Loadstar 237/237.d81/t.midi player

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 15KB | 600 lines

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         M I D I   P L A Y E R
           by John Serafino


NOTE: If you don't have a standard
C-64 MIDI INTERFACE (available from
places like CMD) and a MIDI keyboard
(available from places like Service
Merchandise), you can't make use of
this program. MIDI Player 64 is a
program that plays the thousands of
mono and stereo "SID player" music
files on any standard MIDI instrument,
whether it's a $175 Casio or a $70,000
Fairlight.

DAVE'S NOTE: New MIDI instruments use
a USB interface instead of the DIN
plug of yesteryear. When I see a
keyboard at a garage sale, I first and
always look at the back for the MIDI
IN socket. Without that, the keyboard
is a kid's toy!


 PROGRAM FEATURES
 ----------------

 o Quick and easy point-and-click
   operation- Mouse, Joystick or
   Keyboard.

 o Supports up to 5 drives, Full
   Support for all CMD Devices and
   modes.

 o Supports Sonus, Sequential,
   Passport or Datel MIDI
   interfaces.

 o Filename buffer holds 255 SIDs per
   directory. Single Song, Jukebox,
   Random, or top-down playing modes.
   User-defined playlists may be
   created, and up to 30 of them may
   be saved and recalled per
   disk/directory.

 o Patch maps can be easily created
   for multiple specific synths,
   General MIDI patch map is
   included.

 o Plays both 3 and 6-voice SIDs, up
   to 77 blocks in size.

 o View and/or print the WORDS files.

 o User may select patch
   (instrument), volume, MIDI channel,
   velocity, mute and octave for each
   SID voice.

 o These setups can be saved to disk
   as default files which can be
   loaded at any time. Or, the setup
   can be saved as a file that
   corresponds to a specific SID. This
   type of file will then load in and
   set up the synthesizer(s)
   automatically each time that SID is
   played.

 o Sids that do not have a
   corresponding file will use the
   loaded default setup.


 MENU SYSTEM
 -----------

    MIDI PLAYER uses an intuitive
pull-down menuing system like GEOS.
You'll feel most at home using a
mouse.  On your screen, you'll find a
white arrow which you can move in any
direction.  All you have to do is
move a little arrow to the feature
that you want to use, then "click" to
select it.  At the top of the screen
is the menu bar.  Each menu is
labelled.  To pull down a menu, just
click on the name of the menu.  If
you're using a keyboard, press SPACE.
If you're using a joystick, press
FIRE.

    Once you've selected a menu, a
list of items appear.  Just move the
arrow to the menu item and select it.
Depending on the nature of the menu
item, a requestor box may appear,
asking you to select more options, or
the menu item itself may cycle
through two or more settings.


 INPUT CONTROL (READ BEFORE YOU RUN!)
 ------------------------------------

    MIDI PLAYER can be configured to
work with MOUSE or JOYSTICK in Port
#1, or KEYBOARD controls.  This
configuration is saved to disk.
MIDI PLAYER, as found on the LOADSTAR
disk, is configured to work with the
keyboard.


 INPUT OVERRIDE KEYS
 -------------------

    While booting, hold down:


 o CONTROL to enable the keyboard
 o COMMODORE KEY to enable the mouse
 o SHIFT to enable the joystick


    Only one device is active at a
time. Once you're in the program and
can move the arrow, you can pull down
the SETUP MENU and change INPUT
DEVICE until it displays the one you
want as the default. Then save your
setup using the SAVE SETUP option.

    Once you save the setup, there
will be no need to press a control key
while booting.


 NOTE: The new setup won't be active
until the NEXT time you boot up, so
once you save the settings, you'll
probably want to quit the program and
boot up again.  You shouldn't have to
do this again, unless you decide to
change the default input device.


 WHAT IS MIDI?
 -------------

    MIDI is the most important thing
to happen to music since the piano.
It stands for Musical Instrument
Digital Interface, and it's the
standard by which computers and
instruments talk to one another.
Because of this, many people of
normal means (such as myself) have
been able to create quality music
without having to pay an orchestra or
band. If you have a MIDI instrument,
and a MIDI interface (which you can
purchase from Creative Micro
Designs), you can now enjoy your SID
songs through your MIDI keyboard or
tone generator.

    Even if you have a PC, MAC or
AMIGA with MIDI card, you can plug
your C-64 directly to your PC's
interface, and play SID songs through
your PC's sound card.  You can even
set up the PC to record on all six
channels (if you have the software)
and effectively convert SIDs to MODs
or MIDI files.

    If you thought you enjoyed SID
and Stereo SID before, wait until you
hear the same songs through a MIDI
instrument, most of which have far
superior sound capabilities.  Plus if
you're willing to change a few
settings, you can have each of the
six MIDI PLAYER channels play to any
of 16 MIDI channels to play the exact
instrument you want.

   If your MIDI instrument is multi-
timbral (or has multi-play setups as
they call it these days), you can
have as many as six distinct voices
playing.  Actually, my TG-33 is
capable of having one or more voices
devoted to one channel with different
voices playing the same melody.  This
is called "stacking," and it sounds
very rich.  So though there are only
six channels transmitting, you can
indeed have 16 distinct voices
playing.  More, if you have more than
one MIDI instrument chained.

   If you're using a Casio type home
keyboard with auto accompany, you may
find that the melody voice is on MIDI
channel 1, the bass is 2, arpeggio on
3 and so on.  Check your manuals.


 THE MAIN WINDOW
 ---------------

    The top line of the MAIN window
displays the current storage device
type and number, the current
directory header name, and the number
of music files found.  There's a
stereo song with words (called
"Moscow Nights") by Kenneth Barsky on
the LS disk.

    Informational messages will appear
in the filename display area during
disk access and sorting.

 LOAD: Opens the standard LOAD box.
This function allows you to load in a
new  DEFAULT MIDI setup. See the
section on MIDI SETUPS for further
details.

 DISK: Re-reads the directory of the
current disk drive.  Single disk
drive users can use this to read in
the SID filenames on a new floppy.

 DEVICE: Opens the standard
device/path requestor.  Navigate
around your system.  It automatically
filters a SID filename directory read
when you exit.

 .WDS: Will display the 'words' file
of the highlighted SID, if the SID
has one.  Functions of the reader
window should be self-explanatory.
You may also print the words file
while in the reader window.

 T/B: Move to the Top or Bottom of
the filename list.  Useful for large
lists.  (The filename buffer will hold
up to 255 filenames.)

 ARROWS: Moves the filename list one
PAGE of filenames at a time.

 PLAY: This will begin playing the
SIDs in the order designated by the
playlist.  When the playlist is
cleared, playing will stop.

 SINGLE: This will play the
highlighted SID, regardless of the
playlist.

    The following three buttons are
used to create the playlist.

 SETALL: This will create a playlist
of all the SIDs sequentially, from
top to bottom.

 CLRALL: This will clear the
playlist.

 RANDOM: This will create a
randomized playlist.

   To play SIDs in a user-defined
"Jukebox" order, individual SIDs may
be toggled on or off by clicking just
to the right of the SID name in the
list.  When you toggle a SID ON, the
first available number will appear.

 ARROWS: Scroll the filename list up
or down by one.


 THE MIDI MIXER
 --------------

    After a SID loads in, the MIDI
mixer window opens.

 NOTE: If the SID has a corresponding
MIDI setup (.MID) file, all of the
settings on the mixer will be taken
from it.  Otherwise, the settings on
the mixer come from the current
DEFAULT setup.

    But let's face it, your songs
will probably sound better if you
fine tune a unique MIDI setup for
each song.

    The status line displays the
following:

   '6-voice or 3-voice', depending on
whether it's a stereo or mono SID.

    NOTE: The program will duplica