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Text File | 1993-09-25 | 23.7 KB | 534 lines

6: How to use AMFCPro 6.1: AMFCPro Graphic interface When you load AMFCPro it defaults to its Graphic interface, to run the program without the interface you should refer to section 6.3. Once loaded AMFCPro will start reading the disk's directories and display an `About' screen. Clicking a mouse button or pressing a key will bring up a display similar to the one shown below : figure 6.1 _____________________________________________________________________ (Status Text) _____________________ _______ _______ _____________________ | _______________ | |__Help_| |_Do_It_| | _______________ | | | | | _______ _______ | | | | | | | | |__Auto_| |_S.All_| | | | | | | | | ___ __ _______ | | | | | |(Source | | |Yes||No| |_Quit__| | |(Destination | | | | Directory | | | | Directory | | | | Listing) | | Convert file to: | | Listing) | | | | | | _______ _______ | | | | | | | | |_MMD0__| |_MMD1__| | | | | | | | | _______ _______ | | | | | | | | |_MusicX| |_ST_old| | | | | | | | | _______ _______ | | | | | | | | |_Star__| |_NT/ST_| | | | | | |_______________| | _______ _______ | |_______________| | | ___________________ | |_Oktal_| |_SMUS__| | ___________________ | ||_Root_|_List_|_Disk|| ||_Root_|_List_|_Disk|| | | Extract Samples as: | | | | _______ _______ | | | | |__IFF__| |__RAW__| | | _|_____________________|_____________________|_____________________|_ The display consists of three main areas. A source directory window, a control panel and a destination directory (left to right). At first AMFCPro allows the user to scan through directories and select files using the two directory windows. 6.1.1: The control panel The control panel in the centre of the AMFCPro screen features gadgets which can be clicked on using the mouse. Follows is a list of gadgets, what they do (i.e. what happens if you click on them) and what keyboard short-cuts can be used: Help (key-h) : brings up a little help text. Do It! (key-d): starts a conversion (see below). Auto (key-a) : toggles the auto-destination-filename mode. S.All (key-s) : toggles Sample Mode. Yes (key-y/z) : Answers questions e.g. `Want to quit?'. No (key-n) : Answers no to a question! Quit (key-q) : Makes AMFCPro ask `Want to quit?'. MMD0-SMUS (key-space to toggle): destination format. IFF/Raw (again space toggles): Sample extraction mode. For gadgets in the directory windows see section 6.1.2. 6.1.1.1: The Do It! gadget When the Do It! gadget is pressed (by clicking mouse) this is what happens: 1) The Source directory window is looked at to find out what file is to be loaded. If no filename has been given by the user then the error message `ERROR: No source filename.' (note: error messages appear in figure 6.1 above in the Status Text bracket) is displayed. 2) The Destination directory window is looked at to find out what file will be saved. Again if there is no filename then the error message `ERROR: No destination filename' is displayed. 3) Two checks like 1 and 2 are performed on the Drawer or Directory names. If a directory does not exist then an error message is displayed - `ERROR: No source/destination directory'. 4) The source file is loaded into memory and is decrunched if needed. 5) AMFCPro finds out what type of music file has been loaded, if it can not determine the type of file the message `ERROR: Source file is not music' is displayed. Only those files identified in section 5 (above) get past this stage (well we hope!). 6) The file is converted to an intermediate stage. During this conversion audio samples and/or instrument names are deleted according to the Sample Mode (see the Sample Mode gadget below). 7) The intermediate data is converted to the type of file highlighted by the gadgets MMD0-SMUS or the audio samples are individually converted to either IFF or RAW. 8) If the file is successfully converted (i.e. no error messages are displayed) then a new music file will be saved or several sample sound files are saved. 6.1.1.2: The Sample Mode (S.All) gadget If this gadget reads the following this is what happens: S.All - All samples/instruments and names are processed. S.Used - All samples/instruments which are not actually used in the composition are removed or not processed. S.None - All samples/instruments are removed or not processed. S.Name - Only sample names are processed. When you extract samples to RAW or IFF you must set the sample mode to S.All or S.Used. 6.1.1.3: The auto-destination-mode (Auto) gadget When Auto is highlighted you do not need to type in a destination filename, it is done automatically. Basically if you want to convert the file `Mod.Acid' to SMUS the destination name of `Acid.SMS' is used, if you want to convert the file to Music-x then `Acid.M_X' is used and so on. 6.1.2: The directory windows Here is how to use the directory windows (they both act the same but can show independent directories). Figure 6.1.2 ______________________________________________ | | | (Dir Status) | | ______________________________ | | | | | | | AMFC | | | | | | | ___ | c | | | |Top| | | __ | | ___ | devs | |/\| | | |UP_| | | |__| | | ___ | l | __ | | |DN_| | | | | | | ___ | libs | |\/| | | |Bot| | | | | | s | | | | | | | | t | | | | | | | | Trashcan | | | | | | | | .info | | | |______________________________| | | ______ ______ ______ | | |_Root_| |_List_| |_Disk_| | | ____________________________ | | (path) |____________________________| | | ____________________________ | | (file) |____________________________| | |______________________________________________| Figure 6.1.2 shows one of the two directory windows, at the top of the window is a space on which the status is displayed. The status is `Reading directory' when items are being read from disk and sorted. After a full directory is read in the user will see the message `directory ready' the user can now select a directory or filename with the mouse. For example if you want the directory named `Trashcan' you just click the word. Directories show up bright orange and filenames show up blue grey. To scroll the display up or down the user can use the single step arrows or the `Up' and `DN' gadgets for a page up or down. To go to the top of a directory list the user can use `Top' or for vice-versa `Bot'. For the source directory the keys `.', `;' ,`[' ,`=' can be used, for the destination the keys `/', `#', `]', `\' can be used, for scrolling. To get the parent or root directory the user can click on to `Root'. To select a disk or an assign clicking on `Disk' brings up a list of disks and assigns - to get back to the directory list click on `List'. To enter a directory/path or drawer by hand the user can click on the upper string gadget (labelled `Path' in figure 6.1.2) and type in a name (not forgeting to press return). Also to enter a filename the user must use the lower string gadget (labelled `File' in figure 6.1.2). 6.2: How individual file formats are processed When any of the supported file formats are loaded by AMFCPro they are converted to an intermediate form. The intermediate form is then checked and any samples/instruments are removed according to the Sample Mode (see section 6.1.1.2). The intermediate form is then converted to a destination file. 6.2.1: How Source files are processed This is what happens when a file is read in, when it is converted to the intermediate form: 6.2.1.1: When the source is an Oktalyzer module The first 31 samples are stored. If a total of four tracks are used then intermediate data will have four tracks, if a total of five, six, seven or eight tracks are used then intermediate data will have eight tracks. Only control codes to set volume, speed and pitch slide are converted. One is added to each instrument number of notes - remember Oktalyzer has an instrument number 0, other trackers have instrument 0 to represent current instrument! 6.2.1.2: When the source is an OctaMED module Note: Both MMD0 and MMD1 modules are supported here. The intermediate data form is very close to OctaMED anyway so almost everything is kept the same. MIDI channels and presets are ignored sorry! If the module has no sample data but has sample names there is no attempt by AMFCPro to load in the samples from disk. 6.2.1.3: When the source is a SMUS file If the file is SMUS then AMFCPro needs to know what you want to do. You can transpose (Trans. mode) all notes down to make the lowest octave in the score as low as possible (this is handy for trackers which only have three octaves). You can put a cut off (Cut off mode) where rests appear in the music (this usually inserts a PT c00 command after notes) which stops looped samples from playing constantly - remember a lot of SMUS composers fade samples after looping automatically but NT/ST/PT and OctaMED etc. do not. You can also switch a mode called MERGE on or off. A SMUS file has n tracks some of these tracks contain chords. If a file had four tracks but track one plays, at some point, a few three-note chords then up to six notes could be playing at the same time. In this case the intermediate data utilizes six tracks (that is when MERGE is off). Alternatively four tracks can be used where track one can overlap tracks two and three when the chords come in - this is what MERGE does - yes I know it is confusing, the best thing to do is to play around with these modes until you get the desired effect. On default all these modes are off i.e. no transpose, no cut off and no merging. To select SMUS modes a window will be opened with three toggle gadgets and an `O.K.' gadget, click on `O.K' when you have selected the various modes. SMUS files work best when converted to OctaMED as the initial tempo can be set the same as the SMUS file. Also when OctaMED is in BPM mode you can define what is a beat - i.e. is a crotchet equivalent to four spaces or eight etc. It is assumed that a beat is equal to four spaces, so the smallest note is a quarter beat (semi-quaver). But SMUS files have demi-semi-quavers and so on, if this happens then a beat has to equal eight, sixteen or even thirty-two spaces - so in OctaMED the BPM can be set accordingly so as to make tempo setting correct. In other trackers any BPM tempo has four spaces to a beat only. Notes are always scaled so that a beat has four spaces if possible. If a score utilizes any note smaller than a quarter beat then a beat can be eight, sixteen or thirty-two spaces (as said previously) so sometimes a small score can be scaled up to a large tracker module. Are you understanding this? Well try it for yourself, get a SMUS score which has no note smaller than a semi-quaver and load it into some (SMUS compatible) editor like Deluxe Music. Put at the end a very small note say a demi-demi-semi quaver and save a new SMUS file. If you convert both scores to say OctaMED you will find one file bigger than the other. (Geee if that does not confuse you I do not know what will!) Once the notes and tracks have been converted AMFCPro will read in any Sonix sampled-sound (.ss) files used in the score. Any .instr files are not loaded as there is no support for synthetic sounds in AMFCPro. If your score's filename is say `dh0:smus/scores/mysong.smus' then if a directory `dh0:smus/scores/instruments/' exists samples will be loaded from there, otherwise samples will be loaded from `dh0:smus/instruments/'. If neither exist then you will be asked to type in the name of the directory for the samples. The samples are only loaded if the Sample Mode is set to S.All or S.Used. 6.2.1.4: When the source is a ST/NT/PT module or a song All trackers are generally treated the same, apart from the obvious that old SoundTrackers have 15 instruments and newer trackers have 31. All the trackers are treated as if they have the same control codes as ProTracker, sorry but it was easier that way, so if a track repeats a bit instead of turning the filter off you know why. If the file is a song then AMFCPro will attempt to load the samples, loading from ST-01: first then ST-02: etc. (only if the Sample Mode allows it to). If a sample does not have an ST-xx: number then AMFCPro expects to find the sample on ST-01:, I was going to support the PLST but decided against it! If a sample is not found then it is just left as a blank sample. 6.2.1.5: When the source is a Startrekker four or eight track Again this is just a souped up tracker and is treated so. But yes it does cater for eight channels (although I do not agree with throwing sample quality out the window for the sake of eight channel amiga audio, why did commodore not give the new amigas real 8-bit eight or sixteen channels!?!?). AMFCPro does not support the new AM instruments sorry! 6.2.1.6: When the source is a Soundtracker 2.6 module After sorting the single track patterns into four track patterns an ST2.6 is treated as a normal ST/NT/PT module. 6.2.1.7: When the source is an IFF/RAW/Sonix sample If a sample is loaded by AMFCPro then it is saved as either a RAW or an IFF sample. You must therefore ensure that your destination file type is IFF or RAW. 6.2.2: How Destination files are made This is what happens when a file is converted from the intermediate form to a destination file: 6.2.2.1: When the type is OctaMED (MMD0 or MMD1) The intermediate form is close to that of OctaMED so everything is converted. If AMFCPro thinks that the sample data should be halved (for eight channel play) then the user will be asked if he/she wants the data to be halved (remember StarTrekker can play eight channels without storing samples in half-form whereas OctaMED needs them halved). AMFCPro will only halve samples which need to be halved - that is it will not halve a sample if all its values are between -127 and +128. If the samples where originally IFF or Sonix then all the octaves will be converted to OctaMED and yes OctaMED will recognise multi-octave samples. 6.2.2.2: When the type is Music-x (MusicX) Here all note events are converted to Music-x, but control codes are still not converted to Music-x so there are no volume changes or pitch slides (maybe the next AMFCPro will do this). Samples are converted but multi-octave samples will need tuning - most ST/NT/PT modules play almost to the same note but Music-x refuses to play the two highest notes. 6.2.2.3: When the type is ST/NT/PT (ST old or NT/ST) 15 or 31 instruments are converted depending on the type (ST old=15, NT/ST=31). Control codes are converted to a ProTracker style. All multi-octave samples have all octaves retained - it is up to you to cut out the octave you want - AMFCPro cannot decide which octave to cut out it has no AI it cannot listen to the music and say `aah that should be the bass line!'. 6.2.2.4: When the type is StarTrekker (Star) Just the same as ST/NT/PT but with eight tracks if needed. 6.2.2.5: When the type is Oktalyzer The first instrument number is zero so you should make sure that the original music does not use sample zero in a tracker style. Oktalyzer supports zero as an instrument number whereas ST/NT/PT/OctaMED use zero to denote last instrument - it is these you should take out and put in the actual instrument number. If samples should be halved the user will be asked. Oh and you will like this one; with a lot of oktalyzers in eight channel mode you will not be able to loop samples. 6.2.2.6: When the type is SMUS Here only notes and instrument names are converted. No volume changes or tempo changes etc. The user will probably need to transpose the tracks to get them correct so you will not be able to use the PLAY command - oh and AMFCPro does not convert any samples to Sonix form. 6.2.2.7: When the type is IFF If the source was a RAW or Sonix sample then just one IFF sample will be saved. If the source was a module then all the samples will be saved to individual files. The filenames will consist of the destination filename added to the sample names - if a sample is untitled then the names UNTITLED-SAMPLE01, UNTITLED-SAMPLE02....are used. If there is no destination filename then just sample names are used. Also if the Auto-destination-filename is on then all sample filenames will end with `.IFF' 6.2.2.8: When the type is RAW Very much like IFF but multi-octave samples are saved in full and will need editing. 6.2.3: When conversion is pointless AMFCPro will even allow you to convert from say OctaMED(0) to OctaMED(0)! O.K. this is quite pointless but you may want to remove unused instruments with Sample Mode set to S.Used. Sometimes AMFCPro can fix SoundTracker modules which have spurious data in the patterns. Even converting ProTracker modules to OctaMED is pointless because OctaMED will read most 31 instrument tracker modules apart from StarTrekker and packed tracker songs. 6.3: Using AMFCPro from CLI Usually when you run AMFCPro the directories are set to the current directory, the filetype is set to MMD1 (Octamed1), the sample mode is S.All (All samples are procesed) and for SMUS the modes MERGE, TRANSPOSE and CUT Off are all switched off. To change these default settings you have to run AMFCPro from CLI. AMFCPro [FROM filename] [TO filename] [type] [mode] [DOIT] [MERG] [TRAN] [CUT] Type = [ALL], [USED], [NAME] or [NONE]. Mode = [OKTA], [MMD0], [MMD1], [MUSX], [ST15], [ST31], [STAR], [SMUS], [IFF] or [RAW]. To set the sample mode you can type, into a CLI window, `AMFCPro ALL', `AMFCPro USED'..and so on. To set the filetype of the destination file just type `AMFCPro OKTA', `AMFCPro MMD0' and so on. To set both you could type `AMFCPro MUSX NAME' which in this example sets the file-type to Music-x and the sample mode to just names. To switch any of the SMUS modes on you just type `AMFCPro' followed by the mode you want on (MERG, TRAN and CUT). To set the filenames you must use `FROM' and `TO', for example if I want to convert from the file `Dh0:music/mod.dimension-x' to `ram:dimension.md1' I would type: `AMFCPro FROM dh0:music/mod.dimension-x TO ram:dimension.md1' As speech marks are not needed you can see why capitial letters must be used for identifiers - if I type `AMFCPro FROM came from space' then the filename is `came from space', but if I type `AMFCPro FROM CAME FROM SPACE' then the filename can be `CAME' or `SPACE'! But you can use speech marks if you want - `AMFCPro FROM "CAME FROM SPACE"' is fine. Please note if your filename has preceeding spaces you must use speech marks `FROM mad ' means the file is `mad' but `FROM " mad "' means the file is ` mad '. If you want AMFCPro to do a conversion without opening the AMFCPro window then you can use the `DOIT' function, this makes AMFCPro do just one file conversion with status information sent to the CLI window. Complete example: I typed - CD AMFCPro: AMFCPro FROM examples/flight.md1.pp TO ram:flight SMUS TRAN DOIT And this is the output - AMFC Professional ©1993 Ray Burt-Frost. Written by Brian Thom Reading file `flight.md1.pp' Decompacting file `flight.md1.pp' Source file is an OctaMED module. Saving file `flight' File is now saved. 6.4: Error messages within AMFCPro Here is a list of errors and what they mean: `ERROR: Not enough memory for Decrunching'. This appears when a source file needs decrunching but there is not enough memory for either a decrunch buffer or to hold the decrunched data. `ERROR: No source filename'. Appears when, well you know. `ERROR: No destination filename'. Same as before. `ERROR: Cannot decompact file without powerpacker.library V35.256'. This means that powerpacker.library is not in the libs: directory or you have an out of date copy (with version number lower than V35.256) - see section 4.1 or 4.2. `ERROR: Cannot decompact file without lh.library V1.8'. Very similiar as above but in another parallel universe. `ERROR: No source directory'. AMFCPro cannot find any directory from the source directory window. `ERROR: No destination directory'. As above but with the destination directory window. `ERROR: Source file not found'. Urm. `ERROR: Instrument path not found, no samples loaded'. This happens when you answer No to the next error message. It only means that no samples from your SMUS score are loaded so that your destination file will have no samples in it. `ERROR: Instrument path not found, enter path? Yes/No?'. When AMFCPro has loaded a SMUS file it finds the directory of any samples used, if it cannot find the directory then * it will ask the user to type in a directory name (full path name). If the user's directory is not found then you are asked the above question, if the user answers Yes by pressing the yes gadget then we loop back to that * you just saw. If NO is replied then the previous error message is shown but the destination file is still saved. `ERROR: Source file is not music'. This means that the file AMFCPro has just loaded is not music or is not of a supported format. `ERROR: File was not saved'. If certain errors occur the destination file is never saved. This could be a disk error or it could be that the file already exists. `ERROR: Incorrect password'. If a powerpacked file is loaded up which has a password and you get this password wrong you get this. `ERROR: File cannot be decrunched'. One of the packer libraries has found some error which AMFCPro has no power over. `ERROR: Not enough memory'. You will hate it when this happens but of course with 6megs I never get this message (well maybe when I run naughty grab-o-mem programs in the background)! `ERROR: Cannot Read/Open File'. This means that because of some Amiga DOS errors a file can not be opened or read - is your disk corrupt? Is the file already opened for another program? `ERROR: File structure is invalid'. There is something strange in your file - does it work in the original music program you got it from? `ERROR: data missing from file'. Perhaps your music has no Tracks or Pattern data or no headers. `ERROR: Invalid IFF/sonix data structure'. AMFCPro cannot understand the structure of some of the IFF or Sonix samples. `ERROR: Some notes events cannot be converted'. Some notes in SMUS cannot be converted if they are too small (too quick like a dotted 3rd!). If this happens perhaps you can load the file in say Deluxe Music Construction Set and take out such notes. `ERROR: File contains no Music'. Well, there are no tracks or there are tracks but there are no notes in them.