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Text File | 1990-12-10 | 16.6 KB | 355 lines

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protracker V2.3 Release A - (C) 1993 Mushroom Studios/Noxious 1/1-1993 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protracker is a Public Domain program, and may may be copied freely and included in any PD library. You may not charge anything for the program other than the cost of the disk and the PD-service. This disk should contain the following files: PT2.3A - The main program. PT2.3A.info - The Icon for Protracker. (drawn by Markus Jentsch) PROP - Protracker module player. PT.TempoCalc.txt - How to calculate tempo etc. PT-Play.s - Playroutine for the Seka or DevPac assemblers. PT-CIAPlay.s - Playroutine for CIA timing. PT.FileFormat.txt - Description of the file format. PT.Effects.txt - Quick help on all effect commands. PT.help - Online helpfile for PT2.3A (press the Help key). PT.help.txt - Read-/Printable version of the help file. PT.help.txt.info - Icon for the PT.help.txt file. PT.config-00 - Default configuration file. PT.Update! - Textfile with changes from PT2.2A PT.Update!.info - Icon for the PT.Update! file. PT.ReadMe! - ****--> This file <--**** PT.ReadMe!.info - Icon for the PT.ReadMe! file. Some info.. ----------- This disk contains all the necessary files to run Shell, CLI, and all the most used CLI-Commands. It is possible to print songs, but we'we only included the Generic printerdriver, so you'll have to install your own. Remember to set the new printerdriver with Preferences. If you make your own workdisk, remember to copy the commands "Run" and "EndCLI". If you are going to make make a compact-disk containing Protracker, please include PT.help and powerpacker.library!!! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EDIT THE HELP-FILE!!! The first 1024 bytes are a text-offset index for Protracker, so keep off. For more info, press the HELP key when you have started Protracker. It isn't possible to load old configuration files with PT2.3A, but if you load an old config-file into an editor and change the first 5 letters to "PT2.3", you might be able to use it, but some new functions may be set to zero though. Remember to check the DMA-wait and all the other functions or you'll experience some crashes etc... --- Protracker history --- First Version 1.0 (A) - Full of bugs... Bugs corrected in V1.0 Release B: --------------------------------- - PatternLoop (It always jumped to the start of the pattern, not the loop) - Zap had put FineTune AND Glissando-Control in the same command! (E3) - Fade Up / Down caused shit and even a few gurus! - Delete Pos inserted pattern 77 (!) at position 127 in the song, causing it to be longer than 80k! - Filter All Samples was slow as hell because it tried to filter non- existant samples. - If you selected sample 0 from the keypad, it always played the last sample played as sample 0! - A590 harddisk owners couldn't use the keyboard because of the way Mahoney & Kaktus set up the keyboard interrupt (we used their NT1.1 routine). - Entering the help screen when in the midi screen fucked up the display. - Escaping from Mix exited from the whole edit op.! - CutBeg no longer fucks up the Sample length and Pos. - The help file was FULL of bugs / misspellings. Bugs corrected in V1.0 Release C: --------------------------------- - Error in Finetune-table2 (note B-2) - Abort Load sometimes caused a guru! - Toneportamento (cmd 3) didn't work correctly with finetune. - PLST screen was one pixel off. MIDI screen was removed. Changes and improvements from Protracker V1.0C to V1.1A: -------------------------------------------------------- General: - Protracker will now run if you have Kickstart 2.0 installed! (A500, A1000, A2000, A3000 etc...) - Protracker will also "Auto runback" when you start from CLI! There's no need to use the 'run' command. - Keyboard and mouse input is provided by an InputHandler with prior- ity 52. The handler will grab all RAWKEY and RAWMOUSE events from the input.device before they reach intuition. PT will no longer interfere with windows and gadgets on the intuition screen behind. - Keyboard buffer. Wow!!! Now you can play really fast, and PT won't miss a single key (...well, not as many as it used to before...). - The vertical blank interrupt no longer patches the vector itself, but uses the AddIntServer function. - The playroutine creates it's own CIA or VBLANK interrupt, and it will not be removed if a song is playing when you go to CLI/Workbench. - Text input routine changed a little. Use mouse to set pos and to exit. - Improved "Out of memory" handling (hopefully no more gurus...). - Only the first 2 bytes of a sample will be zeroed (were the first 4). - Lots of new keyboard commands/shortcuts using the Alt key. - Vibrato depth changed to be compatible with NT2.0. Double all your depth numbers if you load old protracker songs. - Funk Repeat changed to Invert Loop (may trash your samples though). - Play samples from the keypad (dot mode) when pressing backslash. Main Screen: - MIDI screen has been removed. Changed to sampler instead. MIDI input is still there, but there's no MIDI output. Sorry... - Quadrascope. Four channel oscilloscope that displays the samples in real-time, even when playing from keyboard. The good old spectrum analyzer is still there, just click on the scope to toggle. - Tempo gadget. Default is 125 BPM (normal vblank speed), but that can be changed if you select CIA timing on Setup2. Range is 32-255 BPM, and can also be changed with the 'F' effect command (speed/tempo). - Repeat and replen will be updated in the samples when you change them. You no longer have to press a key to hear the new loop. - Protracker should now be able to show up to 10/16 megs of freemem. - Error messages when PLST or Config not found. - Click to enter position, pattern and length with the keyboard. Disk Op.: - Choose RAW or IFF when saving samples. - Samples can be saved with IFF-loops. - Change path without reading directory. - All 30 characters in filename/directory stored (was 24). - Shows directories, just click to add directory to path. - Parent directory gadget. - One preset and several default paths for modules/songs/samples. - PT will now read an "unlimited" number of directory entries (was 200). Setup: - The only thing that's happened here is a small gadget labeled "2". Pressing it will put you in... Setup2: - 8 new on/off toggles. Override: Load/save sample from samplepath even if there's a path in the samplename. ST-37:bigbadbass with override will be loaded from DF0: (or whatever) instead of ST-37:. You may want to put all your samples in one big directory on your harddisk... NoSamples: Will load a song without asking for the samples. BlankZero: This will show the samplenumbers in the pattern in the same way as Noisetracker 1.2 (Zeros are blanked out). Show Dirs: If on, directories will be shown in Disk Op. Show Publ: If on, PT will show all free Public memory, otherwise just free Chip memory. CutToBuff: If on, the part of the sample cut away in the sample editor will be saved in the copybuffer. Load Loop: Will load loops from an IFF file when loading a sample, or adding a path in the sampleeditor. Slow Mode: Use this toggle if you have a 25 Mhz A3000 where every- thing is faster. Turning it on might help. - Set Default paths. - You can set the maximum number of presets (used to be 2500). - DMA wait. Use this on 25MHz Amigas (normally 300, use 900 on A3000). - Set tuning tone (note and volume). - Select CIA or VBlank timing. - Set default CIA tempo. - Spectrum Analyzer/VU-meter copper color editor! Preset Editor: - Use Preset removed, inserted Delete Disk instead. - You can now save Finetune instead of Volume in the PLST. - ST-disk number changed to hex (ST-00 --> ST-FF)! - Adding samples with IFF-loops to the presetlist is possible. - Proper PLST allocation. Protracker will no longer allocate any memory if there's no PLST. PLST: - ST-disk number changed to HEX. This means you can have up to $FF, or 255 ST-disks (used to be 99). Sampler/Sample Editor: - Sample Graphing like Audiomaster. With Show Range, Show All, Zoom Out, Range All, etc... - Play either Waveform, Display or Range. - Repeat points are shown, and can be dragged around. - Loop on/off toggle. - A line shows current position when playing back a sample. - A sampler just like on NT2.0. - Resample function w/tuning tone. - Cut, Copy and Paste functions. - Cursor to beginning/end. - Swap current sample with copybuffer. Edit Op.: 1 - Transpose All bug removed. 2 - Move changed to Copy (use this to copy samples too). 3 - Upsample changed a tiny bit (allocation). 3 - Most functions will now work with marked ranges. Bugfixes and changes from PT1.1A to PT1.1B: ------------------------------------------- - Load gadget no longer hangs the program when trying to load a file that doesn't exist. - Better filehandling with error messages. - Repeat and replen check installed (Rel. A hanged when replen accidentally got the value zero). - Repeat and replen were swapped when loading an IFF sample. - Only RepLen values in IFF samples were added in the preset-editor. - Tune memory wasn't always updated when editing samples. - Swap Buffer debugged. - The arpeggio sounded weird because the pitch wasn't set back at the right time. - Shift speeds up the scrolling in the PLST and preset-editor. --------------------------------------------------------- Bugfixes and improvements from PT1.1B(& PT2.0) to PT2.1A: --------------------------------------------------------- - mod. prefix was shown in the file-list if it wasn't lowercase only. - ReturnfromCLI requester enhanced with quitgadget. - Gadgetpositions fixed properly. - Accidental and Diskspace bugs fixed. - Editskip has now got an indicator. - DISK OP., PLST and PRESET-ED screens have TOP/BOTTOM gadgets. - PLST screen has now got Up/Down arrows. - PT can load&save powerpacked samples/modules. - PT can load&save tracks/patterns. - Format disk bug has been fixed (I hope). - Volume,Repeat,Replen,Pos & Mod is now editable from the keyboard. Just click on the numbergadgets. - You can now choose an autoinserteffect of your own.(One of the ten effectmacros). - The bug that completely turned the sound off when stopping the recording has now been fixed. - You are now able to fastscroll the file- and presetlist to the next startcharacter.Try it out yourselves...hard to explain. - The preset-ed routines have been corrected.To use your old PLST, simply delete preset #0. - The metronome has now got an accent on the first beat. - A metronome keyboard toggle has been included. - The metronomechannel can easily be changed to the current cursorposition. - Most of the numbergadgets can now be zero'ed. - Better patternrefresh when doing keyboard I/O. - PT now reads the dir after rename/save/delete if the Autodirtoggle is on. - You can solo a channel with the mouse by holding the right mousebutton while pressing 1,2,3 or 4. - You can pass an argument from workbench/shell/cli to automatically load a module when PT starts. - Powerpacker crunching/decrunching with powerpacker.library! PT will automaticly append/remove ".pp" to/from the filename. - You can save an Icon together with the module. ------------------------------------------------ Bugfixes and improvements from PT2.1A to PT2.2A: ------------------------------------------------ - I have fixed the chip-mem bug from PT2.1A.(it didn't work with chipmem only) - When Preset-ed screen was shown,you couldn't use the gadgets on the lower part of the main- or sample-screen. - When autoexitdirtoggle was off,PT didn't change the songname when you loaded a new song/module until you exit from disk op. - If you resampled a sample with big difference between the tunetone and the resampletone then the new length was incorrectly computed. - If you ran out of memory when allocating crunchbuffersize then ... software failure! This should work just fine now. - If you loaded a sample with a '.' in the samplename then PT set the length incorrectly in some cases (see below) - Save module should work fine now.(another nasty bug is swept away!) - The Sampler works fine on ks2.0 (This version tests diskactivity before sampling, PT1.3 doesn't!) *********************************************************************** * Thanks to Matrix/LSD for sending the working piece of source to me! * *********************************************************************** - The timer is updated when you play a song while jumping out to Workbench. - The Loopsprites are working fine with screenadjust. - Stepplay works fine now. Amiga+Backspace is gone though. - MIDI in functions are working now, I hope! - Inputhandler debugged a little. - ShowFreeDiskGadget debugged (again). Before it showed 2 sectors too much. - If you pressed the deletefile gadget and then pressed a directoryname in the list then the dir was added to the path but the directory wasn't opened. This is now fixed. - PrintSong now prints the patternlist with decimal values. It prints all patterns.(Older versions of PT missed to print the highest pattern) - I have implemented a chord maker. - I have implemented e Position-Editor. - On request, I have made ''multitasking'' like in PT1.3. - ProTracker has it's own screen. When the PT screen is in front of all other screens, PT will wake up. - The browse function is modified to act like PT1.3. It shows the current devices and disknames. - If you hold the right mousebutton while pressing the browsegadget a disklist will pop up showing all the device- and disknames from the browsegadget in the filenamewindow. Pressing a name will autoload that directory. - If you press LeftShift+any key 0-9 a-z while in DiskOp, PLST or PresetEd, PT will move you to the position in the list with a name beginning with the corresponding character. - If you use MIDI I've added two new keys. A-2 and B-2 on the Synthkeyboard are used as SampleNumber Up/Down! I have also Transposed the MIDInotes input one octave down (because Dolphin has a small keyboard and couldn't access the upper octave,C#3 - B-3). - I have added a SaveExecutable option. - 9 new toggles. ------------------------------------------------ Bugfixes and improvements from PT2.2A to PT2.3A: ------------------------------------------------ -Mountlist in PLST is fixed. Before it asked for disks in all drives even if you didn't have extradrives. -Helpfile fixed. In the betaversion the jumptable was corrupt. -Pointer color was green after succesful saving. This one is fixed now. -In the betaversion you couldn't exit POS-ed with ESC. -PT shouldn't quit with ESC. This is fixed now. Use Alt+Q (This one has been there all the time) or click in the top-left corner to quit. -There was a bug in the Entry jump routine (Shift+Desired character) in Disk.op, PLST and PresetED. If you had directories in the current path PT jumped to the first DIRECTORY starting with the desired character instead of searching for the first FILE beginning with that character. -Some minor bugs fixed as well. Known bugs, errors, stupid things and other crap: ------------------------------------------------- - If you load a song or module that's not a proper ST-module, Protracker may trash the upper left of the screen and/or crash. This screen-trashing may also happen other times. Don't ask us why or when. There is really no proper way to check if a file is a module or song. We check for "M.K." at offset 1080, and if isn't found, Protracker asks if you want to load it with 31 samples, since it may be a Startrekker module. If you answer no, PT assumes it's an old 15 samples song/module. - If you format a disk with Protracker, it's possible to save files to the disk, but if you try to load the files you just saved, nothing comes up in the disk op. screen. If could be that the Amiga has some problems validating the disk, but there are no such messages. We'll have a look at the Format routine.If you get any problems, try to take out the disk and insert it again.PT should now re-read the dir. - You cannot have two presets with the same name on different ST-disks. - I have noticed that powerpacker.library crunches some samples/modules improperly. (This goes with the powerpacker program as well). Be sure to check the packed files before you delete the sourcefiles!