home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Atari Compendium
/
The Atari Compendium (Toad Computers) (1994).iso
/
files
/
umich
/
music
/
mspydem3.lzh
/
MSPYDEMO.TXT
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-09-12
|
7KB
|
172 lines
*--------------------------------------------*
| |
| MIDI Spy 1.2 Demo Documentation |
| by John Eidsvoog |
| Copyright 1993 CodeHead Software |
| |
*--------------------------------------------*
Release Date: Sunday, September 12, 1993
This is a free demo of MIDI Spy 1.2. It may
be distributed freely as long as all included
files remain intact and unaltered. It may
not be sold or included with any commercial
product without written permission from
CodeHead Software.
*-------------------------- Included Files ---------------------------*
The following files are included in the MIDI Spy 1.2 Demo package:
MSPYDEMO.ACC The Demo accessory/program
MSPYDEMO.TXT This Documentation File
*--------------------------- New Features ----------------------------*
If you're already familiar with an earlier MIDI Spy demo, you can skip to
the end of this document and read the section entitled New Features of
MIDI Spy 1.2.
*---------------------------- What it is -----------------------------*
MIDI Spy is a MIDI recording tool that allows you to record and play
back MIDI in a multi-tasking environment. It runs as either a program
or an accessory. When installed as an accessory, it works completely in
the background. This means that it is always in record mode (unless you
disable it). As long as you haven't exhausted the memory area assigned
to MIDI Spy, everything you play will be recorded regardless of your
current computer activity. You can be at the desktop, within any
program, or even connected to an on-line service through your terminal
program.
MIDI Spy will load and save standard MIDI sequence files, allowing you to
load its songs into other MIDI sequencers, or load songs into MIDI Spy that
have been recorded on other sequencers and play them in the background from
MIDI Spy while you work on other things, even chained together, creating a
juke box effect.
*------------------- Installing the MIDI Spy Demo --------------------*
The MIDI Spy demo runs only as a desk accessory (although the full version
runs as a PRG as well). If you've got CodeHead's MultiDesk, you can
simply use the "Load ACC" button to load MIDI Spy as a _resident_
accessory. Otherwise, copy MSPYDEMO.ACC into the root of your boot drive
and reboot your computer (making sure that you don't have more than six
files with an .ACC extension).
*--------------------- Using the MIDI Spy Demo -----------------------*
Using the MIDI Spy Demo is extremely easy. Let's start by recording
something. After installing the MIDI Spy Demo as an accessory, select it
from the accessory (or MultiDesk) menu. The Main MIDI Spy Dialog box will
appear on the screen.
If you've connected your MIDI cables correctly, you can just start playing
and everything you play will be recorded (you may need to enable "Thru" to
hear what you're playing if your MIDI system is set up that way). If you
wait for five seconds and start playing again, a new song will be started.
To listen to what you've played, just click on Play or hit the space bar.
Playback will begin immediately.
Most of the buttons in the main dialog box are self-explanatory. There
are also keypress equivalents for all of the buttons. Press the Help key
to find out which keys may be used to control the main dialog box.
You can exit from the MIDI Spy accessory, go back to any other computer
task, and start playing back what you've recorded but pressing
Alternate-SpaceBar. MIDI Spy will play back your songs without affecting
what you do in the foreground.
There are a number of other hot key combinations. You can find them by
clicking on "Commands" in the Configuration Options box. Any of the hot
key combinations can be reassigned to any combination you like by clicking
on the current one and pressing another combination. You'll also notice
that the same set of commands can be controlled from your MIDI keyboard.
These can also be reassigned to most any MIDI command.
A MIDI Spy 1.0 demo was released in December of 1991. A number of things
have changed or have been added to MIDI Spy since then. One of the main
things is that MIDI overflow has been virtually eliminated for systems in
which a lot of resident programs are installed. This is accomplished
through some special handling of the 200Hz timer. There is a penalty for
doing this, though. Some areas of your GEM interface may not function
properly while you are playing on your MIDI keyboard and up to one second
after you stop. This normally will only be noticed when someone is trying
to use the mouse while the keyboard is being played. If this is
bothersome, the special handling can be disabled by turning off the "200Hz
Hog" button in the Configuration Options box. If you have a lot of
resident software installed, you may experience some MIDI notes which
don't turn off due to "MIDI Overflow". The solution is to reenable the
"200Hz Hog" button. (It's a tradeoff -- you can't have everything.)
The MIDI Spy 1.1 demo will let you load songs and MIDI files but you won't
be able to save them. You will also be unable to alter the memory buffer
size to anything other than its original size. And there's a time limit
of 10 minutes, after which you can no longer operate MIDI Spy.
Once you've loaded or recorded a few songs, you'll notice the "MEMORY
USED" box will display the size of the currently selected song. You can
select songs by clicking and dragging within this box. Or you can start
playing the current song by clicking/dragging within the current song's
box. You can also right-click anywhere in the display area to switch to
the "full" mode. The entire box will become gray and a vertical line will
show the current spot in the song while playback is in effect. You can
also select a mid-start point and begin playback by clicking within this
box.
*------------------ New Features of version 1.2 -----------------------*
o Duplicate function makes a copy of the current song
o Append function pastes the current song onto the end of the last song
o Commands button disables channelizing and MIDI commands so that patch
dumps are recorded correctly.
o Pressing Shift-Home allows you to convert a song from a tempo (other
than 100%) to 100%
o Song information is displayed in the title box when using the memory
display to select songs, or if you hold the Control key
o Records "free" System Exclusive so that it now handles Casio's
unorthodox method of System Exclusive
Bugs fixed:
o No longer crashes if you have HotWire on a machine with no internal clock
o Numerous other small bugs and cosmetic display problems
*----------------------------------------------------------------------*
Enjoy the demo.
For more information, contact your local dealer, or:
CodeHead Software
PO Box 74090
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tel (213) 386-5735
Fax (213) 386-5789
BBS (213) 461-2095