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2022-08-26
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M I D I P L A Y E R T I P S
Text by John Serafino
NOTE: These tips assume that you have
a MULTI-TIMBRAL synthesizer or tone
generator hooked up to your computer!
MIDI Setup
----------
I have found that most Stereo
SIDs are set up as follows:
Voice Function
----- --------
1 Melody
2 First chord note
3 Bass
4 Melody, usually an exact
duplicate of voice #1
5 Second chord note
6 Bass, usually an exact
duplicate of voice #3
Out of 500+ Stereo SIDs that I
have on my hard drive, I would say
90% of them are set up this way.
As you can see, the only difference
between the first three SID voices
and the last three is SID VOICE 2 and
5.
Sometimes the melody on voice 4
is slightly delayed, to create an
"echo" effect.
Sometimes the bass on channel 3
or 6 also contains a "percussion"
sequence.
When creating a MIDI setup, I set
things up as follows:
SID voice 1 set to channel 1 with
a lead instrument such a vibes,
trumpet, flute, sax, etc.
SID voices 2, 3, 4 and 5 set to
channel 2 with a chord type
instrument such as piano, electric
piano, guitar, organ, etc.
SID Voice 6 set to channel 3 with
a bass guitar-type sound.
Some SIDs were written with
"percussion" on one or more of the
voices. If you encounter a SID like
this you have two choices: select a
synthesizer percussion sound, or mute
the channel.
Variations: Set the bass on SID
voice 3 and/or the melody on SID
voice 4 up or down an octave. This
will "fatten" the sound of the music
up considerably. It also gives the
individual voices "more room",
musically speaking. It's best to
experiment and let your ears be the
judge, but I've found lowering voice
3 and raising voice 4 yields the best
results. NOTE: Sometimes the
duplicated SID voices will already be
set an octave apart... you will be
able to see this by the colors on the
equalizer.
I have found that most MONO SIDs
are set up as follows:
Voice Function
----- --------
1 Melody
2 Chord note
3 Bass
And since MIDI player
automatically duplicates the first
three voices:
4 Melody
5 Chord note
6 Bass
NOTE: the last three voices of a
MONO SID are exactly the same as the
first three.
I usually set things up exactly
like a stereo SID, but play with the
octaves on all of the last three
voices. To me, this helps quite a
bit.
Classical SIDs usually sound best
if you stick to ONE instrument for
all voices.
If you mute a voice permanently,
also set that voice to an unused
channel number.
MIDI SETUPS
-----------
MIDI Players have been around for
quite a while, most or all of them
available as shareware or freeware on
online services.
I've downloaded, used, and
examined several of them, and tried
to incorporate and improve on all of
the features that I found important
in this version.
Aside from obvious improvements
such as point-and-click operation,
CMD support, etc. the most important
and much-needed improvement is the
ability to set your synthesizer/tone
generator up for a specific SID from
WITHIN the program, and have this
setup automatically reload whenever
you play that SID again. The
following text attempts to explain
this a bit more.
The following is a list
describing each of the items that may
be set for EACH of the six SID voices
(and why you would want to use them):
MUTE
----
A voice is "muted" or turned off
by pressing one of the 6 buttons
under the sliders in the mixer
window.
When a voice is muted, the
program sends the data for this voice
to the synth with a velocity of zero.
This effectively turns the voice
off. You can use MUTE to turn off
SID voices temporarily while trying
to find out what patches sound best
for other SID voices.
Sometimes SIDs contain
"percussive" sequences on one or more
voices (which will sound like
repeating high notes) which you can
mute permanently. It's best to also
assign these voices to an unused
channel.
SLIDERS
-------
The real-time sliders control the
MIDI VELOCITY of the SID voice.
Velocity can be thought of as how
"hard" the note is played. Velocity
almost always affects the VOLUME of
the note, and frequently affects the
timbre or "sharpness" of the note.
The sliders can be used to adjust the
VOLUME of a particular SID voice,
even if a group of voices are
assigned to the same channel.
MIDI VOLUME*
------------
Some synth patches are programmed
in such a way that VELOCITY
information affects the TIMBRE a lot
and the VOLUME very little (the
opposite of what we want). This
situation is likely to arise on organ
and bass guitar patches. Use the MIDI
VOLUME function to reduce the volume
of such instruments as needed, and
tweak the timbre with the SLIDERS.
MIDI PATCH*
-----------
This feature sends MIDI standard
PATCH change information OVER THE
SELECTED CHANNEL to your
instrument(s).
MIDI CHANNEL
------------
This selects the MIDI channel
that the notes and data of the SID
voice will be sent over. The MIDI
channel must correspond to how your
instrument is set up.
OCTAVE
------
This allows you to raise or lower
the notes of the SID voice by one
octave.
Use this function to "separate"
duplicate SID voices, making the
sound "fatter", or to make the octave
of the SID voice more appropriate for
the synth patch you've chosen.
* There are two ways as I see it to
set up a Multi-Timbral synth to use
with this program: Instruments 1 to 6
are set to channels 1 to 6, and each
get 1 note. All six SID voices are
assigned to channels 1 to 6. If that
is how you will set things up, you
will not have a problem.
But, I have had better sounding
results setting the synth up like
this: Instrument 1 will always be
used for the "lead", 1 note, channel
1. Instrument 2 will always be used
for the "chord", 4 notes, channel 2.
Instrument 3 will always be used for
the "bass", 1 note, channel 3.
Instrument 5 is used occasionally as
needed, 1 note, channel 4.
Instrument 6 is set up exactly as
instrument 1 (Channel 1, one voice)
and detuned by a few cents to give a
nice true "chorus" sound. The SID
voices are then assigned to the
channels keeping the note
restrictions and the function of the
SID voice in mind (see "Tips" for an
explanation of usual SID voice
functions).
If you set things up like this,
or in a similar way, it's important
to remember that the LAST MIDI VOLUME
and PATCH setting (the highest
numbered SID voice) is the only one
that will be in effect for a
particular channel:
EXAMPLE:
SID PATCH VOL CHAN
-------------------------------
1 jazz trumpet 127 1
2 grand piano 100 2*
3 bass guitar 100 3
4 e. piano 127 2*
5 e. piano 2 115 2*
6 cello 127 4
In this example, you will notice
*3 SID voices assigned to channel
two. Channel two will receive THREE
patch and volume change commands, one
for SID voices 2, 4 and 5...but it
will remember only the last one, the
one for SID voice 5. ASSIGNing SID
voices 2 and 4 to different patches
or MIDI volumes at this point will
have no effect, because it will be
"overwritten" in the synth by SID
voice 5!
TIP: I usually assign the lowest
numbered SID voices to the "blank"
patch in the patch list to make
things easier to read. Only the last
SID Voice of the channel needs a
patch name:
EXAMPLE:
SID PATCH VOL CHAN
-----------------------------
1 jazz trumpet 127 1
2 100 2*
3 bass guitar 100 3
4 127 2*
5 e. piano 2 115 2*
6 cello 127 4
Another important thing to
remember is that if a SID does not
have a corresponding setup file, it
will use the default setup loaded
into memory at boot time. The user
may choose any setup to be the
default by saving one with the
filename of "default", IN the PROGRAM
directory (or on the program disk).
Also, a library of up to 30 of these
default files may be saved and loaded
from each disk/directory at any
time.
JS