Light ROM 1/LIGHT-ROM 1 (Amiga Library Services)(1994).iso/ffdisks/d941.lha/SOUNDEffect/Doc_english/Doc.english

Text File | 1993-12-20 | 19KB | 534 lines

Doc.english - Documentation for SOUNDEffect
                                              (c) 1992, 1993 Sven Bühling
               V 2.10 - October 1993
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


1. Preface
----------

SOUNDEffect is a program which offers many facilities to edit samples.
It's very useful for musicians with some experience in working with samples.
Here are some special features:

  1) User interface with gadgets for all functions. The gadgets are arrenged
     into panels. (It's of course impossible to get all gadgets on one
     screen.)

  2) Full stereo support in all functions

  3) Frequency, amplitude and panorama modulation with an envelop waveform wich
     you can paint with the mouse.

  4) Normal echo and a special reverb effect.

  5) Free hand editing of the sample is possible.

  6) Mixing of upto 8 samples in one time (mixer)

  7) Chorus effect.

  8) High and low pass filter with adjustable cut off frequency.

  9) Expander, compresser, limiter.

 10) Noise generator.


 11) There are 8 temporary buffers for samples. You can choose to which path
     these buffer are saved.

 12) All usualy function like copy, paste, cut, insert, delete, loop, swap,
     reverse, change of pitch and volume and much more.


Thanks to:
- all registered Users
- all BEta Testers
- Matt Dillon for DICE
- Claudio Zani for TDS
- Teijo Kinnunen for OctaMED
- Martin W:Scott for icalc and YAK
- Stefan Becker for ToolManager
- Jan van den Baard for GadToolsBox
- Anders Bjerin for the C-Manual
- Electronic Arts for DPaint


2. Copyright
------------

SOUNDEffect and the Docs are copyrighted by Sven Bühling.
SOUNDEffect is SHAREWARE. You are only allowed to distribute it
if:
    - all doc-file of one language are copied together with the program
    - program and doc-files remain unchanged
    - the disk must not cost more than $ 5 (DM 5)

If you get any damages using my program, I'm not responsible.

If you like this program you should pay the share. For 20 US$ or 30 DM you will
become a registered user. That includes mailing of the most recent release
together with a so called keyfile wich enables protected functions in the
FD-release. You can pay the share in cash, via Euro-Scheck or International
Money Order.

Kontonr.: 46047295  BLZ: 830 544 82  (Kreissp. Stadtroda)

Address: Sven Bühling, H.-Danz-Str. 9, 07629 Hermsdorf, GERMANY

Internet: [e-mail]     IRC: Gobel


Without a valid keyfile there are following restrictions:
  - Samples wich are longer than 10000 bytes are displayed only three times
  - the preferences can not be saved
  - only one sample can be saved each session


3. Updates
----------

Soon I will start working for version 3.0. Then there will be again some important
changes in the user interface. All panel become draggable windows. So you can
use every screen mode and you can open as many panels as you like.

After that I hope to find time to include features like:
  - Fourier transformation
  - optional Audio Device output
  - AIFF-Support / MIDI-Sample-Dump
  - better reverb effect
  - ARexx port
  - support for several samplers

  - internal 16 Bit processing (probably V 4.0)

If you are registered you do not depend on me to get your updates. You can
download them for instance from aminet or from Fish disks. If you want to order
updates directly by the author one update costs 5$ including Disk and mailing.


4. Getting started / Screenmode
-------------------------------

SOUNDEffect should work on every AMIGA with Kickstart >= 1.3 and at least 1
MByte RAM.

  INTERLACE -    TRUE - opens an interlaced screen
                 FALSE - default

  XPOS      -    x-Position
  YPOS      -    y-Position
      (To center the screen if your Workbench uses overscan)


  EXTRAMENU -    TRUE - if you open an interlace screen you can choosse to
                        display the menu panel every time.

                 FALSE - default

Beisp.: Start from CLI for NTSC-Amigas:

    SOUNDEffect INTERLACE TRUE EXTRAMENU TRUE YPOS 30

        Start from WB:

INTERLACE=TRUE
EXTRAMENU=TRUE
YPOS=30

(Enter these values to the tooltypes field)


5. User interface
-----------------

There are three general areas on display. On the top of the screen you can see
the logo and some important informations. There are project name, size of the
sample and the status line. You should always have a look to this status line.

In the middle there is the area for sample display or for the big panels. You
can get back from a big panel to the sample display by pressing the right mouse
button in this range.

Below that you can find by default the menu panel where you can select wich
panel is to be displayed. But there are some small panels too wich cover the menu.
You can get back again by pressing the right mouse button.

Most of the big panels have three very important gadgets on the right side.
They are |LEFT|, |BOTH| and |RIGHT|. With these three gadgets you can select
whether the current function should affect the left, rigth or both channels of
the sample.


6. The Panels
-------------

6.1. The menu
"""""""""""""

The menu is displayed at the bottom of the screen. If not, use the right mouse
button in this range to switch back. You can reach all panels via this menu or
by the function keys (described later).
The left gadgets are for the small panels - the right ones for the big panels
in the middle of the screen.


6.2. Sample display
"""""""""""""""""""

Click the right mouse button in the middle of the screen to get the Sample
display.

The first important thing you should know is that you can choose whether one or
two "windows" shell be displayed, This can be done with the both gadgets on the
left side in the middle.

On the left side of each window there are some gadgets to select what you want
to display in it.
     |L| left channel
     |R| right channel
     |1|..|5|   wave buffer 1..5

On the right side there are the zoom gadgets.
     |(pocket lens)|  zoom in
     |(crossed)|      zoom out
     |RANGE|          show the selected range
     |ALL|            show all

You can select a range in the sample or wave buffer by dragging with the right
mouse button over this area you want to select. Via LeftShift-RMB you can also
set the range begin - RightShift-RMB sets the end of the range.

In the wave buffer you can "draw" directly by dragging with the LMB. The sample
is a little bit protected against this. To edit the sample by freehand drawing
you have to hold a shift key while dragging with LMB.

6.3. The Disk I/O-panel
"""""""""""""""""""""""

The panel is used to load or save samples and WAVE-buffers.

It is similar to other file requestors. You can change text and contents of
the four directory buttons. This is explained in the paragraph about
preferences-panel.

Here and in all other panels the affect gadgets at the right side can be
used to selected whether the left, the right or both channels of the sample
should be affected of the current operation.

File format:

You can load samples in one of the following formats: IFF, Future-Sound
(obsolete) or RAW. If the sample is not identified as IFF or Future-Sound
it will automaticly loaded as RAW. If the IFF-format is corrupt (Action
Replay!) you can choose if you want to load it RAW. Then you should not
forget to cut the beginning of the sample because there is the corrupt
IFF-Header and that does usually not sounde very well.

You can save your samples either RAW or IFF. In RAW-format you loose all
additional information like loop, rate or project name. It is not possible
to save stereo samples as RAW.

Using IFF-format you will not loose any information. To secure this also
for stereo samples SOUNDEffect creates upto three additional chunks, wich
probably cannot be used by any other program. But this doesn't matter
because other programs will ignore these chaunks and a minimal part of
information will be lost. That is unavoidable. In the IFF-format wich uses
for instance Audio-Master both channels have the same length and loop. Data
behind the end of the loop are not allowed. The three additional chunks
remove these restrictions. But if you load a stereo sample by SOUNDEffect
into the Audio-Master you will of course loose data behind the end of the
loop and the loop values of the second channel.
If you want to use stereo samples in Tracker programs (Protracker, MED,
...) you should save and load it as two different samples because they cannot
handle stereo samples.

Now the program has got the ability to load and save 16 Bit RAW samples. After
loading the program converts them to 8 Bit, but you have the chance to maximize
the amplitude of the sample before doing that (->better quality).


6.4. The Play-panel
"""""""""""""""""""

Here you can play the sample.

|SAMPLE|    plays the whole sample
|RANGE|     play the selected range only
|DISPLAY|   plays the visible part of the sample
|STOP|      stops output
|USE LOOP|  to choose whether the loop (if set) should be used
|FILTER|    to switch on/off the hardware filter

Rate, Period, Note - different ways to enter the play rate
                     Examples for notes: C-4, H-4, B-4, D#3, Gb3
                     (H-4 is equal to B-4  - use Bb4 for the 'german' B)

Volume      the volume
|1+2| |3+4| wich audio channels should be used

Project Name  - here you can modify the project name


The audio output is done directly via DMA. Since version 1.25 the audio
device is not used anymore due to some problems with MED. (No chance to put
out anything via audio device if MED is loaded.) This time it is not
possible to put out samples wich are longer than 128K. But you can set a
range and play it to hear the ending of such very long samples. (Will be
improved sometimes.)


6.5. The Range-panel
""""""""""""""""""""

Here you can manipulate the whole sample or a part (range) of it in
different ways. Ranges can be selected by dragging over the part you wish
while you keep the right mouse button pressed. Please remeber to the
meaning of the |LEFT|, |RIGHT| and |BOTH| gadgets. They are very importent
in the whole program.

|COPY|      copies the range to the copy buffer
|PASTE|     does the opposite thing
|DELETE|    deletes the range (sets all bytes to zero)
|CUT|       cuts the range out of the sample
|INSERT|    inserts the copy buffer at the selected position
|SAMPLE<->CBUF|     exchanges sample and copy buffer
|REMOVE CBUF|       frees the memory allocated by the copy buffer
|ADD|       the contents of the copy buffer is added directly to the
            sample data starting at the selected position
|MIX|       Here it is impossible to get distortions. With the prop-gadget you
            can determine which in ratio the copy buffer is mixeed with the
            sample. The amlitude of the is reduced appropriate.


|START|, |END|  to select whether the begining or the end of the range
                should be affected by the following operations
|->|        shifts 1 byte to the right
|<-|        ...
|->0|       shifts right until a zero in the sample is found
|0<-|       ..
(By holding of one of the shift keys and clicking with RMB you can set the
range borders seperatly in the display.)

|ALL|       the whole sample is marked as range
|NO RANGE|  removes range markers

|REVERSE|   the range is reversed
|SWAP|      swaps the range (-27 -> +27)

|SET LOOP|  takes the current range as loop (if you play the sample this
            part is played repeatly). To remove a loop: |NO RANGE| and then
            |SET LOOP|
|GET LOOP|  shows the current loop
            by setting the range to its values

|APPEND|    you can enter how many bytes should be appended to the sample
|SHIFT UP|
|SHIFT DOWN|    the range is shifted up/down by the entered value
|AMP|       in the Prop-gadget you can enter to wich value the volume of
            the range should be changed (0-200%)
|MAX|       maximal amplitude without distortion


Via the copy buffer you may exchange data between both channels. Also you
have the chance to copy/paste between WAVE-buffers and the sample channels.
Only if you have selected |BOTH| the second channel of the copy buffer is
used.


6.6. The Edit-panel
"""""""""""""""""""

This panel offers some functions to manipulate the 5 WAVE-buffers wich are
necessary for several effect functions. It is very similar to the
range-panel. So I will explain only those functions wich are different.

Affects |1| |2| |3| |4| |5|
  Here you can select wich WAVE-buffer schould be affected by the current
  operation. (VERY IMPORTANT!!)

|ECHO BUFFER|   There is a special type of WAVE-buffer - the ECHO-buffer.
                ECHO-buffers are only useful for a special echo effect of
                SOUNDEffect. You can draw only beams in them.
                By this gadget you can select whether the current affected
                WAVE-buffer should be an ECHO-buffer or not. The buffer is
                cleared if you click it.

Standard waveforms:
  The following standard waves are available: sinus, [Sägezahn??], triangle
  and requtangular. They are copied in the range if you have selected one.
  Else the fill the whole buffer.

|MULTI|         multiplies the contents of the range
SHIFT           you can shift the range in all four directions
ZOOM            zooms in both achsises are available (Prop-gadget: 0-200%)


6.7. The Preferenceces-panel
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Here you can modify and save some preferences.

COLOURS         screen colours

|INVERS|        inverted sample display
|TRANSPARENT|   transparent sample display

|FASTDIR|       scans directories much faster but does not display them
                while reading

Button text, directory
  for the four free buttons in the Disk I/O-panel

|SAVE PREFS|    saves the prefs in the file "DEVS:SOUNDEffect.prefs"


6.8. The Buffers-panel
""""""""""""""""""""""

With this panel you can manage the 8 temporary buffers for samples. They
are useful to make working (or security) copies of the current sample or
to mix some samples very comfortable (f.i. to make chords).

|PLAY|      plays the buffer
|LOAD|      loads it
|SAVE|      ...
|REMOVE|    ...
string gadget   Here you can edit the name of the temporary buffer (will be
                the project name after loading it)

In the mixer you can find a slider for the volume of each buffer. If you
want to make sure that no distortions occur set the main volume to 100%.
But notice that the programm will inform you when distortions occur in ALL
functions (f.i. add, mix, chorus, echo, shift, AM ...).
You can select between two different mix modi: Using |OLD| the sample data
are added byte by byte without observing the record rates of the different
samples. In the |REAL| mode the samples are detuned before mixing them.

Please notice that the result of the mixing process will be copied into the
current sample. Make sure that the current sample is long enough. The data
of the current sample are lost after mixing.


6.9. The Modulation-panel
"""""""""""""""""""""""""

There are four different kinds of modulation available in SOUNDEffect this
time: AM, FM and panorama modulation.

|MODULATION|    starts computation
Wave |1|..|5|   wich WAVE should be used

|AMPLITUDE|     amplitude modulation
Strength        strength in %
                100% => modulation between 0 and 200%

|FREQUENCY|     frequency modulation
Rate +-         range of changing the record rate

|PANORAMA|      modulation of panorama position
Strength        100% is maximum

|FILTER|    filter modulation
|H|        high pass
|L|        low pass
MIN        minimal cut off frquency
MAX        maximal cut off frequency


Filter          enter cut off frequency in Hz
|LOW|           low pass
|HIGH|          high pass filter
Notice that the result also depends on the current record rate because the
cut off frequency relates to this play rate.

Shorten         The sample is shortened from the end to the last occurence
                of the entered amplitude (enter in %).

|DETUNE|        The sample can be tuned and detuned using this function.
                The entered rate becomes the new record rate while the
                frequancy you here playing the sample (with RETURN key)
                keeps equal.

|MIX CHANNELS|  useful to decrease the panorama size of a sample (prop
                gadget rigth => two equal mono samples)

|LEFT->RIGHT|   copies the left channel to the right one
|RIGHT->LEFT|   ...
|LEFT<->RIGHT|  exchanges them


6.10. The Echo-panel
""""""""""""""""""""

|START COMPUTATION| starts computation of the echo/reverb effect

DATA FROM           here you have to select where the data (to mix up)
                    shell come from
|SAMPLE|            take the whole sample (for real echo)
|RANGE|             the range only
|COPY BUFFER|       takes the contents of the copy buffer (so you can take
                    data wich do not belong to the sample to make a good or
                    strange reverb effect)

DELAY FROM          selection where the delay of the echos should come from

|INPUT|             the conventional way - constant time between all echos
Delay               enter in bytes or ms (the ms-value relates to the
                    current record rate)
Strength            damping (100% -> all echos have full volume; 50% ->
                    50, 25, 12...);
Number              numer of echos, 0 -> unlimited

ECHO BUFFER         volume and delay of the echos are taken from an
                    ECHO-buffer - useful for reverb effects
Strength            maximum volume

PANORAMA FROM       useful for stereo echos (select BOTH)
|MONO|              ...
|WAVE|              take a WAVE-buffer
|RANDOM|            accidental
Strength            0-100%

The following functions do all have in common that they usually do not
increase the quality of the sample. All effects excepting noise have no
strength gadget. You can use them repeated to increase their efficancy.

|NOISE|             mixes noise to the range
|COMPRESS|          compresses (silent parts become louder - loud parts
                    lower
|EXPAND|            the opposite thing
|LIMITER|           makes the sample louder without distorting it
|DIST1|
|DIST2|             two different distortion effects


6.11. The Chorus-panel
""""""""""""""""""""""

The chorus effect makes upto four voices wich are a little bit detuned and
delayed. The they are mixed and you get a fuller sound.

|START COMPUTATION| ...

You can adjust the volume of each voice and the main volume. Moreover you
have some slider for detuneing, delaying of each voice. If you select BOTH
you can use the panorama slider too.


7. Keyboard shortcuts
---------------------

Like MED you have more than two octaves organized similar to a piano.

RETURN      play the sample with its record rate
SPACE       stops playing

F1 - F9     to switch between the panels
F10         switches to sample display
Del         brings menu
Help        start picture