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Text File | 1994-04-02 | 16KB | 442 lines

BANKINFO.TXT v. 1.00 This file contains everything you need to know about replacing MIDI patches on your UltraSound card, drum and melodic banks, using banks with Power Chords, and using banks with other software. Contents ======== I. Installing the Patch Set II. Quick Start - using Howling Dog Systems UltraSound Patch Sets III. About Howling Dog Systems UltraSound Patch Sets IV. Patches and the UltraSound - How it all works IV. The ULTRASND.INI file V. Banks VI. Trouble Shooting I. Installing Your New Patch Set ==================================== 1) Place the first diskette in your floppy drive. (A: for example) 2) Log on to that drive. (Type 'A:' and press the Enter key). 3) Type 'INSTALL' and press the Enter key. Follow options and commands in the installation batch file. 4) Repeat for each diskette in the patch set. The installation process will make the subdirectory on your hard drive where the patches are to go, and will copy the patch files, information files, sample INI section files, and any other .KIT or sample files shipped with the patch set. NOTE: In order to use the patches with your UltraSound, a number of steps must be taken. PLEASE READ SECTION II. BEFORE TRYING TO USE THE NEW PATCHES. Installation Options -------------------- You have a number of choices as to where to install the patches. These choices are indicated by the command line options you type after the INSTALL command. The default installation is to install the patch set under your default ULTRASND subdirectory. Default Installation -------------------- The install batch file must be run from the drive that the patch diskette is inserted into. For example, if the patch diskette is in drive A:, you must first log onto drive A: (type "A:" then press Enter). Then run the installation program as described below. INSTALL [with no other command line options] will check your system environment for the environment item "ULTRADIR=". In almost all cases, this entry will read "ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND\". If the ULTRADIR environment setting exists, the patches will be installed under the subdirectory indicated by this environment setting. If not, the patches will be installed under "C:\ULTRASND". Installation to a particular drive ---------------------------------- INSTALL [d:] where [d:] is a drive letter. For example "INSTALL E:" will install the patches under the ULTRASND subdirectory on the drive specified. For example, if "INSTALL E:" were the command, the patches would be installed under "E:\ULTRASND". Installation to a particular drive and subdirectory --------------------------------------------------- INSTALL [d:] [path] where [d:] is a drive letter and [path] is a subdirectory will install the patches off the specified drive and subdirectory. For example, "INSTALL D: MYPATCH" would install the patches under "D:\MYPATCH". The path specified must exist. Do not start the path with a backslash ('\') character. II. Quick Start - using Howling Dog Systems UltraSound Patch Sets ==================================================================== This section describes as briefly as possible what you need to do to access your new patches with the UltraSound card, after installing the patches. To use the new patches, you have to: Install them on your hard disk. Be using newer Windows UltraSound drivers (10/93 or later) which support banks. Have a correct ULTRADIR= environment setting. It has to indicate where your ULTRASND.INI files are. Add new banks to your ULTRASND.INI file to match the location of the new patches. There are sample .INI file sections shipped with the patches. The PatchDir= selection in each bank in the ULTRASND.INI file must match the directory where the patches are installed. Its best to stick with the default installation if possible. Select new banks in Power Chords by selecting 'MIDI', 'UltraSound Options'. Newer Windows Drivers --------------------- Use UltraSound Windows drivers dated after Oct. '94 to support banks in Power Chords. ULTRASND.DRV (located in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM subdirectory) should be dated 10/93 or later. ULTRADIR= environment setting ----------------------------- The ULTRASND.INI file is found by programs by looking at the environment setting ULTRADIR, which is set in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This indicates where the ULTRASND.INI and other UltraSound files are to be found. This must be set correctly. You can check it by typing 'SET' and pressing Enter at the DOS prompt. ULTRASND.INI file ----------------- This file specifies which patches are to be used when the different MIDI patch change commands are issued, and which patches are to be used for each drum sound. There is a default melodic bank entry which looks like this: [Melodic Bank 0] PatchDir=C:\ULTRASND\MIDI\ 0=acpiano 1=britepno 2=synpiano ... and a default drum bank entry which looks like this: [Drum Bank 0] PatchDir=C:\ULTRASND\MIDI\ 27=highq 28=slap ... Each bank's PatchDir item indicates where the patches are to be found. To add a new bank, you simply edit the ULTRASND.INI file and append new information. Here's an example of an added bank: [Drum Bank 1] PatchDir=c:\ultrasnd\midi\newbank\ 35=KICK1 36=KICK2 37=RIMSHOT Various INI file sections are provided with each patch set. Using a basic text editor (such as DOS' EDIT, or the Windows NOTEPAD program) append the INI fragments to the ULTRASND.INI file. We suggest you retain the bank numbering as shipped for compatibility with future releases of patch sets, and for compabitility with other users of the patch sets. This will also make it easier to trouble shoot your installation. Automatic Fallback to the Default Bank -------------------------------------- When you specify a bank, but access a patch number that has no entry for that bank, it automatically takes the selection from the default bank, Bank 0. Common Problems --------------- 1) The PatchDir= entry must end in a backslash. - For example: [Drum Bank 1] PatchDir=c:\ultrasnd\midi\newbank\ 2) Do not put the .PAT extension on the patch file names. - For example: [Drum Bank 1] PatchDir=c:\ultrasnd\midi\newbank\ 35=ROCKSNAR.PAT ... would cause any patches below entry 35 not to be loaded. 3) IF THE WINDOWS DRIVER ENCOUNTERS A BAD PATCH ENTRY (eg. mispelled patch file name) IT WILL STOP LOADING THE BANK ENTRIES AT THAT POINT. If you get lower numbered patches in a bank but not higher numbered ones, suspect this problem. 4) If you installed the patches to a drive or directory other than the default: - You must edit the ULTRASND.INI file and the sample .INI file sections for the patches in the set so that the PatchDir= entry is set to the actual location of the patches. Selecting a Bank in Power Chords -------------------------------- Select 'MIDI' from the Main Menu. Select 'UltraSound Options'. You can enter a melodic and/or drum bank number. Click OK. To check that the melodic patches are loaded: Power Chords Pro: Click the options button (red check mark) on the Rhythm Editor. Any melodic patches that come from a bank will have the bank number in brackets in their name. Other versions of Power Chords: Click the 'New' button on the Rhythm Editor. Click the 'Patch Select' button. Any melodic patches that come from a bank will have the bank number in brackets in their name. To check that the drum patches are loaded: Switch the Rhythm Editor to drums. Any patches loaded from the bank will display the patch file name as part of the drum sound. III. About Howling Dog Systems UltraSound Patch Sets ====================================================== Howling Dog Systems is pleased to manufacture and market UltraSound patch sets from the top sound designers. We'd like to thank you for purchasing this patch set for your UltraSound card. We hope you enjoy replacing and augmenting the sounds shipped with your UltraSound card with these new exciting patches, and so take advantage of the RAM based UltraSound design. We have carefully packaged the best sound patches for the UltraSound along with full documentation, and many sample configuration files to make it easy for you to install, and use your new patches. We have carefully organized the various patch sets into banks so that you will have minimum clashes with other sets from us, and with the added benefit that you will be able to share MIDI files created to use the patch sets with other owners. Your UltraSound Patch Set includes: - the finest quality, professionally sampled sounds for your UltraSound card - full documentation on how to install and use these sounds - a simple automated installation batch file for each disk - convenient ULTRASND.INI file sections for plug and play installation - Power Chords drum kit (.KIT) files (with drum patch sets) to make it simple to use drum patches with Power Chords, Power Chords for UltraSound, or Power Chords Pro IV. Patches and the UltraSound - How it all works =================================================== When you play MIDI music on your UltraSound, the instrument sounds you hear come from 'patch' files which are digital samples of various instruments. A digital sample is simply a recording which has been translated into a series of numbers which can then be stored on a computer. These samples are not unlike the digital recording on CDs (although much much smaller). The UltraSound card is commanded by application software, such as Power Chords, or by driver programs to load the needed instrument patches from your hard disk into random access memory (RAM) on-board. It then plays the patches back at different pitches as needed to play the music in accordance with the MIDI note commands sent to it. Any sounds that can be recorded, like trumpets, violins, guitars, drums, cymbals etc. can be made into patch files for playback on the UltraSound. In fact, these sounds don't have to be instruments: they can include speech, sound effects etc. Since the UltraSound gets its patches from your hard disk, you can replace or add to the sounds available. The designers of the UltraSound software have included the ability to organize different patch files into groups, or banks. An application program such as Power Chords, can specify different banks just by changing one command to the UltraSound card. You can use this capability to change drum kits to better match the style of music of certain MIDI files, to get higher quality samples of your favorite instruments, to add sound effects to your compositions, or just simply to have more variety in the sounds you use to compose and playback MIDI music. Special UltraSound Support Info - Bank Switching and More --------------------------------------------------------- Power Chords has a special UltraSound Options dialog box available. To access it from Power Chords or Power Chords for UltraSound, select Options... from the Main Menu, then 'UltraSound Options'. In Power Chords Pro, select 'MIDI...' from the Main Menu, then 'UltraSound Options'. The UltraSound Options dialog box displays the Patch Memory Left on your UltraSound card, and allows you to set alternate melodic and drum banks. UltraSound Patch Banks ---------------------- The UltraSound card allows you to set up alternate banks of instrument sounds which can be used instead of the default General MIDI patches. You can set up to 1024 different melodic and 1024 different drum banks in your ULTRASND.INI file. These are then selected by number in the UltraSound Options dialog in Power Chords. Patch sets from Howling Dog Systems are shipped with ULTRASND.INI file sections which you can add right into your ULTRASND.INI. These have default bank numbers assigned to them. We suggest you retain the bank numbering as shipped for compatibility with future releases of patch sets, and for compabitility with other users of the patch sets. This will also make it easier to trouble shoot your installation. Automatic Fallback to the Default Bank -------------------------------------- Banks do not have to include entries for every patch - a bank can include as little as one patch. When a patch is selected that is not defined in the current bank, its default is selected from Bank 0 - the default General MIDI bank. Creating a New UltraSound Bank ------------------------------ Because Howling Dog Systems patch sets are shipped with full INI file sections ready to be appended to the ULTRASND.INI file, you may never have to create a bank on your own. However, if you wish to customize your setup, its easy to create your own bank. To create a 'bank' of sounds, you create a section in your ULTRASND.INI file with a bank number, a directory, and the sounds in the bank. (You can use the Windows NOTEPAD application or any other ascii text editor such as the DOS Edit program to do this). For example, lets say you have some patches that you want to put in a separate bank, numbered 7. These patch files are named: BOSENDRV.PAT, TOYPIANO.PAT, MNSTRBAS.PAT and HEINZPAT.PAT. Let's say you copy these patch file to a subdirectory called C:\ULTRASND\MYBANK To create a bank for these patches, you would create the following entry in the ULTRASND.INI file: [Melodic Bank 7] PatchDir=C:\ULTRASND\MYBANK\ 0=bosendrf 1=toypiano 33=mnstrbas 57=heinzpat To activate bank 7, select Options..., then UltraSound Options from the Power Chords menu. In the dialog that appears, change the Melodic Bank number to 7 and then click OK. Now that you have activated bank 7, patch numbers 0, 1, 33, and, 57 will be loaded from the patch files in C:\ULTRASND\MYBANK. For example, patch 1, will load C:\ULTRASND\MYBANK\TOYPIANO.PAT. Any patch numbers selected that are not specified in bank 7 are loaded from the default list in [Melodic Bank 0]. So only the sounds specifically located in bank 7 will change from the defaults. Drum patches work in a similar fashion. Say you want to load up a couple of TR-808 patches. You would add a section to the ULTRASND.INI that looks like this: [Drum Bank 8] PatchDir=C:\ULTRASND\808\ 35=808kick1 36=808kick2 37=808rim There are lots of patch sets available from Howling Dog Systems which can make your UltraSound card really come to life with new flexibility and exciting sounds. See Special Software Offers For UltraSound Owners in the Power Chords for UltraSound Help File for more information How to tell when you have selected a patch from a bank: When you have selected a melodic bank number other than 0, Power Chords scans the ULTRASND.INI file and retrieves the patch file names for any bank entries. When you access one of the patch select dialogs (for example by double clicking on a melody in a song, then click the Edit Patch button) any patch names from the specified bank will show the file name and bank number instead of the normal General MIDI patch name. For example: "TOYPIANO <7>" instead of "Piano 2" in the example above. When you have selected a drum bank number other than 0, the drum sound names displayed in the Rhythm Editor for drum sounds which have entries in the bank selected will consist of the first 7 characters of the normal General MIDI drum name and then the patch name from the specified bank. For example: "Bass Dr 808KICK" instead of "Bass Drum" in the example above.