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- Rem: lines marked with '>>>' are new in this version or very important notes...
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- This translation was done by Christian Perle (incp@sun.rz.tu-clausthal.de)
- (please excuse my _lousy_ english :-)
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- Hello musicians and tracker music fans
- Welcome and Ha-Yeah to
- *******************************************
- ** **
- ** Deluxe MJUZAKK Zerbastel Kit **
- ** **
- *******************************************
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- First a short introduction in lowcost desktop music making:
- It started in the year 1986! The Amiga came out in Germany and immediately
- there was a certain "Instant Music", a rather restricted music program,
- but capable of playing (thank Amiga's famous PAULA chip) simultaneously
- four sampled voices at "naturally" different pitches (transposing).
- (Actually transposing wasn't naturally at all, today's 16-bit sound
- hardware, regardless of the computer, isn't able to do that)
- Anyway, if one switched off all composing functions in "Instant Music",
- simple pieces of music could be done. The memory of these glorious days is
- fading now.
-
- A bit later, the first Soundtrackers could be seen. Not very well to
- operate, only 16 instruments of only 32 kB length, plus gurus and the dumb
- preset list. Despite of that, the results were fantastic, and the MODs
- began to conquer all computer systems. Unfortunately the Soundtracker
- concept has not much been improved. Minimal improvements to the user
- interface, some more commands, although every coder group has released
- such a thing. Many of the coders didn't find it necessary to write a
- manual, or build in a "quit" button. This is a way of creating secret
- knowlegde :-@.
- But the most important: If one connected the Amiga to a hifi stereo amp,
- he could hear the noisy 8-bit sound in its awful clearness. Turning the
- filter off produced even more noise (and more treble).
-
- On other computer systems nothing happened as well. IMHO there is no real
- useful music software for any PC sound card, for the Mac (with expensive
- additional sound hardware), for the NeXT or Indigo. If there is a software
- (and appropriate hardware) that could be compared with MJUZAKK, let me know.
- (BTW: I am talking about programs that use _no_ MIDI instruments to do the
- sound, only the internal hardware is used. Many people still mix up these
- program types)
-
- And then, in april 1993, (third quarter of 1992 in the Atari calendar) the
- Falcon came out. It promised fantastic sound, real time mixing and
- transposing via DSP. (Actually nobody promised anything, Atari only told
- the hardcore-atari-scene about the Falcon and its features. Wasn't it Jack
- Tramiel, who said in 1988, it's not enough to build a fantastic machine,
- you also have to tell people about it? He must have forgotten this.)
-
- But, oh pain, many people wrote some hard disk recorders, effects and
- "crazy, loud and creative" audio desktop programs, without thinking of the
- use. Nobody had the idea, or was able to write a music composing program.
-
- I, Bernhard, bought the Falcon mainly for one reason, the music abilities,
- and I was frustrated from waiting for so long. All requests in Maus- and
- Usenet didn't help, there was nothing but announcements. (Cubase Audio for
- Falcon (cost 1800 German marks) is able to do multi track hard disk- and
- ram-playback, but _no_ transposing! So, it is no replacement for a sampler)
-
- In the beginning of august, I finally managed to convince my friend Frank
- of writing such a program. I myself can barely do programming (neither
- 68030 nor DSP) and Frank has no Falcon (but he knows the Motorola-DSP in
- his NeXT) and is not quite interested in acoustic events. After getting
- things coordinated (Falcon transport on my bicykle... (I knew this dumb
- keyboard-case would have at least one advantage)) Frank wrote the first
- raw version of Deluxe Mjuzakk Zerbastel Kit in less than 2 weeks, which
- had already sensational features!
-
- After many more weeks of coded-through days und nights (okay, it was days
- _or_ nights) and discussions like "this button should be placed there and
- named 'OK' etc." we now dare to release the first official version of MJUZAKK.
- Two musician friends have each just bought a Falcon only because of MJUZAKK!
- A good start!
-
- Features:
-
- - The DSP is at this time able to mix and transpose about six tracks in
- real time at a replay frequency of 49 Khz (more than CD quality if the
- CODEC is good enough). Seven tracks can be done at 33 Khz and eight at 25
- Khz. (Transposing a sample to a higher pitch reduces the number of tracks,
- transposing to lower pitch increases the number of tracks)
-
- - The editor is managing a maximum of ten tracks.
-
- - For MIDI-ists: Every single track can use all instruments (samples).
-
- - If a sample is used on only one track, it can be placed to a stereo
- position (no more "two left, two right, Amiga drops")
-
- - Currently you can have up to 42 (yes, the answer!) samples of any length
- in a song (only limited by RAM).
-
- - Samples don't have to be recorded all at one frequency (you can mix them)
-
- - MJUZAKK handles among others the DVS packed format, so samples need half
- the disk space without a real loss of quality
-
- - The editor is more intuitive than all the Amiga's editors. We improved
- it and it should be bullet-proof by now. You can also edit the songs using
- a plain ASCII editor. This is useful for block functions or search and
- replace.
-
-
-
- I think, the consequences of such a program, which allows you to compose
- music in CD quality with a system avaiable for less than 3000 DM (and you
- can write letters with, also) are unpredictable! It could create a second
- Desktop-Publishing-Effect (Desktop Music Publishing). A music sampler with
- only 1 Meg and no hard disk costs at least 3000 DM. Until you can use it,
- (add more RAM, hard disk, sequencer, multi track recorder) you will have
- to pay much more. (And you still can't write a letter with it :-)
-
-
-
- And here we go!
-
- - First you have to buy yourself a Falcon with at least 4 Megs, hard disk
- and greyscale- or colormonitor with at least 640*480 dots.
- A screen accelerator is (like NVDI) is recommended. What?
- All this is standing on0 your desk already? Lucky you!
-
- - Then connect the Falcon to a reasonable HiFi stereo amp. Shame on people
- who use the internal speaker for MJUZAKK (even for test-reasons)!
-
- Listen to the demo song (you have already done that?). Simply drag the
- song file over the MJUZAKK.PRG icon. Look at the program info and then
- press play... (cry out "Wow, cool, fantastic, excellent!") At this time,
- the "I can do that better"-reflex should occur.
- So this manual comes to the really interesting part: Who do I make my
- first own song?
-
- - You need a hard disk recorder to sample your own instruments (like
- Winrec or Musicom).
- If you are sampling from a microphone, it is recommended to mute the
- horrible Falcon fan during the recording. How to do that, is up to your
- fantasy. Of course I take no responsibility for your fantasies...
- If you are sampling from a CD player, cassette recorder or similar audio
- source without variable output level, two 70kOhm resistors for both left
- and right cables do a good job. Otherwise, the input level of the Falcon's
- microphone jack can be changed by some software. Samples don't have to be
- recorded at a specific frequency, but 25-50 Khz will give good results.
- You can use DSP effects to add echo, filters etc.
-
- - The samples should be saved preferably in 16-bit-stereo-DVS-format
- (packed or unpacked). Other file formats supported by MJUZAKK are 16-bit-mono-
- SND, 16-bit-mono-AVR and 16-bit-mono-DVS (which is currently created by
- MJUZAKK only).
- Stereo samples will be mixed to a mono signal by MJUZAKK. Since most samples
- are an instrument, mono samples are fine. You know, there is no stereo violin,
- stereo bassdrum or stereo vocalist. When used in a song on one track, a
- sample can be placed to a stereo position. That means, left and right
- volume can be set independent.
- If you want a true stereo sample (like a passing car), both channels must
- be sampled separately creating a CAR_L.DVS and CAR_R.DVS to be used on two
- tracks in the song at the same time.
-
- - Now run the program MJUZAKK.APP
-
- - Cut the samples for your song in the 'Song/Samples' menu. You can save
- them by clicking on the 'Sichern' button. Each sample gets a number for
- the list (1-42). The numbering will not be destroyed if you delete a
- sample. For example deleting sample #5 from a list of 10 samples will not
- change numbers 6 to 10.
-
- - It the edit window, you can zoom in/out, shorten at begin and end (left
- and right edge), and reverse an area.
- To decrease volume to 90% of the original (sometimes necessary before DVS-
- packing very loudly recorded samples to prevent distortion), you press
- "leiser", to increase volume a little bit, press "lauter". Also it is
- possible to loop a sample (repeat endlessly). This is useful for synth
- chords etc.
-
- - Select the 'Song/Optionen' menu to set the global song parameters:
-
- - The 'Patternlänge' (pattern length) is only for better navigation and
- specifies the line numbering of the song editor.
- Good values are 16, 32, 64 or 128 for 4/4 and maybe 48 for 3/4 (rarely seen).
- For video soundtracks, values 10 or 50 are appropriate, too.
-
- - 'Beats per second' sets the song tempo (number of lines to be played in
- one second).
-
- - 'Mixer volume' can be decreased if loud samples are used on several
- tracks simultaneously. Mixer volume is applied _before_ the DSP mixes the
- tracks toghether. In opposite, the control panel's volume setting works
- _after_ mixing.
-
- - In the 'Optionen/Einstellungen' (options/settings) menu you can choose
- the replay frequency of MJUZAKK. Higher values cause better quality and less
- tracks, lower values cause worse quality and more tracks.
- >>> B.t.w.: To get i.e. 8 tracks in one song, it could be necessary not only to
- >>> change the replay frequency to 25 khz, but to use samples recorded with 25
- >>> khz too to lower the DSP-load!
-
- - Next go to the 'Song/Editor'. Here the song can be put toghether in an
- almost soundtracker style. The default song is one empty pattern with 5
- tracks. Four tracks are visible at once. The buttons in the upper right
- area show the selection of displayed tracks. The note position (kind of
- a cursor) is where the two yellow bars intersect.
-
- - This is where you can place a samle played at a certain note. Select the
- sample from the pullup menu (the first 20 samples can be selected by using
- the function keys F1 to F10 and SHIFT-F1 to SHIFT-F10). The note input
- uses the four keyboard rows like a piano. As a default, the original (re-
- cording) frequency is called C2 and lies on key 'q'.
- If you select '-' from the pullup menu, the note of a already running
- sample can be changed without starting the sample over. '0' (silence)
- stops any sample running on that track. Space deletes a note entry.
-
- - To move the yellow cursor bars, use the (you guessed it) cursor keys.
- SHIFT-CrsrDown moves eight lines down, SHIFT-CrsrUp moves eight lines up.
- CTRL-CrsrDown and CTRL-CrsrUp move down/up one pattern.
- To go to the beginning of the song, press ClrHome.
-
- - With the leftmost slider bar, you can fine tune each note entry from -5
- to +5. A single fine tune step is 10% of a half note. The middle and right
- slider bars set the volumes for left and right channels (1 to F), 0 means
- no volume change.
-
- - If 'Sample anspielen' (play sample) is selected, the note entry is
- played immediately after the keypress.
-
- - You can set a mark with 'SetMemo' (shown by little triangle). 'GoMemo'
- or SHIFT+ClrHome jumps to the mark, '> Memo' (play memo) plays the song
- starting from the mark position.
-
- - '> Beginn' (play begin) plays the song from the beginning, '> Cursor'
- from the cursor position.
-
- - While playing the song, press any key to abort. 'GoBreak' jumps to the
- abort position.
-
- - New (empty) lines can be inserted at cursor position by pressing
- 'Insert', lines can be deleted (really, not cleared) by pressing 'Delete'.
- After using these functions, the song is renumbered automatically.
- If you are about to delete a non-empty line, MJUZAKK will warn you.
-
- - Block functions like cut/copy/paste currently require an external ASCII
- editor. The song with all its parameters is saved to a good readable ASCII
- file, so the weirdest search/replace functions (which will be never
- included in our editor) are possible.
-
-
-
- Let's have a look at a song file:
-
- (To edit the song with an ASCII editor, set the TAB width to 4)
-
- INFO ** Begin of info block
- Hommage a Badesalse V0.9 Prerelease ** 4 lines containing
- ** information on song
- ** and author.
- Bernhard Kirsch **
- ENDINFO ** End of info block
-
- PATTERN-LENGTH 32 ** Pattern length
- MIXER-VOLUME 0.700 ** Volume _before_ track mixing
- CODEC-FREQ 7 ** Replay freq. 7=49Khz,6=33Khz...
- BEATS-PER-SECOND 9.375 ** Tempo
-
- SAMPLE 1 C2 rhythm.snd ** Used samples with sample number
- SAMPLE 2 C2 hip.snd ** original pitch and name.
- SAMPLE 3 C2 da.snd ** (samples must be in the same folder
- SAMPLE 4 C2 run.snd ** as the song)
- SAMPLE 5 C2 ner.snd
- SAMPLE 6 C2 e:\smplpool\drum.dvs ** 'shared' samples (used by more than
- SAMPLE 7 C2 e:\smplpool\snare.dvs ** one song) must have the full path
- ** (not good for portability!!!)
-
- LOOPSAMPLE 8 C2 liegeton.snd ** looped Samples
- LOOPSAMPLE 9 C2 megabeit.snd **
-
-
- SONG 4 2000 ** Song has 4 tracks and
- ** max. 2000 lines
-
-
- 101 9C2 - 1F#2t+3vFF - **
- 102 - - - - ** Song data: pattern, line,
- 103 - - - - ** space, then for each track:
- 104 - - - - ** sample number, note, fine
- 105 - - - - ** tune, volume left & right,
- 106 - - - - ** space.
- 107 - - - - **
- 109 9C2 - - - **
- 110 - - - - **
- 117 - - 1F#2t+3 - **
- 118 - - - - **
- 119 - - - - **
- 120 - - - - **
- END ** END is necessary!
-
-
-
-
- Remarks to the ASCII song format:
-
- - The original pitch defines at which note the original sampling frequency
- is used. C2 is exactly the middle. (From there, you can transpose two
- octaves down and two octaves up)
-
- - The maximum number of lines in the song is only for memory allocation.
- Default value is 2000, if the songs gets longer, just increase it.
-
- - The numbers at the beginning of each line are ignored by MJUZAKK. Just put
- any number there. After block copy/move you don't have to correct them.
- MJUZAKK generates at a pattern length of 32 line numbers like this:
- 1:01, 1:02, ... , 1:32, 2:01, 2:02, ... , 2:32, ... The whole numbering is
- only for your orientation in the song. The song always ends with the
- keyword END. Each line number is followed by sample number, note, fine
- tuning and L+R volumes for every track.
- For example 2C#2t+3v4E means: Sample #2, note C#, octave 2, tune +3,
- volume left 4, right E. These values you better change with the built-in
- song editor.
- The tracks in a single line are separated by spaces or TABs.
-
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- Have fun!
- Frank "Marvin" Grauwaigel and BurnHard "Bi-O-Frood" Kirsch
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- Known problems in version 1.0:
-
- - Replay can be aborted with the mouse, but the keyboard is the better
- choice. Otherwise the program can "hang up", but will come back after
- pressing any key and waiting some seconds.
-
- - Deleting samples from the sample list sometimes causes a crash.
-
- - Missing samples may cause a crash when loading a song.
-
- - Using DSP effects in Winrec after usage of MJUZAKK may cause a crash.
- Other DSP-using programs know this problem too, although the first
- program (i.e. MJUZAKK) does a proper DSP-reset when you quit.
- If you know a solution, please write us.
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