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Apparently-To: chris.yuzik@gravis.com
GUS Musician's Digest Tue, 14 Dec 93 3:33 Volume 3: Issue 14
Today's Topics:
Band-In-A-Box
Cant write to device AUX
Demos of seq. software
How to use Csound to make patches on the GUS (long)
Mods under Windows?
Standard Info:
- Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest.
- Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 93 12:32:44 EST
From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering 13-Dec-1993 0903" <fisher@skylab.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Band-In-A-Box
I can remember the version numbers, but...
Has anyone heard or seen a new version of BIAB with a "real" Windows version?
With the previous/current version (which has been out for a year or so anyway),
they apparently started shipping a semi-supported windows version as an extra
partway in the middle (some people got them, some did not). I heard rumors they
were coming out with a new version about now, and I was wondering
1) It is out?
2) Does it support patch caching?
3) Any other info?
Thanks,
Burns
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 93 14:29:45 GMT
From: james@maths.exeter.ac.uk
Subject: Cant write to device AUX
Is there a fix for the "Cant write to device AUX" error that i get out of
the winjammer player sometimes using the new midi drivers.
I have reverted to using the old midi drivers for now mainly because the
patch manager doesnt work with it. What version of the patch manager do
I need to run to get this to work?
BTW I have a new source of wavetable samples: the cover disks on 'Future
music' magazine. Theres a sitar, a piano ( i could make yet another piano
patch - I think not ) violin and a hammond organ on recent issues.
--
James Andrews, Computer Development Officer, Exeter University Maths Dept
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 93 1:06:49 MST
From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" <rutledge@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu>
Subject: Demos of seq. software
> Date: Fri, 10 Dec 93 14:18:16 GMT
> From: kae@itworks.demon.co.uk (Keith Edmunds)
> Subject: MIDI sequencers
> various sequencers, with (approximate) pros and cons of each. I'd also welcome
> pointers to any demo versions - I have a demo of Cakewalk, but I'd like to try
> Cubase and (what?) others.
Here's a quote from shopping.faq, to be found on epas:
Almost all of the sequencers have demo versions (normally with
all features except that file saving is disabled). Winjammer can be
found on epas in limpingware version (not crippleware but not
quite shareware). Cakewalk for Windows, Cadenza and Musicator demos are on
wuarchive.wustl.edu in mirrors/win3/demo.
<end of quote>
That's where I got my demo version of Cakewalk, and indeed there were
other demos in there too. Hope it helps.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 93 14:31:13 GMT
From: James Andrews <james@maths.exeter.ac.uk>
Subject: How to use Csound to make patches on the GUS (long)
How to use csound music synthesis
package to generate patches that are suitable for use with the
gus.
(c) copyright James Andrews 1993
Csound uses instrument description files called orchestras ( .orc
files ) which describe what kind of sounds will be generated by
the score file which is a list of notes.
A patch file that the gus midi interface uses is several samples
spread over the length of the keyboard which are then played back
under the control of midi.
So what you have to do is make a csound instrument that's groovy
and write a score that will generate samples spread out nicely
on the keyboard.
Csound experts please excuse my crass generalisations this is a cookbook
type document not an academic thing.
HOW TO MAKE CSOUND PRODUCE THE GROOVY NOISES IN A SAMPLE FILE
Step one is design an instrument that you like. There are lots
in the example files, but I had to be different so heres a simple
one I dreamed up myself. It doesnt sound like its supposed to
but really who cares, it sounds wild.
sr=22050 ; sample rate
kr=2205 ; control rate
ksmps=10 ; mysterious sr/kr
nchnls=1 ; number of channels
instr 7
; click preventing amplitude envelope (not strictly needed?)
ampenv linen p5,.01,p3,.02
; control envelope for filter, varies between fundemental and
; 4th harmonic
; p4 is the notes frequency from the score and p3 the notes overall length
k2 expseg p4,p3/2,p4*4,p3/2,p4
; tone generator
; p4 is the frequency from the score and the 2 at the end is a reference to
; the mysterious frequency table f2 in the score
a1 oscili ampenv,p4,2
; filter sweep of tone generator a1, with control from k2
; and bandwidth from the score
; 'sweep the signal a1 with a bandpass filter centred on k2 with a width of p6
; the 1 is a flag that means 'sort out the amplitude a bit'
a2 reson a1,k2,p6,1
; keep the volume what it was before filtatration
; this helps the volume keep a sane level
ajust balance a2, a1
out ajust
endin
;end of orchestra
The next stage is to decide what notes you want in the patch
file. Here is a score file that plays back the above instrument
at intervals of a fifth, from a low C to the A above middle C.
;frequency table for a square wave
;this means make table 2 with a size of 4096 bytes ( thats quite big,
;reduce it to 1024 or some other low multiple of 256 for mucking about)
;using generation routine 10 (gen10)
;gen 10 takes the next load of numbers as harmonic strengths, like a
;fourier transform in reverse, this gets the fundamental and all the even
;harmonics so its more or less square, csound will draw you a nice graph of
;this
f2 0 4096 10 8 0 4 0 2 0 1 0 .5 0 .25 0 .125 0 .0625
; the next section is numbers that get fed to instrument 7 thats
; the i7 at the beginning of each line.
; ie the frequency is called p4 in the orc file
; start dur freq amp bandpass
i7 0 .75 440 10000 50
i7 + . 329.627 10000 .
i7 + . 246.941 10000 .
i7 + . 184.997 10000 .
i7 + . 138.591 10000 .
i7 + . 103.826 10000 .
i7 + . 77.781 10000 .
i7 + . 58.270 10000 .
i7 + . 43.653 10000 .
i7 + . 32.703 10000 .
e
;end of score file
Now save the above score orchestra as pat1.orc and pat1.sco
and type csound -hdopat1 pat1.orc pat1.sco
the option h means 'no header'
option d means 'supress displays'
and o is for output filename
This will make a sample file that you can playback with
playfile -2 -16 pat1
from MSdose
These file take er about 2 or three minutes on a 486sx 20Mhz
for experimenting with orchestras comment out some of the notes
in the score file.
if you get lots of samples out of range then reduce the amplitude
if you cant hear anything at all check that out is writing the correct
variable increase the amp and scratch your head. I aim to have the amplitude
at maximum ( 32767 ) with maybe one or two 'samples out of range'
HOW TO MAKE THE PATCH FROM THE SAMPLE
This makes one giant sample that has to be broken up into parts
for each sample in the wavetable that makes up the gus patch.
Several ways of doing this spring to mind:
* split the score file into one note scores, and run csound
several times to make the individual samples- this would be slow
though
* chop the sample up with an editor. This works quite well for
a few well defined notes.
* Use my amazing (not) sample chopper split.exe
or write your own dumb c/basic/pascal program that splits a binary file
in arbitary sized chunks
I havent uploaded this.
Once the thing is split then you must load it into patch.exe or whatever
to make it into a patch. Please see Francois Dion's excellent tutorials,
the basic idea behind making a wavetable patch like this one are:
1) load the first sample (a key to load ) and set the frequency (f
key)range Copy the numbers the frequency range suggests. With the
examples the frequency is 22050. Oh yes and press c, csound makes
signed data by default
2) set the loop points I dont usually bother with loops so I set the start
and end to cover the whole sample with [ and ] and put the end ( blue marker,
e to activate ) 1 word after the red ] marker
3) using the 'range' screen set the root note to be the same as the note
in the score eg 440Hz=A4
set the low to be a couple of semitones down and the high to be a couple up
This is for the example which generates notes 5 semitones apart
4) press + to get another sample slot and repeat the process making sure that
the samples dont overlap
F1 gets you help of sorts. Patch.exe is buggy, saving, quitting, reloading and
then pressing + to go through all the samples usually tells the truth. This
is worth doing regularly
Csound for the pc is available on epas (128.100.160.36) and mirrors plus
ftp.bath.ac.uk in pub/jpff. Get the examples too, they are great risset1
Arpeggio Instrument will blow your mind.
There are four versions: a 386, 386+maths, 486 and 286 I am running the 386
without maths on a 486sx and it runs the stuff Ive given you in this file
in a few minutes.
The bath site also has a text copy of the manual- which you must have to do
anything with csound.
Have fun.
I will upload some of the patches I have made using this method to epas 'soon'
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 93 0:52:10 MST
From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" <rutledge@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu>
Subject: Re: Mods under Windows?
> Date: Sat, 11 Dec 93 16:08:10 CST
> From: swilcox@conch.senod.uwf.edu (Steven Wilcox)
> Subject: Mods under Windows?
>
> A friend of mine and I were talking about the problem with mod players under
> windows. One possible solution would be to convert the MOD file to a MIDI
> file. Since the GUS MIDI driver for windows is quite stable and works well
> in the background like you would want - we need to have a program which will
> convert the file and load the MOD samples as MIDI patches. Either convert
> the files ahead of time or convert on the fly.
>
> There are programs which convert MOD to MIDI but none make the switch
> effortless. But whatever the case - utilizing the MIDI driver for windows
> would be a much better way to handle MOD files.
Agreed. But first we must solve the problem of how to get alternative
(non-GM) patches loaded without a lot of hassle. So far patch banking
hasn't worked very well. Oh,I guess the program would have to incor-
porate a MIDI player, that can do patch banking. That might work.
It does work right in Power Chords, right? Seems like I heard that
somewhere.
------------------------------
End of GUS Musician's Digest V3 #14
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