=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- APPLE II GRAPHICS & SOUND FORUM CONFERENCE LOG March 9, 1994 10 PM ET Topic: Music Composer with Clayburn Juniel Forum Leader: Gayle Keresey (AFL Gayle), Forum Consultants: Joyce Madden (AFC Joyce), Greg Dib (ELECTMUSIC), Ed Rosenblatt (AFC Eddie), Lindsay Hough (LindsayGS) Copyright (c) 1994 America Online All Rights Reserved =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- AFC Eddie Clayburn, thanks for being our special guest tonight! Clayburn OK I'm standing bye. And it's a pleasure to be here. AFC JoyceM And it's a pleasure to have you too AFC Eddie And thanks for the other programs too, like Tic Tac Toe and the update to GS Entertainment! Clayburn I updated GS Entertainment to play Music Composer files Chaesseco Hey Clay I checked out your Tic Tac Toe game its pretty cool...and I see you've released your Animation tool. Clayburn I re-released Arcade King Super also. That was the program the original Tool051 supported. It is now Clays.ATool AFC Eddie Clay, where can those files be found? Clayburn Arcade King Super hasn't been released yet. Actually just a few minutes ago I heaard of a problem with it and I need to check it out. The other programs are here on AOL and GEnie AFC Eddie Will you be uploading it to our Games Forum when it's ready? Chaesseco Its not really a game more like a utility for programs who want a good splash screen. Arcade King Super is a utility to create games and such. It will be uploaded to the developers section AFC Eddie Clayburn has recently blessed the Apple II world by creating and releasing a new application called Music Composer. The latest released version is 2.10. This program is, among other things, a MIDISynth sequence editor with MIDI implementation. It also supports format conversion between MIDI and MIDISynth formats. Clayburn, could you give us a brief description of the capabilities of the program, and summarize its features? Then we can open up to questions! Clayburn Music Composer is an eight track music sequencer, like you said built around the MIDISynth tool. It has all the features of tape deck part of SynthLAB plus a lot more. It can read and write SynthLAB format files and it has its own format. If you've seen Music Composer it does look something like Sound Smith. It uses the spreadsheet like form for displaying notes and MIDI messages. It also has the capability of having blocks of music which can be separately played. The inner workings of Music Composer though are completely different from Sound Smith. I'm open for any questions! AFC Eddie Clayburn, can you tell us a bit more about the MIDI capabilities of the program in terms of import/export and SysEx? Clayburn It accepts all MIDI message inputs including system exlusive messages. The program can also transmit all MIDI messages including system exclusive messages. There is also A feature to save MIDI system exlusive messages to a binary file. ELECTMUSIC I got a question about the SysEx messages? Clayburn Go ahead ELECTMUSIC I am having difficulty with the input and exporting of SysEX.... MComposer recognizes the messages and indicates this with icons BUT it doesn't seem to be processing them. Could you possibly explain how you handle the messages in the program? Clayburn What do you mean by processing them? MC (Music Composer) doesn't do anything with the messeages at all except store them. ELECTMUSIC OK, Let me explain. MCompser doesn't seem to be storing the messages. I might be doing something wrong. It just seems to be recognizing them. Clayburn What do you mean by storing it? If the icon is there you should be able to look at the data. Can you do this? ELECTMUSIC I see the Icon... but when I attempt to send this data back to the keyboard it doesn't seem to be making the midi trip back Chaesseco What kind of keyboard is it? and what kind of event is it? Clayburn In the MIDI setup menu item there is switch for sysex out. Do you have that checked? ELECTMUSIC I have a Yamaha YS200. Yep Clayburn I'll have to look further into that later. ELECTMUSIC I remember seeing the SysEx switch....and had it checked ELECTMUSIC Is there two SysEx switches? Chaesseco ELECT just one, I think. Clayburn Yes there is a fast merge switch in the sequence setup menu and the sysex out in the MIDI setup menu. AFC Eddie So, a user can use MC as a Sysex Librarian of sorts? Clayburn Yes they could. Also the best thing to do if you have a system exlusive. Chaesseco Will future versions of MC have real time clocking? And musical notation? Clayburn I doubt that there will be musical notations. and MIDISynth doesn't support transimitting clock data AFC JoyceM What is new with version 2.10 (I have 1.3)? Clayburn Lets see if I remember what might have changed form 1.3. AFC Eddie I believe there was a change with importing MIDI files. Clayburn MC now exports and imports of standard MIDI files. AFC JoyceM Does MC import MusicStudio MIDI files? Clayburn You can now export SynthLAB format files since SynthLAB won't read MC format files. AFC JoyceM oh, the clue word was -standard MIDI- files! Chaesseco MC is very fast when its come to importing MIDI files, I have MT Jr.... Clayburn Alan I have a question for you. Does MC import all the files that MT Jr can? AFC Eddie Clayburn, MT Jr can import its own format - Mastertracks files. They are NOT Standard MIDI, although MT Jr. can import Standard MIDI too. AFC JoyceM What about MasterTracks Pro? AFC Eddie Mastertracks Pro imports and exports just as jr. does. Chaesseco I don't know I can't buy it cause I can't find it, and I don't have it. AFC JoyceM Thanks, Eddie..I have Pro but not Jr. AFC Eddie Next question for Clayburn? Chaesseco Will there be support for MOD, or SS files? Or is that too hard of a merge. Clayburn I don't know if there is a need for this support. I wasn't hoping MC could stand on its own. It does support standard MIDI files. ELECTMUSIC Here's a non technical question....Clay... how long did it take you to develop MComposer? Clayburn I know I should have kept track but I didn't. It must have been less than a year. But some of the interface and other parts were taken from other programs that I have written. AFC JoyceM Whatever, MC is a GREAT addition to the Music side of the GS :) ELECTMUSIC I believe MOD's and SS should be supporting the Midi File Format and then MCompser would be compatable AFC Eddie Agreed, Greg! ELECTMUSIC No question about it! Chaesseco How bout a lyric track? And tracking on the music similar to SS or SL? Clayburn I will take suggestions on new features. No promises though! Clayburn Music tracking is something I might consider. Although it does that already in a very clumsy way if you use the Go to Stop command and just hold down open apple |. ELECTMUSIC I would like MComposer advance its edit screen as the the music advances Clayburn About the lyrics where could they go? Chaesseco I don't know maybe their own track, might be easier if it was scrolling sideways instead of vert. Either way it works. ELECTMUSIC I wasn't sure if Clay was describing how to scroll the the edit screen as the music advances? I find it hard to keep track of where I am in edit menu when the music is playing. Clayburn I suppose another track would be possible Chaesseco Small word processing features would be good insert, delete, back space, copy, cut, paste, etc. Clayburn There is the Go to stop command to find where the music stop playing AFC JoyceM Good idea....make life easier too ELECTMUSIC Any chance of getting the edit menu to advance as the music plays? Clayburn There is also a go to sysex to find any system exclusive messages and a go to page number. I see if the entire spread sheet draws fast enough to keep up and maybe do that ELECTMUSIC Well ... it doesn't have to be perfectly timed.. ie. MTPro redraws in spurts Chaesseco Does anyone know where I could buy a copy the MTPro? AFC Eddie Wish we knew, Alan! Chaesseco So did I. ELECTMUSIC I'm gonna checked into the sysex operations alittle more AFC JoyceM :) Clayburn I'll check into it also ELECTMUSIC Clay... do you check into AOL frequently? Clayburn I check inot AOL everyday ELECTMUSIC OK... I'll leave ya some EMail on what I turn up AFC Eddie Clayburn has agreed to return to this forum for our next Music and Sound chat on March 23. Tonight's chat was logged and will be released for public consumption. Please return on the 23d for more of the latest information on this exciting new Apple II GS music application! Clayburn, thank you so much for sharing your time with us! ELECTMUSIC I would like to personally Thank Clayburn for turning out such a nice program Chaesseco Me Too! Clayburn You are all welcome ELECTMUSIC See ya in a couple of weeks AFC JoyceM Thanks you, Clayburn - great program to add to my music library of useful programs. AFC JoyceM Nite all... AFC Eddie Good night, everyone! AFC Eddie -------------------------- LOG OFF-----------------------