Other Enhancements :
1) Can play up to 64 notes at once.
2) Effects: Echo, Cross Echo, Stereo Separation.
3) Track Panning: Can alter the stereo location of each track.
4) Many additional player commands.
5) Sample length limited only by available memory (previous limit was 131072 bytes).
6) Direct-to-disk recording.
7) Three new octaves: 2 low, 1 high. So the note range is now C-1 to B-6. The 4-channel notes C-1 to B-3 are now notes C-3 to B-5.
8) More precise sample loop setting. Previously, only even values of Repeat and RepLen (Instrument Parameters were possible. Now, all values are allowed.

Limitations
1) A probable loss of sound quality on old 68000 (wb2) processors,but the faster your processor, the better the quality.In fact, very fast processors can actualy increase sound quality.
2) Aura 16-bit samples can't be used, (were they ever that good anyhow?)
3) Multi-octave samples can't be used.
4) The oscilloscope equalizer doesn't function.
So although Mix mode is based on the old 5 to 8 channel mode, you will seethat it has hardly any of its previous limitations.
The Important Mixing Parameters window will now be described.

Mixing Mode section :
The radio button at the top left selects the output device: the devicethrough which notes will be played.

Output DevicesAmiga 8-bit, Amiga 14-bit These modes use the built-in Amiga audio chip (Paula), and they work with any Amiga. The 8-bit mode is louder than the 14-bit mode, but it's also more noisy. The "pseudo" 14-bit mode uses a combination of two Amiga channels to produce one "14-bit" channel, which has much better dynamical range. The mixing frequency may be selected pretty freely. The highest frequency is dependent on the screen mode. OctaMED calculates the upper limit using the mode of its own screen. If you switch screens so that the scan frequency changes, the audio output may become awful. The mix buffer size can be anything between 32 - 32767, although it's rounded to the nearest even value. For smooth MIDI usage and better overall response, a low value is recommended.Toccata 16-bit This mode uses MacroSystems' Toccata audio board for high-quality 16-bit output. The support is implemented with toccata.library which accompanies each Toccata board. Any version of toccata.library can be used, but library version V6 or later generally produces better results, allowing higher mixing frequencies and making the playing immune to interruptions by other system tasks. Current Toccata boards have 14 distinct output frequencies which are available as mixing frequencies. The size of the mixing buffer is rounded to the nearest 512 samples. Toccata is usable with MIDI, if you use a high mixing frequency in combination with as low a buffer size as possible (512 or 1024).MaestroPro 16-bit MaestroPro is a digital 16-bit sound board by MacroSystems. As MacroSystems does not provide a support library for MaestroPro, it is implemented with maestix.library by Richard Körber. This freely distributable library is available e.g. on Aminet, and a copy is also provided with OctaMED. MaestroPro can internally clock only at 48 kHz, and this is the only available output frequency. The size of the mixing buffer is rounded to the nearest 1024 samples. Usually, however, a very large mixing buffer (about 32000 samples or so) is required. This makes MaestroPro output unsuitable for MIDI usage, and real-time editing (due to long response times caused by the long buffer).Disk 8-bit, Disk 16-bit These non-realtime output modes are used for producing a digital "image" of the song on disk. The "image" is a sample file which can be used for almost anything. For example, you can produce drum loops by combining several tracks into one sample. Or you could simply play the song from the HD with little CPU consumption. Or you could directly use the digital image for putting a song onto CD without any unnecessary D/A and A/D conversions. The Smoothing option is particularly useful for producing high-quality samples with these modes. There are various output file formats available. The available formats depend on the selected bit resolution (8-bit or 16-bit) and whether the song is in Mono or Stereo mode. The output frequency can be selected freely. The Actual frequency is always the same as the requested. The mixing buffer size can be selected freely, and it does not affect the resulting sample. However, a longer buffer is faster.Delfina 16-bit This mode uses the D/A-converter of the Delfina audio board for high-quality 16-bit output. It does not use the DSP features available on the board, simply the output part. Delfina system software (delfina.library) is used. Parts of the support code and testing were made by Teemu Suikki (thanks!). Delfina has six output frequencies (as of library V2). The mix buffer can be 32 - 4096 samples in size.Mixing Frequency

The mixing frequency is a very important value. It specifies, in Hertz(sample values per second), how quickly the samples should be mixed. Thehigher the frequency, the better the sound quality, but also the more workthe processor has to do.

So - you've guessed it - the highest mixing frequency that you can usedepends on your processor. If you try using a frequency that is too highfor your computer, the computer will hang: the mouse pointer will movevery slowly, or even not at all. If this happens, do a panic stop byholding down both mouse buttons for several seconds.

Believe it or not, the highest possible frequency also depends on thescreen mode! If the screen is DblPAL, DblNTSC or Productivity, the MixingFrequency slider can take any value. In other screen modes, the slider'smaximum value is 28375.

If the output device can't play at your requested frequency, OctaMEDchooses the frequency closest to your request. Your request is shown inthe Requested numeric box, the actual frequency used in the Actual box.The reason for this discrepancy is that all of the output devices,excluding Disk 8-bit/16-bit, can only play at certain frequencies. (Thiseven includes your Amiga...)

Technical notes:
The frequency of each note is different in 4-channel mode from Mix mode.This is because in 4-channel mode, the frequencies are approximated towhat the Amiga DMA can play.Mix mode doesn't use the Amiga DMA, so it uses the correct frequencies.
The frequencies are very slightly off on Amigas not having an FPU and thisis because the integer version of the frequency calculation has some error.The difference however is not audible.

Other gadgets :
* Max. Channels: The maximum number of channels. For example, if you want to play notes on tracks 0 to 5, set this slider to 6. Notes become quieter as you increase Max. Channels, to make room for the new channels. This slider doesn't increase processor load by itself: the load depends on the number of notes actually playing.

* Volume Adjust: Allows you to adjust the overall volume of notes. The value is a percentage; when 100 %, the notes are at normal volume. Set the notes to half-volume by sliding to 50%; double volume is 200%.

In practice, increasing the volume above 100% generally causes unwanted distortion (noise), unless the samples in your song are quiet. Also, using effects can cause distortion, even at 100%. If this is the case, turn the volume down until the distortion is removed. (You can't hear the volume adjustment until you release the slider button.)

* Mix Buffer Size: The size of the mix buffer, an area of memory used by OctaMED to mix samples together. You needn't ever change it, unless:

a) in Disk 8-bit/16-bit mode. Increasing Mix Buffer Size to, say, 30000 greatly quickens direct-to-disk recording.

b) using MIDI. MIDI notes are played immediately, while mixed notes are played after a slight delay. So it's recommended to set Mix Buffer Size to the lowest allowed value, 32. If sound quality suffers as a result, compensate by raising the mixing frequency (if possible).

c) you use samples with very short loops. Playing a loop shorter than about a third of the Mix Buffer Size (i.e. usually 100 bytes) considerably increases processor load. So if you must use very short loops, try decreasing Mix Buffer Size.

* Panning and Effects: Open the Mix - Track Panning and Mix - Effects windows. They allow you to adjust the stereo location of each track, and add effects such as echo to your music.

Other points of interest :
1) 5 - 8 channel mode uses a frequency of 15768 Hz in non-HQ mode, and 28867 Hz in HQ mode. As a side note, you could *perfectly* reproduce the 4-channel mode with a mixing frequency of 3.6 MHz... :-)... Though 48 kHz with smoothing is often better in practice.

2) With 16-bit samples, only volume values 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 can be used. This means that note volumes may sound a bit strange if you change Volume Adjust or the track panning. Also, the volumes you can use with some player commands (such as Set Volume, type 0C) are limited to the above values.

3) To allow old 4-channel and 5 to 8-channel songs to use the new Mix mode, the Miscellaneous Options window contains two new Use Mixing check boxes. When on, the samples in loaded songs are transposed up 2 octaves. (This doesn't include synthsounds, MIDI instruments or ExtSamples.)

When using old 5 to 8-channel songs with the new mode, don't try to set Volume Adjust to 200 % to allow for halved samples. Halved samples are in 7-bit quality, so it's best to re-load the original samples.

4) Internally, OctaMED has three separate parts which control playing, called the players. There's one player for 4-channel mode, another for 5 to 8-channel modes, and another for Mix mode.

When you play a note using the keyboard in 4 or 5 to 8-channel modes, the player is used briefly to start the note off, but then the note is left to play and finish of its own accord. The Mix mode player, however, is used throughout the note's playing, from its start to its finish.

So the Mix mode player is switched on when the first note is started. But it isn't switched off when the note has finished. Instead, to react more quickly to other notes you play, it's kept switched on until you click STOP or press the space bar.

This means that the player is switched on even when no notes are being played. On slower Amigas, this may slow down operation, so simply press the space bar to switch the player off. It also means that if you change anything in the Mixing Parameters window, such as Mixing Frequency or track panning, you must stop playing and restart it for the changes to take effect. (This doesn't include Stereo Separation, Echo Depth, or a change from Echo to Cross Echo or vice-versa.)

5) Do remember about panic stop! If the computer seems to lock up during play, try holding both mouse buttons down for a few seconds.

6) 5 to 8-channel mode's split channels don't exist! Amiga volume registers are set to a fixed volume. The volume is scaled by the mixing routine, so each track does have an independent volume.

7) Almost all settings in Mixing Parameters, Mix - Track Panning, and Mix - Effect are saved with songs. In particular, Mixing Mode and Mixing Frequency aren't saved. This is so that, for example, a song created on a fast Amiga using a high frequency won't immediately cause a slow Amiga to lock up.

OctaMED uses a special file format for songs using Mix mode: MMD3. This is identical to MMD2. The only reason for its existance is so that older versions/player programs won't attempt to play Mix-mode songs.

8) You can play samples in either type of memory - Chip or Fast - in Mix mode. By default, though, samples are loaded into Fast memory, because Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem is automatically switched on.

The Mix - Track Panning Window :
Here you adjust the stereo location of the notes played on each individualtrack. Do this using the sliders.

Track numbers are displayed to the left of each slider, the tracks' stereolocation to the right. To begin with, all tracks have a stereo location of0 (center). This means that notes on all tracks are played with equalvolume on both speakers; in other words, they're played in mono.

To force a track's notes to be played entirely through the left speaker,drag the track's slider all the way to the left (value -16). Likewise forthe right speaker: drag the slider to the far right (value 16).Intermediate values play the notes at different volumes on each speaker.

Free Panning and Sum Of Balances :
Because track panning is really altering the volume of each track on eachspeaker, you must be careful that the volume on either speaker doesn'tbecome too high, causing distortion. For example, setting all tracks to beplayed on the left speaker (value -16) is bound to cause distortion on theleft speaker.

The Sum Of Balances display helps you prevent distortion. It displays allthe tracks' stereo locations added together. When the volume is perfectlybalanced between the two speakers, the Sum Of Balances is 0, so adjust thesliders until it becomes 0.

Free Panning, when on, allows you to set the stereo locations towhichever values you choose, without worrying about volume distortion. Notsurprisingly, Free Panning is usually on.

The Mix - Effects Window add special effects to your music. :
The one you'll be dying to play with is echo. To switch echo on, set theEcho cycle gadget to Echo or Cross Echo. The difference between the two isCross Echo alternates echoes between the speakers; you must have Stereomode on to use it.

Echo Rate is the distance, in milliseconds, between each echo. It can takeany value in the range 1 to 32767.

Echo Depth sets the depth of echoing. The larger the value, the deeper theechoes. Technically, it specifies the relative amplitudes of successiveechoes. For example, if it's 25 %, the first echo's amplitude is 25 % ofthe original amplitude, the second echo is 25 % * 25 % = 6.25 % of that.

Stereo Separation is interesting. Dragging the slider to the rightseparates the sound on each speaker. Dragging to the left brings thespeakers' sound closer together. This feature is best understood byexperimentation. (Technically, the stereo image is separated by feedingpart of the left channel to the right in inversed phase, and vice versa.)

The Recording Window :
This window is displayed during direct-to-disk recording, the act oftransferring part of your song to disk as a sample.

To record directly to disk:

1) In the Mixing Parameters window, select Disk 8-bit or Disk 16-bit, depending on whether you'd like an 8-bit or 16-bit sample. Also set the Mixing Frequency to any value you wish (the higher the frequency, the larger the produced sample).
2) The next time you play a note or your song, a Record as file requester will appear. In this requester, select the filename of the produced sample.
3) Next, you set the file type of your sample in the requester that appears.
4) Finally, the Record window will open and OctaMED will start recording. The window displays information on the sample's file format (resolution (8/16-bit), IFF/RAW/MAUD etc, Mono/Stereo, frequency). It also displays recording time in minutes and seconds, and file size. These two values change as the song is being played.
Click the Stop Recording button to stop recording. You must do this because OctaMED doesn't stop recording automatically at the end of the song or note. You can now load your sample back into memory.

The FastMemPlay Window :
This poetically-named window allows you to play samples from Fast memory.For background on this, see Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem.

By editing the Buffer Size box, you can alter the FastMemPlay buffer size.A small value, such as 32 or 64, is recommended to minimise distortion ifyour song contains synthetic sounds.

MIDI Slave Mode :
Using the MIDI menu's Slave Mode Active item, you can turn your Amiga intoa MIDI device! Why on earth would you want to do that? Well, if you'relucky enough to own two Amigas, you can use the sound channels of bothAmigas together, to play a total of 8 samples at once rather than the usual4. You do this by using one Amiga to control the other, as if it were aMIDI keyboard.

It works best in 4-channel mode, for highest quality. You compose your songusing one of the Amigas (call it the master), and use the other Amiga(the slave) only as a note player. The blocks in your song should be 8tracks wide: use tracks 0 - 3 for instruments played by the master Amiga,and tracks 4 - 7 for those played by the slave Amiga.

The idea is, the slave Amiga's first 16 instruments (01 - 0G) correspond tothe 16 MIDI channels. So when the slave Amiga receives a MIDI message toplay a note on MIDI channel 4, it plays the note using instrument number04. One slight drawback is each instrument can only be played using oneparticular sound channel, which you designate using the master Amiga.

Anyway, here's how you set it all up:

1) Attach a MIDI interface to each of the two Amigas. Connect MIDI OUT on the master Amiga to MIDI IN on the slave Amiga.

2) Load OctaMED into both Amigas. Select MIDI menu - MIDI Active on the master Amiga. Select MIDI Active, Input Active and Slave Mode Active (all in the MIDI menu) on the slave Amiga. Make sure both Amigas are in 4-channel mode.

3) Now to set up the instruments. Go to each Amiga in turn, and load the instruments you want to be played on that Amiga. On the slave Amiga, you're restricted to instrument slots 01 - 0G; on the master Amiga, you can use any slots.

4) On the master Amiga, you actually need two categories of instrument: those to be played through the master Amiga (which you've just loaded), and MIDI instruments that correspond to each instrument you've loaded into the slave Amiga. OK, let's say you've loaded a sample named Fantasia into slot 06 on the slave Amiga. So on the master Amiga,

a) Select any empty instrument slot

b) Open Instrument Parameters

c) Change the instrument Name to Fantasia [slave] (for example)

d) Slide the MIDICh slider to 6 (because Fantasia is loaded into slot 06 on the slave Amiga)

e) You must also tell OctaMED which sound channel on the slave Amiga that Fantasia should be played through, using the Preset slider. So if Fantasia is to be played through channel 2, slide Preset to 2. Because there are 4 sound channels, each played using one of tracks 0 - 3, you can slide Preset to 0, 1, 2 or 3.

Be careful when deciding which instrument should be played through which channel. If you've loaded up to 4 instruments into the slave Amiga, you just need to assign a different sound channel to each instrument. If you have more than 4 instruments, though, you should take care that no two instruments are set to play through the same channel at the same time, because this is impossible! This depends on your song.

f) Close Instrument Parameters

Now when you want to play, say, note G-2 using the Fantasia instrument, you should enter a G-2 using the Fantasia [slave] instrument on the master Amiga. Repeat steps a to f for each instrument you've loaded into the slave Amiga.

5) Now compose your song! Use 8-track blocks. For instruments played through the master Amiga, use tracks 0 - 3 as usual. For those played through the slave Amiga, use tracks 4 - 7 and the MIDI instruments you've set up to correspond with the slave Amiga's instruments. Then just play the song: it should be quite an amazing effect!

Other notes :
a) Slave mode only receives and handles MIDI Note On messages. So any effects received, including player commands, will be ignored.

b) You can, however, use player command 0C (set volume) with notes played by the slave Amiga. The instrument's default volume (in Instrument Parameters) changes to the appropriate level when a 0C is received. The Instrument Parameters slider isn't updated, though, for effciency

reasons.c) To reduce the amount of MIDI data sent, you should really switch on Suppress NoteOff on all of the MIDI instruments defined on the master Amiga.

The MIDI Cmd 3cxx Window :
As its title suggests, this is one of OctaMED's more technical windows!

Using a combination of player command types 05 and 00, you can set any MIDIcontroller you choose. Command 05's level is the controller number,command 00's the controller value. So if OctaMED came across this in asong: 00509 --- 00004 then OctaMED would set MIDI controller number 9 to 4.The obvious disadvantage with this is that it takes two lines:one to provide the controller number, another to provide the value.

This window cuts the setting of MIDI controllers down to one line. Youdefine command types 31 - 3F to set your chosen MIDI controller numbers tothe value given by the command level you use in the song.

For example, you can define player command type 35 to set MIDI controllernumber 12. Then, if you use command 3506 in your song, OctaMED sets MIDIcontroller number 12 to 6. So, only one player command is needed to setMIDI controllers, instead of two.

The gadgets :
Starting at the top, the slider selects a player command type. A value of5, for example, selects type 35. Types 31 to 3F can be selected.

Clear Setting clears the selected player command type's setting. Itscontroller type is set to Standard [MSB], and its number to 0. Clear Alldoes this to all player command types.

The other gadgets show the selected command type's setting: its controllertype and number. The controller type can be Standard, RPN or NRPN, togetherwith [MSB] or [LSB]. More information as and when further developed.

You can make a copy of the current shortcut by holding down Shiftwhile clicking Ins. New or App. New. This is useful for making a newshortcut similar to the current one.

You can now create an empty shortcut for the Help key, thus turningthe press Help for Help feature off - the Project menu item can beselected instead. This avoids situations where the rather large Help fileis accidentally loaded instead of deleting a note (i.e. Help rather thanDel is pressed).

Playing PC Mods :
OctaMED can now load modules created on two different PC sequencers:

ScreamTracker 3 (S3M) and FastTracker 1.0. Not all S3Meffects are supported, but most modules play without trouble.The effects that are supported are:

Extra fine slides (commands EEx, EFx); Tremor (command Ixy);Retrig (+ volume-slide) (command Qxy)

Note that the more popular FastTracker 2 is not *yet* supported.

ARexx Script :
Opens a file requester to execute an ARexx file.You can also do this in the keyboard shortcuts window and ARexxTrigger Setup window.

ARexx Trigger SetupOpens the ARexx Trigger Setup Window. Here you can set certain playercommands to execute ARexx scripts, run programs and much more.

AmigaDOS ShellOpens an AmigaDOS shell, just like the shell you can open on the Workbench,on the OctaMED screen.You can now run programs or use AmigaDOS commands like copy or dir.The audio channels are now allocated when they are neededfor the first time. So when using Mix mode with Toccata,Maestix or Delfina they aren't allocated at all!

Notation Editor Opens the main notation editor window with its Tools window.

All Cmd Pages When on (default), Cut and Copy affect all command pages. When off, only notes in the current command page are cut or copied.

Select Opens the Instruments window. This window lists all your instruments, and allows you to select one from the list.

Load Samples To Fast Mem

There are two types of memory: Chip memory and Fast memory.

Fast memory is much faster than Chip memory, so it's preferableto store things in there.However, the Amiga usually needs all samples to be stored in Chip memory.

With OctaMED, you can store samples in either type of memory. However, this depends on the song's channel mode Samples must be in Chip memory if the song is in: 1) 4-channel mode 2) 5 to 8-channel mode, and contains non-paired tracks. But even in these modes, samples can be in Fast memory if you use the FastMemPlay facility. All a bit confusing!

Anyway, these 3 menu items allow you to store samples in your chosen type of memory. When Load Samples To Fast Mem is on, any samples you load are stored in Fast memory. When off, they're stored in Chip memory as usual.

Load Samples To Fast Mem is automatically turned on when Mix mode is selected, to take advantage of the increased speed. So to load samples into Chip memory in Mixing mode, switch this item off.

Samples cannot be shared between the two types of memory: they must all be in Chip, or all be in Fast. So if you decide to store samples in Fast memory, any samples currently in Chip memory must be moved to Fast memory. The Move Samples To Fast/Chip Mem exist for this purpose.

Replace Notes

Opens the Replace Notes window Here, OctaMED replaces all Source notes found in a particular area of the song with the Destination note.

Player commands interpret their command level in one of three different ways, depending on the type. Some, like 0C (set volume), take both digits together as a single positive number. Others, like 04 (vibrato), take each digit separately as different numbers. With vibrato, the 1st command level digit represents speed, the 2nd depth.

Still others, like MIDI command 03, take both digits together as a signed number. So command 03's level can range from -128 to 127 (decimal), instead of the normal 0 to 255.

Previously, Generic Slide always assumed the command level to be a single positive number. Now it's more intelligent!

Slave Mode Active

When on, your beloved computer becomes a MIDI device, slave to whatever iscontrolling it! See MIDI Slave Mode for more information.

Immediate Preset Change

When a particular instrument's Preset value is changed(Instrument Parameters usually a preset change message is sent the nexttime a note is played with that instrument.With this item on, a preset change message is sent straight away.

Command 3cxx Settings

Opens the MIDI Cmd 3cxx window. Here, you set player command types 30, 31, 32 and so on up to 3F, to send the control change commands of your choice.

The Notation Editor :
Opened through the Display menu menu_display}, the notation editor isan alternative method of displaying your song. It uses standard musicalnotation - notes, rests, time and key signatures and so on -rather than the more computer-friendly notation used in the Tracker editor.The music can also be printed out and played on a musical instrument.

The notation editor is strongly bound to the Tracker editor. After all, thetwo editors are just two different ways of displaying the same song. Sowhen you add a note to the song in the notation editor, the note is alsoadded in the Tracker editor. Player commands, however, can only be enteredin the Tracker editor.

OctaMED is primarily a tracker-based sequencer, and the notation editorexists as a different way of displaying and entering notes, rather than acomprehensive and professional musical notation system. That said, theSoundstudio's notation editor is much more powerful than the basic editorprovided with versions up to OctaMED V5, and should be more than adequatefor most of your needs.

Basic operation :
By default, two staffs (treble and bass) are displayed, in the key of Cmajor and in 4/4 time. You can change this using the Staff Setup andSignatures windows. Only one set of staffs is evershown on the screen at once, but you can set the number of measures shownusing the Notation Display Setup windowBy default, only one measure is shown at any one time.

Before any notes can be shown on the staffs, you must decide which staffsshow which Tracker editor tracks. For example, you might want the treblestaff to show notes played on track 0, and the bass staff to show notes ontracks 1 and 2. Set this up in the Assign Tracks window.

On the notation editor's title bar, you'll see something like Block 0/2 -Lines 0 - 15. This means the editor is currently showing lines 000 to 015of block 0, the last block being number 2. One Tracker editor line isdisplayed in the notation editor as a 16th note. So, for example, aquarter-note is four Tracker editor lines long.

If the staffs are partially hidden, use the horizontal and right-handscroll bars to show a different part of the staffs. Because only one set ofstaffs are shown at once, use the left-hand scroll bar to show a differentpart of the song on the staffs. The Tracker editor and notation editor arein sync, so that whatever is currently showing in the notation editor isalso showing in the Tracker editor, and vice-versa.

To enter notes, make sure Edit is on (Main Control window and select anote in the Tools window Now click where you requirethe note to be on one of the staffs.If you hold down the mouse button and drag over the staffs, you can hearthe note corresponding to its staff position: this note is shown in theTools window. The Tools window also shows the Tracker editor linecorresponding to the mouse pointer's horizontal staff position.

The Project menu window lists the following items :
Print Opens the Print Notation window to print the specified measures in the selected degree of quality.Exit Notation Editor Closes all windows associated with the notation editor.

The Windows menu opens the following windows:

Assign Tracks Where you decide which staffs show which tracks.Staff Setup You can add and remove staffs, name them, decide what clef they have...Signatures Set the time and key signature here.Tools Window Usually open. Select a note or rest from this window to add to a staff.Display Setup Change the width of the staffs, whether their names are shown, the number of measures shown per line and more.The Print Notation Window :
Here you print out the song in standard musical notation; you could use theprintout as sheet music for playing on a musical instrument.

Firstly, set where the printout is to start and end. Start gives thestarting measure, End the ending measure. The Set buttons set the startingor ending measure to the measure currently displayed in the notationeditor, or, if more than one measure is displayed, to the first measuredisplayed.

Next, choose the print quality using the Resolution cycle gadget. The firstoption prints using the standard Amiga font, the other three use thebetter-quality Compugraphic font. The higher the number, the better thequality, but the slower the print speed. (It's always the way, isn't it?)

Finally, click Print. In the requester which appears after a while, clickStop to interrupt printing.

The Assign Tracks Window :
This window is all about Tracker editor tracks. You can tell OctaMED whichtracks should be displayed on which staff. You can also indicate thedirection of the stems of each tracks' notes: up, down, or automatic.

Each row in the window sets the staff and stem direction for one particulartrack, the number of which is shown on the left.

By default, the staff number of all tracks is 0, meaning that no tracks aredisplayed. So, for example, to show track 2 on the first staff, set track2's slider to 1. If track 2 happens to be empty (in the Tracker editor),you'll see a rest appear on the first staff; otherwise, some of the notesin track 2 will appear.

You can display as many tracks as you like on one particular staff, butit's best to stick to a maximum of 2, otherwise it might look a bit messy.If you find you've run out of staffs, add some more using the Staff Setupwindow.

Set the stem direction using the cycle gadgets on the far right. Up meansthat all the notes played on that track will have their stems going up,irrespective of their pitch. Similarly, Down forces all stems down. Thisis good for choral music, for example, as you could have all the sopranos'stems going up and the altos' going down.

With Auto set, each individual stem goes up or down depending on thatnote's pitch. If the note is below the staff's middle line, the stem goesup; otherwise, it goes down. This is particularly useful when only onetrack is displayed on the staff.

The Up and Down gadgets shift the eight track numbers up or down.Use these buttons if you have more than 8 tracks in your song.

The Staff Setup Window :
Use this window to add and remove staffs, and change their properties.

The top region contains buttons to add and remove staffs, and to select astaff. Current Staff: shows the staff number currently selected, and thetotal number of staffs. Use the arrow buttons beside this display to selecta staff. (The selection is used by other gadgets in this window).

The name of the selected staff appears in the Staff Name box. Normally thestaff is nameless; type a name into the box to name the staff. The namewill appear on the staff's left in the notation editor. (To prevent thenames appearing, switch off the Display Staff Names check box in theNotation Display Setup window).

The next row of gadgets adds or removes a staff. Insert New Staff inserts anew staff before the selected one. Append New Staff adds a staff after thelast one. Delete Staff removes the selected staff. The maximum number ofstaffs is 16.

TIP: If you use a standard 640 x 256 screen, and you add more staffs, it can be annoying that only two staffs are displayed at any one time. So, try the following:

1) Outside the notation editor, Select Settings menu - Screen - Screen Mode.

2) Set the screen's height to, say, 350. Making sure AutoScroll is on, click Ok.

3) Drag the pointer to the bottom of the screen. You've got some extra space now! So use the notation editor's sizing gadget to enlarge the window as required, and move the windows below the notation editor (perhaps the Tools and Information windows) to the bottom of the screen.

The bottom region contains the properties of the selected staff. SpaceAbove and Space Below contain the vertical space, in pixels, above andbelow the selected staff. If you'd prefer the staffs to be closer togetheror further apart, try changing these values. Also, if you find high notes(using many ledger lines) to be cut off in the notation editor, tryincreasing the Space Above value. Similarly with low notes and Space Below.Select the staff's clef - Treble, Bass or Alto - using the Clef cycle gadget.

When using the notation editor, it's often best to stick to one instrument,played on one track, per staff. If the selected staff always uses the sameinstrument, set the Def. Instr (default instrument) slider to theinstrument's number. Now when you click on that staff in the notationeditor with a view to adding a note, the default instrument isautomatically selected. This saves a bit of effort.

The Signatures window sets the song's time and key signature :
Set the time signature using the two upper sliders, both initially set to4 to represent 4/4 time. The top slider can have a value of 1 - 8, thebottom slider 1, 2, 4 or 8. So strange signatures like 5/8 and 7/1, as wellas standard signatures like 3/4 and 2/2, are possible.

Set the key signature using the bottom slider. The slider value is thenumber of sharps or flats; if the slider knob is right of center, the keyis sharp, otherwise it's flat. The selected major key, and its relativeminor, is shown below the slider.

The Tools Window :
Use this window to select a note or rest to add to a staff. It's openedautomatically with the main notation editor, but you can close it using itsclose gadget, then reopen it through the notation editor's Windows menu.

If the note or rest you require is not shown in any box, you can type itslength directly editor lines, into the Length (lines) box. As the abovetable shows, one Tracker editor line is equivalent to a 16th note. So notesshorter than a 16th note are not allowed.

Now moveing the mouse pointer over one of the staffs. The selected note orrest appears. As you move the mouse, the Tracker editor line numbercorresponding to the pointer's position on the staff is shown below theLength (lines) box. Now hold down the left mouse button. The Trackereditor note corresponding to the pointer's position is now also shown.Release the mouse button to add that note.

Just the gadgets on the far right, a display box above a slider, are left.They tell you which staff, and more importantly which Tracker editor track,you are currently editing. This is particularly useful when more than onetrack is shown on one particular staff.

The Notation Display Setup Window contains settings relevantto the general display.

Display Width is the width, in pixels, of each staff. By default it's aswide as the screen, but this doesn't allow space for the window borders andscroll bars, so you need to use the horizontal scroll bar to see the farright of the staffs. Try setting the width to 600 (for a 640-wide screen)to view the whole width of the staff at once.

Switch off Display Staff Names to remove the staff names from the notationeditor. (Staff names are set in the Staff Setup window.)

Measures/line is the number of measures (bars in Britain) shown on thescreen at any one time. 1 is the usual setting, but 2, 3 and 4 are alsogood values.

Positioning Mode affects the order in which the song's blocks are shown. InBlock-Based mode, dragging the notation editor's left-hand scroll bar showsthe blocks in numerical order: block 0, 1, 2 up until the final block. InSong linear mode, the order is taken from the playing sequence.

For example, if the playing sequence was 002 003 002 000 001, dragging thescroll bar would show block 2, 3, 2 again, 0 then 1. So the blocks areshown in the order in which they're played when you click Play Song. Thisgadget affects printing, so to print the song in the order in which it'splayed, select Song linear mode.

Raw Sample Conversion

If you load a RAW sample that sounds very distorted and noisy, try using this submenu to correct it. OctaMED's samples are stored in 'signed' format. Most samples originating on PCs are 'unsigned', so use Unsigned <- Signed to convert them.

Use Swap Byte Order on noisy 16-bit samples. Each value of a 16-bit sample takes 2 bytes of memory. Swap Byte Order swaps the order of each value's bytes. This can solve distortion problems.

Pitch In Hz

When on, displays the Pitch value (near the bottom right of the main window) in Hertz - samples per second - instead of displaying its period.

Save Inst and Save All Insts now ask you to select the file format of the save instrument(s). Choose from IFF 8SVX, Raw, MAUD, AIFF or WAVE.

The ARexx Trigger Setup Window :
This window gives player commands the keyboard shortcut treatment. Justlike with keyboard shortcuts, you can now set player commands (of type 2D)to execute an OctaMED ARexx command or ARexx script, send an ARexx commandto another program, or load and run a program from disk.

At the top of the window, select a command level to edit using the slider.For example, to edit command 2D45, set the slider to 45. Clear Currentsets the current command's action to None. Clear All does the same to allcommands.

The Action area describes what the player command is to do if it appears ina song. It is exactly like the Action area in the Keyboard Shortcuts window(and also in the Input Map Editor).

OctaMED Command

Executes an OctaMED ARexx command (type it into the Command box, together with any required parameters). ARexx itself isn't actually involved. To execute more than one command, use the OP_MULTICMD command. (See manual for more information on OctaMED commands)

Execute ARexx File

Executes an external ARexx file (type its name into the command box). Unless the file is in PROGDIR: or REXX:, specify the full path name. The filename should end in `.omed'.

Ext. ARexx Command

Sends an ARexx command to another program. Type the command into Command, and the program's ARexx port name into ARexx Port.

Note: To use Execute ARexx File or Ext. ARexx Command successfully, make sure you have run the program RexxMast.

Launch Program

Launches (runs) an executable program file. Type its name into Command.

1-64 Ch Mixing sets the new Mix mode. With only a slight loss of sound quality, this gives you up to 64 channels, special effects, track panning and more. You can also use MIDI in Mix mode.

The Song Annotation Window :
Use this window to attach any text to your song. The text might be acopyright notice, the author's name, explanatory text, or greetings.

In the text box at the very top of the window, you may type anything up to70 characters long. When the song is reloaded, the contents of the textbox will be displayed on the screen's title bar.

In the remainder of the window, you can attach any text file to a song.Create the file in an external text editor, then click Load File to loadit. Save Text saves the text under a chosen name, and Discard Text removesthe text from memory. The text is saved with songs. Note that tabcharacters (ASCII code 9) can't be used in the text.

Show After Loading affects what happens when a song with annotationtext is loaded. Normally, the Song Annotation window is immediately opened,displaying the song's text. Switch Show After Loading off to prevent this.

The Instruments Window

This simple window displays a list of all your instruments. You may selectone from the list, to make it the current instrument.

The list displays all instrument numbers and names. Click on an instrumentto make it current. So this is an alternative selection method to usingShift- Loop Ping-Pong is only used in Mixing mode. When on, OctaMED plays the sample's loop (if it exists) in a different way: forwards and backwards alternately.

In other words, the sample is played until the end of its looped part; the looped part is played *backwards* from its end to its start; the looped part is then played forwards from its start to its end; then backwards; then forwards; and so on.

The Replace Notes Window :
Here, you give OctaMED a source note and a destination note. ThenOctaMED replaces all source notes found in a particular area of the songwith the destination note. For example, you can replace all C-2 10C32's inthe current track with C-2 10C48 if you like.

Setting the source and destination notes

Set the source and destination notes in the Source and Dest boxes, bothinitially --- 00000. As you might have guessed from the five 0's, you alsoset the note's instrument number and player command.

You set the Source and Dest boxes in exactly the same way as in theProgrammable Keys window. To set a note, hold down theleft mouse button over the note in the box (initially ---), then pressthe note's key and release the mouse button.

For example, to set the Source note to G-2: Position the mouse over thenote in the Source box. Now hold down the left mouse button, and press T.Assuming that Oct is set to 12 (Main Control window), thenote becomes G-2. To set the note to ---, use the Del key.

To set an instrument digit or player command digit, hold the left mousebutton over the digit, then type the digit and release the mouse button.Quite easy really.

Transparent notes/digits

When setting a note or digit, try pressing Return instead of pressing thenote's key or typing the digit. The note or digit is now transparent, andis shown as 'x'.

Transparent notes or digits are ignored by OctaMED. So if the Source boxcontains xxx x0C32, OctaMED will replace all 0C32 player commands,regardless of their note and instrument number. Similarly, if the Sourcebox contains G-3 4xxxx, then OctaMED will replace all G-3's played byinstrument 04, regardless of what their command digits are.

Transparency in the Dest box has a slightly different meaning. If the Destbox contains xxx x0C32, then the player command of all Source notes willbecome 0C32: the note and instrument number will remain unchanged.Similarly, if the Dest box contains G-3 4xxxx, all Source notes will becomeG-3 and will be played by instrument 04: their command digits will remainunaffected.

Replacing the notes

In the lower half of the window, the six buttons replace the given notesin one of six different areas. These areas are as in the Transpose window,aside from Note which replaces just the Tracker editor's current note.For example, clicking Block replaces the Source note with the Dest notethroughout the current block. Sel. Tracks replaces throughout theselected tracks (a track is selected by clicking on its S gadget at thetop of the Tracker editor).

Transparency and the choice of six areas make this window pretty powerful.

Swap Amiga Channels (Mix) :
Sound channels 0 and 3 should be played through your left speaker,1 and 2 through your right. On some Amigas, these are swapped round!So switch this check box on to correct them.It only has an effect in Mix mode.

Use Mixing (MMD) or Mixing (Tracker mods)

Makes the necessary changes to MMD (normal) songs and Tracker songs touse Mix mode. This involves transposing all instruments, except syntheticand MIDI, up two octaves.

Thats all, hope it give a clear idea of the new features.Oh, for those that have/are asking, new authors are working on the Amiga V2 and you can read more about it here:

FAQ`s on the New Amiga Version 2 answered by the new Authors