send note-off and volume reset commands to all sound devices in use.

4.	The real-time play counter.  It shows the current position of the play pointer; the ticks in the rightmost segment of the counter do not increment in real-time but are shown when playing is stopped.  To set an exact play pointer position for patterns (not song-sequences), click on the face of the counter and set the start position to your liking.


Understanding & Using The Pattern Wizard

There are several components, features, and utilities associated with the Pattern Wizard ....

Creating & Editing Patterns	Pattern toolbar	Exporting to a Standard MIDI File
The Pattern Manager utility	Pattern Settings	Importing from a Standard MIDI File
Player grids	Band Manager/Drummer Settings	Status display panes
The Pattern Wizard is the operating environment of the software that lets you create your musical patterns.  The Pattern Wizard is a large screen comprised primarily of the player-pattern grid and several control & status sections.  Each topic below explores the details of each aspect of the Pattern Wizard's user interface.

You have the option to create events in the grid and edit them while the pattern continuously loops and plays. You can do most any pattern, settings, or player edits or operations while the patterns are playing; functions that are not allowed while playing are disabled.  Editing patterns and pattern settings is in fact the great hallmark of this software!   Sometimes when you enter an event, you may not hear it until the pattern cycles around, you may also temporarily hear other voices drop-out for the remainder of the pattern cycle  this is normal.

All of the following operations for playing patterns are done using the play controls & real-time counter.     When you start a pattern playing, it will begin playing from the point shown in the real-time play counter.  You can set and move the real-time play counter as well as the grid window by beats using the forward and reverse play control arrows, or by clicking on the counter itself you will be able to select an exact start & viewing position.  When you stop a pattern from playing, the counter freezes at the point you stop play and the grid window snaps to the position corresponding to the real-time counter to show you where you stopped (this is really helpful for finding errant events).  You can use the quick rewind to the start if you like, by using the leftmost transport button or by pressing the "W" key on your computer's keyboard.

If you have patterns that are several bars in length (or more) you may find it useful to set intra-pattern loop points that cause the pattern to loop within those points enabling you to more easily work on a specific section of a pattern.

While playing, the pattern-grid will not move or scroll to track the events; only the real-time play counter will track what particular part of the pattern is playing at any given time.  This allows you to work on sections of your pattern while the pattern loops and plays.   If the pattern window were to be in motion, you would not be able to do your editing in real-time as the patterns loop & play because the window would continuously be in motion.

The lower right portion of the status bar always shows you exactly on which bar, beat, division, and note/voice you have the mouse positioned.

While we have just described the pattern composing environment, it is also quite important to understand the various tools and techniques for actually composing and editing patterns ....

 detailed information about patterns & songs

 ... how to compose patterns

Once you have composed some patterns, you will likely find that you will want to open them at a later date, move or copy them among your various categories, etc.   All of these file-type operations are carried out using the Pattern Manager utility ....

  using the Pattern Manager utility


Composing & Editing Patterns

Set-up patterns for composing	Cut, Copy & Paste
Use pattern editing functions	Clone patterns
Creating & editing musical patterns is a very simple process.  You have several methods which you can use to create and/or edit patterns; you can create musical patterns from new empty patterns, you can clone patterns, or edit existing patterns from your pattern categories.

•	In many cases you will want to start with a an empty pattern to develop your musical ideas.  There are two ways to obtain a new empty pattern.  You can create a new empty pattern using the "Create A New Pattern" component of the Pattern Manager utility, or access this function directly from the main Pattern menu when operating in Pattern Wizard mode.  The other way to get an empty pattern is using the pattern cloning feature described below.  Also, if you start the software and select to create a new pattern, you will be prompted to enter a name for your new pattern and have the ability to adjust the pattern's settings to your liking; you will then be presented with an empty pattern-grid which you can immediately begin using to compose.  When you create a new pattern the default settings will be used which includes the default MIDI device driver that you selected when the software was installed (unless you changed your default MIDI device driver).

•	If you want to take a shortcut and create a pattern that has the settings that match another pattern without actually making all of the settings, you may clone the settings of the pattern to a new empty pattern.  Or if you like the entire pattern but do not want to alter the original  pattern, cloning is a quick way to create exact replica of the pattern.

•	And of course you can open any pattern from your library of patterns, make any edits, etc. and save those changes.  While a revert to last saved feature is available, once you save or close a pattern you cannot undo any changes prior to the last save.  So depending upon what your intent is, you may want to clone a pattern and edit its clone thereby preserving the original.

Pattern Setup

Once again, let us remind you that we will use the term "event" to describe an entry in the pattern-grid.  Before you begin entering events, you will want to setup the pattern for the music that you wish to compose, which consists of: the instrument voices and the pattern (meter) settings.

1.	You will want to set the meter of your pattern, the visual quantization, and the number of measures.  These settings are made using a utility dialog called the Pattern Settings.  If you do not select any custom settings, the default settings will be used (1 bar, 4 beats, and 8 divisions/beat).

2.	You may want to select a drum patch for The Drummer (if your sound engine supports multiple drum patches), you do not have to as default parameters will be used.  If you are using The*Muzical Wizard,  then you will also want to select other instruments for the players in your band.  These settings are made using a utility dialog called the Drummer Settings (or the Band Manager if you are using The*Muzical Wizard).  It works like this: patterns use players, and the music for each player is composed into pattern-grids.  As with a real band, you will want to have different instruments in the band -- this is done using this utility dialog and to select an instrument and a patch for a player and assigning it to a MIDI channel.

3.	If you have patterns that are several bars in length (or more) you may find it useful to set intra-pattern loop points that cause the pattern to loop within those points enabling you to more easily work on a specific section of a pattern .... see the details on intra-pattern looping below.

When you create a new pattern, a default band with default parameters are automatically so you can begin composing right away.  The MIDI device driver assigned to a new pattern's player(s) is the default driver that you selected when the program was first installed; you can change the default driver using the MIDI Settings utility.

Select the player that you want to work on by clicking on one of the player-grid tabs at the bottom of the grid (note that The*Drumz Wizard & The*Drumz Wizard PLUS only have a single player-- The Drummer).  While not exactly a pattern parameter setting, you can choose to view the whole pattern or a split view; this is sometimes handy as you can either view different sections of the same player or two different players (if you are using The*Muzical Wizard).

Once you have made the settings above you are ready to begin to compose a pattern using the pattern editing operations described below.  An exception to the above is instead of opening a new pattern for editing, you can clone the current pattern (pattern cloning is described in more detail below) and modify some or all of the events; this a great way to create slight variations in patterns without having to start from scratch.

Pattern Editing Operations

Musical notes (which we often refer to as "events") have three basic qualities: pitch, volume, and duration.  The editing features and operations described below explain how to use The*Wizard software to add events with specific pitch, volume and duration qualities as well as how alter any of those qualities for events which have already been created.

Many of the editing operations that you will want to use are accessed by clicking with the right-mouse button within the pattern-grid, over a single event, or over a group of selected events.  As you might expect the functions that operate on an event or group of selected events are only available when the mouse pointer is over the event(s) when the right-mouse button is clicked or when the appropriate conditions exist to use a particular function.  Following is a list of the functions provided in the popup menu:

Delete	removes the event(s) under the mouse pointer
Properties	shows the properties of the event(s) and allows you to edit the starting position of the event or the left-most event in a group as well as set or adjust the volume of the event(s)
Cut, Copy, Paste	cuts, copies, or pastes a group of selected events (does not work for single events)
Transpose	transposing moves events vertically by shifting up or down by a specified number of rows (or semitones)
Audition	lets you hear the sound of the event under the mouse pointer
Full Beat Triplet	inserts at the position of the mouse pointer 3 evenly spaced events spanning the duration of one entire beat
Half Beat Triplet	inserts at the position of the mouse pointer 3 evenly spaced events spanning the duration of one-half of an entire beat
Select All	selects all events in the pattern-grid of the current player
UnSelect	unselects any selected events in the pattern-grid of the current player
Cancel	closes the right-mouse popup menu (you can also use the escape key); this option is provided because if you click in the pattern-grid to close the menu you may create an event that you don't want
Auditioning sounds:

Clicking over any voice (in the Drummer player) or keyboard note image (any other non-Drummer player) will audition the corresponding voice and pitch (if pitch is applicable).  You can also audition a particular event using the audition button at the top of the Event Properties dialog utility (which is accessed by right-clicking with the mouse over an event).

You may right-click over any voice (in the Drummer player) or keyboard note image (any other non-Drummer player) to view the actual note value and its corresponding MIDI note number.  The actual note value is also displayed in the Event Properties dialog utility.

Entering events:

Make sure that edit mode is active (the pencil toolbar button is active), then simply place the mouse cursor over the cell that you want to enter an event and release the mouse button.  The cell that you select corresponds to a row of the pattern-grid which defines the pitch or voice (in the case of The Drummer); the cell also corresponds to a particular point in the timing of the pattern.  The display pane at bottom of the screen shows the pitch or voice and also the timing position of the event.

•	If you click and release the mouse over a cell, the event entered will fill the entire length of the cell and therefore have a duration equal to the length of the cell (you can always get information on the length and note equivalency of cells by viewing the Pattern Statistics in the Pattern Settings dialog).

•	If you click, hold the mouse button, and drag to the left before releasing the mouse button you are able to create events of varying length.

Entering event triplets:

The exact position of the mouse pointer sets the starting point for the first of the 3 events that will be inserted into the pattern-grid.  The 3 events will all have the same loudness value (using the value shown in the event loudness slider control), as well as being evenly spaced with equal duration's divided to fit in the space of either a full beat or half of a beat.  It is worthwhile to repeat that each beat always contains exactly 128 ticks (and so a half of a beat is 64 ticks).

The automatic triplet entry feature is accessed by first positioning the mouse pointer where you want the placing of the events to begin then clicking with the right-mouse button to enter the 3 events.  You will see that you have an option to create a triplet that fits within the duration of one entire beat or within the duration of one entire beat.  It is possible to create a full-beat triplet that starts at some point after the initial start of the beat causing the third and possibly the second event to flow into the next beat -- so make sure that if you are attempting to insert a triplet at the end portion of a pattern that you select a starting point that will allow the 3 events to fit and not overflow beyond the bounds of the pattern otherwise the triplet events will not be created.

Selecting events:

There are several ways to select events.  When you select events, a box is rubber-banded around the selected events; the events and section of the grid that is selected will become hilighted and will remain that way until they are unselected.  To unselect events, use the Unselect option that appears by right-clicking with the mouse over the selected events or hold a SHIFT key on your computer's keyboard and quickly click once in the pattern-grid.

•	If edit mode is active (the pencil toolbar button is active), then hold a SHIFT key on your computer's keyboard and drag a box around the events that you want to select.  When in edit mode the mouse cursor will be a pointer arrow.

•	Make select mode active (the rubber-band box toolbar button is active), then drag a box around the events that you want to select.  When in select mode the mouse cursor will be a cross-hair.

•	Using the right-click popup menu, you can use the Select All option to automatically select every event in the active player grid.

Deleting events:

There are two ways to delete events.  This applies to either a single event or a group of selected events.  Once deleted you cannot retrieve the events, however you can revert to the last saved version of your pattern.

1.	Hold a CONTROL key on your computer's keyboard and then click on top of the event or within the boundary of a group of selected events that you want to delete.

2.	Make sure that the mouse cursor is over the event or selected group of events that you want to delete and use the Delete option which is accessed by right-clicking with the mouse over an event or a group of selected events.

Moving events:

There are several ways and methods to move single events or a group of selected events:

•	To move a single event, make sure that edit mode is active (the pencil toolbar button is active), then simply place the mouse cursor over the center of the event that you want and click.  While the mouse button is depressed you will notice the cursor change to a 4-way arrow -- at that point you may move the event by dragging it then releasing the mouse button where you want the event deposited.  Note that you cannot move a group of selected events in this manner.

•	You can move a single event or a group of selected events horizontally in time using the Event Properties dialog utility which is accessed by right-clicking with the mouse over an event or a group of selected events.  When opened the dialog shows the current position of the event (or leftmost event in a group); you may alter the position values which lets you adjust the starting position by bar, beat, and tick.  Note that you cannot move events vertically (by pitch or voice) using the Event Properties dialog utility (use the Transpose function to do move events vertically).  Be careful not to shift events outside of the range of the grid.

Transposing events:

Transposing is another way to move events; in this case the events are moved vertically by shifting events up or down by a specified number of rows (or semitones).  There are two types of transposition: event transposition and player transposition (the latter is only available in The*Muzical Wizard).   Event transposing is available as an option by selecting an event or group of events then selecting the Transpose that appears by right-clicking with the mouse over the selected event(s).  "Transposing" typically refers to changing the pitch or key of musical notes by shifting the notes (or events) by a certain number of semitones.  Each semitone is assigned to a grid row and for The Drummer the MIDI note numbers actually play percussion voices instead of a different pitch of the same instrument voice.

You can use the event transpose feature to move an entire row of events from one percussion voice to another; this would be of use if, for example, you wanted to move all of the events from an open hihat voice to a ride cymbal voice (you could also do this by selecting an entire row and using Cut & Paste).  The use of transposition for pitched instrument voices should be clear -- you can use this function to adjust the pitch of events by a specific number of semitones.

•	You can Transpose a single event or a group of selected events vertically using the Transpose dialog utility, which is accessed by right-clicking with the mouse over an event or a  selected group of events.   The event transpose function lets you select positive or negative values adjusting the position of the event(s) by grid-rows (or semitones).  Be careful not to shift events outside of the range of the grid.

In addition to transposing events, The*Muzical Wizard offers the ability to transpose an entire pattern except for The Drummer's events.  This allows you to simultaneously adjust the musical key of all players; however since transposing The Drummer's events would have a different effect -- it would change the actual drum voices and so those events are not altered by this function.  The Transpose Pattern function is accessed from the main Pattern menu (or ALT-T quick-key).  Note that you can use the Select All function before using the event transpose to transpose all events for any one particular player (this would be useful, for example, to transpose a player by one octave which does not effect the key of the music relative to other players).

Changing the duration of events:

As with any musical note, the duration of the note is important to the music.  The duration of a note or sound is represented by the length of an event.  The length of an event is specified in ticks, where there are always 128 ticks per beat.  You can also visually adjust event lengths to line-up with division lines (of course the number or ticks per division depends upon how many visual division lines have been selected in a beat).

There are two ways to change the duration of events:

1.	To change the length of a single event using the mouse, make sure that edit mode is active (the pencil toolbar button is active), then carefully move the mouse cursor to the right edge of an event until the pointer changes to a dual-arrow.  For very short events it may be tricky find the spot where the cursor changes to a dual-arrow and you may need to use the event properties method described next.  When the cursor changes to a dual-arrow depress the mouse button and you will be able to adjust the length of the event by dragging the mouse.  Be careful when releasing the mouse button that you have not made too short of an event that can barely seen and hence difficult to edit.

2.	You can change the length of a single event horizontally in time using the Event Properties dialog utility which is accessed by right-clicking with the mouse over an event.  When opened the dialog shows the current duration of the event  (in ticks); you may alter the number of ticks which lets you adjust the length and duration of the event.

Changing the volume of events:

As with any musical note, the volume of the note is important to the music.  The volume of a note or sound is represented by the color of an event.  The volume of an event is specified by one of the 128 MIDI velocity values.  You can set the volume before creating events, or change the volume of one or more events after they have been entered:

•	To set the volume of a events before they are added to your patterns, make sure that edit mode is active (the pencil toolbar button is active), then select a loudness value using the sliding Event Loudness control on the left-side toolbar.   Each time you enter an event into the grid it will take-on the color and MIDI velocity value specified by the Event Loudness control.

•	You can change the volume of a single event or a group of selected events using the Event Properties dialog utility which is accessed by right-clicking with the mouse over an event or a group of selected events.  A slider appears at the bottom of the dialog that lets you may alter the MIDI velocity values.  For single events you are able to continuously adjust the value.  For a group of selected events you have an option to adjust the MIDI velocity values of all of the selected events relative to their individual current settings as well as to set all of the events to the exact same value.   Be careful not to shift MIDI velocity values beyond 128.

Changing event properties:

Recall the three basic qualities of an event: pitch, volume, and duration -- which are all shown in the Event Properties dialog utility that is accessed by right-clicking over an event or group of selected events.  You may also edit some of the event's properties using the combined display and edit controls in this dialog utility.

When accessing the properties for a single event, you are shown the pitch (but cannot alter it), the starting position and the length -- the latter two properties you can alter using the combined display and edit controls.  You may also adjust the loudness of the event.

When accessing the properties for a group of selected events, you are shown the starting position of the leftmost event(s) in the group.  Since the pitch (or voice) of the events may vary within the group, as well as the length of the events -- these two properties are not shown.  You can shift the position and hence the timing of the entire group of events using the combined display and edit controls.  You may also either adjust the loudness of the events or set all of the events to a specific loudness value.

Intra-Pattern Looping

You will at times find it useful to restrict the looping of a pattern to a subsection of the overall pattern, allowing you to more quickly refine a particular section of a pattern without having to wait for the entire pattern to loop to hear the changes that you make in a particular section.  For example, if you have a pattern that is 4 bars in length but you want to just refine bar #2, you will find it convenient to setup an intra-pattern loop causing the pattern to loop just on bar #2.

The upper area of the pattern-grid has a header bar that indicates the bar & beat numbers associated with each of the main visual divider lines -- if you have setup an intra-pattern loop, then two markers will be displayed that indicate the starting & ending intra-pattern loop points; also the area between the markers will be shaded.  The upper leftmost portion of the pattern-grid has a toggle option to enable or disable the intra-pattern looping feature (when disabled, the pattern will cycle through its entire length).  When you start a pattern to play and you have an intra-pattern loop enabled, the pattern will jump to the loop starting point and begin playing from that point.

Use the following steps to setup an intra-pattern loop:

1.	Set the starting & ending intra-pattern loop points -- by clicking with the mouse on the upper area of the pattern-grid that displays the numbers that correspond to each bar & beat; alternatively you can use the "Intra-Pattern Loop Setup" option under the main Pattern menu or the Alt-L quick-access keys.  A dialog will be presented which lets you set the starting-point and ending-point of an intra-pattern loop.

2.	Make sure that the intra-pattern loop feature is enabled .... a quick-access control is placed at the upper leftmost portion of the pattern-grid (if the control box is clear then the intra-pattern looping is not enabled) alternatively you can use the "Intra-Pattern Loop Enable" option under the main Pattern menu or the Alt-P quick-access keys.

Cut, Copy & Paste

The cut, copy & paste functions are accessed by right-clicking with the mouse over a group of selected events.  Since you are freely able to move and delete single events, it makes little sense to cut, copy or paste a single event -- so these functions are not available for single event operations.

The*Wizard software does not have an undo feature per se, but does offer a revert to last saved version feature.  In general, before performing significant editing operations we recommend doing a forced save before an editing operation such as cutting or pasting so that you can effectively and easily undo a cut or paste operation by reverting to the last saved version of the pattern.

Cut causes the selected group of events to be removed from the pattern-grid and placed into the clipboard buffer; the events will remain in the buffer until something else is moved into the buffer.  Right-click over a group of selected events then select the Cut function.  You can paste these events at another area of the same pattern-grid or any other pattern-grid (you can even paste the events to a different pattern).

Copy acts the same as the cut function, however the selected events are not removed from the pattern-grid.  Right-click over a group of selected events then select the Copy function.

Paste causes the events to be inserted into the pattern-grid from the position of the mouse.  Right-click over the spot in the pattern-grid that you want to insert the events and select the Paste function.  The positioning of the pasting can be tricky, so please read this carefully ..... the leftmost event in a selected group becomes the "lead event".  If there are two events at the same position in time (e.g., the same bar, beat, division and tick) then the upper leftmost event becomes the lead event.  Pasting begins by placing the lead event exactly where the cursor is positioned, and the rest of the events are placed into the grid to the right of (and possibly below) the lead event in the same relative positioning.  When pasting events, you do not have to start the pasting on a division boundary, but can begin the paste from any position within a cell!  If your pasted events are skewed a bit because you did not have the cursor exactly where you wanted, you can select the group of pasted events and nudge them to where you like using the Events Properties dialog (as described above).  Also, you will find it useful to use the display panes at the bottom of the screen to verify the positioning of the cursor prior to pasting.

Pattern Cloning

Another method of creating patterns is to clone them.  This is a particularly handy feature as it is often the case that you will develop a pattern and want to make a few variations yet keeping the same settings and musical qualities.  You may also want to extract a portion of a pattern to create a new pattern, which can be done by selecting a subset of the measures in the source pattern.  The pattern cloning feature is accessed from the main Pattern menu or by using the ALT-C quick-key combination.  You have two pattern cloning options:

1.	Cloning the settings only, which creates an empty pattern (with no events) but has all of the settings (# of bars, # of beats, # of divisions, Drummer/Band parameters, etc.) of the source pattern.

2.	Cloning the entire pattern, which creates an exact copy of the source pattern.

You have the opportunity to change the name of the new pattern you are creating by cloning from the default name supplied for you (which is the name of the pattern preceded by "clone of").  The new pattern clone is automatically saved into the same category as the pattern that was cloned; if necessary you can use the Pattern Manager utility to move the cloned pattern to any other category.  Also when cloning an entire pattern you have the option to only clone less than the entire source pattern by selecting a starting bar and an ending bar (e.g., to clone the clone bars 2 & 3 from a 4-bar pattern).


Event Properties

Each event (or musical note) in the pattern-grid has the following properties associated with it.  Note that each beat always is divided into exactly 128 ticks.

•	a starting position specified in terms of: a bar, a beat, and a tick within a beat

•	a duration or length specified in ticks

•	a row position which relates to a MIDI note number and hence either a drum/percussion voice or a pitch

•	a loudness (or more accurately -- a MIDI velocity value) which can be in the range of 1 to 127

When you create an event in a pattern-grid you are automatically setting the properties depending on the cell that you select, the length that you drag to, and the loudness value selected before creating the event.

You can always alter the properties of any event using the properties utility dialog which is accessed by first positioning the mouse pointer over the event whose properties that you want to view and edit, then clicking with the right-mouse button and selecting Properties from the popup menu.  As you might expect, changing the position of an event moves the event horizontally in time.  In addition to being able to alter any of the event's properties you can also audition the sound associated with the event using the Audition button.

You can also alter the properties of a group of selected events using the properties utility dialog which is accessed by first selecting a group of events, positioning the mouse pointer over the hilighted group of selected events whose properties that you want to view and edit, then clicking with the right-mouse button and selecting Properties from the popup menu.  Unlike the properties utility dialog for a single event, you cannot audition.  As you might expect, changing the position of a group of events moves the entire group of events horizontally in time ....  this is a really handy feature to position a group of events.  You will notice that the properties utility dialog provides two options for altering the loudness values of the group of selected events:

•	You can adjust the loudness values of the events (+  or  -) by a specific amount, which will keep the same relative loudness relationship between the events.  If an adjustment of the value of any events down is such that they would go below 1 then they will be set to a value of 1; similarly if an adjustment of the value of any events up is such that they would go above 127 then they will be set to a value of 127.

•	You can set the loudness values of all of the events to the same specific loudness.

  Pattern Editing Operations


Pattern Manager Utility

As you can see, the Pattern Manager is actually a set of four separate utilities, each of which is described in a separate section below.  You may click over one of the tab images above to jump directly to a specific Pattern Manager utility function.

New Category & New Pattern Creation

You can also reach this function directly using the Create New Pattern or Category (ALT-N) option under the main Pattern menu.  This utility lets you create new categories and new patterns ....

The*Wizard provides a convenient method for you to store and organize you patterns in folders called categories.  You may want to consider the Pattern Manager as a filing cabinet with folders into which you can insert patterns.  You may freely create categories to store any patterns that you like.  When you create a category you can give it any name that you like, and you may also add a brief description to your category.

New categories are created by:

•	clicking on the New Category button to open the new category creation dialog

•	entering a name for your category

•	entering an optional description

•	clicking the DO IT! button

When you create patterns you must also decide into which category the pattern will be placed; you may either select an existing category (using the drop-down selection control) or you may create a new category.  When you open the Pattern Manager utility the category associated with the current open pattern will automatically be selected, so be sure to change the category or create a new category if appropriate.

Note that when you create a new pattern, the driver selected for the player(s) in the pattern's band will be set to the default MIDI device driver selected in the MIDI settings utility.

New Patterns are created by:

•	entering a pattern name; the default name "Untitled" is automatically entered .... you should change this to any name that is appropriate up to 20 characters in length

•	selecting a category or creating a new category, as described above

•	clicking on the Settings button if you want to change any of these parameters: # of bars, # of beats, # of divisions/beat; if you do not enter your settings here the default settings of: 1 bar, 4 beats & 8 divisions/beat will be used (note that you can always change the pattern settings using the Pattern Settings dialog when the pattern is open)

•	clicking the DO IT! button; if you click the Exit button without first clicking the DO IT! button, then your pattern will not be created

Pattern Cloning

You can also reach this function directly using the Clone current pattern (ALT-C) option under the main Pattern menu.  This utility lets you create new clone the current open pattern to a new pattern.  This topic is discussed in detail elsewhere in this document ....

  Pattern Cloning

Pattern Manager

You can also reach this function directly using the Open/Remove an existing pattern (ALT-O) option under either the main File menu or the main Pattern menu.  This utility lets you perform several file-type operations on your patterns as are described below.  The Pattern Manager utility uses a tree-type display to show your categories and the patterns within a particular category.  If a category has plus sign ("+") icon to the left of its name, then there are patterns stored in that category which can be viewed as described below.  If a category has musical note icon to the left of its name, then there are no patterns stored in that category.

Viewing patterns in a category:

•	click on the plus sign (or double-click on the category name) to expand the category display list to show all of the patterns in the category

•	if the patterns in a category are being displayed, you can collapse the display in the same way as expanding it (clicking the plus sign or double-clicking on the category name)

Opening a pattern to play or for editing:

•	click on the pattern name to hilight it, then click the "Open" button (or double-click on the pattern name)

Removing a pattern from a category:

•	click on the pattern name to hilight it, then click the "Remove" button  (warning: once removed, a pattern cannot be retrieved)

Copying a pattern from one category to another category:

•	click on the pattern name and drag it to another category
note that the form of the icon being dragged shows multiple items

Moving a pattern from one category to another category:

•	first hold a SHIFT key on your computer's keyboard
then click on the pattern name and drag it to another category
note that the form of the icon being dragged shows a single item

Pattern Group Importing & Exporting

You can also reach this function directly using the Pattern Group Import/Export (ALT-G) option under the main File and Pattern menus.  This utility lets you import and export patterns as a self-contained group.

Do not confuse this function with importing from Standard MIDI Files and exporting to Standard MIDI Files!  Also, it is not possible to import a pattern if you have a pattern with the same name already open (actually the pattern will be copied into the selected category but be overwritten by the autosave).  If you want to restore an older version of a pattern, then you will need to clear the pattern from memory by opening a different pattern or creating a new pattern before importing from a pattern-group file.

These pattern import & export functions import native The*Wizard patterns into categories or export native The*Wizard patterns to a self-contained group file.  Since our unique file system does not save patterns (and songs) with names that are recognizable by looking directly at the files in the category sub-directories on your disk, this utility is provided.  You should think of this function as a sort-of pattern library system.  You will want to use these pattern import & export functions for a couple of reasons:

1.	To export a group of patterns in native format to share with another composer using The*Wizard software.

2.	To import patterns or styles into your software.  If you get additional samples, style-packs, etc. either from us, from another business, or from other composers -- you will need to install those patterns onto your computer's hard-disk for use with this software, and so this is the utility you will use.

In addition to pattern and song files, there is one other type of file used by The*Wizard software: Pattern Group Files, which have a file extension of "PTG".  These files are used to combine patterns into a group for distribution as a single file.  This utility lets you add patterns to a pattern-group, or extract patterns from a pattern-group into any of your categories.

Note that when you import a pattern from a group, the driver selected for the player(s) in the pattern's band will be set to the default MIDI device driver selected in the MIDI settings utility.

Creating a new pattern-group:

•	click the "New Group" button; the filename will be cleared (actually set to: "Untitled") and the all of the patterns in the pattern-group list on the right side of the utility dialog will be cleared

•	add patterns to the group

•	click the "Save Group As ..." button and use the file selector and enter a name for the new pattern-group file

Opening a pattern-group:

•	click the "Open Group" button and use the file selector to select a desired pattern-group file

Adding patterns to a pattern-group:

•	either open a pattern-group or create a new pattern-group as described above

•	expand the view of one or more pattern categories shown on the left side
(click on the plus sign or double-click on the category name to expand or contract a category)

•	click on a pattern name within a category to hilight it, then click the "Add ->" button
or click on a category name and click the "Add All" button

•	click the "Save Group" button;  or click the "Save Group As ..." button and use the file selector to save to a new pattern-group file (the original pattern-group file will not be altered if you do this)

Removing patterns from a pattern-group:

•	open a pattern-group file as described above

•	click on a pattern name within a the group list (the right-side list) to hilight it, then click the "Remove" button, or click the "Rmv All" button (which removes all of the patterns from the group list)

•	click the "Save Group" button;  or click the "Save Group As ..." button and use the file selector to save to a new pattern-group file (the original pattern-group file will not be altered if you do this)

Extracting patterns from a pattern-group to categories:

•	open a pattern-group file as described above

•	click on a pattern name within the pattern-group list (the right side list) to hilight it

•	click on a category name on the left side to hilight it (as the destination category)

•	click the "<- Copy" button


Pattern Settings

The Pattern Settings dialog has four primary sections:

1.	In the upper left section you can view the pattern's name and the category to which the pattern belongs.  You may edit the pattern's name (by typing over the existing name text), as well as move it to another category (by selecting a different category using the drop-down selection menu).

2.	In the lower left section you can select which players are viewed in either of the two pattern-grids.  If the pattern-grid is in single view mode, you will only be able to change the upper view.  In other words, you can only change both the upper & lower views if the pattern-grid is in split view mode when the Pattern Settings dialog is opened.

3.	In the upper right are a set of controls that let you select what is essentially the meter of the pattern.  The meter is set using the number of beats control (e.g., for 5/4, just select 5 beats).  The divisions are used to help visually align events and also to set the default duration of events; the status area will indicate the duration and note equivalency for any combination of settings.  While there is no zoom feature, you can view more (or less) of the pattern grid by changing the divisions/beat setting which will not in any way alter how your pattern will play.  The number of bars (or "measures") is variable:
    - The*Drumz Wizard only allows you to create single bar patterns until it is registered
    - The*Drumz Wizard when registered allows up to 4 bars per pattern
    - The*Drumz Wizard PLUS  &  The*Muzical Wizard allows up to 16 bars per pattern

4.	The mid and lower right section provides various statistics about the patterns and duration's of pattern-cells for any combination of bar, beat, and division settings.


Band Manager/Drummer Settings

This dialog is used to associate instrument patches with The*Drumz Wizard's "Drummer" as well as to adjust the many MIDI parameters that control the sound properties of the selected instrument patch.  It works like this: patterns use players, and the music for each player is composed into pattern-grids.  There is only a single player: the "Drummer"; while you cannot change this you can select different patches and/or drumkits for the Drummer plus set the MIDI channel, effects, volume and pan position.  Note that almost every MIDI sound device handles drum patches differently, offering varying degrees and types of features -- we have tried to provide a flexible environment for configuring (pitched) instrument patches and drum patches, but surely there are surely exceptions that may make working with your particular equipment more or less of a challenge.

You should study the documentation supplied with any of the MIDI sound devices that you will be using with this software so that you make the correct choices of parameters (e.g., synthesizers, sound cards, etc.).  You should specifically seek to understand:

•	what choices of instrument patches are available to you, and how to select each instrument (particularly how to select banks if there are banks of instrument patches), and what is the mapping between MIDI patch number and the patch name

•	whether or not more than one drumkit is available, how to select drumkit patches, and what is the mapping between MIDI note number and the (drum/percussion) voice names

•	whether or not the device is compatible with one of the standard operating modes, such as: General MIDI ("GM"), Roland's GS, or Yamaha's XG

•	whether or not effects are supported (such as reverberation or chorusing)

Two buttons are provided for The*Muzical Wizard to add or remove players from the band, where a band can have up to 16 players; these buttons are not active for The*Drumz Wizard & The*Drumz Wizard PLUS because there is only one "Drummer" player.

The best way to describe what all of these controls are used for is to click over any of the controls in the following image (and a popup description will appear).


Band Manager/Drummer Settings Related Topics

  MIDI Instruments & Studios

  MIDI Devices, Device Types, & Device Settings

  Patches

  Patch/Sound banks

  Voices (for drumkits)


Band Manager/Drummer Settings Player Tabs

Use these tabs to select the player whose MIDI parameters and related sound properties you want to change.  Recall that The*Drumz Wizard  & The*Drumz Wizard PLUS have only the one player: the "Drummer".

If you have a particular player's pattern-grid open when you access the Band Manager utility dialog, then that player's settings tab will automatically be selected.

The arrows in the upper-right corner are used to shift the tabs display (if you have more player tabs than can be viewed at a time).


Player Name Field

Recall that The*Drumz Wizard  & The*Drumz Wizard PLUS have only the one player: the "Drummer".  Every bank must have at least one player, and by default that player's name is set to "Drummer" which cannot be altered.

If you are using The*Muzical Wizard, then you can enter any name that you like (up to 20 characters in length).

Note that when you add players, a default name is given to each player -- you may freely alter the default player names (with the exception of the "Drummer").


MIDI Device Driver Selector

To hear anything play using MIDI, there must be a connection between your computer and some MIDI device capable of generating sounds.  This connection can either be via a MIDI cable to an external device -- which would require a MIDI interface installed in your computer.  Or, this connection could be internal to your computer -- as is the case for sound cards.  In either case, the way the software connects to the device you want to use is through a device driver, therefore it is critical that you select a device driver.

The*Wizard will automatically select the first MIDI device driver found in your computer, if you do not select a device driver.  Make sure to select an appropriate device driver; generally the device driver name will somewhat correspond to the physical device with which you wish to connect.  Selecting the correct device driver is particularly important in the case of sound cards as they often have two drivers: one for their synthesizer and one for their MIDI interface port.  If you accidentally select the MIDI interface port and have nothing connected to it, then you will hear nothing.


MIDI Device Mode Indicator

Some MIDI devices comply with one of the common modes of operation.  The most common modes (or "standards" as they are called) are: GM, GS, & XG.  At the bottom of this utility dialog is a button that will access another utility dialog that will allow you to associate each of your MIDI devices (actually the device drivers) with a particular type/mode.

  MIDI Device Types/Modes

  MIDI Settings Utility


Instrument Selector

Use this control to match the MIDI instrument or device that you are using.

If you have a keyboard synthesizer, the look for the name of your particular keyboard; likewise if you have a drum-machine or other type of MIDI device.  If you are using a sound card, then chances are it fits into one of the common sound card types, such as:

•	Sound Blaster (or one of the many compatible clones)

•	General MIDI (regardless of the manufacturer)

•	GS (generally from Roland)

•	XG (generally from Yamaha)

If you do not find an instrument that matches what you have, then you will likely need to edit the information about your instrument into The*Wizard's database ....

  Adding Instruments to The*Wizard's database


Bank Selectors

In order to select a sound (a "MIDI Patch" actually), you may need to first select a patch bank.  This of course depends on the MIDI sound device(s) that you are using.

  MIDI Bank Selection


MIDI Patch Selector

Program numbers (or "patches" as they are also called) have a corresponding name so that you don't have to remember, for example, that program #41 is a violin …. you just pick the patch name "violin" and the software automatically looks up the corresponding patch number in its database.

  MIDI Patch Selection


MIDI Channel Selector

MIDI by definition supports communications using up to 16 individual channels.  The way a MIDI device plays multiple sounds at a time is by setting different patches to a different channel, then whatever MIDI data arrives over a particular channel is played using the sound that corresponds to the patch set onto that channel.

As you define the parameters for each of your players, you will need to select a unique MIDI channel for each player.  Note that it is fairly common to assign drum & percussion patches to channel #10; in fact with GM compatible devices, selecting channel #10 automatically selects the drumkit voice mapping.

You have the flexibility to set more than one player to the same MIDI channel of the same MIDI device, so take care when assigning instruments & patches to MIDI channels!  If you accidentally set two players to the same device & channel with different patches, then the highest numbered player's settings will take effect.  This flexibility can be handy if for example you want have two players play different musical parts using the same instrument voice (e.g., a "left-handed piano part" and a "right-handed piano part").


Effects Controls

Three sliders are provided that transmit MIDI continuous controller messages to control standard effects, such as: reverberation, chorus, and a third "variation" effect.  These controls generally will control the wet-dry mix if the effect applied.  Of course the actual operation of these sliders depends upon whether your particular MIDI device(s) support effects and whether the effects can be controlled by MIDI continuous controller messages (and is so, which ones).

These controls will in fact work as expected with GS & XG compatible devices, as these devices use the MIDI continuous controller messages in a uniform way, as shown below:

•	The reverb effect control is assigned to continuous controller #91

•	The chorus effect control is assigned to continuous controller #93

•	The variation effect control is assigned to continuous controller #94


Drummer Voice Names Selector

You'll notice that for the "Drummer" player that the left edge of the pattern-grid contains a list of drum & percussion sounds.  The sounds (or "voices" as we like to call them) are inserted into the grid from a database which is keyed by voice-name sets.  This control allows you to select among the voice-name sets currently in the database.  If any drum patches that you use have a mapping that differs from those supplied in the default database, you can easily add your own entries to the database.

If you select a drum patch that has a voice-name set associated with it, then a voice-name set will automatically be selected when the patch is selected.  Similarly if an instrument is selected that has a drum patch associated with it, then both the drum patch and a voice-name set will automatically be selected.

  Drummer voice-names


Add or Remove Players from the Band

These buttons are only applicable for: The*Muzical Wizard, which can have up to 16 players in each pattern's band.

Use these buttons to add a player to the band or remove a player.  You will not be able to add a 17th player, nor will you be able to delete the last player (which will always be the "Drummer").  Be careful when using the Removing Player function as the player and all of its settings and events will be removed; you can however use the revert to last saved version of the pattern to restore the player if necessary.


Volume & Pan Settings/Mixer

This button opens a utility that lets you adjust the volume & pan position of a player.  Each player can have its own volume setting and pan position setting.  The relative volume & pan settings for each player in a band is referred to as the "mix".  In addition to the volume & pan settings, with the band-mixer you will also be able to mute individual players, or set one player to solo (which mutes all of the other players).  Another way to mute or solo a player is by right-clicking on its pattern-grid tab and using the popup menu options for mute & solo.

The utility is dynamic --  it shows a mix module for each player in the band.  If you are not sure what the player is (because the mixer modules only shows the player number), then click on top of the player number at the top of each module to see the player's name.


MIDI Device Modes

If you need to set the type or mode of your device, this button provides a shortcut to the utility dialog that lets you associate each of the device drivers in your system to a particular mode/type of device.

  MIDI Device Types/Modes

  MIDI Settings Utility


Number of Players

Shows the number of players in this band.

The number of players is always "1" for The*Drumz Wizard  & The*Drumz Wizard PLUS as these products are for composing drum-tracks & emulating a drum-machine.


Exit Band Manager/Drummer Settings Utility

Exits the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog.

All changes are automatically saved into the pattern.


Pattern Toolbar & Quick access buttons

Quick access to functions: - opens the Pattern Manager utility dialog - opens the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility dialog - opens the Pattern Settings utility dialog -  toggles the pattern-grid display between single and split view	Slider controlz: - sets the tempo that the pattern will play (in beats per minute) - sets the loudness/MIDI velocity value for events being entered	Quick access actions (note these buttons are in left-right pairs): - edit-mode  &  event-select-mode toggle - forced save  &  revert to last saved buttons - Standard MID File Import &  Standard MIDI File Export  (importing from Standard MIDI Files is only available in The*Drumz Wizard PLUS &  The*Muzical Wizard, and is not available in The*Drumz Wizard)


Pattern Status Display

At the bottom of the screen is a status bar.

•	The left portion of the status bar provides messages relevant to any particular action as well as quick help tips for any of the controls.  When you click on a control the function of the control is shown, so if you are not sure of what a button or control does click over it to see its brief description on the bottom left area of the screen.  You can abort any screen-button press by moving the mouse pointer off of the button before releasing the button on the mouse.

•	The right portion of the status bar is divided into 4 panes that show the horizontal and vertical position of the mouse within the pattern-grid.  The first 3 panes show the horizontal position in terms of: bar, beat, and division, respectively.  The rightmost pane shows the vertical position; for the Drummer player the actual voice is displayed and for other players the note and octave are shown.


Player-Grids

You may select a single view or a split view (single view is the default).  By dragging the center line in split view mode, you can change the relative height of each of the two grid sections.  Grids are variable in length: up to 4 bars for The*Drumz Wizard and up to 16 bars for The*Drumz Wizard PLUS & The*Muzical Wizard.  The number of beats and visual divisions are also variable and are set using the Pattern Settings utility dialog.  While there is no zoom feature, you can view more (or less) of the pattern grid by changing the divisions/beat setting which will not in any way alter how your pattern will play.  The title bar at the top of the grid shows the pattern name and the category to which it belongs; clicking on the title bar allows you to edit the pattern name.  Immediately below the title bar are bar and beat markers.  The grid itself uses a variety of different color and thickness lines to separate bars, beats & divisions.  Below the title bar is an area of the pattern-grid indicates the bar and beat numbers associated with each of the main visual divider lines -- if you have setup an intra-pattern loop, then two markers will be displayed that indicate the position of the starting & ending intra-pattern loop points; the area between the markers will also be shaded.  The upper leftmost portion of the pattern-grid will have a toggle option to quickly enable or disable the intra-pattern looping feature (when disabled, the pattern will cycle through its entire length).  The scrollbars and play controlz are used to shift the viewable area to other areas of the grid.

At the bottom of the pattern-grid are tabs with the names of a player -- each player has its own pattern-grid.  If there are no events in a player's pattern-grid the name appears black, otherwise it appears red.  If a player is muted, it is shown on the tab; similarly if a player is set to solo, all other player tabs will indicate that they are muted.  Clicking on a player tab selects that player's pattern-grid.  Right-clicking on a player tab activates a popup menu that shows the number of events in that pattern-grid.  The popup menu for The*Muzical Wizard (only) has additional options to: mute a player, solo a player (which mutes all other players), and to add or remove a player.


Importing from Standard MIDI Files

This feature is not available in The*Drumz Wizard.  However, importing from Standard MIDI Files (SMF's) into patterns is available in the The*Drumz Wizard PLUS  &  The*Muzical Wizard products.


Exporting Patterns to Standard MIDI Files

When accessing the Standard MIDI File (SMF) export function for exporting patterns, you will be prompted whether you want the resulting exported file to be a type-0 SMF, or a type-1 SMF.  By definition a type-0 SMF combines all of the players into a single channelized track, and a type-1 SMF separates all of the players (and hence MIDI channels) into independent tracks.

After selecting the type of SMF that you wish to create, you will be presented with the Windows file selector which allows you to select a name for the file as well as where you want to store it.

Once exported to a SMF, you can use that file with any other software that can load and/or play SMF's.  You can also import the SMF back into The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard.  This is a great way to compose drum-tracks and musical styles then complete your song with melodies or orchestrations using a linear track-based sequencing program.

You can also export an entire song to a SMF.


Understanding & Using The Song Wizard

There are several components, features, and utilities associated with the Song Wizard ....

Creating & Editing Songs	Song Specs	Song toolbar
The Song Manager utility	Status display panes	Play controlz & Real-time Counter
The Song Wizard is the operating environment of the software that lets you sequence your musical patterns into songs.  Each topic below explores the details of each aspect of the Song Wizard's user interface.

The main component of the Song Wizard is essentially two lists: a Category & Pattern List and a large song-sequence list that occupies either the whole or the rightmost section of the center section of the screen.  If the Category & Pattern List is closed, then the song-sequence list occupies the entire screen.  You will see that you have an option to open and close the Category & Pattern List which is placed at the left side of the Song Wizard.  The display of patterns within a category may be expanded or contracted by clicking on the plus or minus sign icons to the left of a category name, respectively.  The Category & Pattern List is used to select patterns for inclusion into song-sequences -- since a song is merely a sequence of patterns the Category & Pattern List is an important aspect of the song creation process.  To build a song-sequence, you must first select the patterns that you wish to use and copy them into the song's sequence list; you may select any pattern from any category.  Any object in a song-sequence list can be edited by double clicking on that object.

There are several aspects of each pattern in a song-sequence list as is displayed from left to right:

1.	The song-slot pointer icon, which is an arrow that points to the right towards the pattern name; if a pattern is not selected, a musical note icon will be displayed.  If one or more patterns are selected, then an arrow will be shown to the left of each selected pattern.  A selected pattern or patterns may be cut or deleted.  When you start a song-sequence to play the selected pattern will be the starting point of the song-sequence; unless multiple patterns are selected when you start to play in which case the highest pattern in a group of selected patterns will be the starting point.

2.	The pattern's name.

3.	The length of the pattern in bars (or "measures").  Note that the status display at the bottom right of the screen will show the overall length of a song-sequence in terms of bars.

4.	The category from which the pattern was copied from.

5.	For The*Muzical Wizard the number of players will also be shown.  Since The*Drumz Wizard & The*Drumz Wizard PLUS have only one player (the "Drummer") it is not necessary to show the number of players as it will always be "1".

6.	The following limitations pertain to the creation of song-sequences:

−	Maximum number of objects (e.g., patterns) in a song-sequence list:  65534

−	Maximum number of measures created by a song-sequence:  4,294,967,295
(depending on the resources available in your system, such as memory, you may not quite be able reach this limit)

The following important points apply to patterns that have been copied to a song's pattern-set:

•	Once you copy a pattern into a song, that copy now becomes an integral part of the song and is independent of the original pattern in your pattern category.

•	This next point is very subtle, so please read carefully and make sure to understand it ....  There is only one copy of a pattern in a song-sequence!!!  Even though there may be several instances of the pattern in the song-sequence -- all instances of the a pattern in a song-sequence are the same and any instance beyond the first instances is in actuality a reference pointer to the first instance.  When you first add a pattern into a song-sequence, that becomes the song's copy of the pattern and all subsequent additions of that same pattern into the song-sequence list create reference pointers to that song's copy of the pattern (even though you are physically adding additional instances of the pattern by dragging from a category).  So, for example, if you add a pattern from some category into a song then later change the pattern in the category and add new instances of the pattern from that category into other areas of the song-sequence -- all instances of the pattern in the song-sequence will be identical.  A function is provided (using the right-mouse popup menu) that lets you easily update all instances of a pattern in a song-sequence from its original source category.

•	Deleting a pattern from a song does not delete the original source pattern from your pattern categories.

•	You may edit any pattern in a song, by double-clicking on the pattern name in the song-sequence list.  Any changes only apply to the pattern in the song and not the original source pattern from your pattern categories.  When editing a pattern that is part of a song ....

−	the title bar of the pattern-grid will indicate the song title and the pattern name,

−	you will not be able create a new pattern by cloning

−	you will not be able create a new pattern by importing from a Standard MIDI File

−	you can copy patterns from a song to a category to synchronize your patterns if you wish; copying a pattern from a song to a pattern-category will overwrite the pattern in the selected pattern category

−	if you update a pattern in one of your categories and decide that you want these changes to also be reflected in your patterns, then you will have a couple of options to do this which require some effort ....

−	copy the changes in your source pattern into the copy buffer and then open the same pattern in a song for editing and paste your changes

−	remove all instances of the pattern from a song, then copy the pattern from its category into the song-sequence list replacing all instances of where that pattern was

When you start a song playing, it will begin playing from the selected pattern, which is the pattern with an arrow on the left edge of the screen.  When you stop a song from playing, the counter freezes at the point you stop play and the song play list also freezes at that position.  On your computer's keyboard you can use the arrow keys, Page-Up & Page-Down keys, and Home & End keys to easily move the song pointer through the song-sequence list.

The real-time counter shows the actual bars and beats being played  if, for example, you play two patterns of four bars each (for a total of 8 bars), then the real-time counter will count up to the final beat and tick of the 8th bar of the song.     The lower right portion of the status bar always shows you exactly how many bars (or "measures") are in the song-sequence list.

While we have just described the song-sequence composing environment, it is also quite important to understand the various tools and techniques for actually creating & editing song-sequences ....

 detailed information about patterns & songs

 ... how to create song-sequences

Once you have created some song-sequences, you will likely find that you will want to open them at a later date or remove them.  All of these file-type operations are carried out using the Song Manager utility.  Note that unlike patterns which are stored in categories, songs are stored together (all in the same "songs" directory folder, though as with patterns the filenames are not recognizable).

  using the Song Manager utility


Creating & Editing Song Sequences

Creating song-sequences is a very simple process.  Since most of the actual composing is done using the Pattern Wizard, the Song Wizard is merely a means by which you construct song-sequences using patterns in your category library.

To create new song-sequences:

1.	First you will need to create a new song.  There are several ways to reach this point ....
If you start the software and select to create a new song, you will be prompted to enter a name for your new song; you must then proceed with the steps below.  You can also create a new song using the "Create A New Song" component of the Song Manager utility, or access this function directly from the main Song menu when operating in Song Wizard mode.  In addition to creating new songs, you can of course also open an existing song for editing, which is done using the song selection function of the Song Manager utility.

2.	You will need to select the patterns that you wish to use in your song from any category.  This is done by opening the pattern-category list and dragging patterns from the pattern-category list into the song-sequence list in the order that you want those patterns to play.  Since patterns can be of varying lengths, the song's status display at the bottom of the screen shows how many bars (or "measures") are actually created in the song-sequence.

You'll notice that when you drag patterns from the pattern-category list into the song-sequence list that the mouse cursor turns into a finger-pointer.  When you release the mouse button to drop a pattern into some position in the song-sequence list, the pattern will either be inserted before or after the pattern which is being pointed to by the cursor's finger.  This is also the case for patterns inserted into a song-sequence by pasting.  This is controlled by a placement setting -- use the right-mouse button to set the placement control as before or after the current selection (the default setting is: after) as indicated by the presence or not of a check by the "Insert After" option in the popup menu.  If the insertion setting is after, then insertions will be after the pattern being pointed to or the end of the list if you are dragging to an empty area at the end of the list, otherwise insertions will be before the pattern being pointed to or before the last pattern at the end of the list if you are dragging to an empty area at the end of the list.  You will need to have the insertion setting set to before (no check) if you want to insert any patterns at the head of an existing song-sequence list.

You can rearrange your song-sequences at any time by adding patterns, removing patterns, changing the position of patterns, details on how to perform these operations are provided below.  You will also find the copy & paste operations (accessed using the right-mouse button) an easy way to edit the song-sequence list.  Note that you can select multiple consecutive patterns in the song-sequence list by holding the shift key while selecting patterns in the list -- this is a handy way to create sections by: selecting several patterns, copying them, then pasting them elsewhere in the song-sequence list.  Any object in a song-sequence list can be edited by double clicking on that object.

Many of the editing operations that you will want to use are accessed by clicking with the right-mouse button within the song-sequence list.  The functions that operate on a single pattern in the song-sequence or a group of selected patterns only operate on a pattern or patterns that are selected when the right-mouse button is clicked.  Selected patterns have an arrow icon at the left edge of the song-sequence list; there is always at least one selected pattern in the list (because the song pointer is always set to some point in the list).  Following is a list of the functions provided in the popup menu:

Cut, Copy, Paste	cuts, copies, or pastes a pattern or group of selected patterns; for pasting, position the finger-pointer to the position in the list where you want the paste to occur
Delete	removes the pattern or group of selected patterns
Insert After	insertion mode selection -- if a check appears by this option then patterns inserted (by dragging or pasting) into the list will be inserted after the pattern pointed to, otherwise they will be inserted before the pattern pointed to
Select All	selects all of the patterns in the song-sequence list
Copy to Category	the pattern or group of selected patterns will be copied to a pattern category; you must have the Category-Pattern list open and a category selected
Update from Source Category	the selected pattern in the song-sequence list will be copied from its original pattern category into your song-sequence overwriting all occurrences in your song-sequence list
Because patterns in a song-sequence are copies of patterns from your categories, and because you can edit and alter a pattern that is part of a song-sequence  -- it is possible that you can have two copies of essentially the same pattern that are different.  If this situation arises because you change a pattern in a song-sequence and you would like to also have those changes captured in the pattern in a category, you can use the Copy to Category function to copy one or more patterns from a song-sequence list into a category (further details on this function are provided below).  Similarly, if you alter a pattern in one of your pattern categories and you want to update a song-sequence to incorporate the changes in that pattern into a song-sequence which has a copy of that pattern, then you will need to use the Update from Source Category function to overwrite the pattern in a song-sequence.

In addition to adding patterns to a song's pattern-set and constructing song-sequences you will want to use the following tools (on the toolbar):

sets the tempo of a song-sequence	saves the song / reverts to the previous saved version of a song
Song-sequence creation & editing operations:

Note that you cannot edit or rearrange a song-sequence while it is actively playing.

Keep in mind that patterns in a song are copies of patterns that are in your pattern categories.  Therefore after you have copied a pattern into a song you in reality now have 2 copies of the same pattern (one in a category and one embedded into a song).  If you change either copy of a particular pattern then your patterns will no longer be in-synch .... this may be desirable and it may not, depending upon what you are trying to achieve and how you choose to manager your patterns & songs.  If you edit a pattern that belongs to a song then you can also copy it back into your pattern categories to keep the patterns in synch.  Similarly, if you alter a pattern in one of your categories and want to also have those updates in a song, then you can replace a pattern in a song re-copying the same pattern into the song.

Adding patterns to a song-sequence:

•	you will first need to expand the view of the categories & patterns ....  use the Open/Close Category-Pattern List option under the main Song menu or the display toggle button on the left upper section of the toolbar

•	expand the view of one or more pattern categories shown on the left side
(click on the plus sign or double-click on the category name to expand or contract a category)

•	click on a pattern name within a category to hilight it, then drag it into the song-sequence list; the pattern will either be inserted before or after the pattern in the song-sequence which is being pointed to by the cursor's finger which is controlled by a placement setting accessed using the right-mouse button

Removing patterns from a pattern-set:

•	click on a pattern name within the song-sequence list to hilight it, then click the use the delete option from the popup menu activated by clicking with the right mouse button, or press the delete key; you can select several consecutive patterns using the shift key to delete a group of consecutive patterns if you like

Rearranging patterns within a song-sequence:

•	click on a pattern in the song-sequence list and use the cut & paste functions from the popup menu activated by clicking with the right mouse button;  you may cut a single pattern, a group of consecutive selected patterns (groups of consecutive patterns are selected while holding the shift key), or a group of non-consecutive patterns (groups of non-consecutive patterns are selected while holding the control key); the paste operation begins at a selected pattern in the song-sequence list (the pattern with an arrow at the left) and will paste either before or after the pattern depending on the state of the insertion mode -- use the right-mouse button to set the placement control as before or after the current selection

Copying patterns from a song-sequence to a pattern category:

•	open the Category-Pattern list using the corresponding option in the main Song menu or click the quick-access button on the toolbar, then click on the category that you want to copy to (you don't need to expand the view of the selected destination category); you will then need click on a pattern in the song-sequence list and use the Copy to Category function from the popup menu activated by clicking with the right mouse button; you may copy a single pattern or a group of consecutive selected patterns (groups of consecutive patterns are selected while holding the shift key; note that if you already have a pattern with the same name in the destination category it will be overwritten)

Updating patterns in a song-sequence from a pattern category:

•	click on a pattern in the song-sequence list and use the Update from Source Category function from the popup menu activated by clicking with the right mouse button; when you use this feature all instances of the pattern in the song sequence will be updated (you can revert to the previous version of the song-sequence to undo this operation)

Setting and changing the tempo of a song-sequence:

•	the tempo setting slider on the toolbar is used to set the starting tempo of a song and overrides the tempo that the individual patterns in the song are set to; you can also use the tempo slider control to vary the tempo of a song-sequence while it is playing


Song Manager Utility

As you can see, the Song Manager is actually a set of two separate utilities, described in a separate section below.  You may click over one of the tab images above to jump directly to a specific Song Manager utility function.

Creating a new song-sequence

•	simply enter a name for your song sequence into the song-name field (note that the default name of "Untitled" is automatically inserted)

•	then click the "DO IT!" button and a new song will be created

If you want to change the name of a song after it has been created, just click on the main title bar of the Song Wizard screen and an editable box will appear allowing you to edit the song's name.

Once a song is created the song-sequence list will be empty, so you will need to add patterns to your song-sequence (by dragging patterns from the categories & patterns list into the song-sequence list).

Opening, Removing, Importing & Exporting Songs

You can also reach this function directly using the Open/Remove a song (ALT-S) option under either the main File menu or the main Song menu.  This utility lets you open an existing song-sequence, or remove a song-sequence from your computer's hard-disk (warning: once song is removed it cannot be retrieved).

The*Wizard's unique file management system gives you the benefit of lengthy names for your song-sequences, however the technique that is used to achieve this also prohibits you from finding a specific song-sequence file on your computer's disk by looking at the filenames (you will notice all of the files in the song directory folder are numerically coded).  For this reason the opening and removing of song-sequences is done using this utility within the Song Manager.  Also, if for some reason you wish to import or export a song to a file with a typical DOS filename you may easily do so using the song-sequence import & export features provided ....  you will most likely want to use these functions if you are exchanging song-sequences with friends, if you have found samples somewhere on the internet, or if you have purchased style templates specifically for use with The*Wizard software.

Song-sequence importing and exporting functions are also provided in this component of the Song Manager utility.  The song-sequence export feature essentially copies a The*Wizard song-sequence file to another file at the destination of your choosing also with the name of your choice (with an DOS filename extension of:  .SNX); this export function should not be confused with exporting to a Standard MIDI File (the exported file is still in the proprietary The*Wizard format).  Importing of a song-sequence file is the opposite process where a The*Wizard song-sequence file is copied from a file with a normal DOS filename into The*Wizard's song directory folder and the name of song-sequence file is coded.  Note that when importing song-sequence files that the players in the patterns of the song will be configured to use your default MIDI device driver.

Opening a song-sequence to play or for editing:

•	click on the song name to hilight it, then click the "Open" button (or double-click on the song name)

Removing a pattern from a category:

•	click on the song name to hilight it, then click the "Remove" button  (warning: once removed, a song-sequence cannot be retrieved)

Importing a song-sequence (from a regular DOS file):

•	click on the song-sequence "Import" button

•	use the file selector to find and select the file you wish to import (make sure that you are indeed selecting a valid The*Wizard song-sequence file; song exchange files have an extension of:  .SNX)

Exporting a song-sequence (to a regular DOS file):

•	click on the song name to hilight it, then click the "Export" button

•	using the file selector enter the DOS filename and the location that you want to file to be saved; the song-sequence file will be saved as song exchange file with an extension of:  .SNX


Song Toolbar & Quick access buttons

Quick access to functions: - opens the Song Manager utility dialog -  toggles the main Song Wizard display between single (song-sequence list only) and split view (Song-Sequence List & Category-Pattern List)	Slider controlz: - sets the tempo that the song will play (in beats per minute) which overrides any tempo settings in the individual patterns	Quick access actions: - forced save  &  revert to last saved buttons - Standard MIDI File Export (importing from Standard MIDI Files into a song is not possible) - Setting the song to use your selected default MIDI device driver


Song Status Display

At the bottom of the screen is a status bar.

•	The left portion of the status bar provides messages relevant to any particular action as well as quick help tips for any of the controls.  When you click on a control the function of the control is shown, so if you are not sure of what a button or control does click over it to see its brief description on the bottom left area of the screen.  You can abort any screen-button press by moving the mouse pointer off of the button before releasing the button on the mouse.

•	The right portion of the status bar is divided into panes that shows static and real-time information relevant to the song-sequence list.


Exporting Songs to Standard MIDI Files

When accessing the Standard MIDI File (SMF) export function for song-sequences, you will be presented with the Windows file selector which allows you to select a name for the file as well as where you want to store it.  Standard MIDI Files exported from a song will only be exported as a type-0 SMF, and the entire song-sequence will be exported.  Once exported to a SMF, you can use the resulting file with any other software that can load and/or play SMF's, which is a great way to compose drum-tracks and musical styles then complete your song with melodies and/or orchestrations using a linear track-based sequencing program.

By definition a type-0 SMF combines all of the players into a single channelized track.  Because a song-sequence is a collection of patterns that can have essentially an infinite variation of patch and channel combinations it is not possible to generate a type-1 SMF from a The* Wizard song-sequence.  Likewise, it is not possible to import a SMF into a The* Wizard song-sequence.  These limitations on using SMF's are because SMF's are linear structures and The* Wizard software does its magic because of its unique and powerful pattern-based architecture  .... we would like to respectfully point out that Standard MIDI Files are not a standard interchange format for every possible MIDI application.  The* Wizard software does the best that can be done to resolve the inherent inconsistencies with SMF's.

You can however import sections of an SMF into The* Wizard patterns ....

  Importing SMF's into patterns


Troubleshooting

Have you read the information that explains the unique and subtle features of this software?   Perhaps a better understanding of this software's architecture and subtle features might resolve your problems.

  Specifications & Important information

The program gives me a warning and does not run.
This program uses the Musical Instrument Digital Interface ("MIDI") protocol to play sounds using MIDI compatible devices that are installed or connected to a computer.  The typical MIDI device installed in a computer is a sound card (e.g., Sound Blaster, Turtle Beach, Roland-Sound Canvas, etc.) as well as MIDI interfaces which connect to external electronic musical instruments (e.g., synthesizers, drum-machines, samplers, etc.).   If you do not have either a sound card or MIDI interface installed in your computer then this software cannot run.

The program crashes my computer.
We have made many efforts to test this software on many different PC systems and system configurations to insure that crashes and bugs do not occur ....  but the reality is that there are infinite variations of system configurations and some bugs are very obscure and only come out over time.  Another issue is that it is impossible to test for every possible conflict with other software that you may have running coincident with this software.   That said, if you are indeed experiencing difficulties we will do our best to help you resolve them, though we ask you to consider that our ability to help you is often dependent on your ability to assist us in understanding the problem(s) that you are experiencing and the possible causes .... the more you help us, the more quickly and accurately we can resolve your issue.

I dont hear any sounds.
Either you have not selected a MIDI device driver in your players, or you have selected a port driver but have nothing connected to that port (or don't have it turned-on or properly setup).  Check the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility as well as the MIDI Settings utility.  You may need to change your default MIDI device driver then set your players to that device using the Default MIDI Device Selection utility.

Some of the text on my display, especially in the dialog boxes is displayed poorly.
Some PC systems that use large fonts for the display may exhibit some display problems .... if you are experiencing some display problems (typically incorrectly drawn dialogs), then change your display settings to the normal or small fonts setting.

Sometimes when I enter an event, I cannot hear it (or other voices and/or players) until the pattern cycles around.
This is normal .... OK, maybe its not "normal" but it does not mean that there is a problem with the software -- depending upon the placement of events and when they are entered it may take a cycle of the pattern to regenerate the actual MIDI commands.  Stopping & restarting the pattern to play will resume playing of all voices and/or players.

The sounds I hear are not what I am expecting compared to what is in the Band Manager/Drummer Settings.
You may not be selecting the appropriate instrument, sound banks, patches, or voices -- check the Band Manager/Drummer Settings utility.  It may also be the case that there is an error (like a wrong patch or voice number) in your PATCHES.WIZ or VOICES.WIZ files  verify them with the documentation supplied with the particular MIDI device you are having difficulty with.  Also, if you are using the Windows MIDI Mapper, you should switch to selecting your hardware's device driver directly.

The grid window does not move while playing.
As explained in the elsewhere in this document, that is the way this software is designed to work.  Please review the topic: Understanding & Using The Pattern WiZard.

When the grid is in split view, the two views are not synchronized.
As explained in the elsewhere in this document, that is the way this software is designed to work.  Please review the topic: Understanding & Using The Pattern WiZard.

The position of the grid window moves every time I stop a pattern from playing.
As explained in the elsewhere in this document, that is the way this software is designed to work.  Please review the topic: Understanding & Using The Pattern WiZard.

All of the patterns in my song play the same.
If I change a pattern then drag it into my song-sequence so that I can have 2 slightly different variations of the pattern, it does not work (all patterns play the same as the original pattern inserted into a song-sequence).
As explained in the elsewhere in this document, that is the way this software is designed to work.  Please review the topics: Patternz & Songz and Understanding & Using the Song Wizard.   The only way to have 2 different variations of a pattern in a song-sequence is to actually create the 2 different variations (pattern cloning will likely come in handy here) and insert the different pattern variants into your song-sequence.

I am having difficulty stretching events to the rightmost edge of the pattern grid.
Every video driver works differently.  We are aware that this problem exists with some video devices.  Usually if you drag events slowly you will be able to stretch them to the edge of the grid.  Another option is to set the length to the maximum number of ticks by opening the properties of the events.

I have added new hardware to my computer and all of my patterns & songs do not play anymore.
I have added new hardware to my computer and all of my patterns & songs do not play as I hope.
In both the Pattern-Wizard and Song-Wizard is an option to set your pattern, or song, respectively to use your default MIDI device driver ....  so set your new hardware as the default using the MIDI Device Settings, then each time you open a pattern or song use the default MIDI device driver option to reconfigure the settings of your patterns & songs.
You can also have your entire library of patterns and songs updated to automatically use your new MIDI device by editing the .INI file in this software's directory folder and removing the entire line that looks like the line shown below, saving the .INI file, then running the program; when you run the program you will be prompted to select a default MIDI device driver, which when selected will update all patterns & songs found (this updating process may take several moments).
DefaultMIDIDriver=Sound Blaster Synth

I would like to change the characteristics of my sounds.
I would like use more sounds, especially drum & percussion voices, than are supplied with this software.
This type of question is the result of a common misconception.  Customizing of sounds is a different aspect of music outside the scope of MIDI.  MIDI merely tells your sound hardware what notes to play and when.  Use of other samples is not a function of our software, but of your sound-card and/or other MIDI equipment. The*Wizard software, like all other MIDI software, merely tells your sound generating hardware what sounds to play and when -- the sounds themselves are a function of your hardware.  Depending upon the type of hardware you have, the set of sounds may be static or you may be able to load additional sounds into the hardware's memory.  Regardless, MIDI software can only tell the hardware what sound to play.  In the case that your hardware is capable of loading external samples, you could surely configure drumkits and patches to match any sample keymap that you might configure in your hardware.  Another aspect of changing sounds relates to the editing of the sound parameters in your hardware, provided that the hardware supports such capabilities, and to do so requires specialized software known as a "Patch Editor" -- except for setting of effects parameters, editing patch parameters is significantly beyond the scope of MIDI composing software such as this.

My MIDI sound generating hardware is capable of loading samples .... how do I setup this software to use my custom samples?
Generally you will have to create both of the following in your hardware: a patch to support and select your custom sample(s) in your hardware and a "keymap" which is what assigns the actual sample data in the patch to one or more MIDI note numbers ....  please review the information that came with your sampling capable hardware for how to do this with your specific hardware.  You will need to add patches and voice definitions to The*Wizard's patch database and voice database so that you can effectively use your custom samples directly.  Frankly, this aspect of electronic music is indeed complex and if you are confused we strongly recommend purchasing a MIDI reference book or such as a detailed discussion of sampling, keymaps, etc. is beyond the scope of this product's documentation.

 ... how to get technical support


Technical Support

Have you read the information that explains the unique and subtle features of this software?   Perhaps a better understanding of this software's architecture and subtle features might resolve your problems.

  Specifications & Important information

You might also want to review the Troubleshooting topic of this on-line help as it has answers to many commonly asked questions and addresses many common problems .... chances are that an answer you are looking for is already there.  Also make sure that you have searched through the documentation for any topic related to the difficulty you are experiencing before contacting us as most often the answer to peoples questions are addressed in the documentation.

Technical support is only provided to registered users of our software!  If you need support for using The*Drumz Wizard shareware then you must register it; of course if you are having trouble getting The*Drumz Wizard shareware installed or up-and-running, then please do not hesitate to contact us (we dont expect you to register it if you cannot get it to work, so feel free to address an inquiry of this type to us).  Similarly if you purchase either The*Drumz Wizard PLUS or The*Muzical Wizard from some source other than directly from MTI, then make sure to return your registration card so that we know who you are (if you purchase the software from MTI, then we will have you listed in our database though we do appreciate receiving your registration card).

Technical support works best as a cooperative interaction.  When you arrive at the decision that you cannot solve a problem on your own please try to make some detailed notes about what you are trying to do, and what specifically is happening (or not happening).  Especially when leaving (email, fax, or voicemail) messages for us, please do not tell us something vague like I cant get the software to work or when I try to do x it doesnt work.  Also, we know that sometimes problems can be frustrating, however when contacting us please try to avoid venting your frustration at us and just focus on the problem and perhaps some speculation as to the causes.  We will do our best to help you .... we promise!  Also keep in mind that each persons computer setup is unique and that we are not able to be physically at your computer and therefore are not directly able understand the many combinations of things that contribute to problems .... so the more information that you are able to supply to us about your situation, the better we will be able to quickly and accurately assist you.

How to reach us for Technical Support:

If you have any questions or problems do not hesitate to contact us.  You may call or fax us, send us mail, or reach us on-line.  You may send us email and faxes anytime, but please limit your calls to weekdays from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific Standard time.

Direct your support calls and/or faxes to (408) 267-5464 only!  Do not call our order-line as it is only staffed by operators who can process order requests and they are not sufficiently knowledgeable about computers, MIDI and our software to be able to address support issues.

To best serve you, we have various vehicles for achieving on-line support using.  Any comments or questions that you would like to direct to the staff of MediaTech Innovations may be sent directly to us using email.  We will respond back directly to you via electronic mail.  Our primary email address for tech-support issues is:  tech-support@midibrainz.com and you can also reach us at our CompuServe email address which is:  72662,1106 (via the internet use the following syntax:  72662.1106@CompuServe.com).

We also maintain addition on-line presence, in section #2 of the CompuServe MIDI C Vendor Forum as well as the WorldWide Web.  When product upgrades are available, you will be able to find them on both our web site and our CompuServe support section; from time to time we will also make additional information available relevant to your use of our software, such as: solutions to common problems, style-packs, lesson-packs, and patch & voice definitions .... so try to visit our on-line areas occasionally.  To access our support forum on CompuServe you must be a subscriber to their service; once connected to CompuServe, enter GO MIDICVEN at any ! prompt,  then select section #2 (you will notice we had to abbreviate our name to fit CompuServe's section name requirements).  If you have access to the internet and are using a web browser (such as Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer), then you can visit our web site.  Following is our (URL) address on the web, make sure to enter this URL exactly as shown as some browsers and servers will match the case of letters.
 http://www.midibrainz.com

 ... information on troubleshooting


Topic Map

GENERAL INFORMATION

  Copyright & Trademarks

  Products

  Ordering Products

  Registration

  Shareware

  Software Piracy

TROUBLESHOOTING & SUPPORT

  Troubleshooting

  Technical Support

OVERVIEW,  SPECIFICATIONS & UNIQUE  FEATUREZ

  Starting this program .... "The*Wizard's lobby"

  Patternz & Songz

  Specificationz & Important Information

  Requirements to use this software

  Using The*WiZard software

  Menus & Menu options

  Play Controlz & Real-time Play Counter

  Intra-Pattern Looping

  The*Wizard's File System

  Saving & Reverting to last Saved

  Mouse Etiquette & Quick Keys

  Controlz

  Chords

MIDI AND  THE*WIZARD SOFTWARE

  Getting Started & your MIDI Music Studio

  MIDI Device Settings Explained

  MIDI Settings Utility

  Default MIDI Device Selection

  Sound Banks

  Patches

  Voices

COMPOSING MUSICAL PATTERNS WITH THE*WIZARD SOFTWARE

  Understanding & Using The Pattern WiZard

  Composing & Editing Patterns

  Intra-Pattern Looping

  Pattern Manager Utility

  Pattern Settings

  Band Manager/Drummer Settings

  Player-Grids

  Exporting Patterns to Standard MIDI Files

CREATING SONG-SEQUENCES WITH THE*WIZARD SOFTWARE

  Understanding & Using The Song Wizard

  Creating & Editing Song Sequences

  Song Manager Utility

  Exporting Songs to Standard MIDI Files