Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/394b.lha/CZL_v1.0/miniCZL.doc

Text File | 1990-06-28 | 12.5 KB | 322 lines

  1.0 Introduction

  This  is  a very short explanation of CZL 1.0, in terms of the earlier
  released  version  (v0.8).  If you don't have CZL v0.8 you may want to
  get  the  full  set  of documents, which should be in another ARC file
  where  you got this one. This document is intended to give you an idea
  of  what   is  different from earlier versions, and how to use the new
  features.

  CZL  v1.0 is still SHAREWARE. If you are familiar enough with CZL v0.8
  to  have  gone  beyond  the  first  paragraph, I trust that I received
  something  from  you,  just  as  you  have  received something from me
  (SHARE,  get  it?).   If you have contributed then thanks, and v1.0 is
  my  gift  to  you. If you haven't contributed, try out v1.0 of CZL. If
  you  use  it beyond that test drive, I ask that you send me 10 dollars
  (is  that  going to break anyone?). If you don't like CZL (enough that
  you   won't  use  it),  drop  me  a  note  and  make  suggestions  for
  improvements.  CZL  has  come  a long way since its first release, and
  with  more  encouragement I will probably make more improvements. Send
  your contribution or suggestions to:

                    Steve Anderson
                    3913 W. 184th Street
                    Torrance, CA  90504




  2.0 Compatibility With Earlier Versions

  CZL  v1.0  can  be  used  almost right away with your CZL v0.1 or v0.8
  disk.   It  is  compatible with both v0.1 and version 0.8 *EXCEPT* for
  two  small changes that will be necessary for the CZ.defaults file. If
  you  want to be adventurous, you could just make those two changes and
  dive  right in, ignoring the rest of this unless you get stuck (that's
  probably what I would do).


  2.0 New Features

  Version  1.0 of CZL has several new features from v0.8, which had alot
  of changes from your v0.1. New to v1.0 are:

     - Cartridge  support  -  CZL  can  now  address the expansion voice
       cartridge available for the CZ keyboards.

     - Copy  / Paste - Now copies and pastes the instrument name as well
       as the voice data.

     - Copy  /  Swap  -  A  new  edit  function  that  lets you swap the
       positions (voice number) of two instruments.

     - MIDI  Channel  -  A  proportional gadget (slider) to set the MIDI
       channel (for those lucky folks with more than one MIDI device).









     - Bank  files  -  Multiple  instruments  can  now  be stored in one
       file.

     - Command  line arg - Defaults file can be specified on the command
       line  (if  CZL  is started from the CLI). If not, CZL:CZ.defaults
       is assumed.

     - Comments  in  defaults file - comments can be appended at the end
       of each line of the defaults file.

     - Randomize  -  A  new  command  on  the Edit window to essentially
       create a "random" instrument.



  3.0 Files

  There  are now four types of files used by CZL, whereas v0.1 thru v0.8
  used  only  three types. The four file types, their functions, and how
  they  are  different  from  earlier  versions  are  described  in  the
  following paragraphs:

     o Defaults  File - What CZL expects to see in the defaults file has
       changed   in   several   ways:   (1)  It  no  longer  has  to  be
       "CZ.defaults"  but  rather can be named anything and specified on
       the  CLI command line (e.g. typing  "CZL myCZ101.defaults" at the
       CLI   prompt  would  load  the  file  "myCZ101.defaults"  as  the
       defaults  file).  If  no  command  line argument is provided, CZL
       will  try  to  open  the  file CZL:CZ.defaults, in which case you
       will  need  to  have done an "assign" of CZL: to the correct path
       where  you  keep  the  file;  (2) The first two entries have been
       reversed  in  order  - the first thing CZL expects to read is the
       number  of  Presets,  then  the  number of Internals (this change
       won't  matter for most folks, as the number of Presets and number
       of  Internals  are  the  same  on  almost  all CZ's); (3) Two new
       entries  have  been  added  -  the  3rd, specifying the number of
       Cartridge  voices,  and  the last, specifying the path for "Bank"
       files  (to  be  described  later);  (4)  Comment  fields  are now
       allowed  -  CZL will read each line until a "white space" (space,
       tab, etc.) then ignore the rest.

       This  all probably makes more sense with an example. Here is what
       the defaults file looks like for my CZ-3000 (comments and all):





















                 32              <- The number of Presets
                 32              <- The number of Internals
                 0               <- The number of Cartridge voices
                 BrassEns1       <- The first Preset name
                 StringsEns1
                 JazzOrgan
                    :
                    :  more Preset names...
                    :
                 MetallicSound
                 Calimba
                 Conga
                 TyphoonSound    <- The last Preset name
                 CZL:current.env <- My current environment file
                 CZL:env         <- My default path for environments
                 CZL:inst        <- My default instrument path
                 CZL:banks       <- My default path for bank files

       Note  that  there  is only room for 64 instruments on the screen,
       so  the  program  will  print  an  error  and  quit if (Presets +
       Internals  +  Cartridge) is more than 64. Maybe later versions of
       CZL will allow it to spill over to  another window.

     o Environment  files  - These work the same way as before, but I've
       extended  it  to  account for cartridge instruments. If you don't
       have  a cartridge never mind; but if you do, you should note that
       the  current  environment  file  (loaded at startup) is different
       from   environment  files  that  you  load  during operation. The
       current  environment file contains the paths and names for ALL of
       the  writable  voices  (Internal and Cartridge), so that CZL will
       remember  how  you  had  your Cartridge configured when you quit.
       The  other  environment  files  only  have as many entries as you
       have  Internals  OR  Cartridge  voices.  That is if you go to the
       Internals  menu  and save the environment, only the names for the
       Internals  are  saved.  Likewise,  if you do a "Save Environment"
       from  the  Cartridge  menu,  the  environment file will only have
       sixteen  entries,  corresponding to the sounds you currently have
       in the Cartridge section.

     o Instrument  Files  -  Same  as  before - no change. The files are
       128-byte packed voice data from the CZ, one voice per file.

     o Bank  files  -  These  are completely new to v1.0. Several people
       were  pushing  me  to  come  up  with  a  way  to  store multiple
       instruments  into one file, reducing the time required to load or
       store  a  whole  environment  of  instruments  and increasing the
       efficiency  in storage on the disk (AmigaDOS only stores one file
       per  512  byte  sector, so that for each 128-byte instrument file
       you  store  using  CZL,  you  waste  384  bytes). These files are
       simply   a  set  of  multiple  128-byte  voice  blocks.  The  two
       important  things  to  remember  are: (1) The number of voices in
       bank  files,  like  environment files,  is the number of Internal
       or  Cartridge  instruments  (which  one depends on which menu you
       Load  or  Save  the  bank  from); (2) NO NAMES - Bank files don't
       have   instrument  names  in  them,  so that when you load a bank









       file  you don't get  an updated display on the instrument window.
       This  is  dangerous because suddenly the voice names shown on the
       screen  may  have  nothing  to  do with the data you just loaded.
       Doing  a "Save All Instruments" would be disastrous, writing over
       the  correctly-named  instrument files with the just-loaded data.
       If  the  right order of things are done, this can be avoided. The
       intent   here  is  that  you   would  load  an  environment  file
       (containing  only  names),  then  after verifying  that it is the
       set  of  voices  you want, load the corresponding bank for  those
       instruments.  To help in doing this, when you load an environment
       file,  CZL copies the environment file name into the default bank
       file  name.  Thus  if  you  load an environment then go to load a
       bank  file,  you  could load the corresponding bank file. Anyway,
       'til I come up with a good fail-safe, just *BE CAREFUL*.


  4.0 Operation

  V1.0  operates  pretty  much the same as v0.8. While v0.8 and v0.1 had
  the  same menus, v1.0 has completely different menus. Since menus have
  been   restructured,  there  are  many  new  functions  but also a few
  functions  are   the  same but in a different place.  The changes fall
  into  two  catagories:  New functions and slightly modified functions.
  The functions that were there in v0.8 but have been changed include:

     o Copy  / Paste - Like in v0.1 and v0.8, CZL v1.0 has a copy buffer
       for  copying  voice  data from one voice into another. You simply
       select  a  voice  to copy, select Copy from the Edit menu (or hit
       right-Amiga  /  c), pick the instrument to be replaced, and issue
       the  Paste command from the Edit menu. The Copy command reads the
       voice  into CZL's copy buffer and Paste writes the copy buffer to
       the  CZ.  In  v1.0,  the copy buffer is accompanied by a path and
       name  buffer,  and "Pasting" pastes the copied name as well. This
       reduces   the  confusion  of  having  the  same  instrument  data
       represented by two different names on the screen.

     o Load  Environment  -  In  v0.1  and  v0.8  loading an environment
       implied  loading  all of the instrument names from an environment
       file  and  then loading all the instruments. In v1.0 if you issue
       the  command to load an environment, only the environment file is
       loaded.  Therefore,  you  must  be  careful since the names don't
       correspond  to  the CZ's instrument data until you do a "Load All
       Instruments"  or  "Load  Bank". Like I said, *BE CAREFUL*. If you
       have  any  suggestions  on  how  to  make  this a safer operation
       please let me know.

  Several functions are entirely new to v1.0 of CZL. They include:

     o Internals  /  Cartridge  menus  -  These  two menus have the same
       choice  items,  and perform all the multiple-instrument functions
       corresponding  to  either all the internal instruments or all the
       cartridge  instruments.   The  Cartridge  menu is disabled unless
       the  number of cartridge voices (defined in the defaults file) is
       non-zero.










     o Copy  /  Swap  -  This  works  basically  like  the  Copy / Paste
       function,  except  that  instead  of  copying  one  instrument to
       another  voice,  it  makes a swap of the two instruments, so that
       the  "Copied"  instrument  gets  the "Swapped" data and name, and
       vice  versa.  I  have found it real handy to use this function to
       move  all  my  Pianos  to  one  area  on the screen, my Organs to
       another,  etc.,  without  wiping  out  the  data that's there (as
       would happen in the copy / paste operation).

     o MIDI  Channel  slider  -  The  proportional  gadget  in the lower
       right-hand  part of the Instrument window allows the MIDI channel
       to  be adjusted. Both v0.1 and v0.8 of CZL worked only on channel
       1.  In  v1.0 the MIDI channel can be adjusted in the normal Amiga
       "prop  gadget"  way.  You can either  click on the knob and slide
       it  left  or  right, or you can click to the left or right of the
       knob  to  adjust  the  channel up or down by one. Either way, the
       current setting is displayed above the slider.

     o Bank  Files  - See the above section describing the files used in
       CZL v1.0.

     o Randomize  -  In  the  Edit  window  under the Control Menu, this
       command  generates  a "random" instrument, setting each parameter
       to  a  random  value  within its range. Many such intruments will
       have  no  sound  at  all,  but the ones that do are very strange.
       After  doing  a  randomize  try adjusting the line select and DCA
       levels before giving up on a quiet instrument.