Elesund, the 5th of April, 1991 After having listened to the divine sounds of 'The Ultimate Musical Experience', you'll probably be wondering how and with what software these songs have been conceived. To be frank, writing such songs will need the skill of a true artist, but at least the software is right here at your fingertips, well, in your drive, to be precise. Esion is a program for writing music using samples of real-life instruments. With four separate channels, two in your left speaker and two in the right, these samples can easily be matched in to form genuine music of a previously unheard quality. Esion has been written to take your STe's sonical capabilities to the absolute limit. Writing Esion has taken and is taking rather a lot of at least my spare time, which at least partly should have been spent reading for my exams. Getting a job without an education is tough luck these days, and so far Esion has not brought us a single dime. We plan to continue to develop Esion, but unless we start earning some money on it, we are forced to abandon Esion as a failed project. If you want us to continue working on Esion and software of high quality in general, please show your support. Thank you. A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE USAGE OF ESION The notes which are valid for Esion range from C-1 to B-3, three octaves. Two octaves are accessible from the keyboard at a time. The other two octaves can be accessed when pressing [TAB]. Pressing [TAB] one more time will make the first two octaves accessible again. The notes are laid out over the keyboard as on a piano. When EDIT is off, no changes can be made to the patterns. Pressing a key will sound the respective note, but no note is inserted in the patterns. When EDIT is on the note will be inserted, and all four channels will sound. A tune is built up on positions. A position specifies a pattern, e.g. position 0 specifies pattern 0. When the position is set to 0, pattern 0 will be played. When the end of the pattern is reached, the position counter will be increased to 1. If position 1 also specifies pattern 0, pattern 0 will be played again. This will continue until the position counter reaches 'length'. The position counter will then be loaded with the value specified by 'restart'. Use shift + sideways arrowkeys to view the different patterns. A pattern is divided in four tracks, which in their turn are divided in 64 notes. A note looks like this: --- 0000 | | +-- Command field | +---- Sample number +------- Note A typical note could look like this: C-2 1000 This implies that a C-2 should be played with sample number 1. No command is specified. C#314C20 This will order Esion to play a #C3 with sample #14. A command is also specified. Let's have a closer look at the commands. The command field is built up like this: C 20 | ++-- Command parameter +----- Command The command here is 'C' and the parameter is '20'. The command 'C' means that the volume should be set to, in this case, 20. I'll list some of the commands available: 1 - PORTAMENTO UP ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1XX = slide note up (speed=xx) Will slide the note xx steps upwards per vertical blank. 2 - PORTAMENTO DOWN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2XX = slide note down (speed=xx) Will slide the note xx steps downwards per vertical blank. 4 - VIBRATO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4XY = vibrato note (x=speed, u=size) Will vibrate the note, where x specifies the speed of the vibrato and y is the size of the vibrato. Specifying 400 will continue the vibrato. A - SLIDE VOLUME ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AXY = slide volume (+x/-y) Slides the volume with speed x steps upwards and speed y steps downwards per vertical blank. B - POSITION JUMP ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BXX = jump to pattern xx Will exit the present pattern immediately and set the position counter to xx. C - SET VOLUME ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CXX = set volume to xx Will set the volume of that channel to xx. D - PATTERN BREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ D00 - next pattern Will exit the current pattern and jump directly to the next pattern. F - SET SPEED ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FXX = set speed to xx Will change the speed at which the patterns are played to xx. xx indicates the vertical blanks between each new note. The smallest value allowed is 1, which suggests that a new note is played every vertical blank. The default speed is 6. This small documentation is in no way full, there simply are no better docs at present. But to make it a bit easier for you, I've included a finished module with which you can experiment. For those who have been using the infamous TCB tracker, we have added the ability to load TCB tracker modules. We hope you like Esion. If enough interest is shown we hope to include the following features: - AVR sample loading/saving - Midi support - TT support - sample editor - powerful cut/paste functions - YM2149 (PSG) sound chip support - 25kHz - 8 voices - Monochrome support? But you really shouldn't count on us getting it done ;^) The ESION XLI tracker is in no way finished. You'll probably come across lots of bugs etc. when using it. Esion is under continual development and may not even be finished as you read this. Still, you can get hold of the latest version of Esion by registering by the author. You will then receive the latest version of ESION XLII together with documenta- tion, replay routines for ST/E for incorporation in your very own programs and three disks full of high quality samples. The registration fee is a measly 20 GB pounds or equivalent. At the moment we are looking for distributors, so ESION XLII may very well appear at the commercial market. If you are interested in distri- buting the tracker for us or need music or sfx for a game, do contact us! Karl Anders Xygard Box 8 N-6180 SFBX NORWAY Phone: +47 070 40015 (in the weekends only) Postgiro account: 0824 0427932 Email: Karl Anders 0ygard With love from Norway... Disclaimer: The author does not take any responsibility for any damage done with this demo/Esion. If it turns your 200Meg HD into a C60 cassette tape or you blow your speakers in pure extacy, that is really your problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------ -- * Craig Shore | From in NZ mail to craig@yonder.equinox.gen.nz * * 20 Tasman Place | FROM OUTSIDE NZ to shore_c@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz * * Christchurch, | slnet 250:700/1266 fido: 3:770/180 * * New Zealand | Phone (voice) +64 3 3852-501 or +64 3 385-6554 *