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Text File | 1996-05-03 | 54KB | 1,189 lines

From Teijo This file lists some of the changes and new features between OctaMED V6 and OctaMED Soundstudio V1. (still more to be added) (if you have'nt seen V6 and are only using V5, then you're in for a suprise) Main Features (more additions yet) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mixing Routine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the most significant new feature; instead of the old 4-channel mode which was tightly tied to the audio hardware of Amiga, the mixing routine is hardware-independent, and can use several output options. Supported output devices are Amiga (8- and 14-bit), Toccata (16-bit), Maestix (16-bit) and Delfina (16-bit). It's also possible to record digital sound data directly onto disk at desired resolution (8/16) and sampling frequency. The mixing routine allows up to 64 independent audio channels, supports both 8- and 16-bit samples, user-specified mixing frequency (constrained by the limitations of the output device), trackwise panning, playing samples backwards, ping-pong looping, playing samples from Fast RAM, a six-octave pitch range, OctaMED synthsounds, stereo and mono modes, real-time echo/cross-echo and stereo separation control and high-quality interpolation for recording digital data on disk. The mixing routines are written in optimized assembler code, for optimum versions for both 68000 and 68020 + greater, though mixing is very slow on the 68000. As a rough example on the speed of the routine, the A3000/25 can play about 10 channels at 48 kHz thru Toccata. Also, to support the mixing routine, OctaMED can now load S3M and also FastTracker 1.0 modules. As I said, you can store the module (or parts of it) onto disk directly as digital sample data. This could be used, for example, for creating a drum loop sample by constructing it with several tracks, and then saving it...the resulting sample only takes one channel and it can be used anywhere. A special "Smoothing" switch is available for recording onto disk. It filters unwanted frequencies away, resulting better audio quality than what you would get in 4 channel mode. On the 68060, it's useful in real-time playing, as well :-) The fact that the audio data is mixed by the processor also opens exciting possibilities for performing digital signal processing at the same time. OctaMED Soundstudio offers digital 'Echo' and 'Cross Echo' in real time. I hope to extend the array of DSP functions in the future PC versions. Playing 8 or more channels using this demoversion.... Choose "Set Options" from the Song menu, click 1-64 Ch Mixing. Then choose "Mixing Parameters" from the Settings menu and set Max. Channels to the desired number of channels. Loading a S3M-module or an OctaMED module using mixing (which are extremely rare at the moment, of course) will cause these settings to change automatically. Notation Editor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The notation editor, which didn't exist in V6, is now back. It is vastly enhanced. Main highlights: * Up to 16 staves, each tracker track can be assigned to any staff. The staves can be named, and their vertical positions and width can be adjusted. Treble, bass and alto clefs are available. * Time signature freely selectable (instead of only two choices, as in V5). Measures can be added to a block at a single click. * A Compugraphic notation font is provided for better print quality. Some people have been longing for a top quality "professional" notation editor, such an editor won't ever appear in the Amiga OctaMED version. It would be practically impossible to cross professional notation with tracking, and the result would probably be a big kludge that nobody is satisfied with. For professional quality notation, OctaMED songs can be exported as MIDI files to a dedicated "notator" program. FastMemPlay ~~~~~~~~~~~ FastMemPlay is a new feature for use in the 4-channel mode. As the name implies, when this feature is activated, samples can reside not only in Chip RAM, but also in Fast RAM. You can therefore fully utilize all the memory you have installed. The FastMemPlay-feature also offers a few other advantages; the samples may now be as long as the memory allows (the old limitation was 131072 bytes), and you can also use odd offset and length for repeat. (All of these features are automatically available when using the mixing routine.) Triggering ARexx Commands ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The new player command 2D is suitable for controlling events that must be synchronized with playing the song. You can define up to 256 events which can then be launched in the song using the command 2D. The possible events are: sending an ARexx command to OctaMED or some other program, launching an ARexx script or even launching another program. Replace Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a new window which allows you to do powerful search-and-replace operations on notes, instrument numbers, commands, or any combination of them. For example: C-2 2xxxx -> D-2 3xxxx xxxxx0FFF -> xxxxx0000 (remove commands 0FFF) xxxxx09xx -> xxxxx0000 (remove all TPL change commands) The functionality of this feature is fully available for use by ARexx scripts. MIDI Controllers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The set of command numbers 31 - 3F have now been reserved for MIDI users. The old way of using MIDI controllers required a combination of commands 05 and 00. Now you can map any controller to a single command 31 - 3F. Plus, you can also control MIDI Registered and Non-Registered Parameter Numbers with the same set of commands (3 pairs of 05/00 commands would be required for that). Instrument List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A simple window for easy viewing and selecting of instruments in memory. Improved ARexx Interface ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 28 new ARexx commands and 9 improved commands. Some powerful new commands include finding and/or replacing notes/instrument numbers/commands (see Replace Notes above), direct handling of copy buffer contents, and sending MIDI messages (useful for keyboard shortcuts). The above features were the most significant changes since V6, but they are not by any means the only ones. But you can see the rest when OctaMED Soundstudio is released, and I hope, after a years work, you will like it. Smaller features (more to be added) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Default directories for loading songs, instruments and executing ARexx scripts can be set and saved. * ARexx scripts can be executed with a new menu item + file requester combination. * A menu item for opening AmigaDOS shells on OctaMED screen for quick command line jobs. * Instead of requesting the file format when saving instruments, the Sample List Editor now has menu items for default formats. * The Song Annotation window can be (optionally) opened automatically when there's information embedded in the song just loaded. * Cut/Copy operations now optionally affect either all command pages of the block, or just the current page. * Re-mark range resurrects the previously selected range. * A special Slave Mode for using the Amiga as a MIDI slave (for sample playing). * Changed settings can be optionally displayed on the title bar. * The Generic Slide is now clever; it handles unsigned and signed slides, and special slides in which both digits are independent, depending on the command and whether MIDI is active or not. * Command 0FF7 stops playing until all pending SysEx commands are sent. * Fixed many (minor) bugs and problems. -Teijo Kinnunen April 96 -------------------------- Now A Quick Overview Of What The New Additions Do...... These are the most important new features to be added, so far. (with many thanks to Ed Wiles,our Author who has been quite unwell recently) The Mixing Parameters Window Probably the Soundstudio's biggest addition is a new channel mode: Mix. Based on the mixing technique used in 5 to 8 channel mode, it can play 64 notes at once using the normal Amiga sound capabilities! You can also bring your song to life with effects such as echo, and use it to record part of your song direct to disk as a sample. But before you get too excited, remember that the Amiga physically only has four sound channels, so Mix mode uses very special tricks to cram all those notes in and in the process, the notes can lose sound quality on slow processors. In fact, the faster your processor, the better quality the notes can be. For acceptable quality, you really need a minimum 68020 processor found in the A1200. The Mixing Parameters window is used to set up Mix mode. But before I explain it, I'll list the enhancements and limitations that Mix mode has, in comparison with 4 channel mode. Other Enhancements at this time 1) Can play up to 64 notes at once. 2) Effects: Echo, Cross Echo, Stereo Separation. 3) Track Panning: Can alter the stereo location of each track. 4) Many additional player commands. 5) Sample length limited only by available memory (previous limit was 131072 bytes). 6) Direct-to-disk recording. 7) Three new octaves: 2 low, 1 high. So the note range is now C-1 to B-6. The 4-channel notes C-1 to B-3 are now notes C-3 to B-5. 8) More precise sample loop setting. Previously, only even values of Repeat and RepLen (Instrument Parameters were possible. Now, all values are allowed. Limitations 1) A probable loss of sound quality on old processors, but the faster your processor, the better the quality. In fact, very fast processors increase sound quality. 2) Aura 16-bit samples can't be used, (were they ever that good anyhow?) 3) Multi-octave samples can't be used. 4) The oscilloscope equalizer doesn't function. So although Mix mode is based on the old 5 to 8 channel mode, you will see that it has hardly any of its previous limitations. The Important Mixing Parameters window will now be described. Mixing Mode section The radio button at the top left selects the output device: the device through which notes will be played. * Amiga 8-bit/14-bit: Plays notes through the Amiga. 14-bit is much better quality than 8-bit, and doesn't put much more strain on the processor, but it plays at half the volume. * Delfina DSP: (no further info available at this time) * Toccata 16-bit: Plays through your Toccata card. no further info available at this time * Maestix 16-bit: (no further info available at this time) * Disk 8-bit/16-bit: Records the output to a file, as a sample. See "The Recording Window" for more details. The output will be in mono (the same on both speakers), unless you switch the Stereo check box on. Mono is faster than stereo. Smoothing mode significantly enhances sound quality, but it's very slow. Because of its speed, it's only recommended for Disk 8-bit/16-bit modes, although you're welcome to try it on other modes... Mixing Frequency The mixing frequency is a very important value. It specifies, in Hertz (sample values per second), how quickly the samples should be mixed. The higher the frequency, the better the sound quality, but also the more work the processor has to do. So - you've guessed it - the highest mixing frequency that you can use depends on your processor. If you try using a frequency that is too high for your computer, the computer will hang: the mouse pointer will move very slowly, or even not at all. If this happens, do a panic stop by holding down both mouse buttons for several seconds. Believe it or not, the highest possible frequency also depends on the screen mode! If the screen is DblPAL, DblNTSC or Productivity, the Mixing Frequency slider can take any value. In other screen modes, the slider's maximum value is 28375. If the output device can't play at your requested frequency, OctaMED chooses the frequency closest to your request. Your request is shown in the Requested numeric box, the actual frequency used in the Actual box. The reason for this discrepancy is that all of the output devices, excluding Disk 8-bit/16-bit, can only play at certain frequencies. (This even includes your Amiga...) Technical notes: The frequency of each note is different in 4-channel mode from Mix mode. This is because in 4-channel mode, the frequencies are approximated to what the Amiga DMA can play. Mix mode doesn't use the Amiga DMA, so it uses the correct frequencies. The frequencies are very slightly off on Amigas not having an FPU and this is because the integer version of the frequency calculation has some error. The difference however is not audible. Other gadgets * Max. Channels: The maximum number of channels. For example, if you want to play notes on tracks 0 to 5, set this slider to 6. Notes become quieter as you increase Max. Channels, to make room for the new channels. This slider doesn't increase processor load by itself: the load depends on the number of notes actually playing. * Volume Adjust: Allows you to adjust the overall volume of notes. The value is a percentage; when 100 %, the notes are at normal volume. Set the notes to half-volume by sliding to 50%; double volume is 200%. In practice, increasing the volume above 100% generally causes unwanted distortion (noise), unless the samples in your song are quiet. Also, using effects can cause distortion, even at 100%. If this is the case, turn the volume down until the distortion is removed. (You can't hear the volume adjustment until you release the slider button.) * Mix Buffer Size: The size of the mix buffer, an area of memory used by OctaMED to mix samples together. You needn't ever change it, unless: a) in Disk 8-bit/16-bit mode. Increasing Mix Buffer Size to, say, 30000 greatly quickens direct-to-disk recording. b) using MIDI. MIDI notes are played immediately, while mixed notes are played after a slight delay. So it's recommended to set Mix Buffer Size to the lowest allowed value, 32. If sound quality suffers as a result, compensate by raising the mixing frequency (if possible). c) you use samples with very short loops. Playing a loop shorter than about a third of the Mix Buffer Size (i.e. usually 100 bytes) considerably increases processor load. So if you must use very short loops, try decreasing Mix Buffer Size. * Panning and Effects: Open the Mix - Track Panning and Mix - Effects windows. They allow you to adjust the stereo location of each track, and add effects such as echo to your music. Other points of interest 1) 5 - 8 channel mode uses a frequency of 15768 Hz in non-HQ mode, and 28867 Hz in HQ mode. As a side note, you could *perfectly* reproduce the 4-channel mode with a mixing frequency of 3.6 MHz... :-)... Though 48 kHz with smoothing is often better in practice. 2) With 16-bit samples, only volume values 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 can be used. This means that note volumes may sound a bit strange if you change Volume Adjust or the track panning. Also, the volumes you can use with some player commands (such as Set Volume, type 0C) are limited to the above values. 3) To allow old 4-channel and 5 to 8-channel songs to use the new Mix mode, the Miscellaneous Options window contains two new Use Mixing check boxes. When on, the samples in loaded songs are transposed up 2 octaves. (This doesn't include synthsounds, MIDI instruments or ExtSamples.) When using old 5 to 8-channel songs with the new mode, don't try to set Volume Adjust to 200 % to allow for halved samples. Halved samples are in 7-bit quality, so it's best to re-load the original samples. 4) Internally, OctaMED has three separate parts which control playing, called the players. There's one player for 4-channel mode, another for 5 to 8-channel modes, and another for Mix mode. When you play a note using the keyboard in 4 or 5 to 8-channel modes, the player is used briefly to start the note off, but then the note is left to play and finish of its own accord. The Mix mode player, however, is used throughout the note's playing, from its start to its finish. So the Mix mode player is switched on when the first note is started. But it isn't switched off when the note has finished. Instead, to react more quickly to other notes you play, it's kept switched on until you click STOP or press the space bar. This means that the player is switched on even when no notes are being played. On slower Amigas, this may slow down operation, so simply press the space bar to switch the player off. It also means that if you change anything in the Mixing Parameters window, such as Mixing Frequency or track panning, you must stop playing and restart it for the changes to take effect. (This doesn't include Stereo Separation, Echo Depth, or a change from Echo to Cross Echo or vice-versa.) 5) Do remember about panic stop! If the computer seems to lock up during play, try holding both mouse buttons down for a few seconds. 6) 5 to 8-channel mode's split channels don't exist! Amiga volume registers are set to a fixed volume. The volume is scaled by the mixing routine, so each track does have an independent volume. 7) Almost all settings in Mixing Parameters, Mix - Track Panning, and Mix - Effect are saved with songs. In particular, Mixing Mode and Mixing Frequency aren't saved. This is so that, for example, a song created on a fast Amiga using a high frequency won't immediately cause a slow Amiga to lock up. OctaMED uses a special file format for songs using Mix mode: MMD3. This is identical to MMD2. The only reason for its existance is so that older versions/player programs won't attempt to play Mix-mode songs. 8) You can play samples in either type of memory - Chip or Fast - in Mix mode. By default, though, samples are loaded into Fast memory, because Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem is automatically switched on. The Mix - Track Panning Window Here you adjust the stereo location of the notes played on each individual track. Do this using the sliders. Track numbers are displayed to the left of each slider, the tracks' stereo location to the right. To begin with, all tracks have a stereo location of 0 (center). This means that notes on all tracks are played with equal volume on both speakers; in other words, they're played in mono. To force a track's notes to be played entirely through the left speaker, drag the track's slider all the way to the left (value -16). Likewise for the right speaker: drag the slider to the far right (value 16). Intermediate values play the notes at different volumes on each speaker. Free Panning and Sum Of Balances Because track panning is really altering the volume of each track on each speaker, you must be careful that the volume on either speaker doesn't become too high, causing distortion. For example, setting all tracks to be played on the left speaker (value -16) is bound to cause distortion on the left speaker. The Sum Of Balances display helps you prevent distortion. It displays all the tracks' stereo locations added together. When the volume is perfectly balanced between the two speakers, the Sum Of Balances is 0, so adjust the sliders until it becomes 0. Free Panning, when on, allows you to set the stereo locations to whichever values you choose, without worrying about volume distortion. Not surprisingly, Free Panning is usually on. The Mix - Effects Window add special effects to your music. ~~~~~ The one you'll be dying to play with is echo. To switch echo on, set the Echo cycle gadget to Echo or Cross Echo. The difference between the two is Cross Echo alternates echoes between the speakers; you must have Stereo mode on to use it. Echo Rate is the distance, in milliseconds, between each echo. It can take any value in the range 1 to 32767. Echo Depth sets the depth of echoing. The larger the value, the deeper the echoes. Technically, it specifies the relative amplitudes of successive echoes. For example, if it's 25 %, the first echo's amplitude is 25 % of the original amplitude, the second echo is 25 % * 25 % = 6.25 % of that. Stereo Separation is interesting. Dragging the slider to the right separates the sound on each speaker. Dragging to the left brings the speakers' sound closer together. This feature is best understood by experimentation. (Technically, the stereo image is separated by feeding part of the left channel to the right in inversed phase, and vice versa.) The Recording Window This window is displayed during direct-to-disk recording, the act of transferring part of your song to disk as a sample. To record directly to disk: 1) In the Mixing Parameters window, select Disk 8-bit or Disk 16-bit, depending on whether you'd like an 8-bit or 16-bit sample. Also set the Mixing Frequency to any value you wish (the higher the frequency, the larger the produced sample). 2) The next time you play a note or your song, a Record as file requester will appear. In this requester, select the filename of the produced sample. 3) Next, you set the file type of your sample in the requester that appears. 4) Finally, the Record window will open and OctaMED will start recording. The window displays information on the sample's file format (resolution (8/16-bit), IFF/RAW/MAUD etc, Mono/Stereo, frequency). It also displays recording time in minutes and seconds, and file size. These two values change as the song is being played. Click the Stop Recording button to stop recording. You must do this because OctaMED doesn't stop recording automatically at the end of the song or note. You can now load your sample back into memory. The FastMemPlay Window This poetically-named window allows you to play samples from Fast memory. For background on this, see Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem. By editing the Buffer Size box, you can alter the FastMemPlay buffer size. A small value, such as 32 or 64, is recommended to minimise distortion if your song contains synthetic sounds. MIDI Slave Mode Using the MIDI menu's Slave Mode Active item, you can turn your Amiga into a MIDI device! Why on earth would you want to do that? Well, if you're lucky enough to own two Amigas, you can use the sound channels of both Amigas together, to play a total of 8 samples at once rather than the usual 4. You do this by using one Amiga to control the other, as if it were a MIDI keyboard. It works best in 4-channel mode, for highest quality. You compose your song using one of the Amigas (call it the master), and use the other Amiga (the slave) only as a note player. The blocks in your song should be 8 tracks wide: use tracks 0 - 3 for instruments played by the master Amiga, and tracks 4 - 7 for those played by the slave Amiga. The idea is, the slave Amiga's first 16 instruments (01 - 0G) correspond to the 16 MIDI channels. So when the slave Amiga receives a MIDI message to play a note on MIDI channel 4, it plays the note using instrument number 04. One slight drawback is each instrument can only be played using one particular sound channel, which you designate using the master Amiga. Anyway, here's how you set it all up: 1) Attach a MIDI interface to each of the two Amigas. Connect MIDI OUT on the master Amiga to MIDI IN on the slave Amiga. 2) Load OctaMED into both Amigas. Select MIDI menu - MIDI Active on the master Amiga. Select MIDI Active, Input Active and Slave Mode Active (all in the MIDI menu) on the slave Amiga. Make sure both Amigas are in 4-channel mode. 3) Now to set up the instruments. Go to each Amiga in turn, and load the instruments you want to be played on that Amiga. On the slave Amiga, you're restricted to instrument slots 01 - 0G; on the master Amiga, you can use any slots. 4) On the master Amiga, you actually need two categories of instrument: those to be played through the master Amiga (which you've just loaded), and MIDI instruments that correspond to each instrument you've loaded into the slave Amiga. OK, let's say you've loaded a sample named Fantasia into slot 06 on the slave Amiga. So on the master Amiga, a) Select any empty instrument slot b) Open Instrument Parameters c) Change the instrument Name to Fantasia [slave] (for example) d) Slide the MIDICh slider to 6 (because Fantasia is loaded into slot 06 on the slave Amiga) e) You must also tell OctaMED which sound channel on the slave Amiga that Fantasia should be played through, using the Preset slider. So if Fantasia is to be played through channel 2, slide Preset to 2. Because there are 4 sound channels, each played using one of tracks 0 - 3, you can slide Preset to 0, 1, 2 or 3. Be careful when deciding which instrument should be played through which channel. If you've loaded up to 4 instruments into the slave Amiga, you just need to assign a different sound channel to each instrument. If you have more than 4 instruments, though, you should take care that no two instruments are set to play through the same channel at the same time, because this is impossible! This depends on your song. f) Close Instrument Parameters Now when you want to play, say, note G-2 using the Fantasia instrument, you should enter a G-2 using the Fantasia [slave] instrument on the master Amiga. Repeat steps a to f for each instrument you've loaded into the slave Amiga. 5) Now compose your song! Use 8-track blocks. For instruments played through the master Amiga, use tracks 0 - 3 as usual. For those played through the slave Amiga, use tracks 4 - 7 and the MIDI instruments you've set up to correspond with the slave Amiga's instruments. Then just play the song: it should be quite an amazing effect! Other notes: a) Slave mode only receives and handles MIDI Note On messages. So any effects received, including player commands, will be ignored. b) You can, however, use player command 0C (set volume) with notes played by the slave Amiga. The instrument's default volume (in Instrument Parameters) changes to the appropriate level when a 0C is received. The Instrument Parameters slider isn't updated, though, for effciency reasons. c) To reduce the amount of MIDI data sent, you should really switch on Suppress NoteOff on all of the MIDI instruments defined on the master Amiga. The MIDI Cmd 3cxx Window As its title suggests, this is one of OctaMED's more technical windows! Using a combination of player command types 05 and 00, you can set any MIDI controller you choose. Command 05's level is the controller number, command 00's the controller value. So if OctaMED came across this in a song: 00509 --- 00004 then OctaMED would set MIDI controller number 9 to 4. The obvious disadvantage with this is that it takes two lines: one to provide the controller number, another to provide the value. This window cuts the setting of MIDI controllers down to one line. You define command types 31 - 3F to set your chosen MIDI controller numbers to the value given by the command level you use in the song. For example, you can define player command type 35 to set MIDI controller number 12. Then, if you use command 3506 in your song, OctaMED sets MIDI controller number 12 to 6. So, only one player command is needed to set MIDI controllers, instead of two. The gadgets Starting at the top, the slider selects a player command type. A value of 5, for example, selects type 35. Types 31 to 3F can be selected. Clear Setting clears the selected player command type's setting. Its controller type is set to Standard [MSB], and its number to 0. Clear All does this to all player command types. The other gadgets show the selected command type's setting: its controller type and number. The controller type can be Standard, RPN or NRPN, together with [MSB] or [LSB]. More information as and when further developed. You can make a copy of the current shortcut by holding down Shift while clicking Ins. New or App. New. This is useful for making a new shortcut similar to the current one. You can now create an empty shortcut for the Help key, thus turning the press Help for Help feature off - the Project menu item can be selected instead. This avoids situations where the rather large Help file is accidentally loaded instead of deleting a note (i.e. Help rather than Del is pressed). Playing PC Mods OctaMED can now load modules created on two different PC sequencers: ScreamTracker 3 (S3M) and FastTracker 1.0. Not all S3M effects are supported, but most modules play without trouble. The effects that are supported are: Extra fine slides (commands EEx, EFx); Tremor (command Ixy); Retrig (+ volume-slide) (command Qxy) Note that the more popular FastTracker 2 is not *yet* supported. ARexx Script Opens a file requester to execute an ARexx file. You can also do this in the keyboard shortcuts window and ARexx Trigger Setup window. ARexx Trigger Setup Opens the ARexx Trigger Setup Window. Here you can set certain player commands to execute ARexx scripts, run programs and much more. AmigaDOS Shell Opens an AmigaDOS shell, just like the shell you can open on the Workbench, on the OctaMED screen. You can now run programs or use AmigaDOS commands like copy or dir. The audio channels are now allocated when they are needed for the first time. So when using Mix mode with Toccata, Maestix or Delfina they aren't allocated at all! Notation Editor Opens the main notation editor window with its Tools window. All Cmd Pages When on (default), Cut and Copy affect all command pages. When off, only notes in the current command page are cut or copied. Select Opens the Instruments window. This window lists all your instruments, and allows you to select one from the list. Load Samples To Fast Mem There are two types of memory: Chip memory and Fast memory. Fast memory is much faster than Chip memory, so it's preferable to store things in there. However, the Amiga usually needs all samples to be stored in Chip memory. With OctaMED, you can store samples in either type of memory. However, this depends on the song's channel mode Samples must be in Chip memory if the song is in: 1) 4-channel mode 2) 5 to 8-channel mode, and contains non-paired tracks. But even in these modes, samples can be in Fast memory if you use the FastMemPlay facility. All a bit confusing! Anyway, these 3 menu items allow you to store samples in your chosen type of memory. When Load Samples To Fast Mem is on, any samples you load are stored in Fast memory. When off, they're stored in Chip memory as usual. Load Samples To Fast Mem is automatically turned on when Mix mode is selected, to take advantage of the increased speed. So to load samples into Chip memory in Mixing mode, switch this item off. Samples cannot be shared between the two types of memory: they must all be in Chip, or all be in Fast. So if you decide to store samples in Fast memory, any samples currently in Chip memory must be moved to Fast memory. The Move Samples To Fast/Chip Mem exist for this purpose. Replace Notes Opens the Replace Notes window Here, OctaMED replaces all Source notes found in a particular area of the song with the Destination note. Player commands interpret their command level in one of three different ways, depending on the type. Some, like 0C (set volume), take both digits together as a single positive number. Others, like 04 (vibrato), take each digit separately as different numbers. With vibrato, the 1st command level digit represents speed, the 2nd depth. Still others, like MIDI command 03, take both digits together as a signed number. So command 03's level can range from -128 to 127 (decimal), instead of the normal 0 to 255. Previously, Generic Slide always assumed the command level to be a single positive number. Now it's more intelligent! Slave Mode Active When on, your beloved computer becomes a MIDI device, slave to whatever is controlling it! See MIDI Slave Mode for more information. Immediate Preset Change When a particular instrument's Preset value is changed (Instrument Parameters usually a preset change message is sent the next time a note is played with that instrument. With this item on, a preset change message is sent straight away. Command 3cxx Settings Opens the MIDI Cmd 3cxx window. Here, you set player command types 30, 31, 32 and so on up to 3F, to send the control change commands of your choice. The Notation Editor Opened through the Display menu menu_display}, the notation editor is an alternative method of displaying your song. It uses standard musical notation - notes, rests, time and key signatures and so on - rather than the more computer-friendly notation used in the Tracker editor. The music can also be printed out and played on a musical instrument. The notation editor is strongly bound to the Tracker editor. After all, the two editors are just two different ways of displaying the same song. So when you add a note to the song in the notation editor, the note is also added in the Tracker editor. Player commands, however, can only be entered in the Tracker editor. OctaMED is primarily a tracker-based sequencer, and the notation editor exists as a different way of displaying and entering notes, rather than a comprehensive and professional musical notation system. That said, the Soundstudio's notation editor is much more powerful than the basic editor provided with versions up to OctaMED V5, and should be more than adequate for most of your needs. Basic operation By default, two staffs (treble and bass) are displayed, in the key of C major and in 4/4 time. You can change this using the Staff Setup and Signatures windows. Only one set of staffs is ever shown on the screen at once, but you can set the number of measures shown using the Notation Display Setup window By default, only one measure is shown at any one time. Before any notes can be shown on the staffs, you must decide which staffs show which Tracker editor tracks. For example, you might want the treble staff to show notes played on track 0, and the bass staff to show notes on tracks 1 and 2. Set this up in the Assign Tracks window. On the notation editor's title bar, you'll see something like Block 0/2 - Lines 0 - 15. This means the editor is currently showing lines 000 to 015 of block 0, the last block being number 2. One Tracker editor line is displayed in the notation editor as a 16th note. So, for example, a quarter-note is four Tracker editor lines long. If the staffs are partially hidden, use the horizontal and right-hand scroll bars to show a different part of the staffs. Because only one set of staffs are shown at once, use the left-hand scroll bar to show a different part of the song on the staffs. The Tracker editor and notation editor are in sync, so that whatever is currently showing in the notation editor is also showing in the Tracker editor, and vice-versa. To enter notes, make sure Edit is on (Main Control window and select a note in the Tools window Now click where you require the note to be on one of the staffs. If you hold down the mouse button and drag over the staffs, you can hear the note corresponding to its staff position: this note is shown in the Tools window. The Tools window also shows the Tracker editor line corresponding to the mouse pointer's horizontal staff position. The Project menu window lists the following items: Print Opens the Print Notation window to print the specified measures in the selected degree of quality. Exit Notation Editor Closes all windows associated with the notation editor. The Windows menu opens the following windows: Assign Tracks Where you decide which staffs show which tracks. Staff Setup You can add and remove staffs, name them, decide what clef they have... Signatures Set the time and key signature here. Tools Window Usually open. Select a note or rest from this window to add to a staff. Display Setup Change the width of the staffs, whether their names are shown, the number of measures shown per line and more. The Print Notation Window Here you print out the song in standard musical notation; you could use the printout as sheet music for playing on a musical instrument. Firstly, set where the printout is to start and end. Start gives the starting measure, End the ending measure. The Set buttons set the starting or ending measure to the measure currently displayed in the notation editor, or, if more than one measure is displayed, to the first measure displayed. Next, choose the print quality using the Resolution cycle gadget. The first option prints using the standard Amiga font, the other three use the better-quality Compugraphic font. The higher the number, the better the quality, but the slower the print speed. (It's always the way, isn't it?) Finally, click Print. In the requester which appears after a while, click Stop to interrupt printing. The Assign Tracks Window This window is all about Tracker editor tracks. You can tell OctaMED which tracks should be displayed on which staff. You can also indicate the direction of the stems of each tracks' notes: up, down, or automatic. Each row in the window sets the staff and stem direction for one particular track, the number of which is shown on the left. By default, the staff number of all tracks is 0, meaning that no tracks are displayed. So, for example, to show track 2 on the first staff, set track 2's slider to 1. If track 2 happens to be empty (in the Tracker editor), you'll see a rest appear on the first staff; otherwise, some of the notes in track 2 will appear. You can display as many tracks as you like on one particular staff, but it's best to stick to a maximum of 2, otherwise it might look a bit messy. If you find you've run out of staffs, add some more using the Staff Setup window. Set the stem direction using the cycle gadgets on the far right. Up means that all the notes played on that track will have their stems going up, irrespective of their pitch. Similarly, Down forces all stems down. This is good for choral music, for example, as you could have all the sopranos' stems going up and the altos' going down. With Auto set, each individual stem goes up or down depending on that note's pitch. If the note is below the staff's middle line, the stem goes up; otherwise, it goes down. This is particularly useful when only one track is displayed on the staff. The Up and Down gadgets shift the eight track numbers up or down. Use these buttons if you have more than 8 tracks in your song. The Staff Setup Window Use this window to add and remove staffs, and change their properties. The top region contains buttons to add and remove staffs, and to select a staff. Current Staff: shows the staff number currently selected, and the total number of staffs. Use the arrow buttons beside this display to select a staff. (The selection is used by other gadgets in this window). The name of the selected staff appears in the Staff Name box. Normally the staff is nameless; type a name into the box to name the staff. The name will appear on the staff's left in the notation editor. (To prevent the names appearing, switch off the Display Staff Names check box in the Notation Display Setup window). The next row of gadgets adds or removes a staff. Insert New Staff inserts a new staff before the selected one. Append New Staff adds a staff after the last one. Delete Staff removes the selected staff. The maximum number of staffs is 16. TIP: If you use a standard 640 x 256 screen, and you add more staffs, it can be annoying that only two staffs are displayed at any one time. So, try the following: 1) Outside the notation editor, Select Settings menu - Screen - Screen Mode. 2) Set the screen's height to, say, 350. Making sure AutoScroll is on, click Ok. 3) Drag the pointer to the bottom of the screen. You've got some extra space now! So use the notation editor's sizing gadget to enlarge the window as required, and move the windows below the notation editor (perhaps the Tools and Information windows) to the bottom of the screen. The bottom region contains the properties of the selected staff. Space Above and Space Below contain the vertical space, in pixels, above and below the selected staff. If you'd prefer the staffs to be closer together or further apart, try changing these values. Also, if you find high notes (using many ledger lines) to be cut off in the notation editor, try increasing the Space Above value. Similarly with low notes and Space Below. Select the staff's clef - Treble, Bass or Alto - using the Clef cycle gadget. When using the notation editor, it's often best to stick to one instrument, played on one track, per staff. If the selected staff always uses the same instrument, set the Def. Instr (default instrument) slider to the instrument's number. Now when you click on that staff in the notation editor with a view to adding a note, the default instrument is automatically selected. This saves a bit of effort. The Signatures window sets the song's time and key signature. Set the time signature using the two upper sliders, both initially set to 4 to represent 4/4 time. The top slider can have a value of 1 - 8, the bottom slider 1, 2, 4 or 8. So strange signatures like 5/8 and 7/1, as well as standard signatures like 3/4 and 2/2, are possible. Set the key signature using the bottom slider. The slider value is the number of sharps or flats; if the slider knob is right of center, the key is sharp, otherwise it's flat. The selected major key, and its relative minor, is shown below the slider. The Tools Window Use this window to select a note or rest to add to a staff. It's opened automatically with the main notation editor, but you can close it using its close gadget, then reopen it through the notation editor's Windows menu. If the note or rest you require is not shown in any box, you can type its length directly editor lines, into the Length (lines) box. As the above table shows, one Tracker editor line is equivalent to a 16th note. So notes shorter than a 16th note are not allowed. Now moveing the mouse pointer over one of the staffs. The selected note or rest appears. As you move the mouse, the Tracker editor line number corresponding to the pointer's position on the staff is shown below the Length (lines) box. Now hold down the left mouse button. The Tracker editor note corresponding to the pointer's position is now also shown. Release the mouse button to add that note. Just the gadgets on the far right, a display box above a slider, are left. They tell you which staff, and more importantly which Tracker editor track, you are currently editing. This is particularly useful when more than one track is shown on one particular staff. The Notation Display Setup Window contains settings relevant to the general display. Display Width is the width, in pixels, of each staff. By default it's as wide as the screen, but this doesn't allow space for the window borders and scroll bars, so you need to use the horizontal scroll bar to see the far right of the staffs. Try setting the width to 600 (for a 640-wide screen) to view the whole width of the staff at once. Switch off Display Staff Names to remove the staff names from the notation editor. (Staff names are set in the Staff Setup window.) Measures/line is the number of measures (bars in Britain) shown on the screen at any one time. 1 is the usual setting, but 2, 3 and 4 are also good values. Positioning Mode affects the order in which the song's blocks are shown. In Block-Based mode, dragging the notation editor's left-hand scroll bar shows the blocks in numerical order: block 0, 1, 2 up until the final block. In Song linear mode, the order is taken from the playing sequence. For example, if the playing sequence was 002 003 002 000 001, dragging the scroll bar would show block 2, 3, 2 again, 0 then 1. So the blocks are shown in the order in which they're played when you click Play Song. This gadget affects printing, so to print the song in the order in which it's played, select Song linear mode. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Raw Sample Conversion If you load a RAW sample that sounds very distorted and noisy, try using this submenu to correct it. OctaMED's samples are stored in 'signed' format. Most samples originating on PCs are 'unsigned', so use Unsigned <- Signed to convert them. Use Swap Byte Order on noisy 16-bit samples. Each value of a 16-bit sample takes 2 bytes of memory. Swap Byte Order swaps the order of each value's bytes. This can solve distortion problems. Pitch In Hz When on, displays the Pitch value (near the bottom right of the main window) in Hertz - samples per second - instead of displaying its period. Save Inst and Save All Insts now ask you to select the file format of the save instrument(s). Choose from IFF 8SVX, Raw, MAUD, AIFF or WAVE. The ARexx Trigger Setup Window This window gives player commands the keyboard shortcut treatment. Just like with keyboard shortcuts, you can now set player commands (of type 2D) to execute an OctaMED ARexx command or ARexx script, send an ARexx command to another program, or load and run a program from disk. At the top of the window, select a command level to edit using the slider. For example, to edit command 2D45, set the slider to 45. Clear Current sets the current command's action to None. Clear All does the same to all commands. The Action area describes what the player command is to do if it appears in a song. It is exactly like the Action area in the Keyboard Shortcuts window (and also in the Input Map Editor). OctaMED Command Executes an OctaMED ARexx command (type it into the Command box, together with any required parameters). ARexx itself isn't actually involved. To execute more than one command, use the OP_MULTICMD command. (See manual for more information on OctaMED commands) Execute ARexx File Executes an external ARexx file (type its name into the command box). Unless the file is in PROGDIR: or REXX:, specify the full path name. The filename should end in `.omed'. Ext. ARexx Command Sends an ARexx command to another program. Type the command into Command, and the program's ARexx port name into ARexx Port. Note: To use Execute ARexx File or Ext. ARexx Command successfully, make sure you have run the program RexxMast. Launch Program Launches (runs) an executable program file. Type its name into Command. 1-64 Ch Mixing sets the new Mix mode. With only a slight loss of sound quality, this gives you up to 64 channels, special effects, track panning and more. You can also use MIDI in Mix mode. The Song Annotation Window Use this window to attach any text to your song. The text might be a copyright notice, the author's name, explanatory text, or greetings. In the text box at the very top of the window, you may type anything up to 70 characters long. When the song is reloaded, the contents of the text box will be displayed on the screen's title bar. In the remainder of the window, you can attach any text file to a song. Create the file in an external text editor, then click Load File to load it. Save Text saves the text under a chosen name, and Discard Text removes the text from memory. The text is saved with songs. Note that tab characters (ASCII code 9) can't be used in the text. Show After Loading affects what happens when a song with annotation text is loaded. Normally, the Song Annotation window is immediately opened, displaying the song's text. Switch Show After Loading off to prevent this. The Instruments Window This simple window displays a list of all your instruments. You may select one from the list, to make it the current instrument. The list displays all instrument numbers and names. Click on an instrument to make it current. So this is an alternative selection method to using Shift-<left and Shift-<right, or using the Instrument Parameters window. Loop Ping-Pong is only used in Mixing mode. When on, OctaMED plays the sample's loop (if it exists) in a different way: forwards and backwards alternately. In other words, the sample is played until the end of its looped part; the looped part is played *backwards* from its end to its start; the looped part is then played forwards from its start to its end; then backwards; then forwards; and so on. The Replace Notes Window Here, you give OctaMED a source note and a destination note. Then OctaMED replaces all source notes found in a particular area of the song with the destination note. For example, you can replace all C-2 10C32's in the current track with C-2 10C48 if you like. Setting the source and destination notes Set the source and destination notes in the Source and Dest boxes, both initially --- 00000. As you might have guessed from the five 0's, you also set the note's instrument number and player command. You set the Source and Dest boxes in exactly the same way as in the Programmable Keys window. To set a note, hold down the left mouse button over the note in the box (initially ---), then press the note's key and release the mouse button. For example, to set the Source note to G-2: Position the mouse over the note in the Source box. Now hold down the left mouse button, and press T. Assuming that Oct is set to 12 (Main Control window), the note becomes G-2. To set the note to ---, use the Del key. To set an instrument digit or player command digit, hold the left mouse button over the digit, then type the digit and release the mouse button. Quite easy really. Transparent notes/digits When setting a note or digit, try pressing Return instead of pressing the note's key or typing the digit. The note or digit is now transparent, and is shown as 'x'. Transparent notes or digits are ignored by OctaMED. So if the Source box contains xxx x0C32, OctaMED will replace all 0C32 player commands, regardless of their note and instrument number. Similarly, if the Source box contains G-3 4xxxx, then OctaMED will replace all G-3's played by instrument 04, regardless of what their command digits are. Transparency in the Dest box has a slightly different meaning. If the Dest box contains xxx x0C32, then the player command of all Source notes will become 0C32: the note and instrument number will remain unchanged. Similarly, if the Dest box contains G-3 4xxxx, all Source notes will become G-3 and will be played by instrument 04: their command digits will remain unaffected. Replacing the notes In the lower half of the window, the six buttons replace the given notes in one of six different areas. These areas are as in the Transpose window, aside from Note which replaces just the Tracker editor's current note. For example, clicking Block replaces the Source note with the Dest note throughout the current block. Sel. Tracks replaces throughout the selected tracks (a track is selected by clicking on its S gadget at the top of the Tracker editor). Transparency and the choice of six areas make this window pretty powerful. Swap Amiga Channels (Mix) Sound channels 0 and 3 should be played through your left speaker, 1 and 2 through your right. On some Amigas, these are swapped round! So switch this check box on to correct them. It only has an effect in Mix mode. Use Mixing (MMD) or Mixing (Tracker mods) Makes the necessary changes to MMD (normal) songs and Tracker songs to use Mix mode. This involves transposing all instruments, except synthetic and MIDI, up two octaves. Thats all for now. -Ray RBF Software. May 96