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Software Vault: The Gold Collection
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Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
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cdr42
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SBTIMBRE.TXT
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1993-04-01
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SBTimbre Version 2.52 09-14-92
SBTimbre FM Editor
SBTimbre is a Timbre editor -- it lets you create and modify
instrument sounds for the Sound Blaster and Adlib FM Cards.
You can audition sounds using a Sound Blaster or MPU401
compatible MIDI interface and a MIDI controller (a piano
keyboard for instance). The present version of SBTimbre
operates only on IBK format bank files, but you can use the
SBANK utility to convert between IBK and BNK file formats.
Setting up SBTimbre
Unzip all the files to a directory (You may want to create
another directory for your IBK bank files), change to the
directory containing SBTIMBRE.EXE, and type: SBTIMBRE to
load and start the program. If your FM Card is properly
installed, you should hear a chordal sequence as the About
dialog box is displayed (the chordal sequence can be
disabled if you'd rather not hear it -- see Configuring
SBTimbre).
General Information
SBTimbre is a text based windowing program. You select
options by pulling down menus with a mouse, or by using the
cursor movement and function keys. The top line on the
screen is known as the menu bar -- it contains drop down
menus from which items can be selected. Any option that is
followed by three dots indicates that a dialog box will be
displayed when this item is chosen. The bottom line is
called the status bar and contains it options which are
generally available. You may select items from the status
bar by either clicking on them or pressing the short-cut key
associated with them. When the text of an item is grayed out
it means the item is not currently available. Active Dialog
box windows may be closed by clicking on the little box in
the upper left corner of the dialog, selecting Window/Close,
selecting Close from the status bar, or pressing Alt-F3.
Configuring SBTimbre
You may change certain program parameters by selecting the
Options/Configure... menu choice. The dialog box presented
contains the following items:
MIDI OPTIONS
None No MIDI interface is installed.
MPU401 An MPU401 compatible interface is installed.
Sound Blaster A Sound Blaster MIDI connector Box is
installed.
MIDI IRQ The IRQ Number that the MIDI interface is
installed on.
MIDI I/O Port The Hexadecimal based number of the I/O
port that the MIDI interface is using.
FM I/O Port The hexadecimal based number of the I/O
port that the FM Card is using.
MIDI Note The number of the MIDI note for auditioning
tones.
VIDEO OPTIONS
25 Lines Uses a 25 line standard text mode display.
53/50 Lines Will display 43 lines on an EGA monitor or
50 lines on a VGA montor.
About Box Unchecking this item will prevent the
opening chordal sequence.
There are several versions of Sound Blaster MIDI Interfaces.
SBTimbre should operate with any of them with one caveat:
Sound Blaster cards with DSP ROM versions earlier than 2.0
only support MIDI in -- not MIDI out or through. If you
have one of these earlier ROMS, the Thru on and Out on
choices will not be available from the Control Panel
(described later).
To setup the MIDI interface, select the type of card, the
I/O port and the IRQ setting. By default, the FM I/O Port
is set to 380 hex. This is because all Adlib compatible FM
cards (including Sound Blaster) respond to this address.
The program will determine that it can not find an FM card
at startup, but will not alert you to that fact upon
changing the I/O Port address: you won't hear any sound
though. You can verify this by opening the About box on the
system menu -- if a card is found, a brief chordal sequence
is sounded. The program supports 43/50 line modes on EGA
and VGA graphics cards. The higher resolution allows a much
less cluttered view when many IBK files are open at once.
The current settings may be saved to an SBTimbre.INI file by
selecting Options/Save Setup. This file may be edited by
hand, but is overwritten by selecting the Save option. The
INI file is written in the same directory as SBTIMBRE.EXE.
The amount of remaining memory is displayed in the About box
-- you may want to monitor this if you have very many (60 or
more) IBK files open at once.
Opening Files
IBK files are located via the File/Open... menu. You can
double click on one to select and open it (for those without
a rodent, you can use the cursor keys -- then press enter).
The program prevents you from opening the same file twice --
this is to prevent loss of data involved when modifying two
copies of the same file. You can open a copy of the same
file, by first saving the file with a different name (using
File/Save as...) and then reopening the original file. Once
a file is opened, you will see a list of the instrument
timbre names it contains.
Locating Files
You can move to a different current directory using the
File/Change Dir Menu selection, or you can navigate from the
File/Open menu (by double clicking on the "\.." item). A
new IBK file may be created by using the File/New option.
When you create a new IBK, all the names are blank, and a
default Piano instrument is stored in each Timbre slot.
Saving Files
IBK files can be saved either with the name they were opened
with (File/Save), or with a new file name (File/Save as...).
When saving New files a name is always requested.
Selecting Timbres
You can open multiple IBK files at the same time. The
current window and the current timbre are highlighted. If a
MIDI interface is installed you may audition a timbre by
simply highlighting its name in the IBK file window.
Copying Timbres
Timbres may be copied from one IBK to another, or within a
single IBK. To accomplish this, select Copy from the Timbre
menu, select Copy from the status bar, or hold the Ctrl key
and press Insert: the timbre is inserted into the copy
buffer. An indication of this is presented in the upper
right corner of the screen: the word Paste: appears,
followed by the timbre name. In order to paste the timbre,
first select the target IBK and position, then either press
Shift-Ins or choose Timbre/Paste from the menu: the timbre
is immediately inserted into the target position.
Editing Timbres
You may select timbres to edit by double clicking on the
timbre name, or by selecting Timbre/Edit. The Edit dialog
box is where all the different parameters that comprise an
FM timbre are displayed and edited. All the numbered fields
have Spin controls: clicking on the up arrow-head increases
the value -- the down arrow-head decreases. You may also
use the and keys to achieve the same effect. You may
audition a tone at any time, from the computer keyboard, by
pressing the short-cut key corresponding to the highlighted
letter on the Note or Chordal buttons. In other words,
press n to sound a note; m to sound a major chord. When the
cursor is positioned in the Timbre Name field, you must use
the Alt prefix (Alt-n to sound a note).
Renaming and Restoring Timbres
You can rename the timbre by typing into the Timbre Name
field, but it will replace the original timbre when you
press OK. If you like your changes, but don't wish to
overwrite the original timbre, you can press Cancel within
the Edit dialog. Rather than completely discarding a
cancelled timbre, the editor saves it temporarily in a
restore buffer -- indicated in the upper right corner of the
screen by the word Restore: followed by the timbre name.
You restore the sound to a different position by first
selecting the target IBK and position, and then pressing F7
or by choosing the Timbre/Restore option -- the buffered
timbre is immediately inserted into the target position.
Keep in mind that the restore buffer is overwritten every
time Cancel is selected from the editor -- it's very
temporary.
You may also rename a timbre by selecting Timbre/Rename...
from the menu bar. You can use any characters to name a
Timbre, but imbedding illegal DOS filename characters will
prevent you from extracting INS and SBI files. The SBANK
utility will remove embedded spaces when creating an INS or
SBI file from an IBK bank.
Play Option
The Play option is a unique feature in SBTimbre: when
running, it generates melodiesFor a nice description of
1/f music, as well as an algorithm for generating it, see
"White, Brown, and Fractal Music." Martin Gardner, in
Fractal Music, Hypercards and More... W. H. Freeman,
1992.. Rather than completely random, each successive note
is related to the preceding one. To start it at any time,
click on Play in the status bar or press F9 -- the word Play
changes to Stop and the melody starts. To end it, click on
Stop or press F9 again. You can perform any available
SBTimbre action while Play is running -- this allows you to
audition tones while editing, or auditioning different tones
in the IBK list box. Play is also available from the Timbre
menu, except when the editor is open.
Control Panel
The Control panel is primarily for adjusting MIDI and sound
card options. To open it, select Options/Control Panel from
the menu bar or press F8. Adjustments do not take effect
until the Send button is pressed. The Volume option
controls only the MIDI volume level sent to the FM Card, and
not the Mixer levels available on the Sound Blaster Pro
cards. To adjust Mixer levels, use the software supplied
with your card.
CONTROL PANEL
FM Card Options
Volume Controls the volume of sound sent to the
FM Card
Key Shift Transposes the incoming MIDI note a
specified number of half-steps before
sending to the card
Bend Range Adjusts the MIDI bend range response of
the FM Card by the specified number of
half-steps
MIDI Options
Play Channel Changes the MIDI channel that the Play
option melodies are sent on.
Thru On Controls whether MIDI input is copied to
MIDI output
Out On Controls whether generated notes and
melodies are sent to MIDI out
Final Notes
To use your IBK files with Twelve Tones Systems Cakewalk
Sequencer, copy your IBK file to a file named ADLIB.IBK in
the Cakewalk program directory -- it will automatically be
loaded by the FM card driver when Cakewalk starts up.
FM Card Parameters
The FM cards supported by SBTimbre use two operators to
produce a voice. Each operator is the equivalent of a
primitive analog synthesizer, containing a sine wave
oscillator, an envelope generator, and an amplifier. The
operators can be combined to perform FM Synthesis or
connected in parallel resulting in additive synthesis.
During FM synthesis, one operator acts as a carrier while
the other functions as a modulator. Modulating a carrier
with an audio source causes a timbre change -- this is the
core of FM synthesis. The degree of timbre change is
chiefly a function of the tuning interval (or ratio) between
the operator's frequency multiplier, and the depth of
modulation (caused by the modulator output level). With
additive synthesis, both operators function as carriers and
their output summed to produced a single sound.
Oscillator
Each operator contains a sine wave oscillator. The
frequency multiplier parameter (FreqMult) controls the base
frequency. Each successive value increases the frequency
by that number of octaves, except for the value 0, which
actually results in a multiplier of 0.5, thus lowering the
base frequency by an octave. The ratio of the frequency
multipliers of the carrier and modulator controls the amount
of sideband overtones generated. These overtones add to the
complexity of the sound. The modulator can have a portion
of the output signal returned to the input (FB), which
further increases wave complexity. In addition, the wave
form select parameter (WaveForm) provides varying degrees of
sine wave distortion -- a value of 0 results in a pure sine
wave. Applying low frequency pitch modulation (Vibrato)
causes a pitch wavering effect.
Envelope Generator
Any instrument, real or synthesized, has a characteristic
sound envelope that describes how quickly the sound attains
peak output (Attack), how quickly it descends to a sustain
level (Decay), and how quickly the sound fades after a note
is released (Release). For sustaining sounds, the level
(Sustain) is maintained as long as a note is held down, for
momentary sounds the sustain level determines the point at
which the decay rate changes to the release rate. The
keyboard rate scaling parameter (Envelope Scale) causes
higher notes to have a shorter envelope, which is a common
occurrence with real instruments.
Amplifier
While the ADSR envelope controls the rate of change in the
operator amplifier, the output level (Level) controls the
overall output of the amplifier. For an operator acting as
a carrier, the output level functions as a volume control;
for modulators, the output level controls the depth of
modulation. The keyboard level scaling parameter (KSL)
causes a gradual reduction in output for higher notes. Low
frequency amplitude modulation (Tremolo) may be applied to
the signal to obtain a volume wavering effect.
Parameter List
Attack the rate of the sound's inital onset.
Value: 0 - 15
Decay the rate at which the inital attack fades.
Value: 0 - 15
Sustain the level at which the sound sustains.
Value: 0 - 15
Release the rate that the sound fades after a note
is released. Value: 0 - 15
Envelope Scale if checked, higher notes have shorter
envelopes.
Sustain Sound if checked, a note sustains as long as it
is held.
FreqMult the frequency multiplier applied to the base
frequency. Value: 0 = 0.5, 1 - 15
Level the overall output level for the operator.
Value: 0 - 63
KSL the keyboard scaling level. Higher numbers
cause more attenuation for higher notes.
Value: 0 - 3
WaveForm the amount of distortion applied to the sine
wave oscillator. Value: 0 - 3
Vibrato if checked, low frequency pitch modulation is
applied
Tremolo if checked, low frequency amplitude modulation
is applied
FB for modulator only: the amount of feedback
returned to the operator input.
Value: 0 - 7
FM - Addsyn a radio button that controls the operator
connection: FM synthesis or Additive
synthesis.