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TIGERCUB.DOC
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1990-10-12
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Getting Started
Chapter 1
Around Tiger Cub
Tiger Cub has two main screens, each of which performs different
functions. The first screen you'll see is called the tape recorder
screen, because it simulates many of the functions of a multi-track
tape deck. The other screen is the graphic editing screen, which allows
you to view and edit the contents of a single track.
Many of the functions of these two screens overlap (in fact, each
screen has more functions than are found on many other so-called
"entry-level" programs), yet you will find that each is optimized for
certain aspects of the music-making process.
In addition to the two main screens, Tiger Cub includes an additional
program module, called QuickScore, that is used to view and print music
in standard notation. QuickScore is actually a separate program that can
be executed from within Tiger Cub itself, so it acts just like an
extension of the sequencer.
The tape recorder screen, which is the screen you will see first when you
start Tiger Cub, contains twelve lines that display important information
about each of Tiger Cub's twelve MIDI tracks, along with a control
panel at the bottom of the screen, that contains many controls that are
similar to those found on a tape deck, as well as several that are
uniquely designed for sequencing.
The Tape Recorder Screen
The heart of Tiger Cub is the graphic editing display. This consists of
a single track window, which shows the notes in the track, as well as an
optional controller window, which displays one of several types of
continuous controllers that may exist in a track. The master controls
area, at the bottom of the screen, contains several buttons for
selecting various editing operations and for changing the display
magnification. The menu bar, at the top of the screen contains menus that
do all sorts of things. The graphic editing screen also contains two
scroll bars for moving within a piece of music--one horizontal, for
viewing different "time slices" of the piece, and one vertical, for
viewing different pitch areas within a track. The following diagram
shows the major components of Tiger
Cub's graphic editing screen.
The Graphic Editing Screen
Track Organization
Tiger Cub organizes its MIDI data in twelve parallel tracks. Each track
contains data (note-on and -off messages, controllers, program changes,
etc.) for a single MIDI channel only, though different tracks may be
set to the same MIDI channel. Tracks can turned on and off individually
or as part of a group. Each track has its own line on the tape recorder
screen, and tracks may be displayed one at a time on the graphic editing
screen.
In addition to the twelve MIDI tracks, Tiger Cub also has an additional
track, called the conductor track, which contains tempo and time signature
information. This track is only visible from the graphic editing screen,
though it will affect playback on both screens.
Note and Controller Display
Notes are displayed in Tiger Cub as horizontal bars, with vertical
velocity stems. The length of the bar indicates the duration of the note,
and the height of the velocity stem shows the note-on velocity. Both of
these aspects of the note can be edited individually with the mouse.
Controller and tempo events are shown as vertical lines in their
respective windows. As you probably guessed, the height of the line
determines the value of the controller at that time. When several
controller events occur one after another, the individual lines resemble
a continuous curve, which is what you should hear when the sequence is
played back.
Left and Right Mouse Functions
On Tiger Cub's graphic editing screen, the left and right mouse buttons
serve two distinct functions, depending on whether you are working with
notes, or controller data. When dealing with notes, the left mouse
button is used for editing, drawing, and selecting, and the right mouse
button is used to play the song. When working with controllers,
the left mouse button is used for editing, and the right mouse is used
for drawing. The operation of both mouse buttons is explained in detail
later in the manual.
Because of the distinction between the operations of the two mouse
buttons, we have been very careful in describing them in this manual,
and you should be equally careful when reading these descriptions.
When either mouse button will do a job, we will use the term "click" to
describe a single quick press and release on either mouse button, or
"right click" or "left click" to denote specific buttons. Similarly,
"left drag" means to press and hold the left mouse button while you move
the mouse, etc.
Menus and Edit Windows
Many of Tiger Cub's functions are accessed through a set of GEM menus
located at the top of the screen. These menus operate just like those
in other ST programs, with one additional twist. If you like, these
menus can be turned into pull-down menus (just like the menus on that
computer with the one-button mouse), so that they don't drop into
Tiger Cub's graphic display when you don't want them to. Several menu
items also have a letter or two to their right, which means that
menu item can be selected by pressing that key or key combination. (The
symbol "^" refers to the <Control> key.)
Many menu items are not available in both screens.
edit windows
Many of the menu items cause an edit window to appear on the screen,
which allows you to enter settings and choose options for
the edit operation. Edit windows contain several different editable
objects. Data fields are used for numeric values, buttons and radio
buttons are used to select options, and exit buttons are used to perform
one of several related operations. Data fields are always
labeled using text followed by a colon, and are shown in light blue on
the color monitor. Data fields are selected for editing with the mouse
or cursor keys, and may be changed either by typing from the keyboard,
or by dragging the right mouse button. Dragging a value with either
<Shift> key down moves by larger increments, or holding down <Control>
makes the parameter jump to its highest or lowest value. radio buttons
Buttons are little square boxes with text labels. Toggle buttons are
boxes with dots in the middle, while radio buttons (so named because of
their similarity to the station selectors on old car radios) are
displayed as boxes with a notch in one corner. Left clicking on a toggle
button (or its label) simply turns it on or off, while left clicking on
a radio button turns it on and turns off any others in the same group.
If a window has two or more independent groups of radio buttons, you can
tell them apart by the orientation of the notches.
Finally, the edit operation is executed by left clicking on the exit
button labeled OK. You can also leave the edit window by holding down a
<Shift> key and left clicking on any other button in the window, or by
pressing <Return>. If the buttons in the window aren't all set up,
you'll find that you won't be able to leave the window. Left click on the
CANCEL button or press the <Undo> key to leave the window without
performing the operation. Some edit windows may have other exit
buttons which are used to redraw the window or to execute some other
operation, such as loading a file.
A Guided Tour
By now, you're probably itching to make some music with Tiger Cub. In
this chapter, we'll lead you by the hand through the basics of recording,
editing, and printing a song using Tiger Cub.
The first step is to boot Tiger Cub, as explained at the end of
Chapter 1. Once you've started the program, you'll see the tape recorder
screen. This is where recording usually takes place in Tiger Cub.
Recording
Let's start out by recording some music. Before we can record a song,
we must set the length of the song. Pull down the File menu, then left
click on New.... In the edit window that appears, enter 8 for the song
length, then left click on OK. Now all we