GEMini Atari/GEMini_Atari_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1993.iso/zip/music/slave.lzh/VERSION2.TXT

Text File | 1992-05-07 | 15KB | 329 lines

        SLAVE DRIVER VERSION 2.02

Many things have changed for this version, new features have
been added, and several things have been fixed. Please take the time
to browse through this text file, or better yet, send it to your
printer for future reference. This file is an amendment to the
version 1.5 manual. If something doesn't work quite as described in
your manual, refer here for a description of how that function has
changed.

        YOU MUST RETURN YOUR ORIGINAL
        SLAVE DRIVER DISK

In order to receive continued support and upgrades, you must return
your original SLAVE DRIVER disk. New for version 2.02 - the program
is no longer copyprotected. If you have a copyprotected version, you
can return your original disk after receiving the update disk.

        NEW FEATURES SINCE VERSION 1.5
        - 255 SONGS!

The most exciting new feature included for version 2.0 is the ability
to contain up to 255 songs in memory. The play screen has been
modified to allow scrolling of the songs displayed on your screen.
You can scroll up or down 20 songs at a time using shift-up-arrow and
shift-down-arrow, go to the beginning of the list with
control-up-arrow, and go to the end of the list with
control-down-arrow.

As many of our customers have indicated that they frequently use the
function keys to select different songs, we have added a function
that allows you to type the number of a song to select it. By typing
control-s from the play screen (or the Playback module or the Remote
Display module), you can enter a two or three digit number to select
that number song. Typing control-s prints the message "Select" on
your screen. Type any digit between 3 and 9, and you need only type
one more digit to access songs numbered 30 to 99. Enter a number
between 0 and 2, and you can enter two more digits to select any song
from 1 to 255. Note that you will not be able to change maps using
the numeric keys, or change to songs 11-20 using the QWERTY number
keys while you are in the middle of selecting a song with control-s,
as these keys will instead enter a digit. You can, however, continue
playing your instrument, or select a song from 1-10 using the
function keys while you have typed one or two digits into control-s
song select. This can be handy if you want to have a song ready for
selection with one key press, simply type two of the three digits,
then go about playing normally. When you are ready to select the
song, type the third digit. Note that you can cancel the select
option with the Undo key, or begin typing digits again from the
beginning by re-typing control-s.

Additionally, the song order box has also undergone changes to
accommodate the greater song capacity. The control/shift arrows
described for the Play screen apply for scrolling through the list.
You can also drag a song to the top or bottom of the screen to scroll
the list. You will notice that this screen now draws much more
quickly, and that the "Compare" button has been lost (this is a trade
off - you will notice that while the version 2 program file is much
larger, the program doesn't eat any more memory than version 1.5).

        TEMPO CONTROLS

As requested by some of our customers, you can now control tempo
directly from within the program. A TMP event can be entered in any
of the Send, Reset, or Slave fields. The format of the command is as
follows;

ch   type/key   val/vel
-----------------------
       TMP       3-255

A fixed tempo may be entered in the Send or Reset field, or a range
between 3 and 255 may be specified as a Slave event.

        USING FIXED TEMPOS

One use of the TMP command would be to have to have a MIDI file
sequence play back at a different tempo than that which is specified
in the file. In this case, you would enter your play event as
follows;

ch   type/key   val/vel
-----------------------
P       SEQ        1        (or PX or LP or PE)
        TMP      145

It is important that the TMP command goes after the Play event, as
the Play event will cause the tempo to change as it reads the tempo
in the MIDI file. I'll demonstrate a way around this in a minute.

        INCREMENT/DECREMENT TEMPO

You can also increment or decrement from the current tempo. Under the
SEND, RESET, or SLAVE fields, you can enter the event as follows;

ch   type/key   val/vel
-----------------------
        TMP     INC
        TMP     DEC

        USING TEMPO RANGES

A tempo range can be specified in the Slave field. This will allow
tempo to be controlled in relation to a controller, key range, or any
other MIDI event. This will allow you to change the tempo in real
time from your MIDI controller. This event would be entered as in the
following example;

      MASTER
ch   type/key   val/vel
-----------------------
 2      OSC      0-127

       SLAVE
ch   type/key   val/vel
-----------------------
        TMP     110-140

The preceding example would have your OSC wheel from off to full
translate to tempo from 110 bpm to 140 bpm.

        USING/IGNORING MIDI FILE TEMPOS

Any tempo event that is occurred in a MIDI file will override any TMP
event you have set. This will especially cause a problem if you use
LP to loop a MIDI file, as the file's tempo will be reset on each
loop. Therefore, two events have been added that allow you to tell
the program whether or not to use the tempos specified in the MIDI
files. The USE command tells the program to use the tempo events it
encounters in a MIDI file, while the IGN command tells the program to
ignore MIDI file tempos. These events can be entered in any of the
SEND, RESET, or SLAVE fields. The format of these commands are as
follows;

ch   type/key   val/vel
-----------------------
       USE
       IGN

The program defaults to USEing MIDI file tempo events, and this
default condition is set each time you go from the edit screen to the
play screen. The IGN tempo setting can be very useful when
controlling a number of sequences, in which you want all to be played
at the same tempo. A typical application would be to specify IGN in
the SEND field, and reset the system to USE in the RESET field to
ensure normal operation for other songs.

As calculating tempos takes time, you can also use the IGN command to
save the program the time of recalculating a file's tempo each time
it loops. If you notice a small delay in the output of notes when a
sequence loops (I'm sure you won't, but I suppose it depends on how
hard you're working the program), try specifying the tempo before the
Loop event and then use IGN.

        RUN PROGRAM

This feature has been added, which allows you to run another
application from within SLAVE DRIVER. This feature can be extremely
handy for running utilities such as MIDI file conversion programs,
archive utilities, or even sequencer applications. The benefit is
that the SLAVE DRIVER application and the set and MIDI file data
doesn't need to be reloaded upon exiting the other application.
Confirmation is requested if the set you are working on has been
changed but not saved, as SLAVE DRIVER cannot vouch for how well the
application it runs will behave, whether it will crash, or whatever.
SLAVE DRIVER first shrinks it's memory reserve as small as possible
around the data it has loaded in memory, then executes the program.
When the executed program is terminated, you will be right where you
left off in SLAVE DRIVER. You will have to test how well this works
with any given application, results may vary from program to program.

        PAUSE

A pause key has been added to the play screen. By pressing control-p,
the sequencer will stop, and wait for you to type control-p again to
resume playback from where you paused. Likewise, you can select
control-p to stop sequences from starting if you want to use a
keyboard map without activating any Play events within the map.

        CHANGES FOR VERSION 2 - MENUS

The biggest change you will notice right away is the menus. Items
have been regrouped to conform to the menus used by most other GEM
applications. Quick key commands have been added for most functions,
and many of the existing quick-keys have changed (for example, LOAD
SET is now Alternate L, much easier to remember). The quick-key
combination for a menu item, if one exists, is indicated to the right
of the menu item. These indicators use ^ to represent the Control
key, (up arrow) to represent the Shift key, and (diamond in a box)
to represent the Alternate key. To select an item from the keyboard,
hold down the shift-key combination, and then press the letter key.
For example, to Load Set to Play, type "L" while holding down the
Shift and Alternate keys.

Rather than waiting with your finger on the Control key to keep the
program from going to the PLAY screen when loading a set, there are
now two separate menu options, "Load Set to Edit" and "Load Set to
Play".

SAVE has been added, which allows you to save the set you are
currently working on without having to use the fileselector to
re-specify the filename. This will only work if you have loaded the
set you are working on from disk, or have saved the set currently in
memory with SAVE AS.

You can now exit to the play screen with the mouse by clicking on
"Play Screen", in addition to the F10 key. This has been added simply
for convenience.

Alert [Yes]/Alerts [No] was confusing, and has been replaced with
Expert/Novice. This menu toggles the mode the program runs in. In
Novice mode, additional alert messages are displayed, and their
default button selects the non-destructive option. In expert mode,
alert messages unnecessary to the experienced user are avoided, and
the default button selects the requested action.

The Stat Display menu option is gone. The time it took to decide
whether to draw Stat Display information or not was wasteful. Stat
Display information is now always displayed.

To accommodate the extended song capacity, the Follow Song option was
added. From the play screen, if you select a song that is not
currently displayed in the window, the window will scroll to display
the newly selected song. As this takes a moment to redraw, you can
turn this function off if you require instant song changes. The
Follow Song menu item is displayed with a check mark when Follow Song
is selected (screen will scroll). The setting of this option is saved
when you select Save Defaults.

        GEM CHANGES

-       The screen will now redraw properly around desk accessory windows.

-       Menu functions can now be selected while desk accessory windows are
        open.

-       The mouse will no longer "stick" on GEM windows when opening
        accessories or returning to the desktop.

-       The Bulk librarian can now be left open and recording when going to
        the play screen or running another application with Run Other.

-       The Bulk Librarian can now be moved around on the screen.

-       The COPY buttons now remain highlighted, to simplify the task of
        making multiple copies, and to allow you to return to the location
        that you are copying with the Clr/Home key.

-       Cursor and mouse redraws have been cleaned up, for a smoother look.

-       Desk accessories no longer trash the mouse pointer.

-       You can now use INSTALL APPLICATION on the main SLAVE DRIVER program
        or the PLAYBACK module, and double click on a SET file from the
        desktop to run the installed program and have that set load
        automatically. Suitable for alternate desktop programs like GEMINI
        that allow you to drag files to program icons.

-       Now when you select PLAYBACK MODULE from the Modes menu, the set in
        memory is passed to the PLAYBACK module. The Playback module then
        runs and automatically loads that set. Likewise, Control F10 in the
        Playback module exits to SLAVE DRIVER, and auto loads the set that
        was loaded into the Playback module.

        EDITING via MIDI CHANGES

It is now much easier to enter events from a MIDI device on the Edit
screen. In the Master or Slave fields, only the Control key will
change the type and channel of the event. Holding the Control key and
activating a MIDI message will set the channel, TYPE/KEY event, and
enter the default range (0-127 usually) under VAL/VEL if no event
already existed on the line you are editing. If a value was already
specified in the event which you are editing, Control will alter the
left part of the TYPE/KEY range instead.

The Left Shift key will only set the event type, channel, and default
VAL/VEL range (0-127 usually) if no event type already exists in the
event you are editing. Otherwise, it will set the right part of the
TYPE/KEY range.

Holding the Alternate key will set the entire event verbatim if no
event exists on the line you are editing. For example, move the
cursor to a blank Master or Slave field, hold down the Alternate key,
and play a key on one of your keyboards. The channel, note number,
and velocity you played this key with will be entered in the event.
If an event already existed on the line you are editing,  Alternate
will set the left part of the VAL/VEL range.

The Right Shift key, like the Alternate key, will set the entire
event verbatim if no event already existed on the line you are
editing. Otherwise, it will set the right part of the VAL/VEL field.

        PLAY SCREEN CHANGES

Certain key commands have moved around from the PLAY screen;

-       Disabling mapping is now toggled on and off with Control d

-       The panic button can now be activated by hitting the spacebar

-       The Help key will scroll the screen to display the current song

When the program comes across a load command for a MIDI file that is
already loaded, the sequencer will no longer stop. Likewise, if a
sequence is playing and an Erase command is encountered for a file
that is not in memory, the sequence playing will not be interrupted.
This allows you to make more constructive use of the Load command, as
you don't have to be quite so careful as to where you put them. You
could, for example, have a Play event preceded by a Load event. If
the file was already loaded, the load event would be harmless and not
stop any sequence currently playing. If the file was not loaded, it
would load and then play the file instead of giving a "File not
loaded" error message.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

        I guess that about sums it up. If you have any questions or
problems, or possibly suggestions for future upgrades, please call us
at [phone] between 10:00 am and 9:00 pm Pacific Standard Time.
Or write us - our address is

M  I  N  D      P/O Box 56522
o  v  e  r      Lougheed Mall Postal Outlet
M  I  D  I      Burnaby, BC, Canada
productions     V3J 7W2