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▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀█▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀█▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▄█▓█▄ THE┌┬┐┌─┬ ┬┌ ┬┐ ┌┬┐┬─┐┌─┬ ┬┐┬┌ ┬┐┬─┐ ▄█▓█▄ ▄█▓▒░▒▓█▄ │ ├─┤ ├┴┐ ├ │ ├┬┘├─┤ │ ├┴┐ ├ ├┬┘ ▄█▓▒░▒▓█▄ ▀█▓▒▓█▀ ┴ ┴ ┴ ┴ ┴ ┴┘ ┴ ┴└ ┴ ┴ ┴┘┴ ┴ ┴┘┴└ ▀█▓▒▓█▀ ▀█▀ Version 0.9d ▀█▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ TakeTracker 0.9d Betaversion 16 Channel tracker for Gravis UltraSound and for SoundBlaster & 120% compatible The entire tracker was done by Twaddler and Dr. Zon of X-Pose 1993, 1994 The code consist of about 9,700 lines of Pascal, Basic and Assembly code. Contents of this document: Page: ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Bragging, info and credits.....................................Above Files..............................................................1 General info on TakeTracker........................................1 About XPose........................................................1 Testing............................................................1 Configuring TakeTracker............................................1 Player effects.....................................................1 Keys...............................................................1 Buttons............................................................1 Using effects in TT................................................1 File formats.......................................................1 Loading and saving files in TT.....................................1 Use of memory in TT................................................1 The sample editor..................................................1 The disk op........................................................1 The MOD EDIT Screen................................................1 The setup..........................................................1 Scopes.............................................................1 The command line player............................................1 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Files ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ These files goes with the TT archive: TRACKER.EXE | The main executable file TRACKER.DOC | This documentation CONFIG.EXE | Setup program (creates CONFIG.CFG) 669MOD.EXE | 669 Converter to MOD format (will be implemented in TT soon) mmGFX1.DAT \ doGFX2.DAT | All are graphic files, seGFX3.DAT | and all are 32000 bytes meGFX4.DAT | in filesize... seGFX5.DAT / dbGFX6.DAT | Dialog box README.TXT | Last info, general info, greets and more TT.REV | Previous revisions of TakeTracker General info on TakeTracker ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Welcome to TakeTracker. You now have the latest version of TakeTracker. TakeTracker is a multichannel song-editing complex with very advanced functions. This tracker can handle up to 16 channels of music. For long time there has been a standard that was limited to 4 channels. Taketracker takes a step beyond into 16 channels. There are also a lot of other trackers, which might be a lot better than TakeTracker, but I think TakeTracker is a good alternative. You can create almost ANY piece of music with a tracker of this style, from Beethoven classics to todays (?) techno pieces. On the great Amiga a lot of known (and unknown) pieces has been converted into modules. But trackers are also good for composing your own music. If anyone know the Amiga and the ProTracker - I must say I've tried to create TakeTracker as equal as possible. I've just got some troubles with the screen resolution on the PC. Therefore might the PC version look a bit "weird" the first time. But you will get used to it. Actually, now I think the PT on the AMIGA looks a bit "weird". The most used keypresses in PT (which I use) have been implemented in TT, too; plus a few more TakeTracker has been made mainly for private use, actually I never planned to release it after all. But Twaddler convinced me to release it. And I don't regret. This tracker is now very dislike what it looked like in the beginning. Actually, I never planned to make a such nice program. I just wanted to make a tracker I could use myself, because there were no other usable trackers around. A feature added in the newer betas, is the 255 ability. The necessarry parts of the MOD file format has been rewritten to fit up to 255 sample About XPose ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ XPose is a demo-group situated in Norway. For the moment we are 5 members, and we are waiting for a few more to join: Dr. Zon - Code, music Twaddler - Code Iris - GFX Extacy - Music, GFX Axe - Music Bergiant - Internet coordinator Testing ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ TakeTracker has been created and tested with the following hardware: Computers ........................... TCI 486DX2/66 DI 486DX/33 PC Brand 486DX2/66 Grafix cards ........................ Cirrus GD-5426 NCR S3 Soundcards .......................... Gravis UltraSound SoundBlaster 16 ASP SoundBlaster 1.0 TakeTracker has also been tried out on a laptop, a 386SX with no soundcard installed (with GUS selected). We noticed TT had a tolerable speed. Configuring TakeTracker ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ You configure soundcards and hardware setup externally of Taketracker using a smaller utility called SETUP.EXE. This is a simply button driven mouse system program that will let you choose which soundcard you have, and which adresses, DMAs, IRQs and mixing rates you want it to go in. The mixing rate should be set after you computers CPU; 11000/15000 - 386 18000 or more - 486 or higher Since DMA, IRQ and mixing rate is not needed for the GUS, those will be leaved open when GUS is selected. To save new changes, press the DONE button, or kick button 'D' on keyboard. Abort with 'A'. Composing music in TakeTracker ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The minimum reqirement for composing music, is to handle HEXADECIMAL NUMBERS fairly good... Single hexadecimals goes from 0-F, corresponding to the respective numbers 0-15. Hexadecimal numbers are usually written 0x1E, 1Eh $1E, or sometimes just 1E... 1E is corresponding to decimal 30... The maximum volume a sample can be played at, is 64 decimal, this is 40h. So when you are telling a sample to play at maximum volume, you either insert effect C40, or puts the current samplevolume to 40 (where 40 is the hexadecimal number of 64) After then, you should know where the different notes are placed on the keyboard. Look in the "Keys" chapter of this document for more info on which keys responds to which notes. Remember that F1 decreases octave, and F2 increases octave. You will also need samples to use in your module. For the first time composing a module, loading a module and clear the patterns (CLEAR SONG in MOD EDIT) could be smart. Then you press space and the tracker's yours. Player effects (not updated properly) ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Standard effects supported by TakeTracker -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 0xy - Arpeggio 1xx - Pitch/slide/portamento up 2xx - Pitch/slide/portamento down 3xy - Pitch/slide/portamento to note 4xy - Vibrato 6xy - Volume slide + vibrato 7xy - Tremolo 8xx - NOT USED 9xx - Set sample offset Axy - Volume slide Bxx - Song break Cxx - Set volume Dxx - Pattern break (very limited!) Exy - Special effect. See below Fxx - Set tempo/speed -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Special Exy effects supported by TakeTracker: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- E1y - Fine portamento slide UP E1y - Fine portamento slide DOWN E6y - Pattern loop (use E60 to set point, E6x for multiple times) E8y - NOT USED E9y - Retrig sample per y vblank EAy - Fine volume slide UP EBy - Fine volume slide DOWN ECy - Stop playing sample after y vblanks EDy - Delay note y vblanks Keys ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Most of these keypresses are taken directly from ProTracker, but some keypresses from various trackers (SBStudio, FastTracker...) are also implemented. Why keypresses are taken from other trackers, and not defined as NEW keypresses, is to have a certain compability so new users should feel more "welcome". Anyway, here is a listing, and in the beginning it might be preferred to print this section on paper. F1 - Decrease octave F2 - Increase octave F3 - Next bar (volume bar, spectrum analyzer...) F7 - Decrease one note at current position F8 - Increase one note at current position F11 - Keyboard window F12 - Update GUS mem Text-input: F1-F10 - Various patterns (like ╔═══╗, ├───┤ ...) Enter - Play all notes and effects in current row Space - Toggle edit mode (and turn off sound) Tab - Next channel Arrow up/down - One row up/down (rows, files...) Arrow left/right - Next edit position (note, samplenumber, effect...) Numeric * (gray) - Shift channels right Numeric / (gray) - Shift channels left Page Down - Go 15 rows down Page Up - Go 15 rows up Home - Go to top of sheet End - Go to last row of sheet Shift+1-0 - Store effect at cursor position Shift+Enter - Push current track 1 row down Shift+BackSpace - Pull current track 1 row up Shift+F4 - Copy track to buffer Shift+F5 - Paste track from buffer Shift+Right - Increase song position Shift+Left - Decrease song position Shift+Tab - Decrease channel position Alt+1-0 - Paste effect Alt+F4 - Copy effects to buffer Alt+F5 - Paste effects from buffer Alt-S - Sampler Alt-D - Disk op. Right Alt - Play pattern Ctrl-E - Insert space at every 2nd row * Ctrl-M - Increase channel when editing (for MIDI) Ctrl-O - Swap note with note on next channel (stereo effect) * Ctrl+F4 - Copy pattern to buffer * Ctrl+F5 - Paste pattern from buffer Ctrl+Left/right - Next/previous sample Ctrl+1-0 - Set editjump (editskip) Right Ctrl - Play song Both Ctrls(R&L) - Play song from current position *: Not implemented yet, but will be implemented later BETA VERSION KEYPRESSES: F4 - Slow spectrum analyzer (requires at least a Pentium(TM) to run smooth) F5 - Waveform (yet SB only - random dots on GUS) F9 - Spectrum analyzers I have still not decided where to put these keypresses. The PC's keyboard compared to a musication keyboard (I think): C# D# F# G# A# C# D# F# G# A# ┌──┬─┬─┬─┬──┬──┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬──┬──┬─┬─┬─┬──┬──┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬──┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │S│ │D│ │ │G│ │H│ │J│ │ │2│ │3│ │ │5│ │6│ │7│ │ │ └┬┘ └┬┘ │ └┬┘ └┬┘ └┬┘ │ └┬┘ └┬┘ │ └┬┘ └┬┘ └┬┘ │ │ Z │ X │ C │ V │ B │ N │ M │ Q │ W │ E │ R │ T │ Y │ U │ └───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┘ C D E F G A B C D E F G A B Buttons ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ MAIN MENU: I (pos) - Inserts an empty pattern in the song order D (pos) - Deletes the current pattern number on song order MOD ED. - Enter the MODule EDit menu, where you can alter songname m.m. SAMPLER - Enter the sample editor STOP - Stops playing. PLAY | P - Pressing PLAY, will play the entire song from current position, while pressing the P to play current pattern only. If you are in edit mode, you will start recording... DISK.OP - Enter DISK. OPerations menu [samplename]- Pressing on the sample-name, allows you to edit it. SAMPLE EDITOR: MIX - Mix two samples together. REPEAT - Let you click on sample to set REPEAT POSITON REPLEN - Let you click on sample to set REPEAT LENGTH UPSAMPLE - Halve size of sample * CUT - Cut selected area to buffer COPY - Copy selected area to buffer (still very simple) PASTE - Will erase old sample and insert copied buffer Using effects in TT ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ People who are "used to" effects should have NO PROBLEM AT ALL using the effects. But for any new users of this kind of trackers, I will explain the use of effects quickly. --- Effects consists of three hexadecimal numbers - the leading digit determines WHAT effect to use. Example: If the leading digit is C and the following digits are 1 and 4 (ie C14) the volume on that channel will be set to 14 hex when playing. C20 will set the volume to 20 hex. The maximum volume is 40 hex (64 decimal). When not entering a volume, the current volume on that sample will be played. The volume slide works another way. It slides the volume in the same amount as the speed goes. The volume slide works two different ways; either volume slide UP or volume slide DOWN. If you are going to slide the volume DOWN - set the effect to A - and the the second digit is set to 0 and the third digit to the volume slide amount (ex: A02 will slide the volume 2*speed DOWN). The opposite, volume slide UP uses the first of the two digits. (ex: A20 will slide the volume 2*speed UP). When volume has reached either minimum (0) or maximum (040h) volume, it will stop sliding. I hope this will give a little understanding how the effects are used. You see, I'm not so good explaining things. You can look in the effects 'chapter' in the documentation for an overview of effects that are currently supported. Copying and pasting ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ There are many things to copy and paste around in a notesheet. You can copy/paste effects only, notes only, or both. You can also only copy ONE single effect. All this is controlled from the keyboard. And the keypresses may be hard to remember in the beginning. First, copying a single track into a buffer, is done by pressing Shift+F4. And when this is properly stored in the buffer, you can paste it. Shift+F5. NOTICE: Pasting a track will OVERWRITE all info already placed on track. THERE IS NO WAY TO UNDO. Copying whole patterns, effects only, are NOT implemented yet. There is also a 10-buffer possibility to copy and paste one single effect only. This is done by pressing Shift and a number ranging from 0 to 9. The number indicates which of the ten buffers to copy to. To pasting these effects, press Alt+0-9. Fileformats ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The MOD format goes like this: SONGName 20bytes SampleINFO 31samples*30 byte = 930 bytes SampleName 22bytes Volume 1byte Finetune 1byte SampleLength 1word (div 2-signed) SampleRepeat 1word (div 2-signed) SampleReplen 1word (div 2-signed) Songlength 1byte Songorder 128bytes noiserestart 1byte ID osv...osv...osv...osv...osv...osv...osv...osv... (skriv senere!) The samples uses a special "**" file format which is very equal the internal MOD sample format. TakeTracker also has the ability to load samples saved from FastTracker, where loop/length is stored in time/date fields. Loading and saving in TT ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Loading and saving has been done very simple in TT. You enter the DISK.OP menu by pressing the DISK.OP button, and then you simply press the mouse cursor at what file to load. If you would like to save a work, click on the either the MODULENAME or the SAMPLENAME textfield, depending on work to save, and type in the filename to save. Afterwards you press the SAVE MOD or SAVE SAMPLE button (also depending on what work to save). The sample editor ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ If you load a sample with very much noise, TT can take this to be a sample of the wrong kind. Use XOR to convert it. (I'll write more when I can come up with something) Setup ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The setup screen is provided to make a more personal look on your environment. You can change the palette, set balance (panning), and more minor things. Main settings: BALANCE There are 16 possible positions for each of the bars marked 0 to F. Set on top (0) is right, while on the bottom is the left. NORMAL/STEREO/WIDE/MID There are four preset panning positions. Keep in mind that I prefer you use the STEREO preset (RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL). The NORMAL preset is like the Protracker(Amiga)/Fast-tracker (RLLRRLLRRLLRRLLR). WIDE is a more smooth, where the pannings overleap. MID is self-explanatory. All these does ofcourse not work with SoundBlasters. PALETTE You select color by pressing mouse button on one of the colors bars, and then press mouse on one of the three RGB bars with values ranging from 0 to 63 where 0 means no effect of color, while 63 is maximum effect. You can 'drag' the indicator with right mouse button. P-I P-II P-III These are predefined color definitions that has been designed by me. DEF Re-reads the configuration file -> set new palette only. ON/OFF TOGGLES: 255 SAMPLES This was a feature I hadn't time to finish till this release. So we'll have to wait until next (or perhaps more) for this one to work properly, since I had to change the whole MOD format to make it work. UPLOAD This is another item for GUS only. When doing anything with a sample in the sample-editor, TT will automatically re-order the memory of the GUS to activate the new changes we have done. This will take a little while, and can seem really annoying after a while, therefore you can disable this, and press F12 instead every time you want to update GUS memory. BLANK ZERO Usually the samplenumber is displayed as "02". Enabling this only displays " 2". Looks often better. 13 is ofcourse "13" either this is set or not. SHOW DIRS Confirm to show dirs in disk op. ECHO (NOT IMPLEMENTED!) This is a facility for GUS only when playing a module that has less than 16 channels. When playing a module, you will get a more echoing effect. At least you will feel it. This is because the player plays each note twice, and with a very short delay, and with the volume ramped down. QHELP If YES, then TT replaces the samplename with help/info on the effect the cursor is at (if any). DATELOOP For those who has changed from FastTracker, this is a very nice switch. With this enabled you can load repeat/replen from saved in FastTracker. Keep this off if you never has used FastTracker, since some "real" time/date can be confused with repeat/replen. Scopes ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Just press F3 a couple of times while playing a module and see what happens. F4, F5 and F9 activates VGA scopes. Press Esc to abort these. (Is there really more to say?) The command line player ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ If have finally managed to code these, if you want these, please look out for separate archives. (TTPLAY.ZIP / TTPLAY2.ZIP) And then... ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ I used 4 channel modules by Henning Hafstad (Axe/Xpose) and the up-to-16-channel modules by Gudmund Reinertsen (StumAce/...) for testing TakeTracker. I used Dual Module Player (DMP) to test my save-routines and converters... Copyrights ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ All trademarks are copyrighted to their respective owners. Dr. Zon 6. Mar 1994