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Text File | 1991-09-01 | 16.5 KB | 395 lines

---------------------------------------------------------------------- SOUNDTRACKER V2.6 User Manual ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last changes to Soundtracker done on : see program. Soundtracker-Update done by : MnemoTroN. Soundtracker-Playroutine by : Mahoney & Kaktus. Soundtracker-Playroutine improved by : MnemoTroN. Soundtracker-Documentation updated by : MnemoTroN. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A FIRST-TIME USER: READ THIS DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY - YOU WILL DISCOVER NEW AND IMPORTANT NEW FEATURES ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- So whattz upp? -------------- * - Song is now track-orientated - 128K samples supported - Soundtracker-Interrupts are now legal (no more messing around in the zeropage) - Keyboard-presses are now converted with the current KeyMap (except for special keys like Return and so on) - Channel-equalizer now shows (nearly) real volume during play - General improvements - Full workbench support - Everything now works with scan-waits (should work fine with Turboboards - could not be tested, though) - IFF-Support on loaded files - Directory is now dynamic list-based, maximal entries depend on free memory - Preconfiguration - save songs/module/sample-directory, IFF-Configuration and size of PresetList to be present at startup * - Soundtracker-/System-Switch * - improved Speed-Command (*) most important changes The Song. --------- The 'Song' is build up from tracks. A 'track' is the note- and command-data for one channel. Your Amiga has four hardware-audio-channels, two on the left side and two on the right. A Song has 128 positions, with each position holding the tracknumbers for each of the four channels, so repeated parts will save memory. Please note that the track-number above each voice is represented in hex. There are 256 possible tracks in total. USE TRACK 0 AS AN EMPTY TRACK! The Keys. --------- As you may already have read above, Soundtracker now understands the current KeyMap-setting when inputting text, so you can configure your system as you like. The note-keyboard is Sonix-style, try typing on the whole key-rows. The keys on your Amiga have been grouped to represent the layout of a two-octave piano-keyboard. You can "shift" the keyboard one octave up or down with the aid of the F1 and F2 keys, thus incrementing the range of the keyboard to three octaves. Explanation of the options: --------------------------- MAIN MENU: ---------- Play - will play the song whilst showing you the current tracks Pattern - plays just the current position Stop - stops the player Insert - inserts one step at the current position Delete - delete the current position - following will move up Edit - edit a pattern (switches to edit-menu) Record - edit pattern in real-time Clear - will kill the song in memory Use Pset - will load a sample, which can be chosen with the Preset- gadget Filter - will switch the Power-LED (and lowpassfilter on selected machines) on and off Disk Op - switches to the Disk-Menu (see below) Print - will print the Songheaderdata to PRT: (right button to abort) Pset-Ed - switches to the PresetList-Editor (see below) The small gadgets titled from 1 to 4 represent the four audio channels of your Amiga computer. When lit, the respective audio channel is enabled. DISK MENU: ---------- Load Song - loads a song Save Song - crunches and saves a song Delete Song - deletes a song from the disk Load Module - loads a module Save Module - saves a module Delete Modules - deletes a modules from the disk Load Sample - read a sample from any disk Save Sample - save the selected sample to disk Format Disk - formats a disk To change the path of song/module/sample without reading it, move the cursor to the uppermost line of the screen over one of these options and press the left mousebutton. The directory-display will change to this option. Please note that the Format-Option has been improved and should now work 100%. PRESETLIST-EDITOR: ------------------ Edit - to edit an entry (see below) Insert - inserts an entry into the PresetList Delete - deletes an entry Read path - reads the specified path and inserts the entries into the list Print Plst - lists the PresetList to PRT: (right button to abort) Save Plst - saves the PresetList to disk Use Pset - loads a selected sample into the memory Press the right mousebutton to move up and down faster! The 'Edit'-option is not included in the menu. Just click on one of the entries and you can change the name or the other values. To read a sampledisk using 'Read path' you have to enter the path you want to read (in most cases 'df0:' to 'df3:'). Harddisk users may enter a volume-number which will be inserted before the samplename. Click on 'Volume' to change it. Disks with a name like 'ST-xx' will be automatically identified! Preferences menu: ----------------- Press Shift+HELP in the main menu to enter the Preferences menu. Click on the lines showing the song/module/sample-directories to change them. Click on 'IFF-Check' to change the IFF-Checking (none/half/full). Click on Max Entries to change the number of entries in the presetlist. If you change the number of entries, Soundtracker will try to reload the PresetList with the desired number of entries. Press ESC to quit the menu or Shift+ESC to save & quit. IFF-Checking: ------------- Normally, if Soundtracker encounters an IFF-Samplefile, it will load the data, remove the IFF-Header and set the Length, Repeat and Repeatlength according to the data given in the IFF-File. This should normally work fine, but if you have changed the values in the song and load it afterwards, the values you changed will be overwritten by those in the IFF-File. To prevent this, set IFF-Check to 'half'. Now only the IFF-Header will be removed, but Length, Repeat and Repeatlength will not be affected. Due to a bug in old versions of NoiseTracker (hehe), a module saved with it which uses IFF-Files will have the IFF-Headers saved with it, but not the end of the samples. Soundtracker will remove the IFF-Header and will try to copy the sample-data over it, but because some bytes are missing, there can be strange noises at the end of such a sample. If you encounter such a module, you should set IFF-Check to none, this may result in a strange noise (VERY short) at the beginning of the sample. All time key-commands: ---------------------- Tab - Pattern Play / Play Pattern (in Edit-Mode) Right Amiga - Edit Pattern Space - Stop While editing: -------------- Cursor-keys move cursor. shift + Cursor-keys move cursor fast. alt + Cursor-keys move cursor fastest. F6 - Set cursor to first line of pattern. F7 - Set cursor to 16th line of pattern. F8 - Set cursor to 32th line of pattern. F9 - Set cursor to 48th line of pattern. F10 - Set cursor to 63rd line of pattern. DEL - Delete note under cursor. shift + F3 - Cut track of current channel and copy it into a buffer. shift + F4 - Copy track of current channel into a buffer. shift + F5 - Copy buffer to track of channel pattern. ctrl + B - Mark beginning of block ctrl + C - Clear from beginning to current cursor-position ctrl + X - Cut from beginning to current cursor-position ctrl + V - Copy from beginning to current cursor-position ctrl + P - Paste from buffer to current-position While using Soundtracker V2.6, HELP will show you these commands, plus information about the song-, sample- and module-length and free memory. A small word about the +/- gadgets: pressing the left AND right mousebutton will in-/decrease the value faster !! Sample zero function: --------------------- While editing you're able to set the sample to the value zero (0!). Press both mousebuttons at the position of the samplegadgets (plus, minus = +,-). Now you can edit the pattern with the sample 0 to prevent difficulties according to the volume. Instruments. ------------ You can use up to thirtyone different instruments in one music-piece. All instruments are listed in the preset-list. The volume is normally $40, but you can change it to each value between 0 and $40. To change the other values of each instrument you have to enter the preset-editor or use the gadgets in the program (this is only for small changes. use the preset-ed otherwise!). With the PresetEd you can change the whole preset-list. An instrument may have a maximal length of 128K !! Due to this enhancement the Length, Repeat and Repeat-Length display the length in WORDS !! Multiply by two to get the length in bytes. Notes: ------ C#1 0 3 C 2 3 / |/ | \| / / | Par / / Command / Inst# Note to be played. Note: This is simply the note that is played with that particular ----- instrument. Inst#: This is the number of the instrument that is used to play ------ that note. When the instrument number is zero, the last selected instrument will be used. Command: This number tells Soundtracker what special functions shall -------- be performed while playing the note. Par: This byte contains the parameter(s) for the command. ---- These functions are as follows: 0 - Normal play or arpeggio. 1 - Portamento up. 2 - Portamento down. 3 - Tone-portamento 4 - Vibrato A - Volume slide. B - Position jump. C - Set volume. D - Pattern break. E - Set filter on/off. F - Set speed. $0 Arpeggio - $0 + second halfnote-add + third halfnote-add This command will produce a one-channel chord. No comments. C-3 00037 produces a minor-chord C-3 00047 produces a major-chord $1 Portamento up - $1 + portamentospeed This commans slides the pitch up. C-3 00103 1 is the command, 3 is the speed. $2 Portamento down - $2 + portamentospeed This command slides the pitch down. C-3 00203 2 is the command, 3 is the speed. $3 Tone-portamento - destination-note + $3 + speed This will automatically slide from the old note to the new. To keep on sliding, just select the command 3. Try it out yourself, and I'm sure you'll understand a little bit better. C-3 00305 C-3 is the note to slide to, 3 the command and 5 the speed. $4 Vibrato - $4 + vibratospeed + vibratosize C-3 00481 4 is the command, 8 is the speed of the vibrato and 1 is the size of the vibrato. To hold vibrato just select the command 4 without parameters. $A Volume-slide - $A + upslidespeed + downslidespeed C-3 00A05 5 is the speed to turn down the volume C-3 00A40 4 is the speed to slide it up. $B Position-jump - $B + song-position to continue at C-3 00B01 1 is the place to restart the song at. This command will also perform a pattern-break. $C Set volume - $C + new volume Well, this old familiar command will set the current volume to your own selected. The highest volume is $40. All volumes are represented in hex. (Programmers do it in hex, you know!) C-3 00C10 C is the command, $10 is the volume (equals 16). $D Pattern-break - $D + nothing Sure simple, this magic thing will end your pattern and go on with the next one. This line will be played!! C-3 00D00 D in one track, all others are a waste of memory. $E Set filter - $E + filter-status This command jerks around with the sound-filter on some A500 and A2000. This command shouldn't be used anymore !! C-3 00E01 disconnects filter (turns LED off) C-3 00E00 connects filter (turns LED on) * please keep LED off! NEW AND IMPROVED: $F Set speed - $F + speed1 + speed2 This will change the speed of your tune. (how fast your patterns will roll ...) Speeds from $01 - $0f are allowed. C-3 00F07 sets speed to 7 C-3 00F70 sets speed to 7 C-3 00F34 speed will change with every step to 3,4,3,4,3 and so on (this was inspired by looking at the 'Kill Victor Theme' and 'Chicago Song',both by Nightlight/Kefrens. Nice idea, pal) Speed 3/4 will result in an effective speed of 3.5. Please note that 3/4 and 4/3 will behave different and also note that if you do Vibrato with the slide-command, the slided pitch depends on the speed (try the same slide for both speeds and the pitch will raise/lower). The even lines (0/2/4/6..) will last for <speed1> frames, the odd lines (1/3/5/7..) will last for <speed2> frames. For your convenience the speed is set to 6 everytime you load a song/ module or clear the song. The Playroutine. ---------------- On the original Soundtracker V2.6 release disk is a source code, which has to be used if you want to use a piece of music created with Sound- tracker in your own programs. How to incorporate a module into your own programs: --------------------------------------------------- 1) Save the music you want to use with the SAVE MODULE-function in Soundtracker. You now have a so-called 'MODULE', which contains both the song- and the sample-data. 2) Load your favourite assembler. 3) Load the Player-Source. 4) If you use SEKA, don't bother. If you use GenAm, change the 'blk' statements at the end of the source to 'dcb' (sic!). 5) Now you have to insert the module into your source (or better: memory). This can be done in different ways: 1) Load the module to an absolute address (bad habit). 2) With Seka: reserve a chip-memory-block representing the length of the module with 'blk.b' and 1) 'ri' the module-file to the address after assembling the source or 2) >EXTERN the file and read the data with 'y' after assembling. 3) With Devpac: INCBIN the module-file in chip-memory (use SECTION if required) 6) Call the 'mt_init' routine with the address of the module in A0. 7) Every frame (50 times a second) call 'mt_music'. You should hear the music now. 8) To stop the music, stop calling 'mt_music', then call 'mt_end' (once). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Soundtracker and Workbench(tm): ------------------------------- All Workbench-fanatics can start Soundtracker from the Workbench without using utilities like XIcon. Simply use the provided icon (or draw your own), but remember: don't forget to assign the ST-xx: disks! There should be however no problems with Workbench and Soundtracker working together because Soundtracker disables all Mouse- and Keyboard-Functions while active. The current directory is the one Soundtracker has been started from which also applies to the CLI !! The PLST and configuration-file will be read from that path. Soundtracker and Multitasking: ------------------------------ In Soundtracker V2.6 you can easily switch between Soundtracker and the Amiga Multitasking Environment, by pressing the Left Amiga key plus the letter S(witch). I think there shouldn't occur any problems with other programs running in the background, but I recommend not to use any other programs when using Soundtracker. Soundtracker uses vast amounts of processor-time (due to bad programming), so don't run applications which depend on it (time, not Soundtracker!). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last, but not least, many thanks to all people who tested Soundtracker, made suggestions for changes and reported bugs (have there been any?) to me. Sorry that I don't list you by name, but some I don't remember and nobody shall be preferred, ok? MnemoTroN, 03-Nov-90 -EOF-