Apple II Music & Sound Conference December 5, 1990 10:00pm EST Subject: Sequencing & DiversiTune info Forum Leader: Joyce Madden (AFL JoyceM) Forum Staff: Gene Koh (AFA Gene - Forum Assistant); Greg Dib (ELECTMUSIC), Lindsay Hough (LindsayGS) and Ed Rosenblatt (AFC Eddie), all Forum Consultants. AFL JoyceM Mike, will you be going to AppleFest? Nuzz No, I'm not going Joyce :( AFL JoyceM But you (Triad) will be represented? Nuzz But, our music should be everywhere. There will be Demo's running at Apple's booth and at the Roger Wagner Booth AFL JoyceM Great. Will there be a demo for AMS for people to download? Nuzz I'll probably uplaod the Sleigh song as a sample AFL Marty I've got this really neat database that lists all of the SoundSmith instruments. Is that something you want in your library? (There are over 400 listed) AFC Eddie Sure! AFL JoyceM Yes,...sure...would love it, Marty... please :) AFA Gene I think we have it already, if it's the "A-M" then "N-Z" list? (something like that) AFL Marty What I have is an actual database (AppleWorks DB) Nuzz He's soooo organized :) AFL Marty Some of the categories are in French. I can't translate it. AFC Eddie I believe we have many instruments in our library. AFA Gene hmmm.. I'll check exactly what database we have in the lib currently. AFC Eddie Today I had a chat with Bill Basham. AFL JoyceM And...what did he have to say, Ed? AFC Eddie He's still working on Diversitune, but not yet ready to release his major upgrade. He will, he thinks, be releasing a bunch of new instruments now, tho, he thinks he might wait and do it all at once, together with a tool for creating your own instruments. ELECTMUSIC Eddie, is that what we paid $20 for? AFC Eddie I tried to talk him into adding a feature that would save D-Tune songs as standard Midi files. He said such a feature would be a difficult thing to do, especially in Prodos 8, so I made an alternate suggestion. Told him it would be a great idea to develop a separate program that could convert D-Tune songs to midi files. Told him we had a real genius here on AOL who was developing great programs for converting different types of music files, and that he could do it for D-Tune. He seemed pretty responsive to the idea. AFL JoyceM Great....so what do is the result. Will Bill be contacting our 'genius'? or what? AFC Eddie To conclude, I told Bill B that there were still lots of people out there who loved D-Tune, and who'd support it, and he promised to put some more hard work on it now that I gave him some "inspiration." AFL JoyceM Great....thanks, Eddie. Okay...with that great info on DiversiTune....let me make a couple of statements regarding Sequencers and sequencing. I know that my staff will fill in what I have missed or mis-explained :). EricR1 Does anyone know where i can get ftn for mtjr (d5 auxtype 8003) AFL Marty Give me a couple of minutes and I'll mail it to you, Eric. EricR1 I couldn't find that auxtype - file type notes for MtJr files anything that describes what info is in those files AFL Marty There you go Eric. The auxtype 8003 isn't specifically listed - it's listed as FTN.D5.XXXX. Yes... Apple II File Type Notes. AFC Eddie Same type as MT Pro files, I think. AFL JoyceM Okay,.....thanks. Now onto the definitions of Sequencing/sequencers, etc. AFL JoyceM A Sequencer: is a device or a computer program that creates music files by receiving information from a MIDI synthesizer; sort of a word processor for music. The files created with a sequencer program can be edited, saved, merged and replayed. A sequencer is also a hardware or software item which handles the recording, playback and general processing of MIDI events. To sequence is to place a series of events in a structured order. Some say that a MIDI sequencer has the same relationship to a MIDI studio as a multitrack tape recorder has to a studio. A MIDI sequencer lets you do a lot of tricks that you can't do with a normal tape recorder. Some of the music programs that we have for the Apple IIGS that support or have sequencing capabilities are: -MasterTracks Pro from PassPort Designs - $395.00 -MusicStudio from Activision (no longer produced) $99.00 -synthLAB from Apple thru APDA $25.00 -DiversiTune from DSR (Bill Basham) $75.00.....and -MusicWriter from Pygraphics. AFL JoyceM Have I missed any programs? Done. Comments, etc. ? LindsayGS (done without any keyboard macros....right Joyce?) AFL JoyceM Yep, LIndsay :) AFC Eddie Great summary, Joyce! One of the great things about sequencing, as opposed to tape recording, is that although it can be so sophisticated, it makes life great for beginners, for instance: Let's say you can play a song well if you play it slowly, but not fast. With tape, if you record slow and playback fast, it comes out in a different key. With Sequencing, you can control speed and key at the same time. EricR1 Does a multitrack sequencer have to mix tracks together in time when it plays? AFL JoyceM What program is the easiest to sequence with? AFC Eddie You can record one track at a time, and play back whichever ones you wish. Did I get your question right, Eric? EricR1 I was thinking about how the program sends midi data out over time. AFC Eddie A sequencer can be either a Master or a Slave. That is, its timing can be controlled either internally, by its own mechanism, or by an external mechanism such as the synth you are playing the sequence thru. LindsayGS Eric - it doesn't have to really mix them, just sort them over time quickly (like wait 5 ticks, play note on trk 1, wait 2 more, then note on trk 3, etc) EricR1 I guess it uses interrupts for timimg LindsayGS Everything on the GS is interrupt driven, unlike the II's. EricR1 Does it store time data with midi data? LindsayGS Yes - every midi event has a time stamp associated with it. EricR1 How does it distinguish between midi events - different instructions have different lengths. AFC Eddie Each event is signalled with "on" or "off." LindsayGS Midi code specifies how long each instruction will be some are 1 byte, others are cmd byte, followed by 1 or 2 data bytes others (like sysex) are unlimited length, set by onbyte and offbyte (technically, $F7 .....$F0 or do I have it backwards?) EricR1 I'm trying to write programs to play midi seq files on my //e. LindsayGS I did it Eric - and it ain't pretty.... AFC Eddie Leave it to Lindsay! LindsayGS You must use 6502 or compile it to make it work EricR1 But it can be done! LindsayGS I only did single tracks...do you have the passport card? EricR1 Yeah, I'm trying to mix multi tracks to a single sequence file using different midi channels. LindsayGS Mixing is no problem if you're not trying to play while you're doing it. EricR1 Yeah, overdub is difficult to code LindsayGS It just takes more time than you have unless the playback is interrupt - driven AFL JoyceM Eric, you like MusicMaker from Sublogic, right? EricR1 And figuring out passport's interrupt mechanism gets confusing. EricR1 Yeah joyce, it was great for its time LindsayGS It's the 6502's interrupt mechanism - get an old book called "The apple monitor peeled" was from Call APPLE - docs the interrupts the timing chip on the card can be set to interrupt at the right interval (sorry guys...is this music or what??) EricR1 Low level music AFC Eddie keep going, Lindsay! AFL JoyceM Reads like techie talk to me :) ELECTMUSIC Eric... what sequencer are you using now? AFC Eddie Hey, that's what the customer wants! EricR1 my own LindsayGS 6502 - based? Nuzz Looks like Triad has the honor of being the first to license MidiSynth EricR1 yeah, simple mach lang files LindsayGS Hey! that's great news Mike! AFC Eddie Way to go, Triad! LindsayGS Eric are you using an assembler? ELECTMUSIC can you get it to recognize the Midi File Format? ELECTMUSIC Nice honor Mike..... AFL JoyceM Great, Mike....I have the papers sitting in front of me :) EricR1 I use the mini assembler! I'm in the process of figuring out midi format. ELECTMUSIC Hopefully Triad (which is a musical term) will be developing/producing much more in the way of music software for the GS!!!!! Nuzz For those who don't know, MartyS9 is Marty Steinberg of Triad Venture LindsayGS that's REAL ambitious, Eric - you should get Merlin or something else... AFL JoyceM Welcome, Marty. Ah...the other half of Triad. :) Nuzz Greg, Marty asks when you are going to finish the "Triad Theme Song" EricR1 c major triad? AFL JoyceM Mike, and Marty...when your program is announced and shown at AFest will you be putting up a press release here in AMS on the program...info on how to purchase it, etc? Nuzz Yes Joyce, press release all ready for posting Dec 7 LindsayGS Yeah, Mike - we want the inside stuff - HERE and FIRST!! :) AFL JoyceM I have a quesiton about sequencers, please? Nuzz Hyperstudio will never sound the same :) ELECTMUSIC Marty... You got the GS+? MartyS9 yes, Thanks LindsayGS Joyce - what happened with 5.03 and SL? AFL JoyceM What do you mean, Lindsay....I must be dense this eveing :) LindsayGS Greg said there was no problem...(havn't caught up on mail yet...) AFL JoyceM Oh....no problems with 5.03 and SL. LindsayGS I thought you told me 5.03 crashed SL?? AFL JoyceM I think that Greg told you his did....who know, but it works fine :) ELECTMUSIC Lindsay.... memory is super critical with 5.03 ...in other words... 5.03 needs it, otherwise programs crash without warning. Nuzz Wait for 5.0.4 AFL JoyceM Anyway....my question about a sequencer. Of the programs that I listed, which one is the easiest to use as a sequencer? AFA Gene Master Tracks Pro. AFL JoyceM 5.04....oh...when? Good grief!!! LindsayGS MTjr is real easy, Joyce AFC Eddie Depends on what you want to hear it thru, Joyce. AFC Eddie D-Tune is the only decent sequencer that you can hear multiple intruments with if you don't have a multi-timbral synth! ELECTMUSIC Lindsay: including your programs... as I panic one night Nuzz 5.0.4 RSN AFL JoyceM DT is hard tho... AFL JoyceM RSN = Friday? AFC Eddie NOTHING can compare to the editing ability of MTPro. Down to 1/48th of a quarter note in the GS version. ELECTMUSIC Also MTPro 1.04 is crash proof!!!! AFA Gene But the ironic thing is that in the old version of MTPro, it would sometimes add erratic extra short notes that would screw up the music. So far, 1.04 has not done that. AFL JoyceM Ed...I still don't have problems with that CDA and MIDI input. What version of FileTools CDA are you using? AFC Eddie I got some mail from another user with the same problem! Now I am using the latest version, but a prior version also had the problem. The problem occurs more frequently with Musicwriter than MTPro, tho. LindsayGS I just DLed ShowPic5.1 and installed it and AW2.0 crashed!! ELECTMUSIC I haven't used other NDA's or CDA's outside of Apple's,,, they could cause ANY program to crash Nuzz You mean all except mine, right Greg :) AFL JoyceM My version of FT is 1.1b14 AFC Eddie I'm not sure if that's the one I have. ELECTMUSIC Lindsay... I thought your program crashed... but it was the lack of memory and 5.03? Nuzz FT=File Tools CDA ELECTMUSIC I panic because, I thought it was the program AFL JoyceM Did everyone read me note about the version numbers for SynthLab? My disk (from APDA) says on the label version 1.0b3, but the program comes up with 1.0b2....so I called APDA...and they explained it this way: synthLAB is version 1.0b2 and MIDIsynth is version 1.0b3. Mr Toaster What's the STUMP THE EXPERTS round? AFC Eddie What experts? AFL JoyceM One of these nights, Toaster, we will be having a stump the AMS staff contest! LindsayGS Yeah, MArc said he fixed the SetRelTempo bug that I found, then never sent me the new version!!! It's supposed to change tempo when translated from midi stnd files Nuzz Winner of stump the experts get 20 hours of PRIME connect time, right Joyce AFC Eddie That's what it would take, Toast! AFA Gene lol nuzz Mr Toaster WOW AFL JoyceM Sure, mike...sure :) ELECTMUSIC Lindsay... what about converting velocity info into the Slab format is that currently possible? LindsayGS greg - you mean key velocity or tempo? AFC Eddie Aren't there velocity controls in SynthLAB? ELECTMUSIC Converting Midi file format---> SLab Nuzz Anyone besides Greg notice you can't go higher than 99n on the tempo with SL LindsayGS Key velocity translate is automatic, tempo changes are supposed to work in 1.0b3, but I don't have it AFL JoyceM Yep...it is getting late.....and I have to make a very important phone call regarding licensing SL for AMS :) :) :) :).... America Online - 1990