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2 Welcome to MIDIJOY

2.1 What is MIDIJOY?

MIDIJOY is a program to enjoy midi. It is no sequencer, no editor, no patch-librarian, no dump-utility, no..
You could say, it is a midi-improvising tool. Back in the eighties there was a program for the early 512 k Macintosh,
MUSIC MOUSE, by Laurie Spiegel. The dedicated Midian knows it still exists. I got my inspiration for MIDIJOY from MUSIC MOUSE. The basic idea for MIDIJOY and MUSIC MOUSE is the same. Translate the internal numbers generated by the X-Y movements of the mouse into midi note-on values, and voila, there's music. Laurie Spiegel worked it out her way, I worked it out my way, MIDIJOY is totally different from MUSIC MOUSE.

The data that are generated by the mouse, the information hidden in the screen keyboards (called klaviers from now on to avoid confusion with that qwerty thing I'm typing on), is scale-organized. You can make your own scales, and the midi output can be controlled extensively. There are a lot of parameters that can be set. You can play immediately with MIDIJOY, but there is a lot to explore to get better results.
For this reason, manuals were invented. "And God Created The English Manual".. wish it were so. The Dutch manual (my native language) is complete, the English version is what you see now. Most probably it is not complete yet. If it is, it is due to your enthusiasm and encouraging emails.

2.2 Marsan DMC

Marsan that's me (Harry Koopman) and DMC stands for Digital Music Center. When Atari was really alive I wrote applications for the machine, and nowadays I do other things. You can take a look at http://members.tripodnet.nl/hkoopman/marsan.html

2.3 MIDIJOY-disc

Well, those times are over since internet. MIDIJOY is freeware now, and downloadable. Please, if you give it to your friends, keep the files together.
As for MIDIJOY.PRG, it is completely stand-alone, no .RSC files are needed. There are of course more files in the folder but they are not necessary to run MIDIJOY.
When you run MDJ???TT.PRG (for TT or Falcon) the file BASLIB35 must be on your harddisk.
The files that MIDIJOY itself saves and loads are:

  1. FILENAME.MDJ
    File containing a MIDIJOY setup, with lots of parameters
  2. FILENAME.R_P
    Same as MDJ, but also containing a performance, a recorded series of events. R_P stands for Record and Performance.
  3. FILENAME.MAP
    A file that contains preset-columns that can be imported in MIDIJOY on the fly.

Files generated by MIDIJOY versions 1 and 2 can be read by version 3, but not the other way around.

2.4 The computer

Atari ST, Mega ST, or STe, with 1 Mb memory, and a monochrome high resolution monitor. I never tested the 512 K ST, it might work. MIDIJOY accepts all TOS-versions and KAOS also. When MIDIJOY was written the Falcon did not exist yet. Version 3.15 does not run on TT and Falcon. When I get a lot of requests investigations to portability to TT/Falcon will be made.
The good news:
MIDIJOY now works (since november 2000) on the TT/Falcon. In the folder you will find a MDJ???TT.PRG. This version runs on the TT/Falcon, but the BASLIB35 file must be in the folder. Also only the ST-resolution is provided. But it's better then nothing.

2.5 DEF.MDJ

When DEF.MDJ is found in the same folder as MIDIJOY it is loaded by MIDIJOY at start up. When not found MIDIJOY uses its internal settings, called PROGRAM.MDJ. You create a DEF.MDJ by saving a setup with that name. Please do experiment, and also try disabling DEF.MDJ for once, renaming it to DEF.MDX or something like that, to start with PROGRAM.MDJ. The best thing is to create your own DEF.MDJ to suit your needs.

2.6 Midi connection

This chapter is like jamming in an open door. Look at the back of your Atari, and see what other computer manufacturers have forgotten..
One remark may be useful, instruments that do not support the running status principle, do work with MIDIJOY also.
When MIDIJOY was written, bank select was not common, and MIDIJOY does not support it. Sorry.

2.7 AZERTY keyboard layout

As for the reference to keys in MIDIJOY, MIDIJOY can be set up for AZERTY. Place a file with the name AZERTY.MDJ in the MIDIJOY folder, and restart. The contents of the file AZERTY.MDJ does not matter, but the most simple thing is writing it from MIDIJOY as an MDJ file. The AZERTY-mode does not change the absolute key locations of the keys themselves, but only causes the display of MIDIJOY showing the right keys.

2.8 Help screens

There are help-screens in MIDIJOY to make it more easy to refer to the manual. These help-screens show numbers. We call this numbers HELP-numbers and the manual refers to them with help 33, help 8 and so on. When in a screen, press [HELP], but in the main screen you have to use [SHIFT] + [?]. [HELP] was already in use (to activate AUTOMOUSE).

 

 

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