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- Patch Tutorial #2 - percussive patches
- ======================================
-
- Before you start, you need to get some tools that will help you create
- patches. All of them can be found on archive.epas.utoronto.ca.
-
- sox7dos.zip - a must for any serious format manipulations
- goldwave.zip - or any other 16 bit wave editor like cooled (optional)
- patch.exe - Gravis patch editor (also found in the sdk)
- playfile.exe - included with the Gravis
- convert.exe - needed only if you use goldwave (because of a bug)
-
- I would also suggest programs like Csound and samplevision if you plan on
- doing a lot of patches. A ASCII/HEX byte editor like Zap is also very
- usefull.
-
- 1 - You need a sound. In our example, we will use the included SCRATCH.SND.
- It is already a raw soundfile, so all the steps that were described in
- TUTOR1.TXT (in PATCHKIT.ARJ) are not nescessary. However when you'll do
- a patch on your own, you'll need to follow the steps in TUTOR1.TXT and master
- applications like SOX and clearly understand the difference between signed/
- unsigned, byte/word/float, uLaw samples etc...
-
- 2 - Now, you need to determine what frequency the .SND is. By using playfile,
- it should be clear that SCRATCH.SND is a 16 bit, signed, 22050 Hz file. You
- then note the length of the file (in bytes) and start PATCH.EXE. I use my own
- program (PATCHGOD) that ask me for all these parameters and others and
- creates automagically a patch (SWIRL.PAT was created like that). But in your
- case, you will need to use PATCH. NOTE: code is beeing added to SOX so
- that it will convert any sound to a Gravis Ultrasound patch. This, along
- with a DOS synth module application will be released in 4th quarter of 1993.
-
- C:>PATCH
-
- Once started, click on the 8 box. You will then see 16. LOOP should be in
- red (indicating it is disabled) and SUST green. If not, click on them. You
- may have to click on SUST up to 3 times to get the correct mode (SUST green,
- no blue dot). Go to the left with the mouse (position 0), then press a on
- your pc keyboard. This will load a wavesample. type SCRATCH.SND, 15296 (the
- length in bytes of the raw file) and 0 for filename, bytes to load and bytes
- to skip. Click on RANGE, then click on the leftmost note, then click on LOW.
- Then click on C3 (click the notes till you get it) or whatever note you want
- to put as root note (usually the root note is the note where the percussive
- patch will be assigned; for example, percussion 36 in ULTRASND.INI and
- DEFAULT.CFG or 163 in ULTRAMID.INI, would be C3 as you can verify yourself
- in the TABLE1.TXT file), then click on ROOT and finally click on OCTAVE
- SHIFT, click on the rightmost note, then click on HIGH. Type f, then type
- 22050 for frequency, and then type enter (in TUTOR1.TXT i made you type in
- again the low, root and high frequency again). Last, click on range, go at
- position 0 and press [, then at the end and press E, then back up to the left
- by 1 sample position and press ] (these are the start loop point, end point
- and end loop point expressed in sample offset instead of byte offset because
- we are in 16 bit mode).
-
- Now, here is where we change a lot from TUTOR1.TXT. We will modify the
- enveloppe by pressing the ENVEL button. Dont panic, it's not as hard as it
- looks. I will not yet enter in the wonderfull world of enveloppes yet. I
- will save this for TUTOR3.TXT. But you can experiment. Once you modify the
- enveloppe, you can either play on your MIDI keyboard if it is connected to
- the Gravis MIDI port (will not work off an MPU401), or click on RANGE and
- play with the mouse. To get back to enveloppes, press ENVEL. Now if you
- dont have an idea on how to do it, i have included an enveloppe already,
- so all you have to do is to press F5. It will ask for the name of the
- enveloppe file. Type SCRATCH.ENV. On the other hand if you want to make your
- own and at some point you are not sure if you have finished or not, and want
- to save the enveloppe, press F6 to save it. I would suggest making a few
- basic enveloppes that will serve as general purpose later when you do other
- patches.
-
- And it's not finished yet! Now we will have to choose between flexibility
- and ease of use. If you know the patch may be needed as a melodic or
- percussive patch, you keep the current frequency scaling (1.0). But if you
- want to use it only as melodic and be able to change the position of the
- patch in the .ini or .cfg files, you have to scale it to 0.0. To do this
- click the root note (or whatever note you'd like to use equally on the whole
- keyboard), then press F7 and type 0.0. To undo this you'd press F7 and type
- 1.0. If you still want a little frequency change over the keyboard (to use
- the same patch on several notes to simulate low, mid and high toms for
- example), you could use a factor between 0.0 and 1.0 and it would give more
- flexibility. The factor can be up to 2.0. Experiment with it to see it's
- effect. Last, we will introduce another command before saving: H. Go ahead,
- press H. You can now enter a description or copyright notice, up to 60 bytes
- long. Then you are asked for the number of active voices. Type 14. We will
- get into details in another tutorial.
-
- Well, that's it. Type s, then type the name of the patch file and it will be
- saved. It should be very similar to SCRATCH.PAT (should at least sound the
- same). Due to a few errors in PATCH.EXE, the length of the pat as seen by
- PATCHMAN in windows will be 0Kb. Also, it wont have a name. To add a name,
- you can use a byte editor like ZAP (the converter in SOX will permit a patch
- name) and type the name at offset 131 in decimal. Check out patch.h for more
- details, in PATCHKIT.ARJ.
-
- If you get lost, try F1 for help. If that's not enough, you can email me, or
- better ask on the digest.
-
- Well that's it for today... more tutorials comming, and maybe more
- explanations if it's not clear enough.
-
- As for PAD_C7.AIF from the first tutorial, i said i may give the loop points
- found in the AIFF file. Well if you havent found them yet, guess you didn't
- really look into it. But i will give them anyway: 5823 and 14330 in byte
- offsets, or 2911.5 and 7165 in word (16 bit samples) offset. The fractional
- loop points will be needed for the 2911.5. Add to the start loop point
- fraction until the loop sounds ok (no buzz).
-
- Francois Dion
- '
-
- Snail mail:
- IdMEDIA
- c/o Francois Dion
- P.O. Box 312
- St-Lambert, QC
- Canada
- J4P 3P8
-
- Phone:
- 514-671-4933 or 514-343-7511
-
- Internet:
- dionf@ere.umontreal.ca or cism@ere.umontreal.ca
-
- Fidonet:
- Francois Dion
- 1:167/228
-