.net 1999 December/netCD65.iso/pc/Software/Studio/demogold.exe/%MAINDIR%/Gold_FAQ.txt

Text File | 1999-10-11 | 18.3 KB | 356 lines

Frequently Asked Questions.

Sound Studio Gold FAQs

Q.    What does FAQ stand for?!
A.    FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions.

Q.    What is the easiest method to get started to record a simple song?
A.    Follow the quickstart guide below!

1.    Load Sound Studio Gold.  Move your mouse to where it says "File"
at the top left hand side of the screen.  Choose "Open", and open the
tutor.sng file which is in the Demo Songs directory.

2.    The song will appear in the track window. Click on the play button
on the transport bar at the bottom of the screen. We will now create a
similar song by using some of the easy music tools of Gold.
If you cannot hear any sound, please go to section 3. Failing that, read
the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section of the help file and then carry
on with this quickstart guide.

3.    Using the mouse, move the pointer to where it says "Settings" at the
top of the screen and click with the left mouse button. Select the "Devices"
option. In the Outputs column, click on one of the driver names and then
click on OK. Play the song again. If you now hear the music, go on to
section 4, if not, repeat the process until you select a MIDI driver that
plays music.

4.    Move your mouse to the file menu again, and choose the "New" option.
This will give us a clean page to start working in. First of all we will
insert a simple chord sequence.

5.    Move your mouse pointer so that it is next to the style box
(it should display "Rock & Roll".) Above the style box is a row of pictures
(or icons). Click on the button to the left of the red triangle button. The
icon shows 3 blue notes lined up to represent a chord. This is the chord
insert button. Click once on the button and it will insert a 4 bar chord
pattern in the main track window. Click three more times to insert 3 more
patterns. You should now have 4 blocks with "C" written on them. This tells
us that the chords are in the key of C. Next, double click with the left
mouse button on the second pattern (from bar 5). This will bring up the
chord box. In here select an "F" chord. Next it will ask for a chord type.
In here choose "Maj" (for Major key). For the 3rd pattern select a G Maj
chord, and the final pattern a C Maj chord.  Press play.

6.    You have now just created your backing track. How easy was that?!
Now we will continue by adding our own music to this song. You will have to
rewind the song to the start before we can go any further. On the Screen
Keyboard you will find a button called "Playright". Press this button. This
mode will allow you to jam along with the styles without ever playing a wrong
note! Sounds too good to be true? - Let's try it!

7.    Move your mouse pointer so that it's on the screen keyboard's keys.
Click the left mouse button and hold it down. Move the mouse left and right
over the whole range of the keyboard. You will hear random notes being
played - but they are all in the key of C! Now press play then jam along in
the same way. When the chords change, so will the playright notes. This is
almost too easy! Rewind to start.

8.    How about recording your new solo? Click on the record button on
the transport bar. After 4 beats, the chord track will start playing. As soon
as it starts, jam along. When the song stops, the recording will end. Rewind
the song to the start and press play. You should now see a black pattern in
line with track 1. This is your solo! Naturally, not all the notes will be
on the beat. Gold takes care of this for you with a feature
called "Quantize". By pressing the "Q" key on your QWERTY keyboard, it will
move all the "late" notes to the nearest beat. Try it. Rewind to the start
and press play. You should find that your solo line has become a lot more
rhythmic.

9.    We will now add some human sounds to the song. Click on the red
triangle next to the chord insert icon. This will open the "Audio Pattern
Settings" option. Click in the box where it says "Wave File", and locate the
e_gold.wav" file.  Click on OK, or Yes to everything. You will now have a
vocal sample as a part of your song. Rewind to the start and press play.
You can move the audio pattern by clicking on it with the left mouse button,
hold down the mouse key, and drag it across.

10.    Press play. You have now created your own song. Choose the "Save"
option from the "File" menu and give your song a name. You can go back to
this song at any time to change it, add to it. In fact, do anything you
like with it!

Q.    How do I save new or modified drum kits.
A.    To save a modified drum kit,
    1. Select Save As... from the File Menu.
    2. Click on the Drum Kit Radio button.
    3. Type in the new name e.g. NEWKIT.DRM (The extension will be added
    automatically if you don't type it).
    4. Click on OK.

    The new kit is now saved.

    The name of the drum kit in use is saved in DEFAULT.DEF,
    so your kit will automatically be available next time you run
    Sound Studio Gold.

Q.    I have my soundcard installed, but I cannot hear anything when
playing a demo song in Gold . What should I do?
A.    Most of Evolution's technical support calls are soundcard related
rather than software related. If you have a soundcard problem, before
ringing your soundcard manufacturers' support lines spend some time reading
the following checklist to make sure you have tried every possible solution
to your problem.

1.    Go to the "Settings" menu in Gold. Go to the
"Devices..." section. If no driver names appear in the Input /Output columns,
you need to re-install your soundcard. The driver names in the devices screen
allow you to to tell Gold which sounds you want the program to
play. The input drivers will determine which MIDI IN port you are going to
use. For normal usage, you would need only one input selected. For a
soundblaster card, the input driver would be called something like "SB16
MIDI IN". Other cards would have driver names such as "ESS MIDI IN " or
Tahiti MIDI IN". Older soundcards would rely on using the MIDI driver that
comes with Windows. This driver is called the "MPU401". If you have the
Roland MPU401 driver showing, then you should be able to select that for
input and output.
The output driver column allows you to choose which sounds you are going to
hear when playing your songs. Most soundcards will have an option such as
"FM synth" or "OPL3 MIDI Synth". Click on these driver names to play the
sounds of your soundcard. Most modern cards will have additional sounds.
These driver names would be similar to "SBAWE32 MIDI Synth". Click on the
driver name of your choice.

Rule of Thumb:    If you have numerous output drivers enabled (highlited in
blue) and cannot hear any output, deselect all but one of them and try again.
Repeat this process until you hear some sounds.

2.    If using Windows 3.1, or 3.11, go to your "Accessories" Program
group from the Program Manager. In here you should find a program called
Media Player. From the "Device" menu of the Media Player choose the MIDI
sequencer option. Load in a MIDI file (canyon.mid can be found in the
Windows directory with windows 3.x). Try playing the song. If no sounds are
heard you will have to check the settings in your MIDI Mapper. If you DO hear
the music, you should have no problems hearing the same from within
Sound Studio Gold.  If the Media player works OK, go back to part 1 of this
checklist.

3.    If using the MIDI mapper as your output port, you will have to check
that your MIDI mapper is configured properly. You will find the MIDI mapper
in your Control Panel (not in Win95). After double clicking on your MIDI
Mapper, click on "Edit". Check that all output ports are displaying a driver
name. If a MIDI OUT is showing the data will be sent to a) an external
keyboard through the MIDI OUT cable or b) a wave table connected to your
sound card.


Q.    I have plugged my keyboard into the soundcard and can hear demo
songs OK when I play them. I can even hear sounds when playing from the
on-screen keyboard but I cannot hear anything when playing from the external
keyboard. What am I doing wrong?
A.    This probably means that your soundcard has not been installed
properly. Please follow the checklist below:

1.    Are the MIDI cables properly set up? MIDI OUT from the keyboard to
the IN of your Soundcard?
2.    Is the keyboard switched on?
3.    Start a new file in Gold by going to the file menu
and selecting "New". This should enable channel 1 for recording by default.
Play the keyboard and check the MIDI column for an input signal.
(Represented by a red bar). If a red bar appears but no sound is heard -
this is good news - all you need to do now is choose an appropriate MIDI
output driver from the devices menu. If no input signal is observed or heard,
either install the soundcard again, or try installing the MPU401 driver.


Q.    I have added a Wave Table to my "Soundblaster compatible card". How
do I configure it to work with Gold?
A.    Just choose a MIDI OUT driver from the devices menu. (e.g. SB16 MIDI
OUT or MPU401 MIDI OUT). Deselect all other driver names if you encounter
problems.

Q.    I cannot get my colour printer to work from the score editor.  How
do I fix it ?
A.    The probable cause for this problem would be the new drivers  which
accompany newer colour printers. If you choose a Black & White (monochrome)
printer driver then it should work fine. For example the HP DeskJet 500
rather than Deskjet 550C. The print option is disabled in the demo version.

Q.    After I click on the score editor to insert notes in step time from
my keyboard I can insert notes for 4 bars and then it stops. How can I
record more than 4 bars in step time?
A.    You would have to close the score window. From the main track window
click on the right mouse button to bring up the toolbox and select the pencil
tool. Click and hold the left mouse button with the pencil on the right hand
side of your 4 bar pattern. Whilst holding down, move the pencil to the right,
thus stretching your pattern. This will give you additional workspace when
step inserting notes in the score window.

Q.    Can I use a software RAM doubler safely?
A.    Our experiences have not been good with unexpected crashes on many
different programs. Our advice is to use hardware RAM as normally removing
the software RAM doubler immediately restores a stable situation.

Q.    How do I record the mixer movements on a new track ?
A.    You must select channel 0 to record a global mix for all tracks.

Q.    How do I get sound from my sound card?
A.    Go to the Devices section from the Settings menu. Check to make
sure you have options for input AND output. Select one device for MIDI Input,
and another for the output device. If you still can't hear any music when you
play a demo song, make sure you have only ONE output device highlited. If you
have NO devices showing, it means you haven't installed your soundcard
correctly. Follow the instructions in your soundcard manual, and install
again. If you choose the MIDI Mapper from the devices menu, make sure you
have all the channels enabled to the appropriate driver in the MIDI mapper
setup (in control panel).

Q.    How do I input notes from my Mk-149 keyboard ?
A.    First connect the MIDI OUT of the MK-10 keyboard to the MIDI IN of
your Sound Card, select the MIDI IN device from the devices option of the
Settings menu in Gold, and enable a channel for recording.

Q.    How do I input a program change using the numeric keypad on my
Mk-149 keyboard?
A.    You need to type in a 3-digit number for the selection to take place.
e.g. to select voice 49 you must type in "049".

Q.    I see a red bar appearing on the screen in the Monitor (Mon) column
when playing a demo file, but I cannot hear any music. What do I do ?
A.    Check that you have the Audio Out of your Sound card connected to the
speakers. Check that the volume is turned up (either on the back of the
soundcard, or on the soundcard mixer (should be in your Sound Card directory).

Q.    How do I do step time recording in Gold?
A.    First of all you must draw in a pattern (using the pencil tool).
Enter the editor of your choice, then click on the "steps" icon. You may then
enter notes in step time from your MIDI keyboard.

Q.    When I open a wave file in Gold it gives me a warning
that the file is "Not a PCM file". How can I get it to work?
A.    You need to change the properties of your Audio recordings in your
Control panel. In Windows 95 you must go to the Multimedia section, Click on
the Audio Tab, click on the Customize button. Make sure your Format is set to
PCM. Saving a wave file using this setting wil work OK with
Sound Studio Gold. Gold cannot import 8 bit samples.

Q.    I cannot load in a wave file from CD-ROM. What can I do?
A.    You should copy the wave file onto yuor hard disk and open
the file from there.

Q.     How would I go about inserting triplets in step time?
A.    First of all, choose which editor you are going to use. Piano roll,
drum editor or score window? Click on the corresponding icon on the editors'
strip. You will be presented with 4 empty bars. Click on the step icon. From
the Note Length box, select your desired triplet length. 4T would insert
crotchet triplets. 8T would insert crotchet quavers etc...
Click on your external keyboard (or on screen keyboard) to insert your notes.
The notes will be assigned a triplet bar as soon as three notes are detected.
If using the toolbox "note" tool to insert notes on the appropriate leger
line, you can use the mouse position values to help with the positioning of
the triplets. For example, if inserting 3 crotchet triplets from bar 1 beat
1 , you would insert the first note on mouse position 1:01:000  the second
note would be in position 1:01:128 and the final triplet would be in
position 1:02:064. As soon as the third triplet note was inserted, the
triplet sign would be included.

Q.    If I change the time signature on the transport bar to 3/4 and then
insert notes in the score window, it allows me to insert 4 crotchet beats.
Why does this happen?
A.    If you want to insert a 3/4 time signature into your song, you must
insert it in the conductor window. But don't worry, because it is very easy
to do, and compared to most sequencing programs, Gold allows
you to do this graphically. Once you have changed  the time signature
(and /or) key signature in the conductor window, it will correctly display
the appropriate number of beats / accidentals in the score window.


Q.    How do I look at all the individual tracks in a Format 0 MIDI file?
A.    First you must highlite the pattern, then choose the "extract
pattern" from the procedures menu. To reverse the operation, "select all"
patterns, then choose the "merge pattern" from the Procedures menu.

Q.    When playing some files I get a sudden change in tempo.  Why is this
so ?
A.    Check the conductor screen, there may be some tempo changes present
which you should delete. (Or disable the "conductor follow" icon from the
transport bar.

Q.    Why is it that when I change the notes in one pattern, it affects
the same notes in other patterns ?
A.    This is because you are copying patterns as "children", and any
changes made to one will affect all the others. You may turn off this
feature from the preferences option in the "MIDI" menu.

Q.    When I change the tempo of a song and then start recording - it always
changes back to 120. Why does it do this?
A.    You must change the tempo in the Conductor Screen if you wish to make
a permanent change in tempo. (A bit like the Master Track in other programs).
Or...you could turn off the "Conductor Follow" button on the transport bar. This means
it would ignore any tempo events you had in the conductor window.

Q.    The music stutters on playback. What can I do to stop this?
A.    If you have any other programs running in the background, close
them down. This will free up more memory for Gold. If you
have no other programs running, try changing your virtual memory settings
to the recommended value from the control panel.(You should not encounter
these problems if you have a 486 processor or 8Mb on a 386). If you notice
stutters when playing back Audio files you should try increasing the size
of the Audio Buffer in the Audio System Settings.

Q.    When I transpose my music the drums change to different sounds. How
can I stop this happening?
A.    The drum track must have been selected when you transposed your
music. All you have to do is de-select the drum track before you transpose.

Q.    The program  tells me that it cannot find the audio output driver.
What do I do ?
A.    You need to quit the program; go to your control panel in Windows,
and chech that your audio driver is properly installed. If no Audio driver
is found, click on "Add driver" , and give the path of your Sound directory.
If you are still having problems, try reinstaling the soundcard and use the
default values. If all else fails contact your soundcard manufacturer.

Q.    I have my Audio driver installed, but cannot hear my Wave files in
use. Why?
A.    Check that the Audio System is turned On (in the Audio System menu of
the Settings menu in Gold. Check also that your Wave Out
volume is not muted in your Soundcard Volume control mixer.

Q.    Why can't I save my work?
A.    You are still using the demo version! Go out and buy the full
version!

Q.    How many tracks of Audio can I run at any one time?
A.    This depends on the speed of your processor. As a rough guide, here
are some values:

Processor  Samplerate  Mono/   Number of Tracks  Number of Tracks
(Speed)   (kHz)        Stereo  without Effects   with Effects

486DX2     22.05       Mono    16                10
(66MHz)                Stereo  7-8               3

           44.1        Mono    12                4
                       Stereo  3-4               3

P166       22.05       Mono    16                16
(166MHz)               Stereo  16                16

           44.1        Mono    16                16
                       Stereo  16                12

These values are guidelines only; other factors such as hard-drive speed
may come into play on some systems.

Q. How do I get the Patch List Dialog box to show the patches in the
   bank that I just typed in?

A. The display isn't updated until you press TAB.


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