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BRIAN'S SOUNDMON - DOC FILE
<Preface>
On this disk you will find one of the most powerfull Amiga soundeditors.
It was written over a period of four days and is written in 100% assembler
(source is over 70Kb longs). The program is a combination of the C64 sound-
monitor and the Amiga Soundtracker. I decided to write my own music-player,
because Soundtracker did not match my needs (I hated entering drums every
new pattern again). For those who already know the C64 soundmonitor it won't
be difficult to use this one, for those who don't I wrote this docfile.
In this V1.0 version I have not added a file-requester nor gadgets, so all
functions are called by pressing function-keys (I find this quicker then
gadgets, once you know them). The program knows multitasking, so in order to
know what songs are on your disk, enter the CLI and type 'DIR BPSONGS'.
For info about the F-Keys read the file BSKeys.DOC.
A filerequester and gadgets will problably be added in a later version, so
watch out for it.
<Get on with it>
Well, once you start up the soundmonitor your screen will be build up in
3 parts.
The first block (right on your screen) shows the used instruments (the
active one is underlined), they should all read 'EMPTY'.
The second block (top-left on your screen) shows the step-editor.
The third block (bottom-left) shows the pattern-editor (should show pattern
1).
<Instruments>
This one's very easy, read the BSKeys.DOC file for how to select instru-
ments. When you press 'F8' you can change some sample parameters, like name
length, repeat, replen and default volume.
Length: This is the length of the sample in bytes
Repeat: This is the offset for the repeat part to the start of the sample.
Replen: This is the length of the repeat part in bytes.
Volume: This is the default volume in which the instrument will be played.
You can use presets, so you don't have to find out what repeat and replen to
use. Also do some samples don't have a repeat part, in this case repeat=0
and replen=2. (Again: read 'BSKeys.DOC' for how to use presets).
<Step-Editor>
One line of the step editor could look like this:
ST PAT ST TR PAT ST TR PAT ST TR PAT ST TR
000 0001 00 00 0002 00 00 0003 01 00 0004 00 FC
The first number is the step number and can't be changed. Then you see 4
times PAT, ST and TR. Where PAT is the number of the pattern to be played.
ST is the SoundTranspose and TR the transpose. For each voice there is one
PAT, one ST and one TR. All numbers in the pattern and step editor are
entered in hexadecimal.
-PAT
Pattern numbers should go from $0001 till $155 (=341 patterns). It is better
you don't use Pattern 1 for song data, because it is normally used as an
empty pattern (no notes played). The pattern numbers is a 1 WORD (2 BYTES)
number.
-ST
The Soundtranspose is a 1 BYTE 2-complement number. What does this mean ?
This means: a 1 is a +1, a 2 is a +2, but a $ff (255) is a -1.
2-complement means that any number greater than $80 (128) is negative, and
it's value is NUMBER-256 (so 255-256=-1)
Soundtranspose is used to play all notes in the pattern with higher instru-
ment numbers. For example: If soundtranspose was set to 1 and in the pattern
you would play a note with instrument 2 it would be really be played with
instrument 3. Since there are only 15 instruments possible, only sound-
transposes from -14 to +14 are meaningfull ($0-$E and $F2-$FF).
-TR
The Transpose is also a 1 BYTE 2-complement number.
Transposes are used to shift notes in the pattern. The transpose number
indicates how many half-notes a pattern should be played higher or lower.
For example: If transpose was set to $FC (-4) and I would play a C-2 in the
pattern, a G#1 would really be played.
<The Pattern Editor>
You can switch between the step and pattern editor by pressing the 'RETURN'
key.
In the pattern editor you can enter the notes you want to be played.
When you enter the pattern editor it could look something like this :
PATTERN : $0002
C-2 1 0 00 --- 0 0 00 C-3 1 0 00 --- 0 0 00
C-2 1 0 00 C-2 1 1 20 C-2 1 1 18 C-2 1 1 10
C-2 1 1 08 C-2 1 1 00 C-3 1 0 00 --- 0 0 00
C-2 1 0 00 --- 0 0 00 C-3 1 0 00 --- 0 0 00
As you can see, there is room in the pattern for 16 notes.
The first 3 symbols indicate the note to played (C-2 is a C on octave 2,
there are 3 octave 1-3). You can enter these notes by pressing the key-
board note keys (read BSKeys.DOC). The number after the note indicates
the instrument in which the note will be played , in this example all notes
are played with instrument 1 (this is a hex-number from 0-F). instrument
0 indicates that there is to play with the same instrument as used before.
The next number is the option-select, read BSKeys.DOC to find out what
options are available (also 0-F). The next 2 numbers are the data that a
chosen option uses. In this example option 1 (volume setting is used),
this means that some of the notes are played with other volume as the notes
before (volume $20,$18,$10,$08 and $00 to be precise).
<And now something about the Player>
The player is written in seka and can be used to play your songs, without
the song-editor. There are 2 ways :
1-Save a module (F7): you must now adjust the length after the label BPSONG
to the length of your module. Assemble the program and load the datablock
created by the editor to bpsong. Now you can save the object file and
load it from the CLI. If you want to use it in your own program, make
sure you 'BSR' or 'JSR' to 'BPINIT' in the beginning of the program and
'BSR' or 'JSR' to BPMUSIC every vertical blank (This is heavy stuff, only
for people that know something about interrupts).
2-Save a song (F2): You should know write down the length's of the samples
used and the length of the song. Adjust the length after the label BPSONG
to the songlenght and adjust the length's after S1-SF (sample1 - Sample15)
to the length of the samples.
Assemble and then load the song to BPSONG and the samples to S1-SF.
You can leave out the BPINIT now (is not neccesary).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sound Monitor KeyBoard function keys description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use The following keys:
a) In step edit mode:
F1 - Load Song
F2 - Save Song
F3 - Play Song all over
F4 - Play Song from current step
F5 - Stop Playing
F6 - Change Songlength
F7 - Save Module
F8 - Edit current Sample
F9 - Insert Step
F10- Delete Step
= - Toggle Noteinsert (for patterneditor)
\ - Toggle KeyBoardPlay (for patterneditor)
[ - Shift KeyBoard to lower octave (dito.)
] - Shift KeyBoard to higher octave (and again)
ESC- Clear Song
` - Goto
DEL- Reload Samples
HELP- Quit
A-F/0-9 - Edit data
Keypad:
+ - Next Sample
- - Previous Sample
ENTER - Use Preset (When presets are loaded). The Preset file is named
PLST, and is in the same format as the soundtracker PLST. (so
you can use ST's PED too).
Use cursor keys to select preset, RETURN to use, ENTER to cancel
* - Asks for a samplename (without diskname) and searches this one in the
presets list and loads it. (Where a '*' in the samplename stands for
any number of any kind of char. For example:
BASS* could mean BASSDRUM or BASSGUITAR or BASS.
Note that BASS*DRUM is the same as BASS* cause wildcards are only
usefull at the end of the samplename).
b) In Pattern edit mode:
Most keys do the same except,
F9 - Copy Pattern
F10- Clear Pattern
The keyboard is now transfered into a Piano-like keyboard as follows
2 3 5 6 7 9 0
C#2 D#2 F#2 G#2 A#2 C#3 D#3
Q W E R T Y U I O P
C-2 D-2 E-2 F-2 G-2 A-2 B-2 C-3 D-3 E-3
S D G H J L ;
C#1 D#1 F#1 G#1 A#1 C#2 D#2
Z X C V B N M , . /
C-1 D-1 E-1 F-1 G-1 A-1 B-1 C-2 D-2 E-2
(Like SoundTracker...)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technical Details:
This is the second version of my soundeditor, the first one was written
in Basic (yes, Basic). The player was created in august 1988, so was
the first editor. This second version was written entirely in assembler
(yes, Assembler !!!), and it was created in four days (from 29-1-1989
till 1-2-1989). The source code is over 60Kbytes long. In the near
future I will probably improve some functions (like the character-read-
routine and the keyboard-play-routine). Brian's soundmon contains the
following options:
0 = arpeggio
1 = set volume
2 = set tempo (6=normal,1=fastest)
3 = set LED status
4 = slide up
5 = slide down
6 = set repeat counter
7 = decreases repeat counter and branches to pattern number in data
when repeat counter reached zero
8 = Set Auto Slide
9 = Set Auto Arpeggio
A = Transposes off. As follows: If the hi-nibble of the data is not
zero then transpose is turned off, if the low-nibble of the data is
not zero then soundtranspose is turned off.
Example: A-00 ->normal, A-10->no transpose, A-01->no soundtranspose
and A-11 is no transpose and no soundtranspose.
Options 6 & 7 can be used to repeat a song part several times.
Problaly there will be some options added in the future.
You can edit up to 341 (=$155) patterns, because I allocated 16Kb of
memory for the patterns, if you need more -> call me. The maximum
samplelength = 65534 bytes.
Update 29-3-1989: Today I added Module Saving, use the normal Player to
play modules, adjust the length of the 'bpsong: blk.b' to the module
length and set the length of 's1-sf' to zero.
Modules are saved in 'ST-00:MODULES/"
For more detailed instructions read: BS.DOC (also on this disk)
Brian's Soundmon was created by Brian Postma.
N.B.: I have not added a filerequester (yet), instead of this you can
type 'DIR BPSONGS' from your CLI. Use the normal Amiga keys to
switch screens (these are: 'LEFT-AMIGA+N' and 'LEFT-AMIGA+M')
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
For questions, remarks, compliments or complaints contact:
Brian Postma
J.v.Hartenstraat 51
7576VX Oldenzaal
Holland
Tel: 05410-14763
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special thanks to: -Martin, for pushing me all the time to write this
program (Otherwise it was never written).
-Rush,Metallica,Queensryche,Megadeth and Sanctuary,
for aural stimulation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<Finally, this is the end>
I guess this should be of some help. It would take me too much time to write
a real good manual, I think you should play around a little with the program
and you will learn all by yourself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This program is ShareWare, if you like it send a small donation to :
Brian Postma
J.v.Hartenstraat 51
7576VX Oldenzaal (NL)
tel:05410-14763
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The main instructions and the key functions were added together for
ease of use by 17Bit. Thanks to Brian for his work - PLEASE send him
some sort of donation for his hard work - look out for Version 2,
better still why not write and tell us/him just what you would like
featuring in further versions...
-------------------------------------------------------------------