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LIBRA.DOC
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1994-05-31
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LIBRA
Patch manager for the Korg Wavestation
(c) Teemu Lahteenmaki 31.5.1994
IBM PC Version 1.1 for DOS
0.0 Index
0.1 Changes from version 1.0
1.0 What is Libra ?
1.1 Reasons for existence
1.2 Features
1.3 Requirements
1.4 File contents
1.5 Command line options
1.6 Changing the colors
2.0 General idea
2.1 About the metabank
2.2 Browser screens
3.0 Importing sysex bank files
4.0 Using metabank
5.0 Saving and sending the export bank
6.0 Shareware notice
7.0 Future plans
8.0 Call for custom patches
9.0 Contacting the author
0.1 Changes from version 1.0
* Minor bug in metabank patch->wave sequence pointers fixed
* Better (?) MPU support
* Ability to request and receive banks directly trough MIDI
* Possibility to rename Metabank items
+ Other minor improvements
- The older selection files may not work correctly, you must to
remake your selection files
1.0 What is Libra ?
Libra is a performance, patch and wave sequence librarian for
the Korg Wavestation synthesizer series.
It is a program for IBM PC compatible computers. It needs a 386
or higher processor to run. Interface is DOS based.
It is a shareware program. In order to get good conscience, you
need to register. However, there is no different registered and
unregistered versions, just one fully working version.
1.1 Reasons for existence
Libra was developed because of the lack of good patch managers
for Wavestation in PC environment. As any Wavestation owner can
agree, effective handling of the WS patches with only SysEx transfer
software is real difficult, if not impossible. This is mostly because
of the advanced hierarchical structure of the WS banks, which are
divided into performance, patch and wave sequence levels.
(Here I use the word 'patch' in two different meanings: as a part
of the bank structure, and as an abstraction of the performances,
patches and wave sequences all together)
1.2 Features
* Reads SysEx bank files
* Outputs and reads SysEx banks info files or directly to Wavestation
trough MPU-401 dumb UART compatible midi card
* Output bank files can be splitted into pat, per and ws parts, or
be merged into a single file
* Patches are stored in one huge 'metabank', equivalent to 20
conventional RAM banks
* Metabank includes all 11 Korg factory set banks for Wavestations
* Several views showing the patch/perf/ws relations, i.e. what uses
what and what is used by what
* Text based interface, under DOS
* Runs in Real 32 mode using GO32 (GnuC/DJGPP) dos extender
* Uses extended memory
* Direct screen memory access
* User editable configuration files
1.3 Requirements
* IBM PC compatible computer with at least 386 processor
* Few megabytes of expanded memory
* About 2 MB of free disk space for possible swap files.
Smartdrive or other chaching software highly recommended.
* MPU-401 dumb UART compatible midi card. In addition to true MPU
compatible cards, Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) is also supported.
Support for other cards may follow. Of course, the program can be
run also without any midi cards.
1.4 File contents
Libra uses following files:
Executables:
libra.exe The main executable
convert.exe Libra uses this for bank data structure handling
send.exe When sending a direct midi sysex, this program is used
ask.exe For asking and receiving RAM banks from Wavestation
Configuration files:
libra.cfg Configuration file. If it's not found, default
values are used, and new libra.cfg is created
midicard.cfg Configuration file for send.exe and ask.exe. In order
to make it use your midi card, you may have to edit
this.
Data files:
metabank.dat This is the default metabank file which is loaded
during startup. Alternative metabank files can be
used also, all using extension .dat .
*.sel Examples of metabank selection files
1.5 Command line options
libra <-o> <-f filename>
-o Override mode. This is for transferring whole banks to
specific metabank position. This is mostly for importing
the factory set banks which uses crossreferences to
other banks. The SR ROM banks were imported with this
option. Normally you shouldn't need this. And it's buggy.
-f Instead of loading 'metabank.dat', read given 'filename'
as metabank
1.6 Changing the colors
If you wish the program to use different colors, you may edit the
color codes in LIBRA.CFG file. There the colors are listed as
hexadecimal numbers, first high 4 bits representing the background
and low 4 bits foreground colors.
If you just want to use the default monochrome colors, delete or rename
the LIBRA.CFG file, and new one will be written with default b/w colors.
2.0 General idea
The Libra program handles three banks: Import bank, Metabank and
Export bank. Import bank is the place where you load the sysex bank
files. Here you select the patches you want to add to the Metabank.
Metabank is the librarians main database where all the patches are
stored. In the metabank you can view and select the patches you want to
copy to the Export bank.
Export bank, finally, is the place where you collect all the patches
you want to store to a sysex bank file, or send directly to Wavestation
trough supported MIDI card.
2.1 About the metabank
At the moment, metabank consists patches from:
* Korg factory set patches (performances 0..599, patches 0..419
and wave sequences 0..383)
* rest of the patches from new-01.zip from louie.udel.edu,
creator yet unknown
The default metabank can be divided into two areas: the factory
set banks and user's custom patches:
Performance Patch Wave sequence
----------------------------------------------------------
RAM1 0..49 0..34 0..31
RAM2 50..99 35..69 32..63
ROM 100..149 70..104 64..95
CARD (EX) 150..199 105..139 96..127
RAM3 200..249 140..174 128..159
ROM4 250..299 175..209 160..191
ROM5 300..349 210..244 192..223
ROM6 350..399 245..279 224..255
ROM7 400..449 280..314 256..287
ROM8 450..499 315..349 288..319
ROM9 500..549 350..384 320..351
ROM10 550..599 385..419 352..383
User patches 600.. 420.. 384..
Then some word about the metabank pointers.. The banks were imported
so, that the references to ROM bank were left untouched. They were not
mapped to point equivalent metabank ROM area. This way, there is no
need to export the ROM patches used, as every Wavestation has them
already.
The card bank of Wavestation EX was placed to the CARD area just for
practical reasons. This enables patches made on EX using references to
EX card to be ported to other Wavestation models (partially excluding
the original Wavestation keyboard).
Note, that almost all of the EX card patches appear in the ROM4..ROM10
area also.
You can add your own patches in the end of the metabank, or you can
can create your own metabank file and use it instead.
2.2 Browser screens
The main body of the program consists of similar looking browser
screens with which you can view, select and deselect browser items
(patches). The keys and data displays of these screens are almost
identical.
General browser keys (bank specific keys described later):
cursor keys Move the selector around
Enter Select/Deselect item
a Select all items
n Deselect all items
f, / Find an item with matching character string.
The search in not case sensitive
numbers To jump to a specific item, just type its number
i Info screen. This displays lots of useful info about
the patch currently selected
h Help screen. Short list of the keys
Esc Back up to upper level
The bottom of all the browser screens looks something like this:
┌─Item────────┬─Increase───────────┬─Selection──────────┬─Keys───┐
│ Uses: . │ Perf: ./. WS: ./. │ Perf: ./. WS: ./. │ │
│ Used by: . │ Pat: ./. WSS: ./. │ Pat: ./. WSS: ./. │ │
('Perf' = performances, 'Pat' = patches, 'WS' = wave sequences
and 'WSS' = wave sequence steps)
First section from left shows the basic relations of the patch.
The 'Increase' section shows how the amount of selected bank items
would increase if the patch would be selected.
The 'Selection' shows the amount of bank items currently selected.
The right sides of the values usually present the expected maximum
value.
3.0 Importing sysex bank files
By selecting the 'Load import' item in the main menu, you will be
prompted a file browser where all .syx files of the current directory
are listed. Now you select the wanted sysex file, or back up by
pressing 'Esc' (Esc is widely used in the program).
The sysex bank files can be a single performance-, patch- or wave
sequence bank dumps, or a combination of these files merged together.
However, Libra will not accept single performance or patch dumps,
nor 'all data' dumps. So to import a single patch from WS to Libra,
you need to send the whole bank as sysex dumb from WS.
When you have loaded the sysex banks into the import bank, you
can now select the patches from the 'Import bank' browser lists
to be added to the metabank.
Special keys for Import bank browsers:
c Toggle card mapping (default=OFF). Usually the references
to the CARD bank are left untouched, but the card mapping is on,
all the import banks references to 'CARD' bank are mapped
to use the corresponding metabank patches. By default, the
metabank's CARD slot contained the Wavestation EX's card bank.
The card mapping was planned to make possible to transfer
patches made with EX using EX CARD to other Wavestation models.
To transfer the selected Import bank items to the Metabank, just
select the 'Copy to meta' option in the main menu.
4.0 Using metabank
So now you have your patches in the Metabank. Now the idea is to
select the patches you want to transfer to the export bank.
Special keys for Metabank browsers:
s Save metabank selection. In metabank, it is possible to save
the current selection of selected items to a file. This way,
you don't have to keep those custom sysex bank files stored
somewhere, as you need only to keep the information of the
selection of patches from what the custom banks were to be
compiled from.
r Rename selected metabank item: performance, patch or
wave sequence name.
l Load metabank selection. This loads a previously saved metabank
selection. The existing metabank selection will be overwritten.
t Toggle metabank scans. Usually, when moving around the metabank
browsers the program constantly calculates the values for the
bottom status bar. This may take much CPU power, as the
calculation requires several scans trough the metabank
structures. For fast 486, no problem, but slower 386 machines
may get jammed because of the scans. So, by toggling the scans
off, the browsing speed should improve a bit.
And finally to copy the selected metabank items to the export bank,
just select the 'Copy to export' item from the main menu.
Note, that the whole export bank will be overwritten.
Note also, that if you need to change the 'Settings' values,
you need to do this _before_ you execute the 'Copy to export' command
(except for the 'File mode' option, which you can set later).
5.0 Saving and sending the export bank
Now you have the custom metabank ready, and you can save it to a
file or send it directly to Wavestation. Before you transfer the
selected metabank patches to export bank, make sure to set the
'Settings' options correctly.
First 'Settings' option is File mode:
Merged The performance, patch and wave sequence bank dumps
are merged into a single file with size of 65512 bytes.
Splitted The perf, pat and ws bank dumps will be stored as
individual files, names as: per.syx, pat.syx, ws.syx .
If files with that name already existed, they will
be overwritten.
When sending a direct SysEx dumb, Libra calls 'send.exe' program with
command line: 'send bank.syx -q', '-q' meaning 'Quiet mode'.
Send.exe reads its configurations from midicard.cfg file, which can be
configured by the 'Settings' panel, or by editing the ASCII file
itself with some text editor (send.doc for more info).
If the send.exe doesn't work for you or your soundcard is not supported,
feel free to write your own send program using the described command
line. However, .bat files are not supported.
6.0 Shareware notice
It always takes a lot of time and effort to create nice pieces of
software like this. So, if you like the program and would like to keep
me motivated to continue doing software for Wavestation, you should
register. This is done by sending a fair fee you feel right to the
author. WS Banks are welcome also.
After doing that, consider your copy of Libra to be registered.
Personally, I don't like the idea of doing ripped-off shareware
versions. There is only one fully functional version of Libra, and
that is what you have. That is, if there's no newer version around..
And about the copyrights. Libra is shareware, and thus it is to
be freely copied for everyone. You may not, however, make money
by selling this program further. And of course, all the registration
fees are for the Libra executables only. The metabank comes free, as it
defaults Korg factory set banks for Wavestations and are thus by Korg.
Not to mention the custom patches included, made by the Wavestation
users themselves. All the patches are also available as bare SysEx files.
7.0 Future plans
Things that may or may not be added to Libra in future versions:
* Support for Sound Blaster + some other cards
* Windows version, or Windows editor
* Support for exporting 2 banks at same time (RAM1 and RAM2)
A bit unlikely
* Ability to delete metabank items
* Porting to Linux and/or OS/2
Possible bugs will be corrected, if reported.
However, I have no immediate plans for major improvements, there's
just too many other projects to finish.
8.0 Call for custom patches
It is my ambition to make the Metabank to be the main custom
Wavestation patch library. So, if you have made yourself some nice
performances/patches/wave_sequences that you would like to share with
the Wavestation community, I would gladly add them to the metabank.
At the time being, the metabank's home will be at FTP site:
louie.udel.edu: /pub/midi/patches/WAVESTATION
I'll send a new version of the metabank whenever I receive new
patches. Surely you can send your own patches to louie by yourself,
if you like.
9.0 Contacting the author
Address:
Teemu Lahteenmaki
Huutoniementie 73
44190 Parantala
Finland
Primary phone: +358-41-607434 (study place)
Secondary: +358-45-73433 (permanent)
Internet address:
tola@tukki.jyu.fi