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- N.A.
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- Håvard Pedersen
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- © 1994-95 Mental Diseases
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- Generated with Heddley v1.1
- Heddley v1.1 (C) Edd Dumbill 1994
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- - Page 1 -
-
-
-
- 1. ProTracker documentation
-
-
- ProTracker V3.x - The AmigaGuide documentation
-
-
- "...The use of noise to make music will continue and increase until
- we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical
- instruments, which will make available for musical purposes any and
- all sounds that can be heard."
- -- John Cage
-
- "It is not hard to compose, but it is wonderfully hard to let the
- superfluous notes fall under the table."
- -- Johannes Brahms
-
-
- Table of contents:
-
- Introduction
- Gadgets
- Nice to know
- How to create music using ProTracker
- Miscellaneous
- For the technical minded
-
-
- Powerpacker.library is © Nico François and req.library is © Bruce Dawson
- and Colin Fox.
-
- This AmigaGuide® help-file is based on the printable help-file for
- ProTracker V1.3 by Lars Hamre, and is made by Håvard "HOWARD/MENTAL
- DISEASES" Pedersen. DYN technical chapter by PUW.
-
- More specific credits are found in both the 'version history' and the
- 'contact the authors' chapters.
-
- Consider this entire documentation a beta. If there's anything missing,
- please inform us.
-
- 2. Introduction
-
- This chapter contains basic information about ProTracker and how and why
- to get started using it.
-
- What is ProTracker?
- Legal mush
- How to start ProTracker
-
- 3. What is ProTracker?
-
- ProTracker is a so-called "Tracker", a program designed for creating
- music savable as a MOD-file. The most significant difference between
- ProTracker and other trackers are that ProTracker is based on the
- original tracker, SoundTracker. It has also more built-in tools than
- almost any other tracker and supports all aspects of the MOD
- file-format. (With the exception of 100-pattern modules)
-
- If you doesn't count MIDI, about 98% of all music on the Amiga is made
- on ProTracker. The ProTracker has become a standard for music and the
- MOD-files are even supported by most sample-based music programs on the
- PC. (I've even seen some players for Macintosh that supported them!)
-
- We must admit that the user-interface for the ProTracker is neither
- multitasking-friendly nor does it conform to the standard GUI
- guidelines. The reason for this is that the GUI consumes quite a bit of
-
- - Page 2 -
- 3. What is ProTracker?
-
- the program itself, and it would be a very time-consuming job to port it
- to use the system. (Besides, not all keyboard-shortcuts are comfortably
- read through the system.)
-
- 4. Legal mush
-
- All users and distributors must read this!
-
- - This program is fully public domain software, and may therefore
- freely be copied by anyone to anyone.
-
- - The authors will not accept any charges demanded for
- distribution and/or copying of this program which exceeds the nominal
- charge for postage, handling and disks.
-
- - The authors takes no responsibility for any damages caused by use
- or misuse of this program, though all efforts are taken to make it as
- faultless as possible.
-
- - This program is law-established intellectual achievement, and
- is therefore regulated by laws concerning such, where such laws exists.
-
- - By using and/or distributing this program, you indicate your
- agreement with these paragraphs.
-
- - If there are any of these paragraphs you do not understand, you
- are obliged to contact the authors and ask for further information
- before indicating your agreement through the previous paragraph.
-
- - Any violation of these paragraphs is both illegal and immoral.
-
- 5. How to start ProTracker
-
- ProTracker may be started from both CLI and Workbench. (Type name in CLI
- or doubleclick on icon from Workbench)
-
- No arguments or tooltypes are supported yet, though.
-
- 6. Gadgets
-
- This chapter should explain all gadgets and gizmos in ProTracker.
-
-
- Mainscreen
-
- Various
- Song section
- Sample section
- Edit options
- Sample edit
- Chord editor
- Filter editor
- Edit gadgets
-
-
- Setup
-
- Miscellaneous
- Flags
-
-
- Disk operations
-
- Disk operations
-
-
- Sampler
-
- - Page 3 -
- 6. Gadgets
-
-
- Main
- Volume requester
-
- 7. Main screen - Various
-
- CLOSEGADGET
-
- This is a small box located in the upper left corner of the ProTracker
- screen. Pressing this will quit.
-
-
-
- QUADRASCOPE
-
- This is 4 "boxes" located in the upper right part of your screen. These
- shows the waveform currently being played on each channel. Clicking in
- any of these will disable the respective channel and ghost the box.
-
-
-
- DEPTHGADGET
-
- This is another box located in the upper right corner of the ProTracker
- screen. Pressing this will push the ProTracker screen behind all other
- screens currently open.
-
-
-
- DATE
-
- Shows the current date. (Atleast your computers idea of it!)
-
-
-
- TIME
-
- Shows the system time.
-
-
-
- PLAY
-
- Shows the time elapsed since ProTracker started playing.
-
-
-
- EDIT OPTIONS (Numbers 1 - 7)
-
- The edit options represent several small "tools" grouped into (somewhat)
- clear categories. The upper line will state what these functions will
- affect. The numbers are:
-
- 1 - Edit options
- 2 - Sample edit
- 3 - Chord editor
- 4 - Filter editor
-
-
-
- STATUS
-
- Shows a somewhat descriptive text describing what ProTracker is doing.
-
-
-
- CHIP
-
- - Page 4 -
- 7. Main screen - Various
-
-
- Shows how much chip-memory there is left on your Amiga.
-
-
-
- FAST
-
- Shows how much fast-memory there is left on your Amiga.
-
-
-
- TUNE
-
- Shows how much memory the current module uses.
-
-
-
- PUBL
-
- Shows how much memory (any type) there is left on your Amiga.
-
-
-
- PATTERNNUMBER GADGET
-
- This is a small box to the left of the BPM gadget, and represents the
- number of the pattern currently being edited. Click on it to type in a
- new number.
-
-
-
- BPM
-
- The tempo gadget on the status bar is for setting the CIA speed, if CIA
- timing is used. The gadget will be updated every time you set the speed
- using the F command (if CIA that is). This gadget does not show actual
- beats per minute unless the speed is 6!
-
-
-
- The main screen has some indicators on the left side of the statustext.
- The indicators are as follows:
-
- M S M (Metronome ON, Split keyboard ON, Multi keyboard ON) I 0-9
- (AutoInsert ON, AutoInsert Macro)
-
- 8. Main screen - Song section
-
- SONGNAME
-
- This defines the name of your module.
-
-
-
- MASTERVOLUME
-
- Defines the volume of your module. This gadget affects playing only, and
- the setting is not saved along with your module in current version of
- ProTracker.
-
-
-
- POS
-
- Defines the current position in the position-table.
-
-
-
- - Page 5 -
- 8. Main screen - Song section
-
-
- I(NSERT)
-
- Insert a position into your song.
-
-
-
- D(ELETE)
-
- Delete a position from your song.
-
-
-
- PATTERN
-
- Defines which pattern will be played at the selected position.
-
-
-
- LENGTH (SONG)
-
- Defines the length of the song.
-
-
-
- PLAY
-
- Will play the song from the current position in the song. The pointer
- turns yellow, just to show you what's going on.
-
-
-
- PATTERN
-
- Will play the current pattern which is shown at the bottom of the
- screen. The pointer turns yellow here as well. Holding down the right
- button while pressing play,pattern or record will play from the current
- patternposition.
-
-
-
- CLEAR
-
- Will first ask you what you want to clear. You can clear either all,
- song or samples. In addition to the gadgets you can use "A" for All, "O"
- for Song, "S" for samples and "C" or ESC for Cancel.
-
-
-
- STOP
-
- Will stop playing of songs and patterns, recording, and will turn edit
- mode off.
-
-
-
- RECORD
-
- Will put you in edit mode, but also play the current pattern or song.
- You can select this in the Edit Options menu. While the pattern or song
- is playing, you can type in notes and numbers from the keyboard, and
- they will appear in the pattern as it scrolls. The notes and numbers
- will also be quantized to the nearest slot, so that keeping a steady
- rhythm is no problem. The pointer will turn blue here as well as in the
- the normal edit mode.
-
-
-
- - Page 6 -
- 8. Main screen - Song section
-
-
- SETUP
-
- Will go to the Setup Screen.
-
-
-
- CONTINUE
-
- Will continue the module from the last stopped position.
-
-
-
- EDIT
-
- Will put you in edit mode. The pointer turns blue, and you can enter
- notes and numbers from the keyboard. Use the arrowkeys to move up/down
- and left/right in the pattern. Entering a note or a number will cause
- the pattern to jump one or more slots down.
-
-
-
- DISK OP.
-
- Will go to the Disk operation screen.
-
- 9. Main screen - Sample section
-
- SAMPLENAME
-
- This defines the name of the current sample.
-
-
-
- SAMPLE
-
- The number of the chosen sample. You can have up to 31, or hex $1F
- samples in a song. Pressing both mousebuttons at the same time will set
- the samplenumber to zero. You can then record the pattern with sample 0
- to prevent ProTracker from setting the volume each time you play a new
- note.
-
-
-
- VOLUME
-
- Use this to set the volume the current sample will be played with.
-
-
-
- FINETUNE
-
- Tune your untuned samples to match the others.
-
- 0 436.4 hz -1 432.1 hz
- 1 439.0 hz -2 429.6 hz
- 2 441.6 hz -3 426.3 hz
- 3 445.1 hz -4 423.1 hz
- 4 447.8 hz -5 419.9 hz
- 5 451.5 hz -6 416.7 hz
- 6 455.2 hz -7 414.4 hz
- 7 457.0 hz -8 412.0 hz
-
- To experienced musicians, this table clearly will seem wrong. A normal
- tuning should be 440! The reason to this is that ProTracker uses NTSC
- periods for playback.
-
-
- - Page 7 -
- 9. Main screen - Sample section
-
-
-
- LENGTH (SAMPLE)
-
- The Length gadgets are simply used for setting the length of the sample.
- A sample can be up to 64k, or $fffe long. You can add workspace behind
- the sample by increasing the length and letting go of the button.
- ProTracker will ask if you are sure, and if you are, allocate more
- memory for the sample.
-
-
-
- REPEAT
-
- Here you set the start of the sampleloop.
-
-
-
- REPLEN
-
- Here you set the length of the sampleloop.
-
-
-
- LOAD SAMPLE
-
- Will simply try to load the current samplename. Use this when you've
- fucked up in the sample editor, and have destroyed a sample.
-
-
-
- KILL SAMPLE
-
- Will remove the current sample from your module.
-
-
-
- SAMPLER
-
- Will go to the Sampler screen.
-
- 10. Main screen - Edit options
-
- QUANTIZE
-
- Will move the notes you record to every n'th slot. Entering 00 will turn
- off the quantizing, and the notes you play will always be inserted at
- the patternposition you are at. Entering 01 will quantize the notes the
- the nearest slot according to the speed. i.e. if you play a note after
- the first half has been played, it will be quantized to the slot below.
- Entering a value like 8 will quantize to every 8th note, and so on. Got
- that?
-
-
-
- METROSAMP
-
- [This option is not currently implemented, nor documented!]
-
-
-
- METRONOME
-
- A metronome is a steady sound which helps you keep the speed when
- recording. (I'm not particulary good at explaining, try it out!)
-
- The first number is the speed of the metronome, and the second is the
-
- - Page 8 -
- 10. Main screen - Edit options
-
- channel to play it on. The Sample used for metronomes is always sample
- $1F. Load your own favourite metronome sample. The metronome will always
- be played at C-3, but you can still change the volume and loop values.
- To turn off the metronome, just set the speed or channel to 0.
-
-
-
- MULTI
-
- This table is used with the multi keyboard option. The four numbers
- represent what channel each channel will jump to next. 1-2, 2-3, 3-4 and
- so on.
-
-
-
- RECORD HOLD
-
- When this is set to "on", record will not start until the first
- keypress.
-
-
-
- SAMPLE
-
- This selects wether the edit buttons should affect all samples, or the
- current samples only.
-
-
-
- RECORD
-
- This selects wether the record function should record a pattern, or the
- entire song.
-
-
-
- PLAYNOTE
-
- When set to "multi", ProTracker will jump to another channel after you
- play a note on the keyboard. This makes it possible to play two or more
- notes at the same time (very useful with midi).
-
-
-
- EDIT
-
- This selects wether ProTracker should go right when inserting notes, or
- down to the next step.
-
- 11. Main screen - Sample edit
-
- To the left of the title bar is a box which states what should be
- affected by the copy, exchange and delete gadgets. (Current track, whole
- pattern, real samples.)
-
- To the right of the title bar is a box which states the mixingmode.
- "half" will halve the volume when mixing and echoing to avoid clipping,
- while "clip" will not halve the volume and possibly clip the sample.
-
-
-
- DELETE
-
- Will delete all notes with the current sample in current track or whole
- pattern.
-
-
-
- - Page 9 -
- 11. Main screen - Sample edit
-
-
- KILL
-
- Will kill the current sample. That is, remove it from memory and reset
- all sample settings. It will not be deleted from the track or pattern.
-
-
-
- EXCHANGE
-
- Will exchange the samplenumber shown in the "from" gadget with the
- samplenumber in the "to" gadget and vice versa.
-
-
-
- COPY
-
- Will move the samplenumber shown in the "from" gadget to the sample-
- number in the "to" gadget.
-
-
-
- MIX
-
- Will mix one sample with another. ProTracker asks you which two samples
- to be mixed, and where to put the result.
-
- Holding the right button and pressing mix will mix the current sample
- with itself. You can offset the sample by setting a position in the
- "pos" gadget If you set "mod" to a non-zero value, the sample will also
- be modulated.
-
-
-
- ECHO
-
- Will create a echo effect on the current sample. Use "pos" to set the
- delay time of the echo. If you want more room to echo in, just turn up
- the length of the sample.
-
-
-
- BOOST
-
- Will turn up the treble of the sample. Use this on hi-hats and snares!
- If the sampler screen is open and a range is selected, this will only
- affect the selected range.
-
-
-
- FILTER
-
- Will Delta-filter the sample. Use this on noisy basses. If the sampler
- screen is open and a range is selected, this will only affect the
- selected range.
-
-
-
- X-FADE
-
- Will crossfade the sample (mix with itself, backwards). Handy for
- looping samples that are hard to loop.
-
-
-
- BACKWD (Backwards)
-
-
- - Page 10 -
- 11. Main screen - Sample edit
-
- Will turn the sample backwards!
-
-
-
- UPSAMPLE
-
- Will remove every second byte of the sample, halving the length and
- shifting the pitch one octave up.
-
-
-
- DOWNSAMPLE
-
- Will double every byte of the sample, doubling the length, and shifting
- the pitch one octave down.
-
-
-
- POS
-
- This is just an offset in the sample, used for a lot of things.This one
- has a numbergadget as well. Holding the right mousebutton while pressing
- the numbergadget will zero the value.
-
-
-
- MOD
-
- This is used for modulation. Press "mod" to modulate the current sample.
- Holding the right button while pressing the numbergadget will zero the
- value.
-
-
-
- CUTBEG(INNING)
-
- Will chop the number of bytes set in the "pos" gadget off the beginning
- of the sample.
-
-
-
- FU (Fade Up)
-
- Will fade the volume from 0 to 100%. Use "pos" to select where in the
- sample to fade up to. If the sampler screen is open and a range is
- selected, this will only affect the selected range.
-
-
-
- FD (Fade Down)
-
- Will fade the volume from 100 to 0%. Use "pos" to select where in the
- sample to fade down from. If the sampler screen is open and a range is
- selected, this will only affect the selected range.
-
-
-
- VOL
-
- With this you can change the "real" volume of the sample. Just set a
- percentage and press "vol". vol has a numbergadget. Holding the right
- button while pressing it will set the value to 100%. If the sampler
- screen is open and a range is selected, this will only affect the
- selected range.
-
- You may also set "POS" by clicking on the sample and setting the
- cursor-line.
-
- - Page 11 -
- 11. Main screen - Sample edit
-
-
- 12. Main screen - Chord editor
-
- FROM SAMPLE
-
- Selects which sample to mix the chords from. Clicking on it sets the
- current sample.
-
-
-
- TO SAMPLE
-
- Selects which sample to put the chord into. Clicking on it sets the
- current sample.
-
-
-
- NOTES
-
- Sets how many notes your chord contains.
-
-
-
- ADJUST
-
- [Sorry, not enough info for documentation...]
-
-
-
- MAKE CHORD
-
- Does the work.
-
-
-
- NOTE 1 - NOTE 7
-
- The notes to use in the chord. Click in gadgets to edit.
-
- 13. Main screen - Filter editor
-
- [No documentation exists on the filter editor, but I couldn't get it to
- do anything!]
-
- 14. Main screen - Edit gadgets
-
- TRACK/PATT/CMDS/BLOCK
-
- Selects what to be affected by the edit gadgets. (Refered to as range.)
-
-
-
- INSERT
-
- Inserts the buffer at current position.
-
-
-
- CUT
-
- Deletes the range and moves it to the buffer.
-
-
-
- DELETE
-
- Deletes the current step and moves all preceding one step up. (Not
-
- - Page 12 -
- 14. Main screen - Edit gadgets
-
- block)
-
-
-
- COPY
-
- Copies the range to the buffer.
-
-
-
- CLEAR
-
- Deletes the range. (Not block)
-
-
-
- PASTE
-
- Pastes the buffer out to current position.
-
-
-
- FLIP
-
- Turns the range backwards.
-
-
-
- EXCHANGE
-
- Exchange range with buffer.
-
-
-
- OCTAVE UP
-
- Transposes range one octave up.
-
-
-
- OCTAVE DOWN
-
- Transposes range one octave down.
-
-
-
- NOTE UP
-
- Transposes range one note up.
-
-
-
- NOTE DOWN
-
- Transposes range one note down.
-
-
-
- SCROLL UP
-
- Scrolls range one step up.
-
-
-
- SCROLL DOWN
-
- Scrolls range one step down.
-
- - Page 13 -
- 14. Main screen - Edit gadgets
-
-
-
-
- ROTATE UP
-
- Same as scroll, but inserts note scrolled out at top at bottom step.
-
-
-
- ROTATE DOWN
-
- Same as scroll, but inserts note scrolled out at bottom at top step.
-
- 15. Setup screen - Miscellaneous
-
- MAIN MENU
-
- Will exit the setup screen, and return to the main screen.
-
-
-
- LOAD CONFIG
-
- Will load the selected config file.
-
-
-
- SAVE CONFIG
-
- Will save the selected config file.
-
-
-
- CFG
-
- Selects the current configuration to use.
-
-
-
- RESET ALL
-
- Will reset to the original ProTracker configuration.
-
-
-
- THE COLOR PALETTE
-
- The color palette is simple to use. Just select a color, and use the R,
- G and B sliders to set the color. You may also edit the colors for the
- VU-meters by pressing anywhere within the VU-cols and edit.
-
-
-
- COPY
-
- Copies a color. Select the color to copy, select "copy", select
- destination color.
-
-
-
- SPREAD
-
- For use with the VU-meter colors. Press at start color, select "spread",
- and select destination color to make ProTracker calculate a nice fade
- between the two colors.
-
-
-
- - Page 14 -
- 15. Setup screen - Miscellaneous
-
-
- ARROWS (UP AND DOWN)
-
- Rotates the colors for the VU-meter.
-
-
-
- SWAP
-
- Swaps two colors. Use as copy.
-
-
-
- CANCEL
-
- Will set the last saved colors.
-
-
-
- UNDO
-
- [Does not work, sorry!]
-
-
-
- DEF1 - DEF6
-
- [Does not work, sorry!]
-
-
-
- TEMPO
-
- This is where you set your default CIA timing tempo. Range: 32-255.
-
-
-
- SPEED
-
- This is where you set your default Vblank timing speed. Range: 01-FF.
-
-
-
- TIMING
-
- We included this so that American users also could enjoy ProTracker, and
- wouldn't have to use sonix or any other terrible music program...
-
- You can choose between CIA or Vblank timing. Vblank is the timing-method
- soundtrackers have been using since the dawn of time, while CIA is a
- much better and accurate timing with the tempo measured in beats per
- minute. Using Vblank on NTSC amigas will cause the song to play 20%
- faster. With CIA, there's no difference.
-
-
-
- SOFTINT
-
- [No documentation exists, but audible problems have occured when using
- "on".]
-
-
-
- SCREEN
-
- This enables you to move the screen to fit your overscan settings.
-
-
- - Page 15 -
- 15. Setup screen - Miscellaneous
-
-
-
- TUNENOTE
-
- Selects which note to use for the tuning tone in the sample editor.
-
-
-
- TUNE VOL
-
- Selects the volume for the tuning tone.
-
-
-
- RECOVER SONG
-
- [Not implemented]
-
-
-
- CLEAR
-
- Will clear the splits. (See below)
-
-
-
- SPLIT
-
- You can set 4 splits on the keyboard, each with it's own sample,
- splitpoint and transpose. Just type in a sample number and select the
- key to split at by pressing the appropriate one. The transpose note for
- each split is the first note in that split-range. Notes below the first
- split will be played with the current sample. Split is great for
- recording drums, or for playing untuned samples in tune (use together
- with finetune).
-
-
-
- ACCIDENTAL
-
- Simple enough, accidental allows you to select sharp (#) or flat (b)
- notes. This will not be saved with the song!
-
-
-
- PRINT SONG
-
- Will print the song to the path shown below the "Print Song" gadget. The
- print path can be 31 chars long. (To make it actually appear on your
- printer, use "PRT:")
-
-
-
- PP EFF
-
- Selects which crunchmode to use when crunching with powerpacker library.
- The name of the modes explain it all.
-
-
-
- VUMETER
-
- Selects which VU-meter mode to use. "Fake" is the normal VU-meter used
- in all Trackers from the beginning of time, but "real" gives a much
- better impression of the actual volume of the channel.
-
-
-
- - Page 16 -
- 15. Setup screen - Flags
-
-
- 16. Setup screen - Flags
-
- SPLIT
-
- Toggles between normal and split keyboard.
-
-
-
- TRANS(POSE)DEL(ETE) ON/OFF
-
- When on, notes transposed out of range will be deleted.
-
-
-
- SOLIDSCOPE
-
- When on, the quadrascopes will be rendered in a somewhat fancier way.
-
-
-
- BLANKZERO
-
- When off, ProTracker will show the patterndata with zeroes where no
- changes take place. When set to on, these places will be rendered blank.
- (Well, sort of, anyway!)
-
-
-
- SHOWDEC(IMAL)
-
- When on, memory sizes will be shown in decimal.
-
-
-
- FILTER
-
- Toggles the low-pass filter of the Amiga. (Not available on all Amigas)
-
-
-
- NTSC
-
- When on, ProTracker will only be visible 200 lines at a time, and scroll
- in order to be able to display the entire screen. This is only useful
- for users using a NTSC based video system.
-
-
-
- LACED
-
- When on, ProTracker will use the interlace (flickering) mode of the
- Amiga in order to make all genlocks a little bit happier. 8)
-
-
-
- UNDYN IFF
-
- [No documentation available at time of writing.]
-
-
-
- UNDYN MOD
-
- [No documentation available at time of writing.]
-
-
-
- - Page 17 -
- 16. Setup screen - Flags
-
-
- OVERRIDE
-
- When on, ProTracker will ignore any paths or disknames when loading a
- song. All the samples will be loaded from the current sample path.
-
-
-
- NOSAMPLES
-
- When on, ProTracker won't load the samples when loading a song or
- module.
-
-
-
- SHOW DIRS
-
- When on, directories will be shown in the disk operations screen.
-
-
-
- LOAD LOOP
-
- When on, ProTracker will load loops from IFF-samples.
-
-
-
- AUTODIR ON/OFF
-
- When on, ProTracker reads the current directory path automatically when
- the
- is opened.
-
-
-
- AUTOEXIT ON/OFF
-
- When on, ProTracker will automatically exit from the disk operations
- when loading a song, module, track or pattern.
-
-
-
- MULTICACHE
-
- [No documentation available at time of writing.]
-
-
-
- CUTTOBUFF
-
- If enabled, all cut operations will copy to the paste-buffer.
-
-
-
- CUTTOLOOP
-
- [Not implemented]
-
-
-
- UPS>28kHz
-
- [Not implemented]
-
- 17. Disk operations
-
- The disk operations screen has a directory window at the right edge of
-
- - Page 18 -
- 17. Disk operations
-
- the screen, were you can select which files to load.
-
-
-
- MAIN MENU
-
- Will exit disk operations and return to the main screen.
-
-
-
- PACK
-
- Selects wether modules and samples should be packed using powerpacker
- library.
-
-
-
- SAMPFORM
-
- Selects wether samples are to be saved as IFF 8SVX or as RAW 8-bit
- data.
-
-
-
- SAVE ICON
-
- [Not implemented]
-
-
-
- HIDE .INFO
-
- Selects wether ProTracker should hide .info-files or not. (Icon files
- used by the Workbench.)
-
-
-
- RESET PATHS
-
- Resets the paths to the internal paths for loading.
-
-
-
- FORMAT DISK
-
- Formats the disk specified by the path gadget. Should be as easy to use
- as the format command on your Workbench-disk. If you don't know which
- options to use, just click on "format" and wait...
-
-
-
- RELABEL DISK
-
- Changes the name of a disk. (DF0:?)
-
-
-
- MASK
-
- Specifies which files are to be shown in the filerequester.
-
-
-
- PATH
-
- This shows the current path. The paths for each file-type is saved in
- the config file on the setup screen.
-
- - Page 19 -
- 17. Disk operations
-
-
-
-
- FILE
-
- This shows the current filename.
-
-
-
- MAKEDIR
-
- Creates a directory.
-
-
-
- RENAME FILE
-
- Renames a file.
-
-
-
- DELETE FILE
-
- Deletes a file.
-
-
-
- Here follows a lot of "mode"-like gadgets. Clicking in the small box to
- the left of these gadgets (or the big gadget next to the file-name
- gadget) uses the path and mask selected for the filetype and enables
- loading of the selected format. Clicking direct in the mode-gadget
- selects saving.
-
-
-
- SAVE EXE
-
- [Not implemented]
-
-
-
- SAVE MODULE
-
-
- Saves the current module.
-
-
-
- SAVE SONG
-
- Saves the current module as a song. The sampledata for the instrument is
- not saved, so ProTracker will have to re-read these when reading the
- song back to memory. This way of storing modules is considered obsolete,
- and only loading of such files is recommended.
-
-
-
- SAVE INSTR
-
- [Not implemented]
-
-
-
- SAVE SAMPLE
-
- Saves the current sample.
-
-
- - Page 20 -
- 17. Disk operations
-
-
-
- SAVE PATT
-
- [Not implemented]
-
-
-
- READ DIR
-
- Re-reads the selected path.
-
-
-
- PARENT
-
- Skips to the parent directory of your current path.
-
-
-
- FREE
-
- Shows amount of bytes free in the selected path.
-
-
-
- All other gadgets on the disk operation screen is devices and assigns on
- your system and may be pressed in order to make ProTracker make the
- device/assign the current path. Pressing right button in any of these
- switches through several pages.
-
- 18. Sampler - Main
-
- The sampler screen consists of a sample-display, a scroll bar to move
- around in the sample, and a lot of gadgets.
-
-
-
- EXIT
-
- Will close the sampler screen and return the bottom part of the screen
- to pattern edit.
-
-
-
- STOP
-
- Stops the current sample from playing.
-
-
-
- WAVEFORM
-
- Will play the entire sample.
-
-
-
- DISPLAY
-
- Will play the visible part of the sample.
-
-
-
- RANGE
-
- Will play the selected range of the sample.
-
-
- - Page 21 -
- 18. Sampler - Main
-
-
-
- CUT
-
- Will cut the selected range of the sample.
-
-
-
- COPY
-
- Will copy the selected range of the sample to the copy-buffer.
-
-
-
- PASTE
-
- Will paste the selected the copy-buffer to the current position of the
- cursor.
-
-
-
- SHOW RANGE
-
- Will zoom in to the selected range of the sample.
-
-
-
- SHOW ALL
-
- Will show the entire sample.
-
-
-
- BEG
-
- Will put the cursorline at the beginning of the sample.
-
-
-
- END
-
- Will put the cursorline at the end of the sample.
-
-
-
- SWAPBUF
-
- Swaps copybuffer with sampledata.
-
-
-
- VOLUME
-
- Opens the volume requester.
-
-
-
- TUNETONE
-
- Will create a steady sinus tone which you can tune your samples with.
-
-
-
- ZOOM OUT
-
- Will zoom out a bit.
-
-
- - Page 22 -
- 18. Sampler - Main
-
-
-
- RANGE ALL
-
- Select the entire sample as range.
-
-
-
- SAMPLE
-
- Will first enter the monitor screen. Now click right button to sample,
- left to exit. The rate used will be the one specified in the box to the
- immediate right of the "sample" gadget.
-
-
-
- RESAMPLE
-
- Transposes the sample itself. (Changing the pitch) Instructions:
- 1. Turn on the tuning tone.
- 2. Use the keyboard to find what note it is. Use finetune if
- needed.
- 3. Enter the note in the "Note:" box to the right.
- 4. Press resample!
-
-
-
- DISP
-
- The number of bytes being shown on screen.
-
-
-
- POS
-
- The current postition of the cursor.
-
-
-
- RANG
-
- The length of the selected range.
-
-
-
- INVERT
-
- Turns the sample upside-down. (Flips it around the x-axis!)
-
-
-
- MAXIMIZE
-
- Up/down-shift the sample in order to make the best possible effects on a
- normalize function (see below), and performs it. This will cause maximum
- volume without distortion.
-
-
-
- NORMALIZE
-
- Adjusts the volume of the sample to the highest possible.
-
-
-
- NORMALDC
-
-
- - Page 23 -
- 18. Sampler - Main
-
- Balances the sample in Y-direction. (Bias adjustment)
-
-
-
- BACKWARDS
-
- Turns the sample backwards.
-
-
-
- BOOST
-
- Will turn up the treble of the sample. Use this on hi-hats and snares!
- If a range is selected, this will only affect the selected range.
-
-
-
- INTERPOL
-
- Will Delta-filter the sample. Use this on noisy basses. If the sampler a
- range is selected, this will only affect the selected range.
-
-
-
- UPSAMPLE
-
- Will remove every second byte of the sample, halving the length and
- shifting the pitch one octave up.
-
-
-
- DOWNSAMPLE
-
- Will double every byte of the sample, doubling the length, and shifting
- the pitch one octave down.
-
- 19. Sampler - Volume requester
-
- The volume requester works on the current range.
-
- Set the "from" and "to" volume percentages by using the sliders, or just
- type in any number you please (from 0 to 200) in the percentage boxes to
- the right.
-
-
-
- RAMP
-
- Will ramp (calculate) the volume!
-
-
-
- NORMALIZE
-
- Will find the highest volume settings possible (without clipping).
-
-
-
- @{ub}
-
- Will set the percentages 100%-0%
-
-
-
- /
-
- Will set the percentages 0%-100%
-
- - Page 24 -
- 19. Sampler - Volume requester
-
-
-
-
- -
-
- Will set the percentages 100%-100%
-
-
-
- CANCEL
-
- Will exit the volume requester.
-
- 20. Nice to know
-
- This chapter explains some things about ProTracker which I weren't sure
- of where to put.
-
- Pointer colors
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Effect commands
- Requesters and I/O
- Standard paths
- Keyboard percussion
- What is DYN-samples
-
- 21. Pointer colors
-
- ProTracker uses the color of the pointer to tell you what's happening.
- These colors are:
-
- Gray - Nothing's happening.
- Yellow - Playing song / pattern.
- Green - Disk action.
- Blue - Edit / record.
- Magenta - Waiting for input (text, number or something else).
- Cyan - Select entry or delete.
- Red - Something went wrong.
-
- 22. Keyboard
-
- KEYBOARD
-
- The keymap on ProTracker is a standard US keymap. Remember to always use
- the left shift and alt, as the right ones are used for play / pattern
- play.
-
- High notekeys: 2 3 5 6 7 9 0 =
- Q W E R T Y U I O P [ ]
-
- Low notekeys: S D G H J L ;
- Z X C V B N M , . /
-
- F1 - Choose low octave (C-1 to G-3)
- F2 - Choose high octave (C-2 to B-3)
-
- F3 - Cut (sample)
- F4 - Copy (sample)
- F5 - Paste (sample)
-
- shift+F3 - Cut track to buffer
- shift+F4 - Copy track to buffer
- shift+F5 - Paste track-buffer to track
-
- alt+F3 - Cut whole pattern to buffer
- alt+F4 - Copy whole pattern to buffer
- alt+F5 - Paste patt-buffer to pattern
-
- - Page 25 -
- 22. Keyboard
-
-
- ctrl+F3 - Cut commands to buffer
- ctrl+F4 - Copy commands to buffer
- ctrl+F5 - Paste cmd-buffer to track
-
- F6 - Go to patternposition 0
- F7 - Go to patternposition 16
- F8 - Go to patternposition 32
- F9 - Go to patternposition 48
- F10- Go to patternposition 63
-
- shift+F6-F10 - Store current patternposition on selected F-key
- alt+F6-F10 - Play pattern from the stored patternposition
- ctrl+F6-F10 - Record from the stored patternposition
-
- Esc - Exit a lots of things.
-
- shift+Return - Insert blank note at cursorpos
- and move the rest down.
- shift+Backspace - Delete note above cursorpos and move the rest up.
-
- alt+Return - As above, but with all 4 tracks
- alt+Backspace - As above, but with all 4 tracks
-
- ctrl+Return - Push cmds one down
- ctrl+Backspace - Drag cmds one up
-
- ctrl+0-9 - Select how many steps ProTracker will jump down each
- time
- you insert a note (only in edit-mode)
-
- alt+cursor right - patternnumber up
- alt+cursor left - patternnumber down
- shift+cursor right - song-position up
- shift+cursor left - song-position down
-
- ctrl+cursor left - samplenumber up
- ctrl+cursor right - samplenumber down
-
- Space - Toggle between stop/edit-mode
-
- < (beside Z) - Stop all sound
- right Amiga - Play Pattern
- right Alt - Play Song
- right Shift - Record
- Caps Lock - Toggle Keyrepeat on/off
-
- Del - Delete note under cursor
- alt+Del - Delete command only
- shift+Del - Delete note and command
-
- On Numeric pad:
-
- 0 - Select Sample $0
- 1st row - Select Sample $1-$4
- 2nd row - Select Sample $5-$8
- 3rd row - Select Sample $9-$c
- 4th row - Select Sample $d-$f
- Just Enter - Select Sample $10
-
- Holding Enter + the other keys, will select sample $11-$1F
- (Not on A1200, that is!) :(
-
- Period (.) - Kill current sample
-
- Left Amiga (Plus keys below) - Transposing
-
-
- - Page 26 -
- 22. Keyboard
-
- Sample/Track Sample/Pattern
- ----------------------------------
- 1 - Note Up 2 - Note Up
- Q - Note Down W - Note Down
- A - Octave Up S - Octave Up
- Z - Octave Down X - Octave Down
-
- All/Track All/Pattern
- -------------------------------
- 3 - Note Up 4 - Note Up
- E - Note Down R - Note Down
- D - Octave Up F - Octave Up
- C - Octave Down V - Octave Down
-
- Tab - Move cursor to next track
- Shft+Tab - Move cursor to prev track
-
- ctrl+A - Toggle channel on/off (+shift = solo channel)
- ctrl+B - Mark block
- ctrl+C - Copy block to buffer
- ctrl+D - Delete block, drag notes up
- ctrl+E - expand track
- ctrl+F - toggle filter on/off
- ctrl+G - Boost all samples
- ctrl+H - Transpose block up
- ctrl+I - Insert block, push notes down
- ctrl+J - Join-paste block
- ctrl+K - Kill to end of track (+shift = to start of track)
- ctrl+L - Transpose block down
- ctrl+M - Toggle multikeyboard on/off
- ctrl+N - Re-mark last block
- ctrl+O - Contract track
- ctrl+P - Paste block
- ctrl+Q - Unmute all channels
- ctrl+R - Restore F6-F10 positions
- ctrl+S - Toggle split keyboard on/off
- ctrl+T - swap tracks
- ctrl+U - undo last change
- ctrl+V - Filter all samples
- ctrl+W - Polyphonize block
- ctrl+X - Cut block to buffer
- ctrl+Y - Backwards block
- ctrl+Z - Restore Effects
-
- shft+0-9 - Store current command on selected key
- alt+0-9 - Insert command in current track
-
- alt+"\" - Copy command above cursor to current patternposition.
- alt+"=" - Copy command above cursor to current patternposition
- and add one to the value.
- alt+"-" - Copy command above cursor to current patternposition
- and subtract one from the value.
-
- alt+A - Monitor/Start sampling
- alt+B - Boost sample
- alt+C - Toggle channel 3
- alt+D - Go to disk operations screen
- alt+F - Filter sample
- alt+I - Toggle AutoinsertEffect on/off
- alt+K - Delete current sample/track
- alt+M - Toggle metronome on/off
- alt+Q - Quit ProTracker
- alt+R - Resample
- alt+S - Go to sampler screen
- alt+T - Tuning tone
- alt+V - Toggle channel 4
- alt+X - Toggle channel 2
-
- - Page 27 -
- 22. Keyboard
-
- alt+Y - Save all samples
- alt+Z - Toggle channel 1
-
- alt+shift+M - Set metrochannel to current channel
-
- \ - Set keyboard percussion mode
- Alt+any keypad key - tune percussion note
-
- Return - Step one note forward
-
- Backspace - Step one note backward
-
- LeftAmiga+N - ScreenToBack
- LeftAmiga+M - ScreenToFront
-
- When inserting, pasting or join-pasting, hold down shift to keep
- the cursor from jumping to the end of the block. e.g. shft+ctrl+P
-
- 23. Effect commands
-
- EFFECT COMMANDS
-
- Effect commands on ProTracker should be compatible with all other
- trackers.
-
- 0 - None/arpeggio 8 - [Not used]
- 1 - Slide pitch up 9 - Sample offset
- 2 - Slide pitch down A - Slide volume
- 3 - Toneportamento B - Jump to position
- 4 - Vibrato C - Set volume
- 5 - 3 + A D - Break pattern
- 6 - 4 + A E - Miscellaneous commands (See below)
- 7 - Tremolo F - Set speed
-
-
-
- MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS
-
- The E command has been altered to contain more commands than one.
-
- E0 - Set low-pass filter E8 - [Not used]
- E1 - Fineslide pitch up E9 - Retrig note
- E2 - Fineslide pitch down EA - Fineslide volume up
- E3 - Glissando control EB - Fineslide volume down
- E4 - Vibrato control EC - Cut note
- E5 - Set finetune ED - Delay note
- E6 - Pattern loop EE - Delay pattern
- E7 - Tremolo control EF - Invert loop
-
- 24. Arpeggio effect command
-
- Cmd 0. Arpeggio [Range:$0-$F/$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $0 + 1st halfnote add
- + 2nd halfnote add
-
- Arpeggio is used to simulate chords. This is done by rapidly changing
- the pitch between 3(or 2) different notes. It sounds very noisy and
- grainy on most samples, but ok on monotone ones.
-
- Example: C-300047 C-major chord: (C+E+G or C+4+7 halfnotes)
- C-300037 C-minor chord: (C+D#+G or C+3+7 halfnotes)
-
- 25. Slide up effect command
-
- Cmd 1. Portamento up [Speed:$00-$FF]
-
-
- - Page 28 -
- 25. Slide up effect command
-
- Usage: $1 + portamento speed
-
- Portamento up will simply slide the sample pitch up. You can NOT slide
- higher than B-3! (Period 113)
-
- Example: C-300103 1 is the command, 3 is the portamentospeed.
-
- NOTE: The portamento will be called as many times as the speed of the
- song. This means that you'll sometimes have trouble sliding accuratly.
- If you change the speed without changing the sliderates, it will sound
- bad...
-
- 26. Slide down effect command
-
- Cmd 2. Portamento down [Speed:$00-FF]
-
- Usage: $2 + portamento speed
-
- Just like command 1, except that this one slides the pitch down instead.
- (Adds to the period).
-
- You can NOT slide lower than C-1! (Period 856)
-
- Example: C-300203, where 2 is the command, 3 is the portamentospeed.
-
- 27. Toneportamento effect command
-
- Cmd 3. Tone-portamento [Speed:$00-$FF]
-
- Usage: Dest-note + $3 + slidespeed
-
- This command will automatically slide from the old note to the new. You
- don't have to worry about which direction to slide, you need only set
- the slide speed. To keep on sliding, just select the command $3 + 00.
-
- Example: A-200000 First play a note.
- C-300305 C-3 is the note to slide to, 3 the command,
- and 5 the speed.
-
- 28. Vibrato effect command
-
- Cmd 4. Vibrato [Rate:$0-$F,Dpth:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $4 + vibratorate + vibratodepth
-
- Example: C-300481 4 is the command, 8 is the speed of the vibrato,
- and 1 is the depth of the vibrato.
-
- To keep on vibrating, just select the command $4 + 00. To change the
- vibrato, you can alter the rate, depth or both. Use command E4x to
- change the vibrato-waveform.
-
- 29. Toneportamento and volumeslide effect command
-
- Cmd 5. ToneP + Volsl [Spd:$0-$F/$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $5 + upspeed + downspeed
-
- This command will continue the current toneportamento and
- slide the volume at the same time. Compatible with Noisetracker 2.0.
-
- Example: C-300503 3 is the speed to turn the volume down.
- C-300540 4 is the speed to slide it up.
-
- 30. Vibrato and volumeslide effect command
-
- Cmd 6. Vibra + Volsl [Spd:$0-$F/$0-$F]
-
- - Page 29 -
- 30. Vibrato and volumeslide effect command
-
-
- Usage: $6 + upspeed + downspeed
-
- This command will continue the current vibrato and slide the volume at
- the same time. Compatible with Noisetracker 2.0.
-
- Example: C-300605 5 is the speed to turn the volume down.
- C-300640 4 is the speed to slide it up.
-
- 31. Tremolo effect command
-
- Cmd 7. Tremolo [Rate:$0-$F,Dpth:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $7 + tremolorate + tremolodepth
-
- Tremolo vibrates the volume.
-
- Example: C-300794 7 is the command, 9 is the speed of the tremolo,
- and 4 is the depth of the tremolo.
-
- To keep on tremoling, just select the command $7 + 00. To change the
- tremolo, you can alter the rate, depth or both. Use command E7- to
- change the tremolo-waveform.
-
- 32. Sample offset effect command
-
- Cmd 9. Set SampleOffset [Offs:$00-$FF]
-
- Usage: $9 + Sampleoffset
-
- This command will play from a chosen position in the sample, and not
- from the beginning. The two numbers equal the two first numbers in the
- length of the sample. Handy for speech samples.
-
- Example: C-300923 Play sample from offset $2300.
-
- 33. Volume slide effect command
-
- Cmd A. Volumeslide [Speed:$0-$F/$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $A + upspeed + downspeed
-
- Example: C-300A05 5 is the speed to turn the volume down.
- C-300A40 4 is the speed to slide it up.
-
- NOTE: The slide will be called as many times as the speed of the song.
- The slower the song, the more the volume will be changed on each note.
-
- 34. Position jump effect command
-
- Cmd B. Position-jump [Pos:$00-$7F]
-
- Usage: $B + position to continue at
-
- Example: C-300B01 B is the command, 1 is the position to
- restart the song at.
-
- This command will also perform a pattern-break (see 2 pages below).
-
- You can use this command instead of restart as on Noisetracker, but you
- must enter the position in hex!
-
- 35. Set volume effect command
-
- Cmd C. Set volume [Volume:$00-$40]
-
- Usage: $C + new volume
-
- - Page 30 -
- 35. Set volume effect command
-
-
- 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!)
-
- Example: C-300C10 C is the command, 10 is the volume (16 decimal).
-
- 36. Pattern break effect command
-
- Cmd D. Pattern-break [Pattern-pos:00-63, decimal]
-
- Usage: $D + pattern-position
-
- This command just jumps to the next song-position, and continues play
- from the patternposition you specify.
-
- Example: C-300D00 Jump to the next song-position and continue play
- from
- patternposition 00.
- Or: C-300D32 Jump to the next song-position and continue play
- from
- patternposition 32 instead.
-
- 37. Adjust tempo effect command
-
- Cmd F. Set speed [Speed:$00-$FF]
-
- Usage: $F + speed
-
- This command will set the speed of the song.
-
- blank: Range 01-FF - Normal timing
- CIA: Range 01-1F - Set vblank speeds
- with CIA timing.
- CIA: Range 20-FF - Set BPM speeds,
- range 32-255.
- Both: Range 00 - STOP song.
-
- 38. Set filter miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E0. Set filter [Range:$0-$1]
-
- Usage: $E0 + filter-status
-
- This command changes the status of the low-pass filter of your Amiga.
- This filter is not present in the A1000 and some very old A500s and
- A200s, but most computers are equipped with it. (If you've got one of
- these, please leave this switch alone, since flipping it constantly
- garbles the sound.)
-
- Example: C-300E01 disconnects filter (turns power LED off)
- C-300E00 connects filter (turns power LED on)
-
- 39. Fineslide up miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E1. Fineslide up [Range:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $E1 + value
-
- This command works just like the normal portamento up, except that it
- only slides up once. It does not continue sliding during the length of
- the note.
-
- Example: C-300E11 Slide up 1 at the beginning of the note.
-
- (Great for creating chorus effects)
-
-
- - Page 31 -
- 39. Fineslide down miscellaneous effect command
-
-
- 40. Fineslide down miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E2. Fineslide down [Range:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $E2 + value
-
- This command works just like the normal portamento down, except that it
- only slides down once. It does not continue sliding during the length of
- the note.
-
- Example: C-300E26 Slide up 6 at the beginning of the note.
-
- 41. Glissando control miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E3. Glissando Ctrl [Range:$0-$1]
-
- Usage: $E3 + Glissando-Status
-
- Glissando must be used with the tone-portamento command. When glissando
- is activated, toneportamento will slide a halfnote at a time, instead of
- a straight slide.
-
- Example: C-300E31 Turn Glissando on.
- C-300E30 Turn Glissando off.
-
- 42. Vibrato control miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E4. Set vibrato waveform [Range:$0-$3]" link "Vibrato effect
- command" 0} waveform [Range:$0-$3]
-
- Usage: $E4 + vibrato-waveform
-
- Example: C-300E40 Set sine(default)
- E44 Don't retrig WF
- C-300E41 Set Ramp Down
- E45 Don't retrig WF
- C-300E42 Set Squarewave
- E46 Don't retrig WF
- C-300E43 Set Random
- E47 Don't retrig WF
-
- 43. Set finetune miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E5. Set finetune [Range:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $E5 + finetune-value
-
- Example: C-300E51 Set finetune to 1.
-
- Use these tables to figure out the finetune-value.
-
- Finetune: +7 +6 +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 0
- Value: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
-
- Finetune: -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8
- Value: F E D C B A 9 8
-
- 44. Pattern loop miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E6. PatternLoop [Loops:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $E6 + number of loops
-
- This command will loop a part of a pattern.
-
- Example: C-300E60 Set loopstart.
-
- - Page 32 -
- 44. Pattern loop miscellaneous effect command
-
- C-300E63 Jump to loop 3 times before playing on.
-
- 45. Tremolo control miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E7. Set tremolo waveform [Range:$0-$3]" link "Tremolo effect
- command" 0} waveform [Range:$0-$3]
-
- Usage: $E7 + tremolo-waveform
-
- Example: C-300E70 Set sine(default)
- E74 Don't retrig WF
- C-300E71 Set Ramp Down
- E75 Don't retrig WF
- C-300E72 Set Squarewave
- E76 Don't retrig WF
- C-300E73 Set Random
- E77 Don't retrig WF
-
- 46. Retrig note miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd E9. Retrig note [Value:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $E9 + Tick to Retrig note at.
-
- This command will retrig the same note before playing the next. Where to
- retrig depends on the speed of the song. If you retrig with 1 in speed 6
- that note will be trigged 6 times in one note slot. Retrig on hi-hats!
-
- Example: C-300F06 Set speed to 6.
- C-300E93 Retrig at tick 3 out of 6.
-
- 47. Fine volumslide up miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd EA. FineVolsl up [Range:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $EA + value
-
- This command works just like the normal volumeslide up, except that it
- only slides up once. It does not continue sliding during the length of
- the note.
-
- Example: C-300EA3 Slide volume up 1 at the beginning of the note.
-
- 48. Fine volumslide down miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd EB. FineVolsl down [Range:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $EB + value
-
- This command works just like the normal volumeslide down, except that it
- only slides down once. It does not continue sliding during the length of
- the note.
-
- Example: C-300EB6 Slide volume down 6 at the beginning of the note.
-
- 49. Cut note miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd EC. Cut note [Value:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $EC + Tick to cut note at.
-
- This command will cut the note at the selected tick, creating extremely
- short notes.
-
- Example: C-300F06 Set speed to 6.
- C-300EC3 Cut at tick 3 out of 6.
-
-
- - Page 33 -
- 49. Cut note miscellaneous effect command
-
- Note that the note is not really cut, the volume is just turned down.
-
- 50. Delay note miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd ED. NoteDelay [Value:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $ED + ticks to delay note.
-
- This command will delay the note to the selected tick.
-
- Example: C-300F06 Set speed to 6.
- C-300ED3 Play note at tick 3 out of 6.
-
- If you use ED0, the note will be delayed a little anyway. You can play
- the same note on two channels, delay one, and get a nice flanging
- effect.
-
- 51. Delay pattern miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd EE. PatternDelay [Notes:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $EE + notes to delay pattern.
-
- This command will delay the pattern the selected numbers of notes.
-
- Example: C-300EE8 Delay pattern 8 notes before playing on.
-
- All other effects are still active when the pattern is being delayed.
-
- 52. Invert loop miscellaneous effect command
-
- Cmd EF. Invert Loop [Speed:$0-$F]
-
- Usage: $EF + Invertspeed
-
- This command will need a short loop ($10,20,40,80 etc. bytes) to work.
- It will invert the loop byte by byte. Sounds better than funkrepeat...
-
- Example: C-300EF8 Set invspeed to 8.
-
- To turn off the inverting, set invspeed to 0, or press ctrl + Z.
-
- This effect will trash the sample.
-
- 53. Requesters and I/O
-
- ARE YOU SURE? REQUESTER
-
- In addition to the gadgets, you can use "Y" or Return for Yes, and "N"
- or ESC for No.
-
-
-
- THE TEXT-INPUT ROUTINE
-
- Now this is really simple. Clicking on a textline will enable you to
- edit it. Some text lines are longer than they seem, so use the arrowkeys
- to scroll back and forth in the text. The text input mode is just like
- an ordinary text editor. You can use backspace, delete, space and such.
- In text-input mode you can also use the numeric pad for entering
- numbers. Pressing the right mousebutton will clear the textline and exit
- the editing. Use ESC or return to just exit.
-
-
-
- THE NUMBERGADGETS
-
-
- - Page 34 -
- 53. Requesters and I/O
-
- Click on them and type in the value (Hex or Dec). ESC or return aborts.
-
-
-
- ARROWGADGETS
-
- Pressing both the left and right button on the arrow-gadgets will speed
- them up a bit. All numbergadgets except Finetune and Sample allows you
- to click in the gadget and type in the desired value. Holding the right
- mousebutton while pressing them will zero the value.
-
- 54. Standard paths
-
- STANDARD PATHS
-
- ProTracker has several standard-paths which it uses when searching for
- things. Some of these may be configured, while others can't. These are:
-
- Config-file "S:"
- Powerpacker-library "LIBS:"
- Executable modules* "ST-00:Executable/"
- Modules "ST-00:Modules/"
- Songs "ST-00:Songs/"
- Instruments* "ST-00:Instruments/"
- Samples "ST-01:"
- Patterns* "ST-00:Patterns/"
-
- *=Not implemented yet.
-
- 55. Keyboard percussion
-
- KEYBOARD PERCUSSION
-
- Use backspace '\' to toggle modes. One or more dots will appear to the
- right of the freemem display.
-
- No dots : Normal keypad.
- 1 dot : Drumpad.
- 2 dots : Drumpad - Edit/Rec possible.
-
- Use Alt + keypad key to set the note for the sample.
-
- With 'drumpad' selected, selecting a sample using the keypad will also
- play the sample. This is nice when browsing through the samples of
- modules.
-
- 56. What is DYN samples?
-
- WHAT IS DYN SAMPLES?
-
- DYN samples is a new (and revolutionary) way of playing 16-bit samples
- with a 8 - 14 bit replay quality. Your Amiga achieves this by cheating a
- lot, and this sure does take cpu time. No official replay exist to play
- module utilising modules with these samples, so use for own pleasure
- only. Maestro 16-bit mono IFF samples are currently the only supported.
- :(
-
- The big drawbacks using DYN-samples is that click and ticks may occur.
- Also, playing DYN samples at low volumes may cause distortion.
-
- 57. How to create music using PT
-
- I know. The information in this chapter may not be complete nor easy to
- understand, but it's atleast far better than any earlier attempt to
- explain how to use ProTracker in general. Suggestions are welcome!
-
- What is a module?
-
- - Page 35 -
- 57. How to create music using PT
-
- Patterns
- Position-table
- Samples
-
- 58. What is a module?
-
- History
-
- ProTracker's musicfiles are normally called modules. The reason for this
- is that way back, in the days of SoundTracker v1.0, Karsten Obarski (the
- author) thought that the best way to save music was as songs with only
- references to the instrument's names to make it possible to reload them
- each time the song was reloaded into SoundTracker.
-
- The module format was implemented in SoundTracker v1.0 allright, but it
- was only intended to be used when programmers wanted to replay the
- modules in their productions and not as temporary storage, as it is
- being used today. Because of this, SoundTracker couldn't load modules
- before version v2.2!
-
- The module-format used today is created by Mahoney and Kaktus which made
- NoiseTracker in July - August 1989, another tracker-clone. The only big
- defference they made to the format was that they increased the number of
- samples from 15 to 31.
-
-
- What's in a module?
-
- A module basically contains this info:
-
- * Module name
- * Samples (name, length, finetune, volume, repeat, replen and
- the actual audio data)
- * Which pattern to play at each position of your module.
- * Pattern data
-
- The ProTracker v2.3 also outputs files called "mod!modname" which
- contains names for each pattern in the module. This will be featured in
- ProTracker v3.x when the new IFF format is implemented.
-
- A totally empty module (no samples and one pattern) occupies 2128 bytes
- of disk space, while the (theoretical) largest module one would be able
- to create would occupy 4326460 bytes! (Even more if DYN samples were
- used!)
-
- 59. Patterns
-
- What is patterns?
-
- Any piece of music written with ProTracker is built up from patterns.
- Each pattern is built up from four tracks, one for each of the Amiga's
- audiochannels. A module may contain up to 64 patterns.
-
- A pattern is 64 steps long. The magnified line is always the one you
- edit. If you need shorter patterns, use the
- patternbreak effect command.
-
- A track is built up of steps like this:
-
- C-3 01 C20
- (1) (2)(3)
-
- (1) - The first two characters describes the note to play. The "-" may
- be replaced by "#" or "b" to describe a flat or a sharp note, depending
- on you settings in the setup-screen. The third character is the octave
- to play the note in. ProTracker supports 3 octaves (1 through 3).
-
-
- - Page 36 -
- 59. Patterns
-
- (2) This is the sample-number to play. Valid numbers are hexadecimal 00
- through 1F. Sample 0 doesn't really exists but will play the last used
- sample for that channel without resetting the volume.
-
- (3) This is the effect-command to play.
-
- To sum it up: The C-3 is the note being played. 01 is the samplenumber,
- and the three last digits are the effect command, in this case, set
- volume to $20 (C-Command, 20-Value).
-
-
- Effect tips
-
- You can set the volume to the volume of a specific instrument without
- actually trigging the sample.
-
- e.g. "---01000" will set the volume for sample 1 without playing a
- note.
-
- Try setting the volume and sliding the volume down at the same time:
- C-301A08 <--- (If no sample is playing, no sound will be
- ---01A08 heard at all...)
- ---01A08
-
- This will create a strange arpeggiato effect.
-
- 60. Position table
-
- What is the position-table?
-
- ProTracker holds a table with information about which order to play the
- patterns. You may freely define the size of this table. This table may
- be up to 128 positions, and each position may contain any of your
- patterns.
-
- When ProTracker plays your module it first play position 0, then
- position 1 and so on until it reaches the end of your position-table.
- When this occurs, ProTracker jumps back to position 0. If you want
- ProTracker to jump to another position, you must use the position jump
- effect command at the end of the pattern at the last position.
-
-
- How to edit the position-table
-
- The position-table is controlled using the three gadgets labeled "Pos",
- "Pattern" and "Length". The "Pos"-gadget states which position you are
- currently editing, while the "Pattern"-gadget states which pattern to
- play at that position and finally the "Length"-gadgets sets the length
- of your position-table.
-
- You must remember, though, that the length also implies position 0. This
- means that if your length is 2, position 0 and 1 will be played. The "I"
- and "D" gadgets are your friends and are used for inserting and deleting
- positions.
-
- 61. Samples
-
- What are samples?
-
- Samples are sound, converted from analog signals to digital (numbers).
- When your Amiga plays these sounds it converts them back to analog
- signals and feeds them to your monitor or amplifier. In memory, samples
- are stored as a big bunch of numbers. The easiest way to think of
- samples is recorded sound.
-
-
- What decides the quality of samples? (Hardware approach)
-
- - Page 37 -
- 61. Samples
-
-
- The Amiga's sample-resolution of 8 bit means that it utilises 256 values
- (2^8) for describing the amplitude of the sound-wave. A CD-player with
- 16 bits uses thus 65536 values and therefore gives a more accurate
- reproduction lof the original sound.
-
- Another thing which (heavily) influences the quality of a sample is how
- often the hardware (in this case, your Amiga) is capable of send out a
- new value. If you send out a zillion values each second, there's small
- changes you would miss a change in the sound-wave. Easy? Your Amiga has
- actually no absolute limits for how fast it is able to reproduce sound,
- but the easiest output method involves timing the sound output to the
- Amiga's display hardware. At normal resolutions this means a maximum of
- ~28000 Hz. In comparison a CD player outputs at a rate of 44100 Hz.
-
- It is generally a common mistake to refer to the Amiga's maximum rate as
- 28000 samples/second. In order for one hertz (Hz) to occur, you need a
- positive and a negative value. To put it another way, each hertz
- consists of two sample values. This means that in the Amiga's maximum
- sample rate a sample of 56000 bytes would replay in one second!
-
- The sample rate is not constant, as it is used to specify the note to
- play the sample with. 28000 Hz equals the A-3 note in ProTracker, while
- the A-2 is half the rate (14000 Hz).
-
-
- Where to get samples from
-
- Sampling samples yourself is perhaps the easiest (and funniest) way to
- achieve samples. In order for this to work, you need to buy a sampler
- (generally very cheap, about £20 should get you a low-end one) and have
- a source to sample from (expensive). Sampling from CDs is difficult and
- often there are other instruments in the background, so obtaining all
- the samples you need from CDs is nearly impossible. The second
- alternative is buying a keyboard to sample from, but since most of these
- are pretty expensive (the price is usually proportional to the sound
- quality) I wouldn't advice anyone to buy a keyboard unless they're
- pretty sure they want to do music.
-
- Another (well-hated) way to get samples from is by stealing from other
- modules. It is generally a bad idea to load a module and use clear song
- in order to use the exact samples as another module. The better approach
- is to save samples from all modules and mix them together on a HD or
- create your own sampledisks. This way (if you catalogize them properly)
- you could easily find the sample you need when you need it.
-
- The third way to obtain samples is obtaining PD sample disks. Your could
- buy the AM/FM series sampledisks (from Bjørn A Lynne) or you could write
- to a PD company. (Most of these has a large variety of sample disks.)
-
-
- What decides the quality of samples? (Software approach)
-
- When sampling, it's essential that your equipment is in perfect order.
- All connectors must be clean and your wires should be properly isolated.
- If you experience a lot of interference, you could try to disconnect all
- electrical appliances nearby.
-
- Sample from the auxillery output of your Stereo rather than from the
- headphones output. If your Stereo does not have an AUX output, try
- sampling directly from the CD- or Cassette player.
-
- The volume should be adjusted in a way that it just about fills the
- entire height in the sample editor in ProTracker in order to utilise the
- full sample-resolution.
-
- When selecting sample rates, you should keep in mind that higher
-
- - Page 38 -
- 61. Samples
-
- sampling rates yields better quality but effectively eats up a lot of
- memory. I myself samples most things at C-3 (16000 Hz) except drums,
- which I sample at G-3 or A-3 (28000 Hz).
-
- It doesn't matter (well, mostly) which sampling software you use, but I
- prefer to use ProTracker since it's editing functions are faster than
- any other I've seen.
-
- 62. Miscellaneous
-
- Not much to say, these are... erm.. miscellaneous things!
-
- Chronicles and anecdotes
- Known bugs
- Things we'll never implement
- Things we will implement
- Frequently asked questions
- Contacting the authors
-
- 63. Chronicles and anecdotes
-
- This chapter contains some historical and background information. Not
- all of this may be proper to put into a documentation, but I hope it's
- interesting for someone.
-
- ProTracker development and progress
- ProTracker-relevant clones
- ProTracker version history
-
- 64. Development and progress
-
- SOUNDTRACKER - THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA
-
- Way back (dunno, the year) Karsten Obarski was tired of the monotonous
- music in all games and demos and came up with the idea of using samples
- for instruments in music. The music used at the time consisted either of
- synthetic instruments or sampleloops. There were two mainreasons for
- this. Firstly, people still wanted to support the first A1000 models
- which came with 256KB RAM and secondly sampleloops were easier to make
- (mostly grabbed from records).
-
- Karsten Obarski's program, SoundTracker v1.0 didn't look much like
- todays trackers, it had no sampleeditor, the patterns didn't scroll when
- playing and one couldn't load modules (storage of music was based on
- songs). The module/song-format was easy and fairly effective and is
- still used in today's Trackers (though it has been expanded from 15 to
- 31 instruments).
-
- The SoundTracker became immediately extremely popular and everyone
- started using it. The program was far easier to use than other programs
- available at the time and various "crackers" started improving on the
- program.
-
-
- SOUNDTRACKER - THE CHAOS AND THE FALL
-
- As several other groups started making their own versions of
- SoundTracker, Karsten Obarski gave it up and didn't release more version
- than v1.0. Groups such as The New Masters, D.O.C. and Spreadpoint seemed
- to fight for doing the best improvements and this "race" caused a
- significant improvement of SoundTracker. But after a while the groups
- got tired of the work and couldn't compete with a new tracker-clone by
- Mahoney and Kaktus of Northstar called NoiseTracker.
-
-
- PROTRACKER ENTERS THE STAGE
-
-
- - Page 39 -
- 64. Development and progress
-
- Just before SoundTracker died, a small and (fairly) unknown norwegian
- group called Amiga Freelancers started disassembling SoundTracker v2.4
- in an attempt to improve it. NoiseTracker gained a lot of users before
- ProTracker acctually got released. However, ProTracker contained so many
- features that weren't in SoundTracker, that Mahoney and Kaktus gave up.
-
- ProTracker shortly became the standard and noone even thought of using
- other trackers.
-
-
- AMIGA FREELANCERS GIVE UP
-
- I late 1991, Amiga Freelancers got tired of updating the ProTracker and
- decided to hand out the source to the public. At this time they had
- recently released v1.2 and v2.0 (v2.0 was a semi-commercial version, but
- the only differences from v1.2 was the opening-graphics). After a while,
- they still released v1.3A and v1.3B with some bugfixes, but the sources
- for these were never released.
-
- At this time, a lot of quick hacks was released by several groups in an
- attempt to win fame and fortune, but the only groups that did noticable
- improvements was Noxious and Cryptoburners.
-
-
- NOXIOUS TAKES OVER - FOR A WHILE
-
- Noxious releases their first version (v2.1A) in the early 1992 but stops
- after v2.3a in January 1993 probably as a result of Cryptoburners new
- ProTracker, v3.0. In my humble opinion Noxious did pretty much for
- ProTracker and a lot of people still uses v2.3a because they can't get
- used to the new look introduced by Cryptoburners in v3.0.
-
-
- CRYPTOBURNERS - RADICAL CHANGES
-
- Cryptoburners changed the resolution of the ProTracker from Low-Res to
- Hi-Res, a change that has been discussed widely by ProTracker users.
- They altered the positions of a lot of gadgets and some people still
- haven't get used to it. Other changes by Cryptoburners included new
- disk-operations screen and some more edit-gadgets.
-
-
- MAW - 14 BIT SOUND
-
- After ProTracker v3.10, Cryptoburners handed the source over to Maw who
- was supposed to implement DYN sound (up to 14 bit sound resolution) in
- ProTracker. According to Maw himself, no versions after v3.10 was
- released as these were supposed to be beta-versions sent to different
- people. Maw never fully completed the DYN implementation and has given
- up the project and is now working on a new music-program he intend to
- call ProTracker4. This program has more than 4 voices, synthetic sound
- and works with 16-bit samples. Maw refuses to release his work on
- ProTracker and his work is therefore lost forever. However, a lot of
- people look at this as a nice thing anyway, since it is nearly
- impossible to play 14-bit sound in an action-paced game and the
- implementation of the DYN system mostly caused bugs.
-
-
- CRYPTOBURNERS AGAIN - WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?
-
- As far as I know, Cryptoburners has stopped developing the ProTracker
- and is currently working for FunCom productions, a manufacturer of video
- games. If they still has the v3.10 source it would be the best point to
- continue the ProTracker from, but the author haven't been able to reach
- them yet.
-
-
-
- - Page 40 -
- 64. Other tracker-clones
-
-
- 65. Other tracker-clones
-
- All programs are listed in estimated time of arrival. 8)
-
-
- SoundTracker v1.0
-
- This is the mother of all tracker-clones and was made a looong time ago
- (around the release of A500 methinks). The author is Karsten Obarski and
- the program was (in my opinion) far from easy to use. After releasing
- this, other groups released a lot of improvements on this program and
- Karsten Obarski sort of gave up improving the program himself.
-
-
- SoundTracker v1.1 - v2.3
-
- These versions were different improvements over SoundTracker v1.0.
- Unfortunately, I have no information on who made the different versions
- (please write if you do). I do however, know that Dr. Mabuse of DOC and
- T.I.P of The New Masters released most of these versions.
-
-
- Games Music Creator
-
- This music program looks a lot like the v2.x-soundtrackers and contains
- a lot of the same features. However it seems recoded and a bit
- unfinished. The author is Andreas Tadic.
-
-
- SoundTracker Pro II
-
- This tracker has a totally different look from the other tracker-clones.
- It looks like it's supposed to have more features, but is far from
- finished. Unfortunately, there is no text in the program that states who
- made this program.
-
-
-
- NoiseTracker v1.0 - v2.1
-
- NoiseTracker made by Mahoney and Kaktus of Northstar was the first
- tracker to implement 31 instruments and a configuration-screen! This
- tracker became immediately very popular, and was probably the king of
- the scene until ProTracker came along. The NoiseTracker was based on
- SoundTracker v2.3
-
-
- SoundTracker v2.4 - v2.5
-
- These were SoundTrackers which adopted the new features of NoiseTracker,
- including 31 instruments. According to my knowledge, both these versions
- were made by MnemoTroN of Spreadpoint.
-
-
- ProTracker
-
- This is about the place where ProTracker first did it's appearance.
- Beacuse of the many changes from SoundTracker (which it was based on),
- there were numerous bugs in the first versions.
-
-
- NoiseTracker v1.3D
-
- I haven't the foggiest about who made this version of NoiseTracker, but
- as far as I know, it wasn't Mahoney and Kaktus. This version utilised a
- special "packed" moduleformat.
-
- - Page 41 -
- 65. Other tracker-clones
-
-
-
- SoundTracker v2.6
-
- This SoundTracker implemented something no other tracker has ever used,
- one-channel patterns. The idea is that for each position you have to
- specify one pattern for each channel. This idea saves some memory, but
- is harder to edit and did therefore not "win" the audience. This tracker
- was also made by MnemoTroN.
-
-
- StarTrekker v1.0 - v1.3
-
- This tracker was the first to utilise more than 4 voices! It could play
- a maximum of eight voices and included synthetic sounds. (AM and FM
- sounds!) Unfortunately, this tracker died silently. StarTrekker was
- based on NoiseTracker v2.0 and was made by Björn Wesen (aka Exolon of
- Fairlight).
-
-
- IceTracker v1.0 - v1.1
-
- This tracker was based on SoundTracker v2.6 and was made by Isepic. It
- consisted of several improvements and add-ons.
-
-
- MaxTracker v1.0
-
- This tracker was originally based on ProTracker v1.2, and included the
- possibility to store samples in fast memory. The readme-file that was
- distributed with this tracker stated that it could play samples of any
- length, but couldn't get it to load nor sample samples over 64 KB. The
- author is Sylvain Marchand.
-
- 66. Version history
-
- VERSION HISTORY
-
- The version histories are listed by versionnumber, not by releasedate.
-
- There is a version around marked V3.18 BETA with reworked setupscreen
- and the dir-selector-bug fixed. Since this version is a true
- beta-version (i.e: it is not supposed to be spread) it is not considered
- a release nor listed separately here.
-
- All versions of ProTracker is based on lower versions, except (ofcourse)
- the V0.89 BETA, which is based on SoundTracker v2.5 by MnemoTroN.
-
- If anyone has version-information for versions not listed here or
- versions which has no specific information listed, feel free to
- send them in.
-
- Sources:
- Source for ProTracker V1.2 and V2.0
- Quick doc for PT V0.89 by Mad Martian
- ProTracker V1.0A readme-file
- ProTracker V1.0A readme-file
- ProTracker V1.3B readme-file
- ProTracker V2.3A readme-file
- ProTracker V3.00ß readme-file
- ProTracker V3.01 readme-file
- ProTracker V3.10 readme-file
- ProTracker V3.14B readme-file
-
- Version releasenotes:
- V0.89 BETA Amiga Freelancers
- V1.0A Amiga Freelancers
-
- - Page 42 -
- 66. Version history
-
- V1.0B Amiga Freelancers
- V1.0C Amiga Freelancers
- V1.1A Amiga Freelancers
- V1.1B Amiga Freelancers
- V1.2 Amiga Freelancers
- V1.2C Raul Sobon
- V1.2D Raul Sobon
- V1.2E Raul Sobon
- V1.2F Raul Sobon
- V1.3A Amiga Freelancers
- V1.3B Amiga Freelancers
- V1.8 SCL
- V2.0 Amiga Freelancers
- V2.1A Mushroom Studios / Noxious
- V2.2A Mushroom Studios / Noxious
- V2.3A Mushroom Studios / Noxious
- V3.00 BETA Cryptoburners
- V3.01 Cryptoburners
- V3.10 BETA Cryptoburners
- V3.14B Cryptoburners
- V3.15 Cryptoburners
-
- 67. V0.89 BETA
-
- V0.89 BETA (May 1990) - Exclusively for Crusaders
-
- This is the first known release of ProTracker. It was based on
- SoundTracker V2.5 by MnemoTroN and made by The Amiga Freelancers.
-
- * Retrig note, note delay, pattern delay and funk repeat didn't work.
-
- * Finetune were introduced.
-
- * Online help. =)
-
- 68. V1.0A
-
- V1.0A (August 1990) - First public release
-
- Many functions not operational in V0.89 were now implemented.
-
- 69. V1.0B
-
- V1.0B (September 1990) - Bugfix
-
- * PatternLoop (It always jumped to the start of the pattern, not the
- loop)
-
- * FineTune AND Glissando-Control were in the same command! (E3)
-
- * Fade Up / Down caused shit and even a few gurus!
-
- * Delete Pos inserted pattern 77 (!) at position 127 in the song,
- causing it to be longer than 80k!
-
- * Filter All Samples was slow as hell because it tried to filter
- nonexistant samples.
-
- * If you selected sample 0 from the keypad, it always played the last
- sample played as sample 0!
-
- * A590 harddisk owners couldn't use the keyboard because of the way
- Mahoney & Kaktus set up the keyboard interrupt (their NT1.1 routine was
- used).
-
- * Entering the help screen when in the midi screen fucked up the
- display.
-
- - Page 43 -
- 69. V1.0B
-
-
- * Escaping from Mix exited from the whole edit op.!
-
- * CutBeg no longer fucks up the Sample length and Pos.
-
- * The help file was FULL of bugs / misspellings.
-
- 70. V1.0C
-
- V1.0C (October 1990) - Bugfix
-
- * Error in Finetune-table2 (note B-2)
-
- * Abort Load sometimes caused a guru!
-
- * Toneportamento (cmd 3) didn't work correctly with finetune.
-
- * PLST screen was one pixel off.
-
- * MIDI screen was removed.
-
- 71. V1.1A
-
- V1.1A (December 1990) - Party release with bugs
-
- * Read input in a more system-friendly way.
-
- * Detached from CLI.
-
- * Loaded IFF samples correctly.
-
- * Used sprites to show loop in sampler.
-
- * Several directory paths in disk operations screen.
-
- * Protracker will now run if you have Kickstart 2.0 installed! (A500,
- A1000, A2000, A3000 etc...)
-
- * Keyboard buffer. Wow!!! Now you can play really fast, and PT won't
- miss a single key (...well, not as many as it used to before...).
-
- * The vertical blank interrupt no longer patches the vector itself, but
- uses the AddIntServer function.
-
- * The playroutine creates it's own CIA or VBLANK interrupt, and it will
- not be removed if a song is playing when you go to CLI/Workbench.
-
- * Improved "Out of memory" handling (hopefully no more gurus...).
-
- * Only the first 2 bytes of a sample will be zeroed (were the first 4).
-
- * Lots of new keyboard commands/shortcuts using the Alt key.
-
- * Vibrato depth changed to be compatible with NT2.0.
-
- * Funk Repeat changed to Invert Loop (may trash your samples though).
-
- * Play samples from the keypad (dot mode) when pressing backslash.
-
- * Quadrascope. Four channel oscilloscope that displays the samples in
- real- time, even when playing from keyboard. The good old spectrum
- analyzer is still there, just click on the scope to toggle.
-
- * Tempo gadget. Default is 125 BPM (normal vblank speed), but that can
- be changed if you select CIA timing on Setup2. Range is 32-255 BPM, and
- can also be changed with the 'F' effect command (speed/tempo).
-
-
- - Page 44 -
- 71. V1.1A
-
- * Repeat and replen will be updated in the samples when you change them.
- You no longer have to press a key to hear the new loop.
-
- * Protracker should now be able to show up to 10/16 megs of freemem.
-
- * Error messages when PLST or Config not found.
-
- * Click to enter position, pattern and length with the keyboard.
-
- * Choose RAW or IFF when saving samples.
-
- * Samples can be saved with IFF-loops.
-
- * Change path without reading directory.
-
- * All 30 characters in filename/directory stored (was 24).
-
- * Shows directories, just click to add directory to path.
-
- * Parent directory gadget.
-
- * One preset and several default paths for modules/songs/samples.
-
- * PT will now read an "unlimited" number of directory entries (was
- 200).
-
- * Two setup-screens.
-
- * Override: Load/save sample from samplepath even if there's a path in
- the samplename. ST-37:bigbadbass with override will be loaded from DF0:
- (or whatever) instead of ST-37:. You may want to put all your samples in
- one big directory on your harddisk...
-
- * NoSamples: Will load a song without asking for the samples.
-
- * BlankZero: This will show the samplenumbers in the pattern in the same
- way as Noisetracker 1.2 (Zeros are blanked out).
-
- * Show Dirs: If on, directories will be shown in Disk Op.
-
- * Show Publ: If on, PT will show all free Public memory, otherwise just
- free Chip memory.
-
- * CutToBuff: If on, the part of the sample cut away in the sample editor
- will be saved in the copybuffer.
-
- * Load Loop: Will load loops from an IFF file when loading a sample, or
- adding a path in the sampleeditor.
-
- * Slow Mode: Use this toggle if you have a 25 Mhz A3000 where everything
- is faster. Turning it on might help.
-
- * Set Default paths.
-
- * You can set the maximum number of presets (used to be 2500).
-
- * DMA wait. Use this on 25MHz Amigas (normally 300, use 900 on A3000).
-
- * Set tuning tone (note and volume).
-
- * Select CIA or VBlank timing.
-
- * Set default CIA tempo.
-
- * Spectrum Analyzer/VU-meter copper color editor!
-
- * Use Preset removed, inserted Delete Disk instead.
-
- - Page 45 -
- 71. V1.1A
-
-
- * You can now save Finetune instead of Volume in the PLST.
-
- * ST-disk number changed to hex (ST-00 --> ST-FF)!
-
- * Adding samples with IFF-loops to the presetlist is possible.
-
- * Proper PLST allocation. Protracker will no longer allocate any memory
- if there's no PLST.
-
- * ST-disk number changed to HEX. This means you can have up to $FF, or
- 255 ST-disks (used to be 99).
-
- * Sample Graphing like Audiomaster. With Show Range, Show All, Zoom Out,
- Range All, etc...
-
- * Play either Waveform, Display or Range.
-
- * Repeat points are shown, and can be dragged around.
-
- * Loop on/off toggle.
-
- * A line shows current position when playing back a sample.
-
- * A sampler just like on NT2.0.
-
- * Resample function w/tuning tone.
-
- * Cut, Copy and Paste functions.
-
- * Cursor to beginning/end.
-
- * Swap current sample with copybuffer.
-
- * Transpose All bug removed.
-
- * Move changed to Copy (use this to copy samples too).
-
- * Upsample changed a tiny bit (allocation).
-
- * Most functions will now work with marked ranges.
-
- 72. V1.1B
-
- V1.1B (August 1991) - Most known version. (Methinks =)
-
- * Many major bugfixes.
-
- * Changed layout for quadrascope.
-
- * Load gadget no longer hangs the program when trying to load a file
- that doesn't exist.
-
- * Better filehandling with error messages.
-
- * Repeat and replen check installed (Rel. A hanged when replen
- accidentally got the value zero).
-
- * Repeat and replen were swapped when loading an IFF sample.
-
- * Only RepLen values in IFF samples were added in the preset-editor.
-
- * Tune memory wasn't always updated when editing samples.
-
- * Swap Buffer debugged.
-
- * The arpeggio sounded weird because the pitch wasn't set back at the
-
- - Page 46 -
- 72. V1.1B
-
- right time.
-
- * Shift speeds up the scrolling in the PLST and preset-editor.
-
- 73. V1.2
-
- V1.2 (July 1991?) - Kickstart V2.0 version
-
- Information could not be obtained.
-
- 74. V1.2C
-
- V1.2C (July 1991?) - Parallel communication version
-
- Made by Raul Sobon. He did also make V1.2D, V1.2E and V1.2F.
-
- * Made real 8 channels possible through parallel communication between
- two Amigas.
-
- 75. V1.3B
-
- V1.3B (Unknown release date)
-
- V1.3A was also accidentally released, but contained many bugs.
-
- * Save module bugfix.
-
- * Not case sensitive on 'MOD.'
-
- * 'MOD.' bug when switching to and from modules dir.
-
- * Inputhandler bugs fixed.
-
- * Single Step forward and backward works properly.
-
- * The Sample function works with OS2.0
-
- * No hang when a R/W-error occurs in OS2.0
-
- * No crash when loading a non-module file.
-
- * MIDI In works as it should!!!
-
- * PT on Pseudo system screen (?)
-
- * [LEFT Amiga] M and [LEFT Amiga] N works within ProTracker.
-
- * Improved multitasking!
-
- * Screen Adjust (for A3000).
-
- * No slowmode necessary for turbo Amigas. Auto init of DMAWait.
-
- * System requesters ON/OFF function.
-
- * Finds volumes and diskdrives in filerequester.
-
- 76. V1.8
-
- V1.8 (1994?) - Parallel communication version
-
- Made by Bagitman of SCL.
-
- * Made real 8 channels possible through parallel communication between
- two Amigas.
-
-
-
- - Page 47 -
- 76. V2.0
-
-
- 77. V2.0
-
- V2.0 (Unknown release date)
-
- Mainly the same as V1.2. I don't think anyone knew the difference. =O
-
- 78. V2.1A
-
- V2.1A (Unknown release date)
-
- Made by Mushroom Studios/Noxious. Contained many Bugs.
-
- * mod. prefix was shown in the file-list if it wasn't lowercase only.
-
- * ReturnfromCLI requester enhanced with quitgadget.
-
- * Gadgetpositions fixed properly.
-
- * Accidental and Diskspace bugs fixed.
-
- * Editskip has now got an indicator.
-
- * DISK OP., PLST and PRESET-ED screens have TOP/BOTTOM gadgets.
-
- * PLST screen has now got Up/Down arrows.
-
- * PT can load&save powerpacked samples/modules.
-
- * PT can load&save tracks/patterns.
-
- * Format disk bug has been fixed (I hope).
-
- * Volume,Repeat,Replen,Pos & Mod is now editable from the keyboard. Just
- click on the numbergadgets.
-
- * You can now choose an autoinserteffect of your own. (One of the ten
- effectmacros).
-
- * The bug that completely turned the sound off when stopping the
- recording has now been fixed.
-
- * You are now able to fastscroll the file- and presetlist to the next
- startcharacter.
-
- * The preset-ed routines have been corrected.To use your old PLST,
- simply delete preset #0.
-
- * The metronome has now got an accent on the first beat.
-
- * A metronome keyboard toggle has been included.
-
- * The metronomechannel can easily be changed to the current
- cursorposition.
-
- * Most of the numbergadgets can now be zero'ed.
-
- * Better patternrefresh when doing keyboard I/O.
-
- * PT now reads the dir after rename/save/delete if the Autodirtoggle is
- on.
-
- * You can solo a channel with the mouse by holding the right mousebutton
- while pressing 1,2,3 or 4.
-
- * You can pass an argument from workbench/shell/cli to automatically
- load a module when PT starts.
-
- - Page 48 -
- 78. V2.1A
-
-
- * Powerpacker crunching/decrunching with powerpacker.library! PT will
- automaticly append/remove ".pp" to/from the filename.
-
- * You can save an Icon together with the module.
-
- 79. V2.2A
-
- V2.2A (Unknown release date)
-
- * Fixed the chip-mem bug from PT2.1A. (It didn't work with chipmem
- only)
-
- * When Preset-ed screen was shown,you couldn't use the gadgets on the
- lower part of the main- or sample-screen.
-
- * When autoexitdirtoggle was off,PT didn't change the songname when you
- loaded a new song/module until you exit from disk op.
-
- * If you resampled a sample with big difference between the tunetone and
- the resampletone then the new length was incorrectly computed.
-
- * If you ran out of memory when allocating crunchbuffersize then ...
- software failure! This should work just fine now.
-
- * If you loaded a sample with a '.' in the samplename then PT set the
- length incorrectly in some cases.
-
- * Save module should work fine now.(another nasty bug is swept away!)
-
- * The Sampler works fine on ks2.0 (This version tests diskactivity
- before sampling, PT1.3 doesn't!) Source by Matrix/LSD.
-
- * The timer is updated when you play a song while jumping out to
- Workbench.
-
- * The Loopsprites are working fine with screenadjust.
-
- * Stepplay works fine now. Amiga+Backspace is gone though.
-
- * MIDI in functions are working now, I hope!
-
- * Inputhandler debugged a little.
-
- * ShowFreeDiskGadget debugged (again). Before it showed 2 sectors too
- much.
-
- * If you pressed the deletefile gadget and then pressed a directoryname
- in the list then the dir was added to the path but the directory wasn't
- opened. This is now fixed.
-
- * PrintSong now prints the patternlist with decimal values. It prints
- all patterns.(Older versions of PT missed to print the highest pattern)
-
- * I have implemented a chord maker.
-
- * I have implemented e Position-Editor.
-
- * On request, I have made ''multitasking'' like in PT1.3.
-
- * ProTracker has it's own screen. When the PT screen is in front of all
- other screens, PT will wake up.
-
- * The browse function is modified to act like PT1.3. It shows the
- current devices and disknames.
-
- * If you hold the right mousebutton while pressing the browsegadget a
-
- - Page 49 -
- 79. V2.2A
-
- disklist will pop up showing all the device- and disknames from the
- browsegadget in the filenamewindow. Pressing a name will autoload that
- directory.
-
- * If you press LeftShift+any key 0-9 a-z while in DiskOp, PLST or
- PresetEd, PT will move you to the position in the list with a name
- beginning with the corresponding character.
-
- * If you use MIDI I've added two new keys. A-2 and B-2 on the
- Synthkeyboard are used as SampleNumber Up/Down! I have also Transposed
- the MIDInotes input one octave down (because Dolphin has a small
- keyboard and couldn't access the upper octave,C#3 - B-3).
-
- * SaveExecutable option.
-
- * 9 new toggles.
-
- 80. V2.3A
-
- V2.3A (January 1993)
-
- * Mountlist in PLST is fixed. Before it asked for disks in all drives
- even if you didn't have extradrives.
-
- * Helpfile fixed. In the betaversion the jumptable was corrupt.
-
- * Pointer color was green after succesful saving. This one is fixed
- now.
-
- * In the betaversion you couldn't exit POS-ed with ESC.
-
- * PT shouldn't quit with ESC. This is fixed now. Use Alt+Q (This one has
- been there all the time) or click in the top-left corner to quit.
-
- * There was a bug in the Entry jump routine (Shift+Desired character) in
- Disk.op, PLST and PresetED. If you had directories in the current path
- PT jumped to the first DIRECTORY starting with the desired character
- instead of searching for the first FILE beginning with that character.
-
- * Some minor bugs fixed as well.
-
- 81. V3.00 BETA
-
- V3.00 BETA (January 1993) - Hires version
-
- Made by Cryptoburners, and based upon V1.3, and does therefore not
- contain the features of V2.1A - V2.3A.
-
- * PowerPacker support. Powerpacker.library must be present in the
- "sys:libs/" directory. Version needed: 35.000 or higher. It is however
- recommended that you have at least 1MB to use this feature with large
- modules.
-
- * Protracker rearranged to HIRES 640x256x3.
-
- * Format now works with dfx. Remember to specify which drive to format
- in the "path" string-gadget.
-
- * Midi has been kicked out (temporarily?).
-
- * "SpectrumAnalyzer" has been kicked out.
-
- * Protracker now works on Kickstart 2.04 and higher (SCS/ECS).
-
- * Memory display now displays all memorytypes.
-
- * Improved input handler. PT will now live peacefully with Commodities.
-
- - Page 50 -
- 81. V3.00 BETA
-
- We hope.
-
- * Invented new fileformat based on Interchanged File Format (IFF)
- chunks. See docs elsewhere on this disk for a discussion of this
- format.
-
- * Hold record mode; waits for keypress before starting to record.
-
- * New filerequester.
-
- * Screen to back gadgets. You may also use Left Amiga + M/N.
-
- * Standalone playroutine supporting Finetune etc. Not fast though :(
-
- * Some speedups in the SampleEd. It was awfully slow at marking in
- HIRES!
-
- * Scroll bars added here and there (but not everywhere ;)
-
- * New pointer! The old one was simply too big for the new resolution..
- :)
-
- * Setupscreen revised and merged into one.
-
- * Date and time online at mainscreen.
-
- * Task interferance problems fixed (Improved multitasking). No busy
- waits.
-
- * The dragging routine in the sampler draws pixels instead of lines when
- dragging.
-
- * Major rearranging on mainscreen; editor centered and some new buttons
- for editing, such as cut/paste, up/down octave etc.
-
- * You may now click into the different tracks with the left mousebutton!
- :o
-
- * Audio.device channel allocation, to ensure that other programs doesn't
- mess with your tunes in a multitasking environment.
-
- * Chords editor with up to 7 notes. (Hi JanneS :)
-
- * PT now hopefully works on KS3.0 in AGA mode too (Hi Vishnu).
-
- * The sampler works again! ;)
-
- 82. V3.01
-
- V3.01 (Unknown release date) - AM/FM release
-
- * Reads the devices mounted in the system instead of hardcoded ones.
-
- * "Free" gadget fixed.
-
- * Sample read/write fixed.
-
- * Now gets the directory automagically when one is entered in the
- pathgadget.
-
- * Fixed bug in chord editor. Sometimes caused division by zero.
-
- * Added adjust to chord editor; boosts the volume of the resulting
- sample to fit the original sample.
-
- * Screen adjust gadget is now working. :)
-
-
- - Page 51 -
- 82. V3.01
-
- * Bug in runback fixed.
-
- * CIA allocation failures are now displayed.
-
- * Tools gadget removed.
-
- * Short keys for setup-items caused the switches to be displayed on the
- main screen. Not anymore :)
-
- * Drumpad likewise.
-
- * Several smaller bugs fixed.
-
- * Added a gadget on the dirscreen for fast browsing through the file
- type options.
-
- * New icon on the out-of-memory requesters :o
-
- * Some new gadgets are working!
-
- * Minor graphical changes
-
- * Decimal numbers on samplelength and loops
-
- 83. V3.10 BETA
-
- V3.10 BETA (May 1993) - Amiga Format version
-
- * A new improved 7-note chord editor, recalculates loops.
-
- * Full compatibility with all existing OS versions including OS3.0
-
- * Better multitasking capabilities.
-
- * New sample edit options, includes Invert, Maximize, NormalDC,
- Normalize.
-
- * Mouse controlled editing made possible.
-
- * Added real VU-meters.
-
- * New configurable options:
- - Screen positioning.
- - Lace on/off for genlock users.
- - Multicached disk directories.
-
- 84. V3.14B
-
- V3.14B (Unknown release date) - DYN samples version
-
- * For the first time in Amiga history: Improved sound quality! Actual 14
- bit sound dynamics using a new and revolutionary algorithm. No
- additional add-ons required, furthermore, no extra storage usage. Fully
- compatible with traditional 8-bit Amiga sounds.
-
- * Reads and converts Maestro MONO 16-bit samples.
-
- * Info requester when reading IFF samples.
-
- * The "BlankZero" now also blanks empty effect commands and the extended
- command byte.
-
- 85. V3.15
-
- V3.15 (Unknown release date) - Bugfix version
-
-
-
- - Page 52 -
- 85. Known bugs
-
-
- 86. Known bugs
-
- If your copy of ProTracker shows some strange behaviour and you can't
- find it here, look in the Frequently Asked Questions section. It could
- be that it's not really a bug. If you can't find your case anywhere,
- please do contact the authors.
-
- * On A1200/A600 it is not possible selecting (or atleast very difficult)
- to select instrument $10-$1F using the keypad. This is our punishment
- for not using the system and may not be fixed for a while. 8(
-
- * ProTracker does not go on well with the debugging tool MungWall from
- Commodore. Temporary workaround is to quit MungWall before running
- ProTracker.
-
- * Very few screenblankers cooperate with ProTracker. If ProTracker locks
- up after 2-3 minutes, this could be it. Disable all screenblankers
- before running ProTracker. (SuperDark does work though!)
-
- * If you are using a hires-pointer on your Workbench, some gadgets, the
- pointer and the cursor will appear with half width.
-
- * On really fast machines (68030 30MHz or faster) some notes causes crap
- in the audiospeakers. This will (hopefully) soon be fixed.
-
- * When entering subdirectories in disk operations, some lines remain
- "selected". This is taken care of.
-
- * Earlier, you could change instrument-number without setting new notes,
- and chip-instruments (very short samples with loop) would automatically
- jump to the new sample. This no longer works after the implementation of
- DYN samples.
-
- * Playing the same note on two different channels may produce slightly
- different sound from time to time.
-
- * When editing the modulename from disk-operations, the first character
- of the name of instrument 1 is set to a "_".
-
- * Effect-command 9 (sample offset) doesn't give any sound if the desired
- offset is behind the end of the sample. Earlier, it did.
-
- * If ProTracker attempts to play a sample with 0 in replen (this is the
- case of some older modules) it will lock up.
-
- * Memory fragmentation occurs when starting PT twice from Icon.
-
- * Samples succeeding 32Kb are not displayed fully in the sample editor.
-
- * Keyrepeat sometimes don't stop in pattern editor. (Nasty!)
-
- * Saving samples sometimes chooses the wrong device to write to.
-
- * Turning off audio channels doesn't stop repeating instruments
- immediately.
-
- * Updating sample length when resampling/upsampling/downsampling.
-
- * At present time you must launch PT as a project icon from WorkBench,
- or from CLI. Tool icons will _hang_ your system!
-
- * Applications that do not allocate the timers properly, will cause the
- music to stop (eg. ProPlay). However, this is _not_ ProTrackers fault;
- PT allocates the used timers gently :) As you see this is not really a
- bug, but we just want kill potential "bug reports" in birth ;)
-
-
- - Page 53 -
- 86. Known bugs
-
- * When a DYN-sample is played by keys while song is playing, it will
- sound distorted.
-
- * If starting a song, notes with DYN-samples in the first line are not
- always played correctly.
-
- * Sample edit operations on DYN-samples will not work, but crash the
- system (sooner or later).
-
- * Using volume on DYN-samples creates awful distorted sounds.
-
- * When loading a new module, ProTracker doesn't set the lo-pass filter
- to the default value.
-
- * When clicking on the destination-gadget in the chords-edit, PT seems
- to select a random sample-number. This is ofcourse wrong.
-
- * When mixing samples, PT does not calculate the arpeggio-values to put
- in the samplename correctly if these are too high.
-
- * Writing values directly to sample length/repeat/replen does not always
- work.
-
- * Increasing sample-length using the up arrow is okay, but decreasing
- does not seem to work as desired.
-
- * The playtime-clock is halted when the Workbench screen is up.
-
- 87. Things we'll never implement
-
- * Splitting up each track of a pattern into a seperate "pattern",
- independent of the others. After having talked to many musicians, we all
- agreed this is all in vain. Nobody seems to be going to use it, due to
- the serious timing problems that will arise. Use SIDMON instead, if
- you're really anxious to use this feature ;)
-
- * 8 channels Protracker. The Amiga is designed for 4 voices, if this
- feature is to be implemented, the CPU has to mix the channels realtime,
- and will use all CPU DMA on lowend Amigas. Forget it. Use StarTrekker if
- you want it.
-
- * Intuition Protracker (using the system for creating the
- user-interface). Too much work :) maybe some sunny day...
-
- 88. Things we will implement
-
- * Implementation of the new IFF fileformat :) which includes:
- - Commands ranging from 0..0xFF (0..255). All commands that CAN run
- in parallel will do. Lotsa other commands (hi JanneS :).
- - 256 Positions.
- - 256 Patterns.
- - 256 Samples. (Higly wanted!)
- - Implement octave 0!
- - Maximum sample size from 64Kb to 128Kb. It's there, why not use it?
-
- * Digital filters and noise-reduction in the Sampler. Planned filters
- include Lowpass, Highpass and Bandpass (FIR filters). Perhaps Graphic
- Equalizer too.
-
- * Seek zero/loop in sampler.
-
- * Protracker.library for non-tech programmers wanting to use PT modules
- in their programs.
-
- * Separate position-editor.
-
- * Save module as executable.
-
- - Page 54 -
- 88. Things we will implement
-
-
- * Add icon to saved files.
-
- * Load samples/instruments/patterns from an existing module.
-
- * Freehand sample-editing.
-
- * ASDR editor for channel modulation.
-
- * Gain/Finished info when (Power)Packing.
-
- * Hypertext on-line help (a la Windows).
-
- * Serial comm. to other protrackers. (Synchronize playing)
-
- * A whole new range of DSP effects for your samples, including:
- - Low, high, band and allpass filters (IIR filters).
- - Comb filters.
- - Shelving low and high filters.
- - Multitap delay/feedback algorithms.
-
- * Bugfree functionality. (This one has low priority!) =)
-
- * Read (and save?) QuadraComposer (EMOD) modules.
-
- 89. Frequently asked questions
-
- If you have any questions that's not listed here, send them in.
-
-
-
- Q: Keyboard shortcuts with more than one key involved doesn't work as
- expected. I have an A1200 or A600.
-
- A: This is a known bug, and it's not much to do about it.
-
-
- Q: When I run the program xxx before starting ProTracker, my Amiga
- crashes.
-
- A: Don't run xxx.
-
-
- Q: When I launch ProTracker it always locks up after x minutes.
-
- A: You have a screenblanker running. Quit it before launching
- ProTracker.
-
-
- Q: I use the resample-function in the sampler, but the resulting sample
- is one or two octaves too high!
-
- A: Your tunetone setting is not C-3. ProTracker takes the tunetone
- setting into account when resampling.
-
-
- Q: Some of my chipmodules sounded strange on my new ProTracker.
-
- A: Some chip-modules rely on ProTracker changing the sample when setting
- a new samplenumber for a channel without specifying a new note. This
- worked earlier, but doesn't any longer.
-
-
- Q: Sometimes instrument 1 gets the first character of it's named
- replaced with a "_". Why?
-
- A: This happens when editing the modulename from disk operations and is
-
- - Page 55 -
- 89. Frequently asked questions
-
- a bug. Sorry.
-
-
- Q: I've got a module which my player regocnises as a ProTracker module,
- but ProTracker refuses to load it in (or crashes). Why?
-
- A1: The module utilises more than 64 patterns. These modules are created
- with ProTracker V2.1 - 2.3 by Noxious. It's not much to do about this
- until we've included support for these modules.
-
- A2: The module is severly damaged. Try to repair it using the
- TrackerTool command from DOS.
-
- A3: The module is packed with some bogus packer that ProTracker doesn't
- support. See the documentation for the player to find out which packer
- and get the packer to unpack the module.
-
-
- Q: I've got a module which makes the sample-display look phoney and
- distorts the length-display in the sample-editor. Why?
-
- A: Your module has samples longer than 65536 bytes. ProTracker does not
- support this at current.
-
-
- Q: I've got a module which gives a very high peeping sound at the end of
- some samples. Why?
-
- A: This module is either made on another platform (PC, Macintosh) or
- converted from some old module-formats. The trick is that ProTracker
- needs the 2 first bytes of each sample to be set to 0. This could either
- be done by zooming in, selecting the first 2 bytes and setting their
- volume to 0 or by cutting one byte at the end of the sample (this last
- action causes ProTracker to automatically reset the first two bytes).
-
-
- Q: I've got a module which makes ProTracker lock up when I attempt to
- play it. Why?
-
- A: Your module probably contains samples with replen set to 0. Set all
- of these to 2 and your module should be fine.
-
- 90. Thanks and acknowledgements
-
- The authors would like to thank and bring their acknowledgements out
- to:
-
- Lizard, all the guys at #amiga and #amigascne.
-
- 91. Contacting the authors
-
- Contact one of the authors if you have bugreports or any other
- suggestions.
-
- NOTE: There is no use contacting Cryptoburners for anything regarding
- ProTracker anymore since they have stopped developing it. I am therefore
- collecting all reports until someone continues the ProTracker or I can
- convince Cryptoburners to give me the source.
-
- E-Mail: (Preferably)
- havardp@mail.stud.ingok.hitos.no
-
- IRC: (Nice alternative)
- Nick: Howard or Howard_ or Howard__
- Channels: #amiga, #amigascne and #norge.
-
- Snailmail: (When all else fails...)
-
- - Page 56 -
- 91. Contacting the authors
-
- Håvard Pedersen
- Kvartsveien 175
- N-9022 KROKELVDALEN
- Norway
-
- Phone: (Voice rate)
- +(47) 77 63 13 34 (Håvard)
-
- 92. For the technical minded
-
- This chapter describes support files and other things needed to know
- when writing applications that handles ProTracker files.
-
-
- File formats
-
- ProTracker song/module format
- ProTracker IFF song/module format
-
-
- Sources
-
- Using the ProTracker play-routine
- Using the ProPruner play-routine
- Using the SoundFX sound-replay engine
- Using the PTCalcTime playtime calculator
-
-
- Support software
-
- The TrackerTool command
- ProPacker v2.1 by Christian Estrup
- PPRStrip and PPRSampler
-
-
- Miscellaneous
-
- CIA tempo calculation
- DYN-Samples
-
- 93. ProTracker song&module format
-
- PROTRACKER SONG/MODULE-FORMAT
-
- Offset Bytes Description
- ------ ----- -----------
- 0 20 Songname. Remember to put trailing null bytes at the
- end... Please do also remember that a module may have
- a 20-char name, which means that the string is not
- zero-terminated.
-
- 20 30 Sample information for sample 1 (See below)
-
- 50 30 Sample information for sample 2
-
- 80 30 Sample information for sample 3
- : :
- V V
- 890 30 Sample information for sample 30
-
- 920 30 Sample information for sample 31
-
- 950 1 Songlength. Range is 1-128.
-
- 951 1 Well... this little byte here is set to 127, so that
- old trackers will search through all patterns when
- loading. Noisetracker uses this byte for restart, but
-
- - Page 57 -
- 93. ProTracker song&module format
-
- we don't.
-
- 952 128 Song positions 0-127. Each hold a number from 0-63 that
- tells ProTracker what pattern to play at that position.
-
- 1080 4 Identifier data.
-
- Pro/Noise/Sound-Tracker "M.K."
- 100 pattern ProTracker v2.x "M!K!"
- StarTrekker 4-voice "FLT4"
- StarTrekker 8-voice (not compatible!) "FLT8"
- FastTracker 4-voice (maybe compatible) "CHN4"
- FastTracker 6-voice (not compatible!) "CHN6"
- FastTracker 8-voice (not compatible!) "CHN8"
- ProRunner processed (not compatible!) "SNT."
- Wanton packer (not compatible!) "WN"+0+crap
-
- I've read somewhere that NoiseTracker modules has the
- ID "M&K!", but this is not correct.
-
- If the identifier is not there, the text has maybe been
- removed to make the module harder to rip.
-
- 1084 1024 Data for pattern 0. he number of patterns stored is
- : : equal to the highest patternnumber in the song position
- V V table (offset 952-1079).
- ??? ???
-
- ??? ??? If the file is a module, the sampledata follows right
- after the patterndata. If not, this is the end. The
- samples are located from 1 through 31. Use the
- sampleinfo to find the start and end of each sample.
-
- Each DYN sample is followed by a longword with length
- of the DYN info, and then the DYN info itself. The
- format of the DYN info is not publically available yet.
-
-
-
- SAMPLE INFORMATION
-
- Offset Bytes Description
- ------ ----- -----------
- 0 22 Samplename. Pad with null bytes. See notes on
- modulename.
-
- 22 2 Samplelength. Stored as number of words. Multiply by
- two to get real sample length in bytes.
-
- 24 1 Lower four bits are the finetune value, stored as a
- signed four bit number. The upper nibble is set to a 1
- if this sample is a DYN sample.
- Value: Finetune:
- 0 0
- 1 +1
- 2 +2
- 3 +3
- 4 +4
- 5 +5
- 6 +6
- 7 +7
- 8 -8
- 9 -7
- A -6
- B -5
- C -4
- D -3
-
- - Page 58 -
- 93. ProTracker song&module format
-
- E -2
- F -1
-
- 25 1 Volume. Range is $00-$40, or 0-64 decimal.
-
-
- 26 2 Repeat point. Stored as number of words offset from
- start of sample. Multiply by two to get offset in
- bytes.
-
- 28 2 Repeat length. Stored as number of words in loop.
- Multiply by two to get replen in bytes.
-
-
-
- PATTERN FORMAT
-
- Each note is stored as 4 bytes, and all four notes at each position in
- the pattern are stored after each other.
-
- 00 - chan1 chan2 chan3 chan4
- 01 - chan1 chan2 chan3 chan4
- 02 - chan1 chan2 chan3 chan4
- etc.
-
- Info for each note:
-
- BIT# 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
- USE S7 S6 S5 S4 P11 P10 P9 P8 P7 P6 P5 P4 P3 P2 P1 P0
-
- BIT# 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
- USE S3 S2 S1 S0 E11 E10 E9 E8 E7 E6 E5 E4 E3 E2 E1 E0
-
- S7-S0 - Samplenumber.
- P11-P0 - Period of note.
- E11-E0 - Effect command.
-
- Periodtable for Tuning 0, Normal
- C-1 to B-1 : 856,808,762,720,678,640,604,570,538,508,480,453
- C-2 to B-2 : 428,404,381,360,339,320,302,285,269,254,240,226
- C-3 to B-3 : 214,202,190,180,170,160,151,143,135,127,120,113
-
- To determine what note to show, scan through the table until you find
- the same period as the one stored in byte 1-2. Use the index to look up
- in a notenames table. These periods are really for NTSC timing, but is
- used for both PAL/NTSC.
-
-
-
- This is the data stored in a normal module/song. A packed song starts
- with the four letters "PACK", and then comes the packed data.
-
- 94. ProTracker IFF song&modules
-
- Introduction
-
- The text below was intended to be the documentation on the fileformat
- used in ProTracker. However, we decided to wait with the actual
- implementation of the format until having released a couple of versions,
- because we'd like to hear some comments, suggestions etc. upon it first.
- So read it lightly, and feel free to post your opinion to one of the
- authors. Note that since this is only a suggestion, don't start
- programming a revolutionary new piece of code based on this info yet; we
- may change the format :)... Here we go...
-
- Fields marked "*Reserved*" are reserved for future use and are
- guaranteed to cause hangup if messed with.
-
- - Page 59 -
- 94. ProTracker IFF song&modules
-
-
-
- General
-
- With this release of Protracker we have decided to change the
- filestructure of the musicfiles produced with the program. We felt the
- old format was too obsolete, messy and out of date for us to use any
- further. So we invented this new format. The format is based upon
- Interchanged File Format (IFF) chunks, originally developed by
- Electronic Arts, but now in widely use on the Amiga. The format allows
- considerable flexibility and does not suffer too severly from changes
- and updates, and is therefore perfect for our use.
-
-
- The Format
-
- We will in this section introduce and describe each chunk type appearing
- in a Protracker music file. Look in the next section for the sequencial
- description.
-
- ** Contents of Chunk "VERS":
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- --------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "VERS" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 ???????? Chunk length (in bytes).
- 8 2 ???????? Version number (word).
- 10 6 "PT3.00" Version ID string.
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- This chunk is used by Protracker to identify the producer of the module,
- and if necessary perform upgrade-conversion if the file was made with a
- pre- vious version of Protracker. There can be at maximum one "VERS"
- chunk in a Protracker music file. This chunk is not critical; it may be
- obmitted, but be aware of the possible incompatibility problems that may
- arise if it's left out.
-
- ** Contents of Chunk "INFO":
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- -------------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "INFO" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 ???????? Chunk length (in bytes).
- 8 32 [..??..] Song name (string).
- 40 2 ???????? Number of instruments (word).
- 42 2 ???????? Number of positions (word).
- 44 2 ???????? Number of patterns (word).
- 46 2 ???????? Overall volume factor (word).
- 48 2 0006h Default speed (#VB) (word).
- 50 2 ???????? Packed field. See below.
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Protracker uses this chunk to set different internal variables, and to
- store vital information used in replay and processing of the file. The
- song name is a maximum 32 Chars long ASCII string. It need not be
- NULL-terminated. Number of instruments indicates the number of
- instruments used in the song, it may range from 0 to 65535. At present
- version number, however, there may be maximum 255 instruments in one
- song. Number of positions reflects the actual length of the song, that
- is; how many patterns that will be played during a complete cycle. This
- number may vary from 0 to 65535. Number of patterns, on the other side,
- reflects how many _different_ patterns that will be played during the
- song. This number is used to calculate the total length (in bytes) of
- the song. The Overall Volume factor is used to compute the final volume
- of all channels after the individual channel-volumes have been figured
- out. In this way it is easy to control the loudness of the music from
- the program/ song itself. Default speed is the number of VBlank frames
-
- - Page 60 -
- 94. ProTracker IFF song&modules
-
- between each pattern position change, and is as default set to 0006h.
- The packed field consists of these bits (right to left order):
-
- Bit Meaning 0 1 Def
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- 0 Filter flag. Filter off. Filter on. 0
- 1 Timing method. VBlank. CIA timing (BPM). 0
- 2 File type. Module. Song (no instruments). 0
- 3 Packstatus. Packed patterns. Raw patterns. 1
- 4 Length flag. Equal pattern length. Variable pattern length. 0
- 5 Voices flag. 4 voices. 8 voices. 0
- 6 Sample res. 8 bit. 16 bit. 0
- 7 *Reserved* x
- 8 *Reserved* x
- 9 *Reserved* x
- 10 *Reserved* x
- 11 *Reserved* x
- 12 *Reserved* x
- 13 *Reserved* x
- 14 *Reserved* x
- 15 *Reserved* x
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- There can be at most one "INFO" chunk in a Protracker musicfile. This
- chunk is vital; it _must_ be present for the replay routine to function
- properly.
-
- ** Contents of Chunk "INST":
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- ----------------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "INST" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 ???????? Chunk length (in bytes).
- 8 32 [..??..] Instrument name (string).
- 40 2 ???????? Length of instrument (word).
- 42 2 ???????? Instrument loop start (word).
- 44 2 ???????? Instrument loop length (word).
- 46 2 ???????? Instrument volume (word).
- 48 2 ???????? Instrument finetuning (integer).
- ----------------------------------------------------------
-
- The "INST" chunk is used to store information about an instruments
- properties, such as length and volume. The instrument name is a maximum
- 32 Chars long ASCII string. It need not be NULL-terminated. The Length
- field describes the length of the instrument (in words) and thus ranges
- from 0 to 128Kb (65535 words). Instrument Loop Start sets the offset
- from which to start playing after the first replay. This value may vary
- from 0 to the instrument length. Instrument Loop End sets the length of
- the loop to play after the first replay, relative to the loop start
- value. It may thus vary from 0 to [Ins_len-Loop_start]. Instrument
- volume indicates which volume to use in the replay of the sample, if the
- song doesn't say differently. This value varies between 0 and 40h.
- Instrument finetuning sets the sample-rate correction difference and
- varies from -7 to 7 (0fff9 to 0007h).
-
- There may be any number of "INST" chunks in a Protracker music file,
- limited to the number of instruments actually used in the song. This
- chunk is not vital; it may be left out if the song-only bit of the
- control word in the "INFO" chunk is set. Otherwise, it should result in
- an error.
-
- ** Contents of Chunk "PPOS":
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- --------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "PPOS" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 0ffh Chunk length (in bytes).
-
- - Page 61 -
- 94. ProTracker IFF song&modules
-
- 8 256 [..??..] Pattern position table.
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- This chunk contains the table defining which pattern to play in a given
- song- position. Each entry in the table is a byte indicating which out
- of 256 possible patterns to play. There may be at maximum one "PPOS"
- chunk in a Protracker musicfile. This chunk is vital; it _must_ be
- present to play the song.
-
- ** Contents of Chunk "PTRN":
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- --------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "PTRN" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 ???????? Chunk length (in bytes).
- 8 32 [..??..] Pattern name.
- 40 ? [..??..] Pattern data.
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- This chunk is used in a module of variable pattern length. The chunk
- must thus appear as many times as there are patterns in the song. The
- chunk length divided by 8 ( >>3 ) will show the pattern length (default
- 64). Pattern name is a 32 byte long ASCII string, describing the
- pattern, eg. "Intro part 3". It need not be NULL-terminated. This chunk
- is critical; it must be present in the file, or it will be regarded
- invalid. NOTE: This chunk is not in use in the present version (3.00B),
- and will be ignored if found.
-
- ** Contents of Chunk "SMPL":
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- ----------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "SMPL" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 ???????? Chunk length. (In bytes!)
- 8 ? [..??..] Raw sample data.
- ----------------------------------------------------
-
- The "SMPL" chunk contains the raw sample data of an instrument. This
- chunk is not critical; if the song-only bit of the "INFO" chunk is set,
- it may be obmitted. If, however, the file is a module, then the number
- of "SMPL" chunks in the file must be equal to or greater than the number
- of instruments used in the song. If not, the file will be regarded
- incomplete.
-
- ** Contents of Chunk "CMNT":
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- --------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "CMNT" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 ???????? Chunk length (in bytes).
- 8 ? [..??..] Raw ASCII text.
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- The "CMNT" chunk is used for a signature, comments, greetings, date of
- completion or whatever information the composer wishes to include with
- his or hers creation. This chunks is not critical; it may be left out
- and will typically be ignored by most applications.
-
- These are the chunks that may appear in a Protracker musicfile. If other
- chunks are encountered, they will be ignored. Any program dealing with
- this fileformat should perform tests to determine the validity of the
- file in consideration. Using the Protracker.library will guarantee
- correct handling of musicfiles, and we strongly encourage the use of
- this runtime shared library instead of hacking away on your own. Look
- elsewhere on this disk for the library documentation, the library can be
- found in the "LIBS/" directory.
-
-
- - Page 62 -
- 94. ProTracker IFF song&modules
-
- The sequential format ---------------------
-
- In this section we will describe how the various chunks are expected to
- be located within the file. These rules _must_ be followed or it will
- wreak havoc when tried manipulated with inside Protracker. Here comes
- the header in table form:
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- -----------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "FORM" Indicate start of IFF file.
- 4 4 ???????? File length.
- 8 4 "MODL" IFF type identifier.
- -----------------------------------------------------
-
- This header must be found in the start of the file, or it will be
- rejected as not being a Protracker musicfile. From offset 12 in the
- file, things may vary somewhat. The only rules are these: After a "INST"
- chunk a "SMPL" or a new "INST" chunk _must_ follow. This "SMPL" chunk
- will be regarded as the sample data of the instrument(s) preceding it.
- If after a "INST" chunk another "INST" chunk follows, and the
- module-flag in the "INFO" chunk is set, then all "INST" chunks following
- each other will share the same sampledata found in the first "SMPL"
- chunk after them. Also, all "INST" and "SMPL" chunks must be found in
- sequence. That is, when a "INST" chunk is found for the first time in a
- file, all other "INST" and "SMPL" chunks must follow. If this is not so,
- an error message should be given, and processing terminated. Note that
- in a song-only file, no "SMPL" chunks should be included. If any "SMPL"
- chunks are encountered in such a file, they should be ignored and a
- warning given. All other chunks used in a musicfile may be located
- anywhere in the file, usually in the beginning of it, but no assumptions
- of their locations should be taken. Note that all used chunks _must_ be
- found _before_ the "BODY" chunk, which is the last chunk to be found in
- the file. Searching for chunks should stop when encountering a "BODY"
- chunk. The "BODY" chunk is constructed like this:
-
- OFFSET Length Contents Meaning
- --------------------------------------------------
- 0 4 "BODY" Chunk identifier.
- 4 4 ???????? Chunk length (in bytes).
- 8 ? [..??..] Raw pattern data.
- --------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Chunk summary
-
- Now follows a list of the chunks that have meaning in a Protracker
- musicfile:
-
- Chunk Function Critical?
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
- VERS Contains information about the producer of the file. No
- INFO Contains vital information and standard settings. Yes
- INST Information about instruments: length, volume etc. Yes
- SMPL Raw sample data associated with one or more instruments. No
- PPOS Position table. Information about patternsequence. Yes
- CMNT Comments, greetings etc. in ASCII code. No
- PTRN Pattern data for modules with varying patternlengths. Yes
- BODY Pattern data for modules with equal patternlengths (def). Yes
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 95. Using the PT playroutine
-
- Normal usage
-
- The replay relies on you not turning on the audio DMA, as this is done
- when needed.
-
-
- - Page 63 -
- 95. Using the PT playroutine
-
- In order to get the replay working properly it needs to initialize
- itself. To make this happen, call PT_Init with a pointer to your module
- in A0.
-
- When this is done, everything is ready to go. Simply call PT_Music 50
- times a second to achieve music. This call assumes exclusive access to
- an OCS/ECS/AGA-compatible audio hardware located at $DFF000. It is safe
- to call both PT_Init and PT_End if your PT_Music-calls are done in an
- interrupt and your interrrupt is still enabled.
-
- When you're finished, you may call PT_End to ensure that all pending
- sound is removed.
-
-
- Mastervolume/balance
-
- In order for the mastervolume features of the replay to be enabled you
- must insert "PT__MasterVol = 1" somewhere in your source before the
- replay. You should, however, note that enabling the mastervolume
- features heavily slows down the replay.
-
- In order to adjust the mastervolume, you may call PT_SetMasterVol with
- the volume (a word) for the left channel in D0 (range 0-64) and the
- volume for the right channel in D1. The change takes place immediately.
-
-
- Overstep
-
- This is a strange word, which I generated myself when I couldn't find
- another word to describe this feature. The idea behind overstep is that
- the programmer should, in some way, be able to sense when the current
- module is finished in order to be able to load in another module or
- perform some other action based on this.
-
- In order to activate overstep, insert "PT__OverStep = 1" in your
- sourcecode. Overstep provides nearly no overhead.
-
- The byte PT_OverStep will be written with a 1 if a position jump
- occured, the module was halted, the end was reached or a fast forward
- hit the end. The value -1 may occur in this byte if a rewind was done in
- position 1.
-
- Please note that the replay itself never clears the byte PT_OverStep, so
- the programmer must do this himself when changes are sensed.
-
-
- Winding
-
- In order for the winding functions to be enabled, insert "PT__WindFuncs
- = 1" in your source. You may now call the functions PT_Forward and
- PT_Rewind to skip forward and backward one pattern at a time. The module
- loops correctly both at beginning and end.
-
- Please beware that if there are any position jump commands at the end of
- the current pattern when you do a PT_Forward or a position jump command
- just occured when doing a PT_Rewind, the positions may not be played in
- a correct order. Working around this is way to much work, so settle with
- it.
-
-
- CIA timing
-
- The replay does not do CIA timing itself, but has been extended with a
- small support forl the user to implement this. To enable the CIA-mode of
- the replay, insert "PT__CIA = 1" in your source.
-
- When CIA is enabled, the replay assumes the user to supply a function
-
- - Page 64 -
- 95. Using the PT playroutine
-
- called PT_SetIntRate wich is to be called with the CIA tempo in D0 and
- does not trash any registers. This function is called inside PT_Init and
- each time the module attempts to change the CIA tempo.
-
-
- 68020+ optimizations
-
- To enable the 68020+ optimizations, insert "PT__68020 = 1" in your
- source. The replay now uses a few 68020+ only instructions to gain some
- speed. These optimizations aren't much for now, but may increase in the
- future.
-
-
- NoiseTracker compatibility
-
- NoiseTracker is another tracker written by Mahoney and Kaktus which
- writes modules almost identical to the ones written by ProTracker. As of
- revision 2C, the ProTracker replay is capable of playing these modules
- with the extra 'quirks' of the NoiseTracker module-format. The
- NoiseTracker compatibility is on by default and may be disabled by
- inserting "PT__NTComp = 0" in your source.
-
- The NoiseTracker compatibility causes the replay to correctly play
- NoiseTracker vibrato and utilises the repeat-feature of NoiseTracker.
- This option uses nearly no (if any) extra CPU-time.
-
-
- DMA delay (advanced users)
-
- The well-known (and well-cursed) DMA wait is a small pause needed every
- time the Amiga's audio hardware is supposed to change from one sample to
- another. Commodore states that this delay should be equal to one
- raster-line.
-
- The ProTracker replay supports selecting this delay in order to save
- some CPU-usage. The default delay is 80, which fits to Commodore's
- recommendation. OctaMed by Teijo Kinnunen uses a delay equal to 64, and
- I guess he haven't had any problems with it. You are not allowed to
- specify a delay larger than 128.
-
- The set the delay, insert the line "PT__DMADelay = n" in your source,
- where n is the DMA delay you want. Please remember that this delay does
- NOT need to be larger on faster machines, as it's timed using the
- beam-position of the Amiga.
-
- 96. Using the PPR playroutine
-
- BACKGROUND
-
- The ProPruner playroutine is an attempt to make a replay that is
- significantly faster than the clean ProTracker replay. The ProPruner
- playroutine contains nearly all features that one can think of and is
- pretty fast. In order to achieve the extra speed, it needs the modules
- to be modified and saved in a special format. Currently, the ProPruner
- replay need ProPacker v2.1 modules and does some internal changes to
- these modules before playing them. The ProPacker v2.1 is made by
- Christian Estrup and is spread without his permission. For documentation
- on how to use the ProPacker, please read it's separate chapter. The
- program TrackerTool will soon be able to output ProPruner modules
- directly, so you won't need to use the ProPacker and the modules won't
- need to be altered by the replay before playing.
-
-
- BASIC USE OF THE PROPRUNER PLAYROUTINE
-
- The first thing to do when using the ProPruner CIA shell or Level 6
- timing is to fetch the vector base register and store in
-
- - Page 65 -
- 96. Using the PPR playroutine
-
- PPR_MainData+PPRM_VBR. The replay will then use it for compatibility on
- higher processors.
-
- In order to use the ProPruner playroutine, you have to initially call
- PPR_Init with A0 pointing to your module and A1 pointing to your
- samplefile if the use of a samplefile is enabled. When this is done, you
- call PPR_Music each vertical blank to achieve music. CIA timing is
- described separately later on. When you want to stop the music, call
- PPR_End. It is perfectly safe to call PPR_Init and PPR_End while your
- VBlank interrupt is still enabled.
-
- The function PPR_Init may also be used for restarting the module and all
- function trashes all registers except where else is stated. If
- noteplayers are disabled, the module must be in chip memory. If you use
- a separate samplefile, only the samplefile need to reside in chip
- memory.
-
- PPR_Init should not be called while a module is playing without first
- calling PPR_End.
-
-
- LEVEL 6 MODE
-
- You may have ProPruner use the level 6 (CIA timers) interrupt for DMA
- waiting in order to save cycles when playing modules. Keep in mind,
- though, that neither the timers nor the interrupt vector is allocated
- from the system, so this feature should only be used when all hardware
- resources are available. When level 6 mode is in use, you cannot figure
- out the rasterline usage by timing the PPR_Music call since some of the
- actual work is done in an interrupt which occurs a while after the
- PPR_Music call. Level 6 timing is enabled by setting PPR_Level6 to 1.
-
-
- SEPARATE SAMPLEFILES
-
- ProPruner supports separate samplefiles in order to save precious
- chip-memory and delta-processing. Delta-processing is currently only
- available when separate samplefiles are enabled. The samplefiles are
- extracted from modules using the PPRStrip and the PPRSampler commands.
- To enable the usage of separate samplefiles, set PPR_SampleFile to 1.
-
-
- PREDOUBLING
-
- This feature is hard to explain, but shortly it means that the module is
- preprocessed during init in order to achieve slightly faster replay.
- Since this processing may cause errors in some VERY large modules, it is
- possible to disable it. Predoubling is on as default and may be turned
- off by setting PPR_PreDouble to 0.
-
-
- MASTERVOLUME CONTROLS
-
- ProPruner's mastervolume system is a combination of balance and
- mastervolume. The mastervolume provides a small speed overhead and
- should therefore be left off if unused. If mastervolume is enabled, call
- PPR_SetMasterVol with mastervolume for left side in D0 and mastervolume
- for right side in D1. The range is 0-64. To enable mastervolume, set
- PPR_MasterVol to 1.
-
-
- DELTA-PROCESSED SAMPLEFILES
-
- Delta-processing is currently only supported for separate samplefiles.
- Delta-processing is an altering of the sample data in order to make them
- easier to compress. When delta-processing is enabled, the ProPruner
- playroutine will decode the sampledata back to their original form
-
- - Page 66 -
- 96. Using the PPR playroutine
-
- before starting the module. Delta-processing causes no changes to the
- final sound. With delta-processing enabled, the ProPruner replay will
- still handle module without delta-processing. To enable
- delta-processing, set PPR_Delta to 1.
-
-
- SELECTABLE FINETUNE
-
- The finetune option consumes both rastertime and space in the replay, so
- it is therefore advised to disable finetune if the replay is used to
- replay module(s) without finetune. The packer will inform you of wether
- the module uses finetune or not. To disable finetune, set PPR_Finetune
- to 0.
-
-
- CIA TIMING USING THE PROPRUNER PLAYROUTINE
-
- The ProPruner playroutine does not support CIA timing directly, but
- relies on the caller to provide the interrupt. If CIA timing is enabled,
- the user must himself allocate necessary resources and set up an CIA
- interrupt that calls PPR_Music. The playroutine will then call
- PPR_SetBPM with beats per minute in D0 each time the CIA tempo is
- supposed to change. The PPR_SetBPM function must be supplied by the
- caller and may only destroy D0 and D1. Please do also note that the
- Level6 function seldom works correctly when CIA mode is turned on. To
- enable the CIA mode, set PPR_CIA to 1.
-
-
- SELECTABLE 68020+ OPTIMIZATIONS
-
- The ProPruner can be assembled using special 68020+ optimizations, which
- may result in a slight rastertime usage decrease. The optimizations is
- mostly noticeable when powerpattern is disabled, but is always (to some
- extent) usable. To enable 68020+ optimizations, set PPR_68020 to 1.
-
-
- PAUSE/CONTINUE FUNCTIONS
-
- The ProPruner playroutine comes with selectable pause/continue
- functions. When these are enabled, PPR_Pause is used to pause the module
- and PPR_Continue is used for continuing the replay.
-
-
- REWIND AND FAST FORWARD FUNCTION
-
- Another feature of the ProPruner playroutine is the possibility to skip
- one position forward/backward in the module. When this possibility is
- enabled, PPR_Forward will skip one position forward in the module and
- PPR_Rewind skips one position backwards. If the module is at the
- beginning, ProPruner will automatically wrap to the end of the module.
- These function may cause overstep events and may miss position jumps!
-
-
- THE POWERPATTERN OPTIMIZATION
-
- The heart of ProPruner is the powerpattern feature. This is a way of
- storing the patterndata that differs slightly from both ProPacker (which
- ProPruner is based on) and ProTracker. PowerPattern should pose any
- problems but may be disabled by setting PPR_PowerPatt to 0.
-
-
- NOTEPLAYERS - WHAT?
-
- If the noteplayer feature is enabled, ProPruner itself won't bang
- straight on the hardware to play the sound, but will use supplied
- functions and macros for achieving sound. The macros are:
-
-
- - Page 67 -
- 96. Using the PPR playroutine
-
- PPRN_InitReg (Channel) - Is called to enable the noteplayer to set up A5
- pointing to a data area needed by the other macros to perform correctly.
- The argument "Channel" is in the range 0-3, thus making the selected
- channel the "current" channel.
-
- PPRN_KillSound - Has the sole purpose of killing the sound of all
- channels. This macro may be called without having A5 pointing to
- anything of significance.
-
- PPRN_KillCh - Kill all sound on the current channel.
-
- PPRN_TrigWave (Wavestart, Wavelen) - Causes the noteplayer to
- immediately start playing the selected wave and loops back to the start
- of the wave when the wave is through playing. Wavelen is given in number
- of words.
-
- PPRN_SetWave (Wavestart, Wavelen) - Does nearly the same as
- PPRN_TrigWave except that the wave is not started until the current wave
- has reached it's end.
-
- PPRN_SetVolume (Volume) - Sets the volume (range 0-64) for the current
- channel.
-
- PPRN_SetRate (Rate) - Sets the samplerate for the current channel.
-
- PPRN_SetMVolL (Volume) - Sets mastervolume for the left side. Range is
- 0-64. A5 is not initialized.
-
- PPRN_SetMVolR (Volume) - Sets mastervolume for the right side. Range is
- 0-64. A5 is not initialized.
-
- PPRN_Filter (State) - Attempts to change the status of the lo-pass
- filter. The noteplayer doesn't need to support this action.
-
- At the beginning if PPR_Music, the function PPRN_MakeSound is called.
- This function may be used for mixing and trigging the actual sound
- output. To enable noteplayer, set PPR_NotePlayer to 1.
-
- The noteplayer feature has not been debugged at all, so don't be
- surprised if it doesn't work. I would, however, be glad to hear about it
- anyway.
-
-
- SELECTABLE NUMBERS OF CHANNELS TO PLAY
-
- The ProPruner playroutine is able to play less than 4 channels in order
- to set the remaining channels free for soundeffects. This is especially
- useful in conjunction with the SoundFX soundeffect replay engine.
- Disabling channels effectively saves a huge amount of raster time and
- should therefore be used even when the last channels isn't in use when
- the module to replay has no notes on the last channels. To use this
- feature, simply set PPR_Channels to the number of channels to play.
-
-
- OBTAINING INFO FROM THE MODULE
-
- The ProPruner playroutine supports a effectcommand not supported by
- other replay, effectcommand 8 to send events to the replay. When the
- module issues for instance effect command 847, the byte
- PPR_MainData+PPRM_Msg will contain the hexadecimal number 47. The
- programmer is free to read this value at any time and take actions upon
- it.
-
-
- OVERSTEP EVENTS
-
- If the module has reached the end, the byte PPR_MainData+PPRM_RestFlag
-
- - Page 68 -
- 96. Using the PPR playroutine
-
- will be set to true (non-zero). The caller may then take proper actions,
- such as loading another module.
-
- 97. Using SoundFX
-
- WHAT IS SOUNDFX?
-
- SoundFX is a sound-effect engine that enables playing of 2 samples
- through one normal audio channel. The mixing is fairly fast and provides
- minimal overhead. Both samples must have the same samplerate and cannot
- be looped in current version. This is done to save CPU cycles when
- mixing.
-
-
- GENERAL USAGE
-
- Call SFX_Init with the samplerate in D0. Minimum values are 123 for PAL
- and 124 for NTSC. When using the fastmode (described below) only rates
- of 226/228 or higher are supported.
-
- Call SFX_SetVolume with volume (0-64) in D0 for adjusting the
- mastervolume. This is not set to default values and should therefore be
- done after the SFX_Init call.
-
- Call SFX_StartSound with D0 stating which channel-partition to play on
- (0 or 1 for now), A0 pointing to the sampledata (should be in fastmem if
- possible) and A1 pointing to the end if the sampledata (samplepointer +
- samplesize). The sampledata should be halved to avoid distortion. In
- assembly this may be done by issuing a LSR.B #1 on all bytes.
-
- Call SFX_End when the engine is not in use anymore. After this call,
- SFX_Init must be called before further sound effects may be generated.
-
- While the sampledata does not need to reside in chip, the SoundFX engine
- itself has to because of some buffers.
-
-
- SETTING THE BUFFERSIZE
-
- The buffersize tells SoundFX how many bytes to mix at a time. Changes to
- the sound (such as new samples) are only senced at the end of a buffer.
- Smaller buffers yields better response-times but provides more CPU
- overhead when starting the mixing while higher values does the opposite.
- The default setting of 1024 bytes should be sufficient. To change the
- buffersize set SFX__BuffSize to the number of bytes you wish the
- buffersize to be. Please note that the buffersize must be an even
- number.
-
-
- THE FASTMODE
-
- The fastmode provides a somewhat faster mixingscheme, but has worse
- audio output than the normal mode. When fastmode is active you can only
- use half the frequence of normal notes (rate 226/228 or higher) as
- normal. This mixing mode may produce high-frequency tones which may both
- distort the sound and destroy loudspeakers! To get rid of this quirk,
- enable the audio filter. In fastmode, however, the sampledata does not
- need to be halved. To enable fastmode, set SFX__FastMode to 1.
-
-
- DIFFERENT OUTPUT MODES
-
- The SoundFX engine at current supports two different output modes. To
- select one, set SFX__Mode to the number of your mode.
-
- (0) - Vertical blank. This mode is perhaps the most convenient one for
- games that destroys the OS and does not wish to set up audio interrupt
-
- - Page 69 -
- 97. Using SoundFX
-
- themselves. The engine relies on the user to call SFX_VBLHandle each
- vertical blank. All registers will be trashed. In this mode, the user
- must choose both buffersize and the replay rate so that one buffer takes
- exactly on frame to play. For help on how to calculate this, refer to
- the Hardware Reference Manual from Addison Wesley. For the rate 224, the
- samplebuffer should be set to 636 bytes.
-
- (1) - OS Audio interrupts. (Default) This mode uses the operating system
- to set up an audio interrupt which handles everything. The sound replay
- is transparent to the caller and the buffersize may be freely chosen.
-
- 98. Using PTCalcTime
-
- WHAT IS PTCALCTIME?
-
- PTCalcTime is a source that calculates the playtime of ProTracker
- modules. This source operates internally with 1/25000ths of a second
- and should therefore be very accurate.
-
-
- GENERAL USAGE
-
- Call the function PTCalcTime with the registers set up as follows:
-
- D0 - The songpos to start the module from. Normally, this should be 0.
-
- D1 - 25000th of a second to pass between each interrupt. This should
- normally be set to 25000/50.
-
- D2 - Set to 1 if the timing is CIA based. Otherwise, set to 0.
-
- A0 - Points to the ProTracker module.
-
- A1 - Points to four longwords that are used for storing the playtime.
- The first longword will contain hours, the next minutes, then seconds
- and finally 1/100 seconds.
-
- The function returns shortly, but might use up to 2-3 seconds on really
- slow Amigas.
-
- 99. The TrackerTool command
-
- What is TrackerTool?
-
- TrackerTool is a small DOS-command designed for performing certain tasks
- on modules, which is clearly beyond the scope of ProTracker itself. This
- tasks mainly involve repairing and converting modules. (Current output
- modes are only normal ProTracker modules, though.)
-
-
- Why use TrackerTool?
-
- If you've tried QuadraComposer, you may have found out that QC is not
- able to identify Noise/Pro-Tracker modules properly if their size is
- wrong. To make this problem even worse, some tools save 4 bytes extra on
- modules because of a bug in earlier replay-routines. In order to fix
- these modules you either load them one by one into ProTracker (if
- they're not too damaged for ProTracker to recognize them!) and save them
- back to disk or you could use TrackerTool.
-
-
- How to use TrackerTool?
-
- The template for TrackerTool is:
-
- TrackerTool SOURCE=FROM/A,ALL/S,VERBOSE/S,UPDATE=UD/S,WRITE=TO
-
-
- - Page 70 -
- 99. The TrackerTool command
-
- SOURCE may be a file (ex: "mod.jugux"), a directory (ex: "modules/") or
- a wildcard (ex: "mod.eat#?").
-
- ALL specifies that subdirectories is entered recursively.
-
- VERBOSE will cause TrackerTool to print a lot of useless information
- about what it actually does. If TrackerTool shows strange behaviour,
- enable VERBOSE in order to find out what actually goes wrong.
-
- UPDATE specifies that the original module(s) are to be overwritten with
- the repaired module(s).
-
- WRITE specifies a path to write the repaired module(s) to.
-
- For repairing all modules on you device XST-00: you would write:
-
- TrackerTool XST-00: ALL UPDATE
-
- Or repairing all modules in the current directory starting with an "a"
- and write the repaired modules to RAM: you would write:
-
- TrackerTool mod.a#? WRITE RAM:
-
-
- Anything more to tell me?
-
- Since the main reason for using TrackerTool (at current) is repairing
- possibly damaged modules, TrackerTool does no attempt to identify the
- specified file(s). Because of this, you must NEVER run TrackerTool on
- any files that are not 31-instrument tracker modules. This includes text
- files, IFF pictures and 15 INSTRUMENT TRACKER MODULES! If you attempt
- this, your Amiga might crash with a horrible wail and if used in
- conjunction with the UPDATE keyword, you will probably lose your files.
-
- TrackerTool does, however, support up to 256 patterns, DYN samples and
- 128 Kb long samples without problems.
-
- 100. ProPacker v2.1
-
- READ FIRST!
-
- ProPacker is needed to generate the modules for the ProPruner
- playroutine. The ProPacker v2.1 is written by Christian Estrup and is
- spread without his permission. What follows here are the original docs,
- only slightly adjusted to fit the guidelines for this AmigaGuide
- document. Some parts of the doc concerning the replay has been cut out.
- Do also note that the ProPacker does not support being started from the
- Workbench, but must be started from CLI/Shell.
-
-
- PREFACE
-
- Pro-Packer 2.1 is Freely Distributable. This means, that the program may
- be freely distributed (!), as long as the replayer and this docfile are
- included. NO money WHATSOEVER may be made from selling Pro-Packer 2.1.
- Public Domain companies and their likes, who want to sell this program,
- have to get a special, written permission from me. You will find my
- address at the bottom of this doc-file.
-
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
- Pro-Packer 2.1 enables you to pack your ProTracker-modules (and
- compatibles). It comes with a replayer, which is able to play the packed
- modules a lot faster than the original PT-replay-routine.
-
-
-
- - Page 71 -
- 100. ProPacker v2.1
-
- THE PACKER
-
- Using the packer is fairly easy. To load a module, just click in the
- load gadget (surprise). You will then see the familiar (?) req.library
- file-requester. (This means, of course, that you need req.library to run
- the packer!)
-
- When you've selected a module, it will automatically be packed. When
- packing is finished, the packer will show you the length of the packed
- module. The packer will also tell you, whether or not the module uses
- finetune (see 'The Replayer' about this).
-
- To save the packed module, just click in the save gadget (easy, isn't
- it?), and you'll see the file-requester again. Select a filename, and
- you're done...
-
-
- COPYRIGHTS
-
- req.library is (C) 1989 by Bruce Dawson and Colin Fox.
-
- 101. PPRStrip & PPRSampler
-
- WHAT ARE THESE?
-
- PPRStrip and PPRSampler are commands used for handling the generation of
- separate samplefiles for use with the ProPruner replay routine. These
- commands was originally thrown together for personal use, but should
- nevertheless be bugfree as they have been thoroughly tested. Both these
- commands needs OS 3.0+ to work.
-
-
- PPRSTRIP
-
- PPRStrip is used to strip the sampledata from ProPacker v2.1 modules.
- The only argument supported is the filename, so the original module will
- be overwritten.
-
-
- PPRSAMPLER
-
- PPRSampler is used for generating a samplefile from a ProTracker module.
- The command supports three arguments:
-
- SOURCEFILE - The complete path and filename of a ProTracker module. This
- file will only be read and not changed in any way.
-
- DESTINATIONFILE - The filename of the samplefile to generate.
-
- DELTA - This is a keyword which, if present, causes PPRSampler to
- delta-process the sampledata. Look in the documentation of the ProPruner
- playroutine for information on delta-processing.
-
- 102. CIA tempo calculation
-
- CIA TEMPO ISSUES
-
- Fcolor = 4.43361825 MHz
- (PAL color carrier frequency)
- CPU Clock = Fcolor * 1.6 = 7.0937892 MHz
- CIA Clock = Cpu Clock / 10 = 709.37892 kHz
- 50 Hz Timer = CIA Clock / 50 = 14187.5784
- Tempo num. = 50 Hz Timer*125 = 1773447
-
- For NTSC: CPU Clock = 7.1590905 MHz --> Tempo num. = 1789773
-
- To calculate tempo we use the formula: TimerValue = 1773447 / Tempo The
-
- - Page 72 -
- 102. CIA tempo calculation
-
- timer is only a word, so the available tempo range is 28-255 (++). Tempo
- 125 will give a normal 50 Hz timer (VBlank).
-
- A normal ProTracker VBlank song tempo can be calculated as follows: We
- want to know the tempo in BPM (Beats Per Minute), or rather quarter-
- notes per minute. Four notes makes up a quarternote. First find
- interrupts per minute:
-
- 60 seconds * 50 per second = 3000
-
- Divide by interrupts per quarter note = 4 notes * speed
- This gives: Tempo = 3000/(4*speed)
- simplified: Tempo = 750/speed
-
- For a normal song in speed 6 this formula gives: 750/6 = 125 BPM
-
- 103. DYN Samples
-
- DYN SAMPLES
-
- Normal 8 bit samples are in most cases not "real" 8 bit samples, since
- the waveform very rapidly moves towards the zero line, i.e., amplitude
- zero. It then oscillates between values of, let's say, -5 to +5 or even
- worse, between -2 and +2, very often even between 0 and 1. Only the very
- first part of the sample, the attack, is in the nominal 8 bit range, the
- rest is more or less in 1 to 4 bit resolution only! Considering the
- dependance of "1 bit = 6 db", the amiga has a signal/noise ratio of 48
- db. This is not very good, even low budget tape recorders have a better
- S/N ratio. Of course, only 16 bit systems like CD players or DAT
- recorders really reach 96 db (16 bit -> 16*6 => 96), but the amiga is
- clearly at the botton of the list. So if we have an effective 1 to 3 bit
- resolution, the S/N ratio is as bad as 6 to 20 db :-(
-
- If you ever wondered why your sampler produces noise even when sampling
- directly from a CD, it is not your samplers fault. It is the 8 bit
- resolution, which is not really an 8bit resolution! Same is true if you
- take very high quality 16 bit samples (yes, some privileged or stupidly
- rich people have access to 16bit samples :-) and convert them to 8 bit
- by using the higher 8 bit. The sound quality is very surprisingly not
- much better (is it better?) than with a good 8bit sampler.
-
- This fact is known, everybody tries to compensate it. Some people do it
- by sampling far above 0 db level, which leads to a cutoff of the peaks
- in the attack phase of the sample. Some kind of sounds allow this rather
- rude technique, especially percussive sounds like bassdrum or snare,
- also basses sometimes. Many people do this also on other sounds (Hi Jim!
- ;-) to get "loud" samples. Clearly, this improves the sound quality at
- the end of the samples. It is more or less a matter of trial and error
- to get good samples this way, but as a workaround, I think this is a
- valid method.
-
- Ok, so far concerning the situation of today's amiga sampling. But now
- to the DYN system (finally :)
-
-
-
- HOW DYN WORKS
-
- It utilizes 16 bit samples which are converted to special 8 bit samples.
- The 16 bit sample is divided into "parts", which are normalized to 0 db.
- 0 db means optimal recording condition, i.e. full usage of the 8 bit
- range. The amplificiation factors of each part are stored. On replay,
- the amiga hardware volume registers are set to compensate the
- amplification of each part, which then reproduces the original signal.
- The result is, that the sample data are always kept in the full 8 bit
- range, which leads to significantly less noise, especially on fading
- samples, samples with reverb, or any sample with a considerable dynamic
-
- - Page 73 -
- 103. DYN Samples
-
- volume change. Since the effective resultion changes dynamically between
- 8 and 14(!) bit, I called the system DYN, for sake of a short,
- describing name.
-
-
-
- TECHNICAL DETAILS
-
- The volume has to be altered while the sample is playing. It must be
- changed very accuratly between the different parts. The only way to
- realize this is by using the audio-interrupts. This was quite tricky,
- since there is no (good) documentation available concerning the
- programming of the audio-interrupts. However, to certain extent it works
- now, so I am happy. :-)
-
- The DYN samples themselves are stored as normal IFF 8bit samples, plus
- an additional DYN chunk holding the information about the volumes each
- part must be played with, and the length of each part. The structure of
- a DYN chunk is described somewhere in the source. :-)
-
-
-
- RESTRICTIONS OF THE DYN SYSTEM
-
- Creation of DYN samples - First, it is difficult to create dyn samples.
- One needs 16 bit samples to start with, not so easy for everyone of us.
- The only one existing conversion program, called "DoDyn", is an ugly CLI
- program which eats a lot of parameters, but has no GUI yet :-( One needs
- several tries to get part lengths which do not produce clicking when the
- part volumes are changed. A more intelligent DoDyn is needed!
-
- Volume restrictions - Imagine a sample with a volume sequence like
- 64-10-5-3-1-1-1 (very typical!). If you play this sample with volume 32,
- you get either 32-5-2-1-0-0-0 (very bad) or you get 32-5-2-1-1-1-1
- (better, but still not very good.). The volume ratios are distorted now,
- the amplitude envelope will not be the one of the original 16 bit
- sample. This is a result of the intrinsic volume changes, no way to
- overcome that. It is a question of DoDyn parameters, for example, not to
- allow amplifications which lead to volumes less than 4 when played with
- volume 64. this would look like 64-10-5-4-4-4-4 then, played with volume
- 32 giving 32-5-2-2-2-2 which is not so bad, but the max. resolution
- imporovement would be to 12 bit only. Thats why I called the DYN system
- also the "12 bit system".
-
- Summarizing, playing dyn samples at low volumes can lead to distortion,
- because the original different volumes will get more or less the same.
-
- Handling - Dyn samples cannot be modified easily regarding length. It is
- possible, but it needs enourmous efforts to keep track when cutting or
- inserting to the sample, since the DYN part table must be adapted. There
- is a limit for the length of parts! Each part must be long enough to
- last over the DMA wait, for example. The DMA needs some time to copy the
- data to the internal registers, so the interrupts must not come to
- frequently. Therefore, handling of DYN samples is not very comfortable.
-
- Timing - When a sample is played on 16 khz (around C-3), there are only
- 320 sample points played in a 50 Hz (20 ms) frame, which is not much. It
- means, that every scan line, another point is played. The hardware
- always eats 2 points at once, so every 2 rasterlines, there is a change.
- The Dyn interrupt itself lasts ca. one 4th of a rasterline. There can be
- 4 interrupts which want to act at the same time, and it is clear that
- they are not allowed to interrupt each other, so they have to wait until
- the one before is ready. Since the soundroutine, running with CIA timer,
- may not interrupt the audio-interrupts (which have a lower priority,
- btw), the timing will be not *that* exact, but the largest delay between
- each music routine frame will be about 1 rasterline only, therefore
- negliable.
-
- - Page 74 -
- 103. DYN Samples
-
-
- For those who think, the interrupts could probably miss the part
- changes, don't worry about that. The interrupts DO NOT come after a part
- is played, but after the data are copied into the internal registers by
- the audio hardware. The data of the next part are played by the hardware
- automatically, so the correct sequence of the parts is granted. BUT, and
- now comes the BUT, the VOLUME is set by the interrupts at the time the
- interrupts come! What the interrupts do, is setting the volume into the
- audio volume register, which is NOT buffered, but a "direct" register!
- Because of the buffering of the DMA registers, the interrupts set the
- volume of the previous part which was set into the hardware concerning
- part start and part length. This is the crucial point. Now, an interrupt
- really can come too late concerning the volume. It can be too late for
- the time of 3 interrupts, because the first thing the interrupt does, is
- setting the volume of the previous part, which is now played (assuming
- the special case, all four interrupts want to come at the same time). If
- the part volumes do big jumps, it can happen that some points of the new
- part are still played with the old volume, which is definitely too loud.
- There is no solution for this problem, but there is a workaround. It is
- up to DoDyn not to allow big volume jumps, so the annoying clicking is
- not that bad.
-
- However, the chance to have interrupts waiting is almost negligable.
- Normally, the partlengths of different samples differ quite much, and
- you play them at different frequencies, so the interrupts should never
- have to wait. You can force this problem to appear by playing the same
- dyn sample at all 4 channels at the same frequency.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
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-
- - Page 75 -
- 103. DYN Samples
-
-
- 104. INDEX of sections
-
- Adjust tempo effect command .................................. 30. 22
- Arpeggio effect command ...................................... 27. 48
- Chronicles and anecdotes ..................................... 38. 18
- CIA tempo calculation ........................................ 71. 52
- Contacting the authors ....................................... 55. 48
- Cut note miscellaneous effect command ........................ 32. 54
- Delay note miscellaneous effect command ...................... 33. 1
- Delay pattern miscellaneous effect command ................... 33. 16
- Development and progress ..................................... 38. 28
- Disk operations .............................................. 17. 63
- DYN Samples .................................................. 72. 15
- Effect commands .............................................. 27. 17
- Fine volumslide down miscellaneous effect command ............ 32. 42
- Fine volumslide up miscellaneous effect command .............. 32. 30
- Fineslide down miscellaneous effect command .................. 30. 66
- Fineslide up miscellaneous effect command .................... 30. 52
- For the technical minded ..................................... 56. 7
- Frequently asked questions ................................... 54. 24
- Gadgets ...................................................... 2. 37
- Glissando control miscellaneous effect command ............... 31. 12
- How to create music using PT ................................. 34. 59
- How to start ProTracker ...................................... 2. 30
- Introduction ................................................. 1. 40
- Invert loop miscellaneous effect command ..................... 33. 28
- Keyboard ..................................................... 24. 38
- Keyboard percussion .......................................... 34. 28
- Known bugs ................................................... 51. 65
- Legal mush ................................................... 2. 3
- Main screen - Chord editor ................................... 11. 0
- Main screen - Edit gadgets ................................... 11. 43
- Main screen - Edit options ................................... 7. 40
- Main screen - Filter editor .................................. 11. 38
- Main screen - Sample edit .................................... 8. 48
- Main screen - Sample section ................................. 6. 25
- Main screen - Song section ................................... 4. 45
- Main screen - Various ........................................ 3. 3
- Miscellaneous ................................................ 38. 7
- Nice to know ................................................. 24. 12
- Other tracker-clones ......................................... 39. 65
- Pattern break effect command ................................. 30. 6
- Pattern loop miscellaneous effect command .................... 31. 57
- Patterns ..................................................... 35. 44
- Pointer colors ............................................... 24. 25
- Position jump effect command ................................. 29. 47
- Position table ............................................... 36. 25
- PPRStrip & PPRSampler ........................................ 71. 20
- ProPacker v2.1 ............................................... 70. 36
- ProTracker documentation ..................................... 1. 0
- ProTracker IFF song&modules .................................. 58. 51
- ProTracker song&module format ................................ 56. 39
- Requesters and I/O ........................................... 33. 43
- Retrig note miscellaneous effect command ..................... 32. 17
- Sample offset effect command ................................. 29. 23
- Sampler - Main ............................................... 20. 30
- Sampler - Volume requester ................................... 23. 35
- Samples ...................................................... 36. 54
- Set filter miscellaneous effect command ...................... 30. 37
- Set finetune miscellaneous effect command .................... 31. 41
- Set volume effect command .................................... 29. 61
- Setup screen - Flags ......................................... 15. 65
- Setup screen - Miscellaneous ................................. 13. 12
- Slide down effect command .................................... 28. 11
- Slide up effect command ...................................... 27. 62
- Standard paths ............................................... 34. 10
-
- - Page 76 -
- 104. INDEX of sections
-
- Thanks and acknowledgements .................................. 55. 41
- The TrackerTool command ...................................... 69. 39
- Things we will implement ..................................... 53. 43
- Things we'll never implement ................................. 53. 27
- Toneportamento and volumeslide effect command ................ 28. 51
- Toneportamento effect command ................................ 28. 24
- Tremolo control miscellaneous effect command ................. 32. 1
- Tremolo effect command ....................................... 29. 8
- Using PTCalcTime ............................................. 69. 10
- Using SoundFX ................................................ 68. 2
- Using the PPR playroutine .................................... 64. 44
- Using the PT playroutine ..................................... 62. 59
- V0.89 BETA ................................................... 42. 21
- V1.0A ........................................................ 42. 34
- V1.0B ........................................................ 42. 40
- V1.0C ........................................................ 43. 6
- V1.1A ........................................................ 43. 20
- V1.1B ........................................................ 45. 41
- V1.2 ......................................................... 46. 3
- V1.2C ........................................................ 46. 9
- V1.3B ........................................................ 46. 18
- V1.8 ......................................................... 46. 56
- V2.0 ......................................................... 46. 65
- V2.1A ........................................................ 47. 6
- V2.2A ........................................................ 48. 5
- V2.3A ........................................................ 49. 16
- V3.00 BETA ................................................... 49. 40
- V3.01 ........................................................ 50. 46
- V3.10 BETA ................................................... 51. 23
- V3.14B ....................................................... 51. 45
- V3.15 ........................................................ 51. 61
- Version history .............................................. 41. 33
- Vibrato and volumeslide effect command ....................... 28. 63
- Vibrato control miscellaneous effect command ................. 31. 25
- Vibrato effect command ....................................... 28. 38
- Volume slide effect command .................................. 29. 35
- What is a module? ............................................ 35. 3
- What is DYN samples? ......................................... 34. 45
- What is ProTracker? .......................................... 1. 49
-
- 105. INDEX of keywords
-
- 3 + A ........................................................ 27. 30
- 4 + A ........................................................ 27. 31
- accurate timing .............................................. 14. 50
- authors ...................................................... 2. 26
- Break pattern ................................................ 27. 30
- C-Command .................................................... 36. 8
- cheating ..................................................... 34. 51
- Chord editor ................................................. 2. 50
- Chronicles and anecdotes ..................................... 38. 12
- CIA tempo calculation ........................................ 56. 37
- command 1 .................................................... 28. 18
- contact the authors .......................................... 1. 36
- Contacting the authors ....................................... 38. 17
- Cut note ..................................................... 27. 44
- Delay note ................................................... 27. 45
- Delay pattern ................................................ 27. 46
- Disk operation screen ........................................ 6. 24
- Disk operations .............................................. 2. 63
- disk operations screen ....................................... 17. 17
- disk operations, ............................................. 52. 26
- disk-operations .............................................. 52. 37
- disk-operations screen ....................................... 39. 39
- DYN sample ................................................... 57. 33
- DYN samples .................................................. 35. 42
- DYN sound .................................................... 39. 45
-
- - Page 77 -
- 105. INDEX of keywords
-
- DYN technical chapter ........................................ 1. 33
- DYN-sample ................................................... 53. 0
- DYN-samples .................................................. 53. 3
- E4x .......................................................... 28. 49
- E7- .......................................................... 29. 21
- Edit gadgets ................................................. 2. 52
- Edit options ................................................. 2. 48
- edit-gadgets ................................................. 39. 39
- Effect commands .............................................. 24. 20
- effect-command ............................................... 36. 4
- Effect-command 9 ............................................. 52. 40
- F command .................................................... 4. 35
- Filter editor ................................................ 2. 51
- Fineslide pitch down ......................................... 27. 42
- Fineslide pitch up ........................................... 27. 41
- Fineslide volume down ........................................ 27. 43
- Fineslide volume up .......................................... 27. 42
- Flags ........................................................ 2. 58
- For the technical minded ..................................... 1. 25
- Frequently asked questions ................................... 38. 16
- Frequently Asked Questions section ........................... 52. 4
- Gadgets ...................................................... 1. 21
- Glissando control ............................................ 27. 43
- How to create music using ProTracker ......................... 1. 23
- How to start ProTracker ...................................... 1. 48
- inform us .................................................... 1. 39
- Introduction ................................................. 1. 20
- Invert loop .................................................. 27. 47
- Jump to position ............................................. 27. 28
- Keyboard percussion .......................................... 24. 23
- Keyboard shortcuts ........................................... 24. 19
- Known bugs ................................................... 38. 13
- launch PT .................................................... 52. 59
- Legal mush ................................................... 1. 47
- Main ......................................................... 3. 1
- main screen .................................................. 13. 17
- Miscellaneous ................................................ 1. 24
- Nice to know ................................................. 1. 22
- None/arpeggio ................................................ 27. 25
- normal portamento down ....................................... 31. 7
- normal portamento up ......................................... 30. 59
- normal volumeslide ........................................... 32. 37
- Pattern loop ................................................. 27. 46
- patternbreak effect command .................................. 35. 55
- Patterns ..................................................... 35. 0
- Pointer colors ............................................... 24. 18
- Position-table ............................................... 35. 1
- PPRStrip and PPRSampler ...................................... 56. 32
- PPRStrip and the PPRSampler .................................. 65. 38
- ProPacker v2.1 ............................................... 64. 54
- ProPacker v2.1 by Christian Estrup ........................... 56. 31
- ProPruner .................................................... 71. 26
- ProTracker development and progress .......................... 38. 25
- ProTracker IFF song/module format ............................ 56. 17
- ProTracker song/module format ................................ 56. 16
- ProTracker version history ................................... 38. 27
- ProTracker-relevant clones ................................... 38. 26
- replen ....................................................... 52. 43
- Requesters and I/O ........................................... 24. 21
- Retrig note .................................................. 27. 41
- Sample edit .................................................. 2. 49
- Sample edit operations ....................................... 53. 6
- sample editor ................................................ 52. 48
- Sample offset ................................................ 27. 26
- Sample section ............................................... 2. 47
- sampler ...................................................... 9. 52
- Sampler screen ............................................... 7. 39
-
- - Page 78 -
- 105. INDEX of keywords
-
- Samples ...................................................... 35. 2
- select instrument ............................................ 52. 9
- send them .................................................... 41. 50
- separate chapter ............................................. 64. 57
- Set finetune ................................................. 27. 45
- Set low-pass filter .......................................... 27. 40
- Set speed .................................................... 27. 32
- Set volume ................................................... 27. 29
- Setup Screen ................................................. 6. 3
- setup-screen. ................................................ 35. 64
- Slide pitch down ............................................. 27. 27
- Slide pitch up ............................................... 27. 26
- slide the volume ............................................. 28. 59
- Slide volume ................................................. 27. 27
- sliding the volume ........................................... 36. 19
- Song section ................................................. 2. 46
- speed of the song ............................................ 29. 45
- Standard paths ............................................... 24. 22
- starting PT .................................................. 52. 46
- the three gadgets ............................................ 36. 44
- The TrackerTool command ...................................... 56. 30
- Things we will implement ..................................... 38. 15
- Things we'll never implement ................................. 38. 14
- tone-portamento .............................................. 31. 19
- Toneportamento ............................................... 27. 28
- TrackerTool .................................................. 64. 58
- Tremolo ...................................................... 27. 32
- Tremolo control .............................................. 27. 47
- tunetone setting ............................................. 54. 52
- Using the ProPruner play-routine ............................. 56. 23
- Using the ProTracker play-routine ............................ 56. 22
- Using the PTCalcTime playtime calculator ..................... 56. 25
- Using the SoundFX sound-replay engine ........................ 56. 24
- V0.89 BETA ................................................... 41. 65
- V1.0A ........................................................ 41. 66
- V1.0B ........................................................ 42. 0
- V1.0C ........................................................ 42. 1
- V1.1A ........................................................ 42. 2
- V1.1B ........................................................ 42. 3
- v1.2 ......................................................... 39. 14
- V1.2C ........................................................ 42. 5
- V1.2D ........................................................ 42. 6
- V1.2E ........................................................ 42. 7
- V1.2F ........................................................ 42. 8
- V1.3A ........................................................ 42. 9
- v1.3A and v1.3B .............................................. 39. 16
- V1.3B ........................................................ 42. 10
- V1.8 ......................................................... 42. 11
- v2.0 ......................................................... 39. 14
- v2.1A ........................................................ 39. 26
- V2.2A ........................................................ 42. 14
- v2.3a ........................................................ 39. 27
- v3.0 ......................................................... 39. 28
- V3.00 BETA ................................................... 42. 16
- V3.01 ........................................................ 42. 17
- v3.10 ........................................................ 39. 44
- V3.10 BETA ................................................... 42. 18
- V3.14B ....................................................... 42. 19
- V3.15 ........................................................ 42. 20
- Various ...................................................... 2. 45
- version history .............................................. 1. 35
- Vibrato ...................................................... 27. 29
- Vibrato control .............................................. 27. 44
- Volume requester ............................................. 3. 2
- What is a module? ............................................ 34. 66
- What is DYN-samples .......................................... 24. 24
- What is ProTracker? .......................................... 1. 46
-
- - Page 79 -
- 105. INDEX of keywords
-
-