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X-TRACKER The Ultimate Sound X-Perience (C) 1994 ANGUiLLA SOFTWARE iNTERNATiONAL LTD. (W) 1994 D-LUSiON iNTERACTiVE SOFTWARE Manual: Boris Diebold Daniel Marcial Christian Bartsch Marc von Westphal TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Preface To X-Tracker 2. Installation 3. Introduction To X-Tracker 4. The User Interface 5. The Status Bar 6. The Pattern Window 7. The Sequencer Window 8. The Menu Items File Pattern Track Edit Block Samples Options Play 9. For Advanced Users The Speed System Tuning Tips & Tricks For Programmers 10. The Sampler 11. The Library Manager 12. Support & Updates 13. Epilogue 14. Copyright Notice 15. Credits & Greetings 16. Did you know... 1. Preface To X-Tracker A. Some words from the programming team: Music on computers? For many people this still sounds like computer music. But times have changed: Today it is possible to create high quality music without owning high-end equipment. With the use of samples, digitized copies of the original sound, it is possible to reconstruct nearly every "real" sound on the computer. That's why, in contrast to synthetic sound reproduction, it is possible to create music which can also be enjoyed by non computer freaks. No problem if you would like to create classical music, Jazz or Pop - everything is possible with more or less work. Commonly, ROM sample players are used today, soundcards or external devices which hold a limited number of sounds that can not or just a little bit be altered. These are commonly sorted according to the popular General MIDI standard. However, it should be apparent that 128 different instruments would sooner or later result in repetition. As a workaround, there is the possibility of integrating custom sounds which is more or less expensive when using MIDI equipment. Since the end of the 80s, a method appeared on computers (originally the Amiga) to save the sounds used in a song plus the note data itself - a good utilization of the capabilties in the low budget area. This standard enabled a huge and nearly unlimited variety of possible music scores. X-Tracker has been developed following this tradition with provision for the ever evolving hardware. With the purchase of X-Tracker you have choosen an easy to use program application for the comfortable creation of your own music scores in nearly digital CD-like quality - with up to 32 simultaneously voices! Moreover, the creation is very easy because of the special edit mode which makes composing simple even for the beginner so that he can achieve outstanding results. In contrast to other available music programs X-Tracker does not utilize the FM generators installed on many sound cards but digitized waveforms which make possible a very natural and high quality sound reproduction. We hope that you will also succeed in realizing your own ideas with X-Tracker. In this case we would be pleased to listen to your and all the other X-Tracker users' compositions. This is the first released version of XTracker. We haven∩t found any bugs yet, but excuse us, if there are still some. Please send us bugreports so we can fix 'em. B. Some words from the producer: Programs like X-Tracker are not written in one single day. Rather, you hold the result of years of hard work in your hands. Three programmers have worked on this project more than two years, a single programmer would have worked six years for it. The responsibility for what you do with this time of development is in your hands. When we at ASI decided to produce and distribute the project X- Tracker, we had two choices for marketing the product. We could either produce an expensive product for few people or a cheap one for more customers. We have choosen the second alternative because a broad distribution was important for us. This is the only chance to establish a new standard. We would like to make the program accessible for everyone everywhere. Because of this I would like to say some words about software piracy. We know of course that there have always been pirates and will ever be as long as there are computers, too. We still have lots of ideas for X-Tracker we would like to realize. But this is possible only with a fair treatment of us. Programmers and the distributor have invested lots of money and time into this project. As we mentioned, the responsibility for this project is with you. We did not implement any annoying copy protection like questions from the manual at every startup or dongles. We hope that you are fair enough to respect this. Please, do not make any copies for anyone - even if this person is a friend of yours. As you know even this is a crime. Only if programmer and distributor are being paid for their work, are updates or upgrades possible. Have fun while creating, in the name of the teams of ASI and D-Lusion, Daniel Marcial and Christian Bartsch 2. Installation => Study this Manual carefully and keep this book within easy reach anytime! Many questions that will occur if you only read the documentation quickly can simply be answered by reading this book. When you encounter this arrow '=>' there is mostly an important hint or comment to the text. Furthermore some good demons will follow you at the journey through this book. So do not be afraid of them. Before we start, some information: This product was created with the best knowledge and indeed we removed all errors that occured during the test period. However it is - typical for humans - of course possible that bugs would have been overseen by us. This is in some part caused by the great number possible PC configurations. If a bug causes - in the worst case - a system crash, unfortunately we can not be held responsible for loss of data. But if you discover an error and you can locate its occurence we would be pleased if you would report it as soon as possible so we can fix it immeaditely. For further information, refer to chapter 14, please. Thank you! X-Tracker requires the following hardware: - A Gravis UltraSound, Sound Blaster AWE32, Sound Blaster 16, Soundblaster Pro, Soundblaster or fully compatible soundcard. - An IBM PC or compatible 386-SX16 (for usage of SB16, SBPRO, SB we highly recommend a 386-DX40). - A VGA-compatible graphics card - A Microsoft-compatible mouse with mousedriver installed - At least 3 MB of free harddisk space - At least 1 MB of free extended memory and 590KB of free convetional memory => These are minimum requirements such that the program will at least work. A nearly perfect configuration for X-Tracker would be for example the following: 486SX25, 4 MB of memory, a Gravis Ultrasound,170 MB harddisk. With a machine like that you can enjoy XTracker in full! To install please insert the program disk in the disk drive and change the active drive. To do this, simply enter A: <ENTER> or B: <ENTER>; then type INSTALL <ENTER>. Installing from CD-ROM, do mostly the same. Just change to your CD-ROM drive - normally D: or E: - and activate the installation programm. Please follow the orders of the program. => Please enter your name and address correctly and complete! This is important for our upgrade/update services. These are only available for regitered users! Refer to chapter 12. You must install the program from your original disk the first time! After entering the name please use a backup copy for further installations. Next enter the path and the destination drive for the installation. After completing the progress that can take some minutes, change to the ready created X-Tracker directory and call the program by entering XTRACKER <ENTER>. Now you can begin the usage of X-Tracker: Firtsly, setup the parameters of your soundcard, where we take the values from the enviroment variables as presets. These parameters should be correct in most cases. => Take care that if you enter the wrong soundcard adresses your computer may crash (bad luck...). If you do not exactly now about your soundcard parameters, please refer to the with your soundcard enclosed manuals. Be sure to use the 16-Bit DMA on Soundblaster 16 or Soundblaster AWE32 in SB16 Mode. Normally this DMA is 5. To test your settings you may listen to the demonstration songs enclosed with X-Tracker - if you do not know exactly how this function works, keep on reading this manual. 3. Introduction In X-Tracker X-Tracker works with tracks (I wonder why the name...), i.e. so you can imagine your X-Tracker as a music studio where you can use up to 32 tracks. Every track is monophone, so only one tone can be played on a track at a time. With the usage of samples this virtual disadvantage becomes unimportant because a sample can be of course a whole choir or an accord. The repeating parts of a song that are played in a sequence i.e. a definite order are called patterns. So a pattern is a couple of rows with notes and each row equals a track. If you are normally used to 'classic' note scores you probably know the concept of half, whole, stressed, held also. notes and pauses. With a track you just enter the note pitch - the length is determined by the occurence of the next note or next pause (that's a no-note!). => If you think that this concept is in a way strange (this should be normal for beginners in tracker music) do not stop approach- ing it. This virtual non-creative, non-music-like way to create compostion reveals a huge variety of possibility-nearly every- thing that you could imagine. You will discover:It is worth the work. Before we begin to talk about the user interface, now a short discussion of the file/format of X-Tracker that is relevant because of its variety that makes anything possible for you very own music. The following information is not required for the usage of the program. We deal with files created with X-Tracker, DDMF (D-LUSION DIGITAL MUSIC FILE). The standard file name extension for DDMFs is '.DMF', e.g. TEST.DMF. The files are created as follows: A. Header In this area you may find general information about the music piece like the title, the name of the author and the date of creation. B. Info Text This info text makes it possible for the author to send greetings or information with his composition. The commonly available players show these texts on the screen. C. Pattern Block A pattern is a division of the music similar to the pages of a music score. A maximum of 1024 patterns is possible with X-Tracker and so in DMFs. The length for a pattern is individually editable between one and 512 note entries. The note entries mark the chronological order of a pattern, i.e. the notes in the first line are played at first, then the second and so on... Furthermore a pattern is divided in tracks. These are the voices of your arrangement. Every pattern can include a variable Amount of tracks (1-32) where every track can only play one instrument at the same time. The tracks contain the notes and effects to play, during a sperate track - the global track - is resposible for commands like speed and so on. D. Sequencer Block The sequencer determines the order of the patterns during playing. With this method you can repeat some parts without using additional memory. The sequencer can use a maximum of 1024 entries. E. Samples For instruments in DMFs we use samples. These are short digitized instruments, noises or just voices. So sound reproduction relizes real simple and realistic. Samples could be pitched just with the increasing or decreasing of the sample rate, i.e. the speed of playback. Up to 255 samples are possible in a DMF where every sample can be at a size of up to 262,144 bytes. (On a Gravis Ultrasound there are limits given with the size of the sample RAM: a maximum of 1 MB samples all in all. If you use Soundblaster, the maximum lays beyond this, just how much main memory you have.) In a DMF file samples are compressed (optional) the first time ever so you can shorten your time for loading songs and save harddisk space! All common sample formats (WAV, VOC etc.) are supportes, but also Gravis Ultrasound Patches could be imported easily. For a more exact documentation of the DMF file please refer to the enclosed text files. 4. The User Interface X-Tracker features an easy-to-use and easy-to-learn interface which will be famillar if you already worked with MS-DOS programs using Turbo Vision. The user interface, developed by Borland International, has been designed with the guidelines of SAA in mind which makes the use of this environment very easy. Nearly every command can be actived by using a Microsoft or compatible mouse device instead of the keyboard. => The mouse control has only been implemented to make life easier and faster for the beginner. As soon as you know the keyboard shortcuts you will see that everything is faster if you use the keys instead of using the mouse. The mouse is the most un- efficient device on computers (and it is not good for your back and arm muscles at all) so we strongly recommend that you try to learn the keyboardshortcuts as soon as possible.The sampler, however, is the only sub program of the X-Tracker package which requires heavy use of the mouse. This is just this way because it is not comfortable to edit a sample using the keyboard. Sooner or later you will figure it out yourself where to use the mouse and where not. Some kind words to all those people (especially Fido Net users) who used to criticise the textmode interface just before release: Because of the sound routines which play up to 32 voices even on a standard Soundblaster card it needs much of the time provided by the processor. In addition, huge graphical interfaces also needs lots of time and memory to store window overlays and other stuff. This would hardly decrease the programs' performance. This is why we had to compromise and this is why X-Tracker uses the faster interface. We hope this is also the decision you would have choosen. Beside its comfort of Turbo Vision there might still be some special features which could be difficult for the unexperienced user. Here is a short description of the keyboard management of Turbo Vision: 1. Pressing F10 activates the menu bar where sub menu and other items can be chosen using the CURSOR KEYS and the ENTER KEY. 2. Try and use "shortcuts". By pressing ALT plus the in the menus highlighted characters you can access those functions directly (e.g. pressing ALT+F L to load a DMF). 3. Be smart and use hotkeys (shown just after the function's name in the menus, like F3 for loading a DMF). Some general stuff about dialogue boxes: - ENTER accepts the information shown, the information is afterwards used by the program - ESC aborts, the information is not used by the program - TAB jumps to the next input field1 - SHIFT+TAB jumps to the last active input field - CURSOR KEYS access different sub fields - SPACE BAR tags a highlighted button - CTRL plus + or - increases/decreases the value in most of input fields without forcing you to enter completely new values The working area can be divided in four large sub areas: - The status bar, it shows some important general information, whereever you are on the screen - The pattern window, where you find the song data and more information about your work - The sequencer window, it influences how your pattern data is being played - The menu bar, where you can choose from an huge amount of highly technical and powerful functions that would even have surprised James Bond and Q. Before we explain every detail, let us have a look at the work area. 5. The Status Bar The status bar which you may find at the very bottom of the screen contains important information about the current editor settings and your system resources. These are also updated when opening a window (e.g. the sample dialog). Current octave Octave on which the current sample is played when entered. Current sample Sample that will played if you enter a note. HRAM Free extended memory of the D-LUSION HMEM32 DOSextender (used for patterns and samples on SB, SBPRO and SB16) Base memory Free Amount of convetional memory (used by X-Tracker and the temporary pattern) Sound memory Free Amount free of sound memory (used by samples). Only important if you use GUS or AWE in native mode (yet not supported). 6. The Pattern Window This is the most important part of X-Tracker because you can edit the single pattern of your music score here. If you like, you can zoom (like in the image below) the window to maximum size by pressing F5. => Do not get scared of the following mass of information! A description of all functions will follow. A lot of information is placed around the pattern window. File name The current file name of your song, the one it will be saved with. Title The title of the song, not restricted to 8 characters. Author The author of your song. This should be you in most cases. Info text Shows if the song contains an info text or not. Position bar Shows you the current edit or play position relative to the whole pattern. Pattern The number of the current pattern that is edited in the moment. Number of patterns Number of patterns used in this song Tracks Number of used tracks in this pattern Note entries Number of note entries in the current pattern Ticks per beat Number of ticks per beat. If no TPB is set respectivly you use the BPM system instead, you find nothing here. Quantize Currently set quatizaton of the step after a noteentry, e.g. every fourth note. Record mode Current record mode: You only can enter data into the track if recording is turned on, indicated by an "R" Edit mode Current edit mode: Standard, pitch or drum In the lower area of the pattern window you will find some more useful information. On the left side you find information concerning the situation of the track while playing or the entry in the current track while editing. Sample number Number of samples, as shown in the note entry Sample name Name of the current sample Note Current note Effects 1-4 Current effects with their parameters On the right side information concerning the sequencer can be found. This is very handy if you have enlarged the pattern window to full size and can not see the sequencer window below. Sequencer position Current sequencer position (only while playing) Sequencer entries Entries in the sequencer (equal to the length of the song) Pattern flow A small cut which shows the flow of patterns. The current pattern is highlighted "Inside" the pattern window: General track Global track for global effects like BPM speed, speed slide etc. Global effect Global effect, only possible in general track Note row number Number of the note row, numbered from 0 to <number of rows per pattern>. Some row are highlighted as entered in the preferences Sample number Number of sample Note Note with octave (e.g. C#4 means Cis in octave four) Track effects Track effects (1-4) sorted in groups Track number Number of track Track balance Current balance of track (only while playing) Track info Track information. As entered in prefernces either volume, current sample or active sample Block mark Block mark for block operations Note cursor Current input position for notes and effects BPM Current BPM speed (only while playing) Tick speed Current tick speed (only while playing) => The "notes" of X-Tracker have been adjusted with real notes in mind to make handling more easier. However, the notes used in X-Tracker do not use an absolute frequency, e.g. 'A' is not 440Hz, moreover they are meant to be a sampling rate which affect the playback speed thus effecting the pitch of the sound. The keyboard layout of X-Tracker has been designed to fit the keyboard of a piano (somehow...) which will help many beginners to work with X-Tracker as fast as possible. C# D# F# G# A# Sharp note | | | | | S D G H J Key on PC keyboard Z X C V B N M Key on PC keyboard | | | | | | | C D E F G A B Note C#' D#' F#' G#' A#' Sharp note | | | | | 1 2 4 5 6 Key on PC keyboard Q W E R T Y U Key on PC keyboard | | | | | | | C' D' E' F' G' A' B' Note < or > Stops the sample at once, while editing a "no-note" is inserted which stops the note before. . Increase octave , Decrease octave 9 full octaves are available, C-0 to B-8. This keyboard layout is also activated in the sample dialog, the sampler and the library manager. SHIFT-Z to M Entry for buffer-notes for special effects. Buffer-notes are written in minor characters,like this: c#-3 instead of C#-3. In the edit window you may find rows (tracks) and lines (noteentries). For positioning of the cursor you may use the following keyboard commands. CURSOR-LEFT Previous track CURSOR-RIGHT Next track CTRL+CURSOR-LEFT Previous track (for track mode 6) CTRL+CURSOR-RIGHT Next track (for track mode 6) CURSOR-UP One noteline up CURSOR-DOWN One noteline down PAGE-UP Jumps up one screen page PAGE-DOWN Jumps down one screen page HOME Jumps to the first noteentry of the current pattern END Jumps to the last noteentry of the current pattern + Next pattern - Previous pattern CTRL+PAGE-UP Jump to first pattern DEL Deletes a note with effects SHIFT+BACKSPACE Deletes only effects ENTER Activates sample dialog (refer below) SPACE Activates / disactivates note scrolling during playing. F1 Call context-sensitive help => If you are not aware of a function of a command, just call up the context - sensitive help with F1! Part of this documentation is available on-line! 7. The Sequencer Window The sequencer window is used for the arrangement of the pattern. So this is the chronological order of the parts of our music - this parts are the patterns. With F6 you can toggle between pattern and sequencer window easily. Alternatively you can click with the mouse on the appropriate window. Now follows another screenshot: Sequencer entries Number of sequencer entries, this is the length of the sequencer in pattern. Sequencer loop Start and end position for the sequencer loop. Your loop is played to the end and than back to start position. Neat for cutting 'intros' from your song. Sequencer position The current position during playing or editing in the sequencer. Current pattern The pattern on the current sequencer position Pattern amount Number of patterns available The following keys could be used in the sequencer window: CURSOR-RIGHT Next sequencer position CURSOR-LEFT Previous sequencer position HOME/END Jumps to start/end of the sequencer ENTER Edit current sequencer position (enter pattern number) INSERT Insert new entry at sequencer position DELETE Delete current sequencer position +/- Raise/lower pattern entry at sequencer position CTRL+PRINT-SCRN Jump to any sequencer position 8. The Menu Entries The menu of X-Tracker is divided to several topics, like edit and so on. The first sub menu called "D-Lusion" is for information purposes only and can not be activated using a hotkey or a shortcut. On the right, you find a clock which should help you to determine the length of your work. We would like to explain the different sub menus on the next pages: A. The File Menu This menu contains functions for handling DMFs. File | New Restart the desktop for working on a new file. If you already created something or changed something on an old song all changes will be lost. This is why X-Tracker will pop up a requester in that case, asking if you really want to delete everything in memory. The settings for the new file you are working on are determined by the settings in Options | DMF. File | Kill contents Kills sub parts of a DMF from memory. Possible choices: Kill pattern Kill sequencer Kill samples Kill info block => Warning! You can not undo these operations. Please consider what you are doing before choosing any of the options. File | Kill contents | Kill pattern Erases all patterns and the sequencer from the current DMF. All other data remains untouched. File | Kill contents | Kill sequencer Erases the sequencer from memory. All patterns are left intact. File | Kill contents | Kill samples Removes all samples from memory. The song data itself remains intact. File | Kill contents | Kill info block Erases all information contained in the info block. All other data remains intact. File | Load (F3) Loads a music file into memory. Alien formats can also be loaded and are converted into DMF instantly. This feature makes it possible that X-Tracker can also be used for continuing work on songs thath have been created using other tracker programs. To fit the conventions of the DMF format, small changes may have to be made (this is done by the program itself). The following formats are being supported: *.DMF D-LUSION DIGITAL MUSIC FILES *.S3M Screamtracker III modules *.MTM Multitracker modules *.669 Composer 669 modules *.MOD Soundtracker, Protracker, Startrekker, Noisetracker, Fasttracker, Taketracker More formats coming soon. => Because of the many types of MOD files it might happen that some stronger changes have to be made. Some composers used commands which because of bugs resulted in special sound effects which can not be reproduced using X-Tracker (....you have to find the special X-Tracker bugs yourself <grin>...). This is why we can not guarantee for a 100% copy of MOD to DMF. In most cases, however, the conversion should be quite perfect. File | Save (F2) DRAM or other RAM devices have the disadvantage of loosing their contents after turning the power off. We have spent nights and days on working on a special feature which will prevent you from creating the same song over and over again because you turned the power off. We are proud to announce our internationally wellknown save function which will save all your work to any media connected to your computer which supports the IBM file format. Anyway - it would be a wise idea not to chose the RAM disk for saving <sigh>. Songs saved using this feature can afterwards be loaded using 'Load'. If you did not give your song any name until now, you can do this now. Before saving your glorious work to disk, you can choose from different options: - Pack or do not pack samples - Save or do not save info block - Save or do not save library samples => On some computers so called Write-Behind-Caches are being installed. These programs take care of the data sent to the drive and write it while you continue to work. Some programs wait for more five minutes before writing the data to disk finally. This is why you should always leave X-Tracker using the 'Quit' function. Otherwise, you might loose your data. File | Save as Saves the DMF using a different name. The first time you want to save your work you should use this function. If you forget to do it X-Tracker will choose this option itself. File | Delete Deletes a file on a disk or harddisk drive. Be sure the file you delete is really the one you want to delete. There is no way to get back deleted files, except using any Undelete or other program. If used correctly it is a good way to create some space and waste some crap. File | Edit title Choose this option and you will be able to change the title of your song. This is the name X-Tracker and other programs or players will display on screen as the name of the song. File | Edit author If a special guest star (...just imagine...) wants to create some chartbreaking music on your computer this option is a clever hack. The name you enter will be displayed on screen as the name of the fabulous creator of the song. File | Edit info text (ALT-L) If there ever is something you would like to comment on your song - do it. This is what this function has been designed for. For your comfort, a little text editor pops up where you can enter your text. Editor key table CURSOR KEYS Move cursor INSERT Toggle between insert/overwrite mode ENTER Insert one line BACKSPACE Erase previos character DELETE Erase character unde cursor ESC Exit editor (and accept changes) File | File info (ALT-I) A window pops up, showing various information about the current DMF like amount of tracks, file size, date of creation etc. File | System info Displays information about your system and the current status of your memory. As an additional feature you can see time and date (hey, you can sell all your clocks now...). File | Dos shell Suspends X-Tracker (not as correct as it sounds) and switches to the DOS task. X-Tracker remains in background and will only pop up again if you enter EXIT <ENTER> at the DOS prompt. This is an easy way if you just wanted to have a look at your directory or something else. While you do so you will still be able to listen to X-Tracker's music (if you turned it on before jumping to DOS). This, however, may lead to some problems when in DOS because the player routines are using interrupts to keep the music going. If one of the DOS programs you call while being at the DOS prompt tries to use or initialize your sound card your sytem is supposed to crash. Heavy access of any other things (formatting hard drives, logging in and out of network servers etc.) may crash the system, too. => Warning! You are advised to save your work everytime before you jump to DOS.You never know what is going to happen when you are outisde of X-Tracker. Once you are locked out of X-Tracker you are locked out of your created song, too. So, just save your work before messing around with the DOS shell. File | Exit (ALT-X) Leaves X-Tracker (well - why should you do this?) and returns to DOS. If you did not save your work, X-Tracker reminds you to do so. B. Pattern Menu The following command refer to the whole pattern. Pattern | Copy pattern This copys any pattern in the current pattern, the original one is overwritten! All patternsettings are also copied (like tracks, beat, etc.) Pattern | Delete pattern Deletes all entries (notes, effects) in the current pattern. Settings like amount of tracks and ticks per beat are not touched at all. Pattern | Reinit pattern Reinitializes the current pattern. The standard values from the menu Options | DMF a taken as default. The following parameters can be edited (with range of values): - Number of tracks (1-32) - Number of note entries (1-512) - Number of Ticks per beat (1-15) If you resize the pattern please be careful: If you enlarge something nothing will be lost but if you make something smaller (e.g. tracks) information might be lost. Pattern | Jump to pattern (CTRL-PRINT-SCRN) Jumps directly to the entered pattern. Pretty handful if you want e.g. jump from pattern 235 to pattern 5 (would be annoying with + or -). Pattern | Insert line (SHIFT-INSERT) Inserts a blank line at the current cursor position, the length of the pattern is increased by one. Pattern | Delete line (SHIFT-DELETE) Deletes a note line on the current position, therefore the lenghth of the pattern is decreased by one. C. Track Menu These functions affect the currently selected track. Track | Kill track Deletes the current track from the pattern. The amount of tracks is decreased by one in this pattern. Track | Add track Adds a new track in the pattern at the cursorposition. The amount of tracks is increased by one. Track | Delete track Deletes all entries in the current track (effects and note entries). Track | Melody play (ALT-F7) Turns off all tracks but the selected. With Track | All Tracks you may toggle all channels on. This is useful to just her one voice during listening to a song, e.g. a melody channel. Track | All tracks (SHIFT-F7) With this command you can unmute all channels at once. This is faster than toggling every channel by hand. Track | Track on/off (ALT-SPACE) Toggle between channel off and on. This is displayed beneath the track itself. Track | Display mode (ALT-F10) Changes the display mode of the current track. The following displaymodes are available, everyone to maximize the edit comfort: 1. Extended 001 C#3 VOL123 2. Large 001 C#3 VOL 3. Medium 001 C#3 4. Small C#3 5. Tiny X 6. Super All entries Every display mode has its advatages and disadvantages. E.g. mode 5 is great for editing a bassdrum channel, but worse for melody tracks (you cannot see the pitch at all). With mode 6 however you have full control also of all effects but less overview. Track | Display mode (all) (CTRL-F10) Changes the display mode for all tracks at once. (same as above for all tracks) Track | Adjust trackmode Automatically select the most appropriate display mode for all tracks so you can see the maximum amount of tracks at once. This is affected by the number of tracks in your currently loaded DMF. Track | Standard displaymode Sets all tracks to the standard displaymode as defined in the Options | Editor Menu. Track | Toggle track information (SHIFT-F10) Toggles between the three diferent track information possibilities below every track: - Selected Sample: Shows the currently selcted sample for each voice that is used while playing. - Current Sample: The sample is shows that is currently played on this track. - Volume: Shows the relative volume of the track. Not identical with the absolute volume of the track! Track | Insert line (CTRL-INSERT) Inserts a line at the cursor position. In this case only the current track is affected and the maximum amount of note entries in the pattern remains unchanged. Be careful not to push your last note out with this command. Track | Delete line (CTRL-DELETE) Deletes a line only in the current track and every following note is pulled up one note entry. This is not affecting the maximum amount of note entries in the pattern. D. Edit Menu These functions make it easier to create effects and to edit in general. Edit | Undo (CTRL-BACKSPACE) Recovers all changes since the last playing or pattern change. Pretty neat if a cat jumped on your keyboard. Edit | Track effects (TAB) This opens the track effect window (only if you are not on the global track). With the effects dialog you select the effects in the three different effectgroups for the note entry on which your cursor is. Probably existing effects, they are reshown to edit them again. The effects are devided in groups so that 3 effects (one of each groups) can be used at the same time. In the lower area of the dialog you can read a short description of the effect that should be enough. Some terminae are taken from the classic music theories, but do not take them serious. Simply, try to learn all you need by experiencing yourself - or take a look at the demo songs! The effects could be selected as usual (TAB for changing, etc.) and with ENTER you may leave the dialog and the effects are accepted. Edit | Global effects (TAB) You come into the global effects dialog if you are on the global track. You can see a short description for every effect below and you can accept your effect with the entered parameters by pressing ENTER. Edit | Define macro You can edit up to 10 effect macros here. Firtsly, you have to enter the macro number (0-9) and then you can enter the volume and the desired effects with parameters. To activate a macro simply use ALT 0-9. These macros are saved when leaving the program and they are reactivated when loaded again. => Pretty useful function for using the same effect combinations more than one time. Edit | Set volume (ALT-V) Sets the volume for the current sample on the position where the standard volume for the sample is not used any longer. The values may be between 0-255, where 0 is no change at all. Edit | Drop last volume (ALT-W) Reuses the last volume setting again, i.e. also on another position. Edit | Drop last effect (SHIFT-TAB) With this function you can reuse the last set effect (if not defined a macro). It is fatser then entering it again and again. Edit | Delete effect (BACKSPACE) Deletes all effects on the current cursor position. Sample number and note entry are fully recovered. Edit | Change effect data (ALT-U) With this you can change the data on the current cursor position directly without entering the effect dialog (it is somewhat faster). Edit | Edit sequencer loop (ALT-U) By choosing this option you can change the loop position of the sequencer. The song is first played until the end of the sequencer loop point and then repeated between the start point and the end point. This feature is only active if it has been enabled using Options | Editor | Edit. Edit | Record mode on/off Toggles record mode on and off. This option is useful if you want to add some tracks life but don't want them to be added to the song. Edit | Change edit mode (CTRL-F4) Toggles between the different edit modes: - Standard: what you enter is what you get. - Pitch mode: when entering a note, the sample is not restarted. Furthermore the current sample is pitched up or down to match the desired value. This is very handy when working with strings or looped sounds. - Drum mode: different samples can be assigned to different keys so that the keyboard can be used like a normal drumpad. The current active edit mode is shown in the lower right corner of the pattern window. Edit | Standard mode Sets standard edit mode . The keyboard can be used like the keyboard of a piano. Edit | Pitch mode Sets pitch mode. This mode only enters the note value into a track but not the sample number. When playing the sound is only pitched and not retriggered. This, of course, only works if the selected instrument is still playing. It is a good advice to use this feature for looped or long instruments only. Edit | Drum mode Sets drum edit mode. This feature is quite comfortable if you are going to play a rhythm or anything in that direction. After activating the drum mode every key is assigned to a different sample. The speed for the samples is equal to their last trigger, e.g. if a gunshot has been played with C#4 in the sample dialogue C#4 is the value that is used in the drum mode. The current active sample in the sample dialogue or the current active sample from the pattern (depends on what you did last) is assigned to the 'A' key, the instrument following the current one is assigned to 'B' and so on. => Try and use these special X-Tracker features. Once you are familiar with them, you will not want to miss them. Edit | Change quantize (F4) Sets a new quantize step. If quantize is set to 1, the indicator bar in the pattern window is moved to the next higher position (e.g. if it was on 39 before, it is on 40 after inserting a note). If you choose quantize, the step can be enlarged. This is handy if you want to set a bass drum every 8th line - just set quantize to 7 and - well, there you are. A value of 0 turns of quantize, negative values are also possible. Edit | Change color mark offset (ALT-F4) Moves the start for highlighting every nth line to the current position. This is very comfortable if you are going to enter offbeats or something familiar. E. Block Menu Here you may find commands for deleting, manupulating, and editing of the marked are in the edit window. Block | Block begin (F7) This sets the beginning of the block. If you have already marked a beginning it is overwritten. A Block could be longer than a pattern but could not rach over more than 1 pattern. Block | Block end (F8) With this you can set the end mark od the block. if you have already set a block the end is adjusted. Block | Mark track (CTRL-F8) Marks the entire track as block. Block | Mark unit (ALT-F8) If you want to mark a block with the length of the highlighted offset you can use this function. If you call this function several times, you can raise it by the length again and again. Block | Unmark (ALT-F8) Deactivates the current block mark. A quite pointless function, but it was recommended by some way strange beta-testers. Block | Save block Saves the block as .DBF file (D-LUSION BLOCK FILE) on disk or harddisk. This is quite sensible if you want to use parts from other songs - but stop ripping off Radical Rhythms... Block | Load block This command loads a formely saved block (.DBF) to reinclude in another song. The block is inserted at the current cursor position. If you have data in this pattern, it is overwritten. The block is cut at its end, if it is longer than the pattern. Block | Copy block (ALT-C) This copys the marked block on the cursor position and overwrites anything standing below. (You can also copy in another pattern.) Block | Delete block (ALT-K) This deletes really everything in the currently makred block, like notes, effects, etc. Block | Move block (ALT-M) This is how to move a block from one position to the current cursor position. Everything standing below is deleted. Block | Block effect copy (ALT-Y) This command only copys the effects to the current cursor position. The note entries and sample numbers are not touched. Block | Block n-effect copy Copys only the effects to the current cursor position, but only on lines with a note entry. That means, that every line without a note entry remains untouched (also if there is an effect). Block | Block "sprite-copy" (ALT-S) Copys the entries ,of the current block to the cursor position where only the used entries will overwrite anything. If there is a blank, the original entry remains. Sensible for creating 1 track from 2. Block | Block change sample (ALT-S) Subtitutes a selectable sample in the block with another one. Block | Block transpose Transposes (increases or decreases) the note values in the selected block for a choosen amount of sharp notes. Nice for the rapid generation of sequences. Block | Block scale volume (ALT-J) Scales all volume commands in the current block for an entered percentage. Great for producing echoing effects etc. Block | Block effect fill Fills the whole block with choosen effects. Older effects are being overwritten. Block | Block effect slide Slides the effectparamters entered to fit a choosen range. The steps inbetween are calculated by the program. F. Sample menu This menu opens the Sample Dialog. Parameters for the current sample: Name Name of sample (used for easier identification) Length Length of sample in bytes (can not be edited) Volume Preset volume, used as the standard volume. The preset volume is overriden by effects only. L.Start Start of loop L.End End of loop C3-Frequ. Frequency for note C-3 (by changing this value you can tune the sample) Loop Activates or deactivates the loop Library This field holds the name of a library (if used). Samples can also be stored in libraries which means they are stored outside the song. This is why more songs can use the same samples without occupying unneeded disk space. The library must be existent (which means it has been created using the library manager). Lib. This switch determines if the sample is external or if it should be loaded from a library. So if this switch is on, the DMF is saved without library samples, otherwise all samples are saved. Sample | Sample entries Here you can select the current sample by using the CURSOR keys and the ENTER key. Sample | Load This funtions loads a sample from a .DSL-library in the current sample slot. In the library window you may test every sound by using the piano keyboard. Sample | Diskload With this command you can load a sample from you harddiak or a floppy drive. The following formats are supported: .DSF D-LUSION SAMPLE FILE .SAM 8bit signed raw .SMP 8bit unsigned raw .PAT Gravis Ultrasound Patch .WAV Windows Wave file .VOC Creative Voice file In the dialog you may test the marked sample by using the piano keyboard. Sample | Save This function saves the currently marked sample as .DSF file. This is quite handy if you want to steal samples from other DMFs. (This seems to be quite common in several scenes...) Sample | Kill Deletes the current sample slot and the sample in it. Sample | Sampler Calls the X-Tracker sampler and sends the sample to it. (Exact function decription in chapter 10) G. Options Menu To be very configurable, X-Tracker features a whole lot of settings. So it can be as user-friendly as possible. Options | Soundcard * Selects the soundcard to use for replay. Port port address IRQ IRQ number DMA DMA channel Mixer frequency: Mixing frequency on SB and SBPRO/SB16. (The higher this value, the better the sound, the faster machine you need!) Max. tracks Maximum number of tracks. If you play back songs with more voices some might be missing. Overdrive: Sets the overdrive on soundblasters. The standard value should be okay on most cards. Buffer size: DMA buffer size for SB. If you use a higher DMA buffer value you will get better sound but worse scrolling. The last 4 parameters are not needed on GUS. => Generally, don't get nervous if the sound output does not work. Delete the file XTRACKER.CFG and restart the program. Then select another setting. This may also help f you are hearing a little background noise. Optionen | Output options Here are some switrches that may affect you soundcard. Line in Activates the line-in input of your sound card. Mic in Activates the microphone input on your sound card, so if you like try singing to it (Karaoke...). Filter Aktivates the internal filter of the Soundblaster. (Not on GUS!) Volume Volume setting for Gravis Ultrasound. Optionen | DMF standards Standard values used when initializing a new pattern (e.g. track amount, pattern length, ect.) Optionen | Editor A huge dialog with the following switches: Tracks There are settings for the track display. Zoom active track Switch for zooming the active track. Show global track If you want to hide the global track, turn this off. Track information There you can edit the stadard track information and toggle between those: Selected sample The currently selectes sample for editing Current sample The currently playes sample in this track Volume The current volume of the track Track init These are options for the standard track display for a new loaded DMF. Adjustment Automatically adjusted size Default Use deafult track size Default track display Here you may edit the default display parameters of the tracks. Display These options concern the display of your work enviroment. Show leading zeros Toggles between hidden and shown leading zeros on every number Color note Toggles the color mark for TPB or tick speed on or off. Big sequencer mark Marks the current sequencer position with a thick mark. Show balance Shows the balance in the trackinfo of a track. 9. For Advanced Users A. The Speedsystem The DMF format conatins two completely different systems for replay tempo: - The tickspeed system Here you can use the GT command 'Tick speed' for the replay speed of a noteline in 1/4 Hz steps. The default is 32, that is 8 notelines a second. - The beat system This speed system is more pouplar for musicans. It is the quarter notes per minute. With ticks per beat you may enter the beat and with the GT command BPM you can set the bpm tempo. An example: Set TPB at 4 and BPM at 12 there are 4*12, that is 48 notelines played per Minute. Only one of both system can used at the time. At a new DMF tickspeed is the default system. To return to tickspeed after using bpm set TPB on 0. B. Tuning Tips & Tricks We recommend the following setting to maximize the power of X- Tracker: - Use a good diskcache - Boot only with HIMEM.SYS, without any 386 VCPI EMS driver. This speeds up the memory acces a lot, because X-Tracker's own DOS- Xtender HMEM32 is much faster than the others.If you have a config menu,make an entry for X-Tracker. You should not load EMM386.EXE or similar. Especially Soundblaster-User will experience a marvellous system speed up. - You may load X-tracker partially oφnto the high memory, so you can get more base mem for the DOS-shell or the sampler. - In the current version X-Tracker does not work with Windows or OS/2. This would not be sensible at all, because of the lack of performance needed for the SB-mixing routines. C. For Programmers An exact description of the X-Tracker formats is enclosed with your software package. For hobby-programmers D-LUSION offers a free prgramm collection with replay routines (DMFKIT), so you can use DMFs in NON-commercial products for free! For commercial activities there are also replay routines, but you should contact ASI for it: X-Tracker Customer Support Flottmannstr. 117 44625 Herne Germany Please add 2DM in stamps for postage and handling. 10. The Sampler A. Preface Recording noises, voices or natural sounds has always been fascinating. But sound hardware had its limitations. Often, it was not possible to do much more than sligthly modifying or playing sounds. Now you have the chance to create multi channel scores! Already existing sounds can of course be used for further scores but sampling with X-Tracker's integrated sampler is more than comfortable - it is easy. Now you can create your own instruments and other special things, just use your creativity. Have fun while creating your own world of noise and sound! The sampler is a sub program of the X-Tracker editor which allows you to sample any data from any input. If you want to edit the sampled data - no problem! The sampler and the library manager have been designed to support X-Tracker, not to be stand alone programs. That is why they do their job but are not sold as full price software. Nevertheless, they fullfill their job as expected. Sampling is a subject on its own. This is why we can not describe the basics of sampling in this X-Tracker manual. If you need further information than this manual can provide please have a look at the computer section of your local book store. It is a good idea anyway to play around with the program to learn how to handle it. The sampler can be started from within X-Tracker itself , from the library manager or the DOS prompt. To start the sampler from DOS, just type XTSAMP <ENTER>. B. Interface The sampler features an easy to use GUI (Graphic User Interface) which should be used with the keyboard and the mouse simultaneously. The upper third of the screen shows the graphical sample display. Below, you find information about the current sample plus the system. The lower third of the screen is occupied by the function buttons. C. General overview A range can be marked by moving the mouse over the sample window. Select where to start, press the left mouse button and hold it. Then, move the mouse to the desired end of the range and release the button. Samples can be played the same way as in X-Tracker by pressing several keys on the keyboard. In addition, there is also a button called "Play" which will play the sample with the current sampling rate. Pressing the space bar or the right mouse button at any time will stop the playback. D. Functions We are now discussion of the several functions of the sampler. The X- Tracker Sampler contains a clipboard, which you maybe already know from Microsofts Windows. => Please note: when leaving the sampler by pressing OK all changes will be taken back into X-Tracker.Quiting without accepting will discard all changes. Screen The following functions change the display mode of the sampler. Sample - Clip Toggles between the sample and the clipboard. This is handy if you want to add some changes to a sample in the clipboard. Using this function, you can edit "two" samples at the same time. << X >> Positions the sample in zoom mode. Misc. The following commands are miscellaneous functions for working on the sample. Mark. Screen Marks every byte of the sample on the screen. Kill range Erases the current range but not its contents. Range > Loop Copies the offset of the range to the loop buffer. The rang will be looped if you turn on "Loop" in the sample box of X-Tracker. Range < Loop Does the same as the pervious command only the other way round. Cut Functions for cutting the sample. Cut Cuts the marked range from the sample. Copy S>C Copies the whole sample into the clipboard. Ins. S<C Inserts the clipboard into the sample at the range start indicator. Swap S<>C Exchanges sample and clipboard contents. Volume Functions for editing the volume of the sample. Maximize Maximizes the amplitude of the sample. In some cases changing the amplitude by hand is recommended. Change Changes the amplitude of the sample as desired. Caution: too high values will push some parts of the sample out of the possible range. This will result in bad sound quality and can not be repaired except loading the sample from disk again. Fade "Drives" the amplitude in the marked range from the start to the end value. Zero Sets the marked range to be silent (Byte value 0). Effects Functions for changing and modifying of the sample. Reverse Reverse the marked range. Very handy for decrypting hidden backward messages of Led Zeppelin records. Robotize Generate a robot effect over the marked range. You might know this effect from cheap science fiction films. Should be used for voices only. Filter Moves the sample through a high or lowpass filter, creating a lower or higher sample. Pause Creates a pause (zero range) in the range start. The length is determined by the length of the range. Mix Mixes the clipboard into the current sample. Strange... Echo Generates a red herring (?) or an echo . Clipgen Creates a new sample by duplicating the sample from the clipboard as often as desired. Sometimes, it even generates a red herring. Fixings Functions for fixing a sample. Smoothen Smoothens the start and the end of the sample to eliminate short "clicks" when playing a sample. Smoothen loop Smoothens the current loop thus eliminating "clicks" when looping. Unfortunately, this function is unable to generate a red herring. Align Aligns the sample position in value range. Sign Changes between signed and unsigned sample handling. This is useful for converting samples from the other computers to the PC. Sampling These functions are being used for sampling and resampling. Record Records a sample from the input. The sample length is limited to 256000 bytes. Downpack Reduces the number of bytes in a sample (to be regarded as a packing process). This method however reduces the sample's quality, too! Variables These options change the internal sample variables using in X- Tracker (as shown in the sample requester). Name Name of sample. Volume Playback volume of sample. Loop Loop information for sample. C3-Frequency C3-Playback frequency of sample. Compress. Turns sample compression on/off. Options Here you find the play options for the sample. Sample/Range Plays the whole sample or the range only. Replay Loop Defines, if the sample is played with a loop. Sample Loop Defines, if a loop should be played if set. File Functions for the operation with files. Load Loads a sample from disk or hd. Load as Loads a sample with definition of the format. This way, you can force a file to be loaded as a different format. Save Saves the sample. Save as Saves the sample. You can enter the name for the file. The first time you "Save" the function is called anyway. Range save Saves the marked range to a file. Link Function for selecting samples from X-Tracker or the Library Manager. <, > Previous/next sample. Select Load sample from DMF. Delete Delete sample from DMF. Replay These functions are needed for direct playback. Start Plays the sample. Stop Stops playback. Fade If the sample has a loop set, it is faded out slowly. 11. The Library Manger The Library Manager (also called Librarian) is another add-on program for X-Tracker which allows you to manage all your samples in sample libraries (or banks, if you prefer). A Library contains up to 512 samples and is saved as a single file. Libraries can be created to sort instruments of the same type (for example bass drums for Tekkkkkkno (enough 'k' ?)). This is very samrt if you have thousands of samples and want to get an overview. You don't have to jump through thousands of directories, load samples until you feel sick; you just load the library and there you go! Using a library it is very easy to find duplicate samples. And the smartest thing is yet to come: libraries are saved in a compressed format. Do not waste your disk space by saving the samples separately (on some hd's even files of 10 bytes size require 32 000 bytes to store). As an addition, the Library Manager also accesses the Sampler so you can edit all your lib samples from within the manager. Loading library samples from X-Tracker is quite easy. Just activate the sample requester and get the sample from the library using "L. S. Load". To run the Library Manager you have to leave the X-Tracker editor and go back to DOS. In the X-Tracker directory type XTLIB <ENTER>. Note: you can only run the Library Manager AFTER running X-Tracker for the first time and saving the configuration. A. The Library Window This window is the main work area inside the Librarian. This is why we added special keyboard shortcuts: CURSOR-UP Move cursor one sample up. CURSOR-DOWN Move cursor one sample down. POS1 Jump to first sample. END Jump to last sample. + Mark all samples - Unmark all samples B. The Menus File | New Creates a new library. File | Load (F3) Loads an already existing library into memory (if you got enough free memory, of course!) and opens a new work window. You can load DMF, S3M, MTM, 669 and MOD songs which are converted into the library format. File | Save (F2) Saves the current library. All deleted samples are removed from memory, all other samples are packed and saved to disk. Sample | Clipboard to Library (SHIFT-INS) All clipboard samples are copied into the current library using this function. Sample | Load (INS) This function loads new samples into a library. You can load more than one sample at the same time by tagging them using SPACE. Sample | Save (SHIFT-F2) Saves the selected sample as an external DSF/WAV file. Sample | Delete (ENTF) Sets the sample's status to "deleted". When saving the library this samples is removed from memory. By selecting this option a second time, already deleted samples can be recovered. Sample | Parameters (ENTER) This option allows you to change the sample's parameters. (see also 8.F. "Sample Menu"). Sample | Sampler Loads the sampler with the current sample in it. Now you can cut and do whatever you want to do. Sample | Mark (SPACE) Marks the selected sample. Sample | Kill duplicate samples Searches the current library for samples which are stored more than once and sets the duplicate samples to "delete". Block | Samples to Clipboard (CTRL-INS) Copies all marked samples into the clipboard. 12. Support and Updates For registeres users, A.S.I. offers a support and helpline, which is made for your problems, your questions and your ideas about X- Tracker: Phone: +49-2323-42671 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. CET Please be sure to have all data available like: program version, configuration fo your computer... And please: Do not call outside hot-line hours! The development of X-Tracker is of course not finished with the current version. Watch out for great news up to come, some of them are yet in development: - Support of the Soundblaster AWE32 Native-Mode (up to 28MB of sample RAM!) - Convert routines for more formats like .MID, .FAR or .ULT. - Support of 16-bit samples - New display modes - Many new blockoperations - Extended macro programming - DPMI support (for Windows and OS/2 usage) - Midi entry support - Support of GM devices - Multi octave samples - HD Tracks - Your brilliant idea? (Call the hot-line now!) ...and many, many more. Inform yourself of X_Tracker updates on your X-Tracker support-line. Epilogue Creating the X-Tracker, we wanted a high-efficient user interface combined with the best possible sound with your hardware. If we succeded in the first enterprise, you can judge now, after using the program a little. If the program is technically the highest level, you may know if you compared to other available products. But we think that we achieved a very high level and a sensible program that offers you nearly unlimited possibilities for really low money! But this product takes the life from you reaction: Your ideas or your bug-report may help to increase the quality of Y- Tracker constantly. We finally hope that the program is that for you that it was for us while creating it: Fun being creative. We hope that this fun would last forever, The D-Lusion-Team 14. Copyright Notice X-Tracker license agreement Please do read this text carefully! As soon as you decide to use X-Tracker, you automatically agree with the following conditions for the usage of the program. Copyright X-Tracker (C) 1994 BY ANGUILLA SOFWARE INTERNATIONAL LTD. (ASI), all rights reserved. D-LUSION, X-TRACKER, HMEM32 and DMF are registered trade marks of ANGUILLA SOFWARE INTERNATIONAL LTD. Duplication of this manual (or parts of it) or the soware package without permission is prophibited. All rights of the documentation and the software "X-TRACKER" are reserved to ASI. The purchase of the program diskettes or CD-ROM and documentation allows you to use it like a book. Like a book cannot be read on two places at the same time, X-Tracker must not used on more than one computer system at the same time. Copies of the program disks are only allowed for backup - they are rather recommended. Warranty We do not give you any warranty of the full function of the program. ASI is not responsible for any damage caused by the program. Mistakes can be made so often, and we would thank you for reporting them to us. DMF-Files created with X-Tracker You as you accept this license are allowed to use self-created DMF- files creted with X-Tracker without any restrictions or permissions. You may also give them to other persons, as long as they are not used commercially. If DMF-files from X-Tracker are used in commercial products or products produced for presentation (CDs, Business Software, Computer Games, Shareware etc.), the following usage conditions apply: You have to ask us for permission to distribute DMFs as a comm- ercial product. Just call +49 (0) 2323 42671. It must be evidently recognizbal that the music was created with X- Tracker. E.g. you can use the following remark in your intro or extro of your product: "MUSIC CREATED WITH X-TRACKER" Also we need one piece of your product. We surely can help you in one or another concern. If you need program routines or other form of usage, please contact us (ASI) via mail or phone. DSF and DSL files could be used without any restrictions. 15. Credits: Program: Toine Diepstraten Boris Diebold Thomas Holl Evil Manual Graphics: Gerhard Brand Package Design: Erdmann Toball Christian Bartsch Translation of the manual Christian Bartsch Daniel Marcial Development Software used: Turbo and Borland Pascal 6.01 and 7.0, Turbo Assembler 2.0, Corel Draw 4.0 Produced by Christian Bartsch for ASI Anguilla Software International Ltd. The Valley P.O. BOX 338 Anguilla, British West Indies Distribution: The Bletchley Group P. O. Box 10 15 45 69005 Heidelberg Germany Greetings: The whole team of Anguilla Software International would like to thank the following persons and companies for their support during the production of X-Tracker: Creative Labs Deutschland GmbH, especially Karl-Heinz Ettl Advanced Gravis Canada, especially John Smith The Bletchley Group, especially Lord Peter Bletchley all beta-testers in whole Europe! BlueByte Software Deutschland, especially Haiko Ruttmann Thanks to all that have supported or slowed down (!?) the project in any way: Radical Rhythms (Cannibal, Cosmic, DAC, Glamorous Ray, Judge Dredd, Nautilus, Ovan, Randy Andy, Toxic Trancer), Claus L., Simon M., Daniel S., Niki S., Tobias F., Martin F., Michael B., Matthias Ksoll, Andreas M., Lars W., Thomas H., Verena S., Ed B., Sara X., Julian E., Chris A. 16. Did you know... ... that there is a 'music goup' or label on the PC that creates music with the X-Tracker package since the begiining of 1994? Take a look in your local BBS for the dancefloor-sampler 'Radical Rhythms'. Evry month, new exiting realeses are out. Call directly in the world headquater mailbox: ++49-2323-450850 (8-N-1). ... that possibly CDs will be released, that are mostly made with X- Tracker. In some months, ask your local record dealer for 'Cosmic' or 'Radical Rhythms' releases! ... that there are more products of the 'X'-series? E.g. "X-Copy & Tools", a collection of programs for duplication of data and backup. Contains: X-Copy (Copy program for DOS & Windows), X-Press (Backup program for Windows), X-Lent (File-shell for DOS). ... that you eventually reached the end of this manual?