The Octalyser team is proud to once again present you : ___ _ _ ____ | |__| |___ OoooooO | | | |___ -----------OO----O------------------------------------------------------------ OO O OoooO OoooO OoooO O O O OoooO OoooO OoooO OOO O O O O O O O O O O O O OOO O OO O OoooO OO O•ooO O•ooO O•ooO O•ooO OOO O OO O OO O OO O O OO OO O OO••O OO•oO O OO O OO•oO O OoooO OO•oO OO O ... The Ultimate music tool for your Atari computer ... A SHAREWARE RELEASE, VERSION 0.90 _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 1 - THE MANUAL :::> //////////////////////////////// Thank you for sparing some time to read this manual! Hopefully, you have printed this out on some sort of printing device. This manual will lead you into the world of Octalyser and tracker music in general, and will give you some practical hints about using the Octalyser STE. After having read the manual, or parts of the manual, you will most certainly feel sorry for those doomed individuals that haven't read it and do not have the knowledge needed to take advantage of all Octalyser STE functions! Even though this manual is meant to be printed out, the next section will provide you with chapter/section keywords that you could use to quickly find the particular part of the manual that is of interest to you. To jump to the part of interest, just use the SEARCH option in your text editor and enter, for chapter 5: 'CHAPTER 5 -' The '-' sign is there just to make sure that the editor doesn't jump to the CHAPTER LIST, instead of the beginning of the selected chapter. I'm quite sure that you understood the procedure, otherwise, well I don't know, but the brain- doctor could possibly help you. There are probably a few spelling and/or grammatical errors, but as I do not like to type slowly and English isn't my first language, you'll just have to live with them. Ohh, and yes, you'll probably find quite a few of my bad jokes. (Just ignore them.) And now, as I promised before, the next section will provide you with a chapter-list. THE NEXT SECTION: Keyword/chapter Description Alan F. - top 13 CHAPTER 1 How (and why) to use this manual Recoil CHAPTER 2 Introduction and credits Borghesia CHAPTER 3 Files and booting up Laibach CHAPTER 4 Disk operations Front 242 CHAPTER 5 Playing and editing the modules Leaetherstrip CHAPTER 6 The options menu and its submenus Frontline Assembly CHAPTER 7 Using the block functions Kraftwerk CHAPTER 8 Additional functions and menus Mussolini Headkick CHAPTER 9 Optimising the CPU-usage Einstrdenze Neubauten CHAPTER 10 Exiting the Octalyser? VOiX (hehe) CHAPTER 11 How to register the Octalyser Pouppee Fabrikk APPENDIX A The effect-commands list Die Krupps APPENDIX B The keyboard Skinny Puppy APPENDIX C Sound tips No more of this! _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 2 - THE OCTALYSER :::> /////////////////////////////////// Credits: - Christian Dahl (Code, design, testing) Davor Slutej Tord Jansson - Davor Slutej (Documentation) - Dan Andersson, Christian Dahl, Per Almered (Graphics, design) - Betatesters (Betatesting) Aliases and respective groups: Christian Dahl CODE of TBL Davor Slutej ALAN F. of REWARD Dan Andersson CHAOS of REWARD Tord Jansson BLADE of NEW CORE Software and hardware used: Several STEs (8MHz and various 16MHz models), Quite a few monitors and floppy drives, a few mouses, PCs for communication causes and for buffering the data, GEM/TOS, HiSoft Devpac, Neochrome Master, SysMon, Norton Commander, RemoteAccess, Frontdoor, Stalker, Xcontrol, NVDI, Warp 9, few braincells, a hammer, marijuana coca cola, water and other narcotics. Several Falcon030s too. (By the way, who wants to read about what we have used anyway?!?) As you might have noticed, Octalyser (STE) is a tracker, made for usage with the ATARI computers with STE-sound. It will work fine on ATARI STEs with at least 1 megabyte of system memory (assumingly that you haven't loaded too many or too big ACCessories or TSRs, or even worse, installed MultiTOS onto an 1 megabyte STE!), on 16Mhz or 16Mhz-cache STEs and on mega STEs as well as the Falcon in both RGB- and VGA-mode. It will take advantage of 16MHz or 16MHz-cache and provide you with better sound quality or better visuals in some replay-modes. Due to some of the hardware specifications that differ TT from an STE, the Octalyser won't work that well on a TT. Sorry. (We do not own a TT ourselves, so we aren't able to make a TT-version or making Octalyser STE compatible with it). Octalyser will run on a Falcon-computer, but does not support Falcon features yet. However the FALCON UMP-modules supplied gives the Falcon-owners the ability to listen to both 4 and 8 voice modules in 16-bit, 50 kHz replay. Also, there might be an Octalyser Falcon. And why not an Octalyser Multimedia for the Atari Jaguar? There is also a patch for Octalyser 0.82 available that makes it runable on a Falcon, this however wasn't written by The Octalyser Team, so we can't give you any closer description of what it does. But then again, who wants to use the 0.82 when the 0.9 is available? You will have some serious problems if you try to start the Octalyser on a monochrome monitor, because the Octalyser is only runable from ST-LOW or ST-MEDIUM resolution or the Falcon's standard resolutions. However, it will NOT run in any none-standard falcon-resolution produced by Screenblaster, since Screenblaster doesn't support the XBIOS-calls to change resolution. Technical specifications for Octalyser are as follows: Uses expanded ST(e)-low resolution - 336x246 pixels Special big greeting to the dude that invented the left-border removing routine used in Octalyser: Martin Petterson Internal replay-routine: Maximal real-time sample-conversion frequency - 25kHz Maximal sound-chip replay frequency - 50kHz (using the Anti-alias) Amount of channels - Four, six or Eight The replay frequency depends entirely on the CPU-power of your computer, and the Octalyser has some presets built in that will adjust the replay frequencies and border-routine to the CPU-power of your machine. The presets are: 8MHz STE, 16MHz (no cache) STE and mega STE or 16MHz-cache STE. Base-frequencies for sample-conversion - 16kHz, 20kHz, 25kHz. Maximal sample-replay frequency - 49.89kHz (when the base-frequency of 25kHz is selected!) THE ONLY TRACKER THAT ENABLES YOU TO ACTUALLY PLAY SAMPLES THAT WERE SAMPLED IN 50kHZ! (With other trackers you are stuck at around 30kHz!) Support for all Amiga Noisetracker/protracker commands, including Exy commands, sample-offset (9xx) and TEMPO (F-20 to F-FF). Process-looping for usage with mega STE and cache-machines. Allows fast sample-conversions and greater replay-quality. Fullscreen editing capatiblities, enabling you to see all 8 channels on the screen and the biggest editing area you have ever seen. External replay-routines can be easily loaded into Octalyser by using the UCDM-menu. Maximum of four UMP-modules (UCDM is an Octalyser standard developed by Blade/New Core used for external replay-routines, UMP stands for UCDM-Player) can be loaded into the memory. There are several UMP-modules already available and here are some of the features of some of them: TERMODY - REAL 50kHz replay in 4 channels with velocity control. Runs on all STEs. Doesn't run on Falcon. TAMMANY - 50kHz MultiPlex in 8 channels with velocity control. Runs on all STEs and creates only the amount of channels currently used, thus reducing the used CPU-time when playing less channels. NAISHEE - REAL 50kHz replay in 8 channels with velocity control and CIA-timing support. Runs on Falcon-machines. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 3 - GETTING STARTED :::> ///////////////////////////////////// To be able to run the Octalyser, you will need following files: Name of the file Description OCTALYSE.PRG The Octalyser STE itself OCTALYSE.DAT External datafile, must be present in the same directory. OCTALYSE.RSC Used to enable shelling to GEM! In case that the file 'OCTALYSE.RSC' couldn't be found, there will be a warning alert-box stating that the GEM-shelling isn't available. The Octalyser itself will however work just as fine. In case that you loose 'OCTALYSE.DAT', or that it gets corrupted, make sure that you get a copy of it, otherwise you won't be able to start Octalyser at all! To run the Octalyser just double-click at the OCTALYSE.PRG icon. This version of Octalyser will crash if the MIDI-IN port is receiving any data from another device, so please switch the MIDI devices off. The MIDI-support is planned for a future version of Octalyser. If the screen frequency is different on an STE, then a alert will be shown. Here you can select if you want the Octalyser to switch down to 50Hz, or if the Octalyser should use a timer and keep the current frequency. You can also abort the loading of the Octalyser, then you will be returned to the desktop. If you selected the use of a timer, then the Octalyser will ask you if it should remove the border or not (it might be some problem if the border is removed). I recommend you to use 50Hz screen frequency, because then you are sure that all UCDMs will work fine. If you have a Falcon and using a VGAmonitor, then the Octalyser will automatically use a timer. NOTE! The graphic-updating is forced to use TRASH-UPDATE when you use a timer. This is to ensure that the Octalyser will not overload the CPU with graphic- updating. The introduction picture will be shown after all data has been loaded into the system-memory, after a few moments the picture will fade away. If the main menu doesn't appear after a few moments, then make sure that the MIDI devices are turned off! Picture is drawn by Per Almered. Thanx! The Octalyser will run on an STE-system with at least one megabyte of system memory. It has been tested on 1, 2 and 4 megabyte systems, 8MHz STEs, 16MHz-nocache STEs, 16MHz-cache STEs, mega STE and Falcon030. It is TOS 1.6x, TOS 2.0 (PRG-version) and TOS 2.06 and TOS 4.04 (Falcon) compatible. Octalyser STE will run under MultiTOS, even though it isn't able to do the actual MultiTasking. You will need about 2 megabyte of memory to run Octalyser under MultiTOS-enviroment! If you do a GEM-shell when running a MultiTOS system, you will be able to reach the Desktop, but it will only be a limited access! Read more about GEM-shelling in CHAPTER 4! The Octalyser will work fine from a hard-disk (some incompatibility was present in earlier versions that has been corrected now), as well as from a floppy disk or even a RAM-disk. Because of some special needs, such as free and efficient sample-resizing routine, the system-MMU was replaced by a specially written Octalyser-MMU (Memory management unit), that ensures very optimized memory management. To be able to use an internal MMU, Octalyser must request memory from the system, therefore it only leaves quite a small amount of memory left to the system! This practically means that under Octalyser, you have two memory banks. One that is normal system memory bank and the other, that is used internally by the Octalyser. All samples for example, are placed into the Octalyser-bank! More about it in next chapter. In case that any of the files are corrupted, please contact your nearest BBS or a distribution site to get them replaced with working ones! Please note that Octalyser is quite system-friendly and will allow TSRs like clocks to stay active. This may however cause you some trouble if you are using TSRs (programs that stay resident in the memory of your computer and do something) that interfere with Octalyser and/or take up too much of the CPU-time. Also note that the X-resolution used in Octalyser is 336 pixels instead of 320 pixels, this may have some strange effects on TSRs that fiddle with video-memory (such as on-screen clocks!). _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 4 - THE DISK AND GEM OPERATIONS :::> ///////////////////////////////////////////////// Before you can play or edit anything, you must load a sample or a sound module. To do this, simply enter the DISK-menu from the main screen. The DISK-menu offers these options: LOAD A MODULE, LOAD AN AVR SAMPLE, SAVE A MODULE, SAVE AN AVR SAMPLE, DELETE A FILE, SHELL TO GEM, and EXIT THE DISK-MENU Even though the options are quite clear, there are some comments on each of them. When LOADING A MODULE, the Octalyser will automatically recognize the type of the module to be loaded and inform you of what type of module it seems to be. By answering YES to the question it will automatically load the module. If you answer NO, you will be able to select the type of the module by yourself from a list of supported formats. This could seem a bit strange, but some other programs might have changed the standard ID-codes causing the Octalyser not to recognize the specific format! The supported module formats are: ST/NT standard, 15 samples, 4 channels ST/NT standard, 31 samples, 4 channels Expanded ST/NT module, 31 samples, 8 channels StarTrekker (Amiga), 31 samples, 4 channels StarTrekker (Amiga), 31 samples, 8 channels Octalyser (Amiga), 31 samples, 4/6/8 channels as long as the pattern length is less than or equal 64 pattern-line. Octalyser (STE), 4/6/8 channels with selectable base-frequency (16/20/25kHz) OLD 6 channels format (saved as 8 channel modules with 2 empty channels) NEW 6 channels format The SHAREWARE version of Octalyser cannot load TCB-modules, and we do not see any reason why it should do so, because of the fact that the TCB-format isn't satisfying. The Octalyser will give support to a new format currently being developed, however we can't say much more at this point, be sure to stay in touch with a good Bulletin Board System for more information. The only thing we can say is that the new format will be much better and more compact and probably be a coproduction between Octalyser-developers and developers on PC. The Octalyser doesn't support the new Amiga format, because we didn't have any information about it at the time the SHAREWARE version was released. You could however expect the REGISTRATED version to support even that format. The Octalyser is ProTracker 3.0 compatible by the way... SAVING MODULE does just what the name says, and will save the module in the appropriate format, according to the amount of channels currently being selected and of course, the base-frequency of the sample-conversion. In the SHAREWARE version, loading AVR samples is disabled, just to give you an extra reason to register the Octalyser. AVR is a sample-format developed by 2-BIT systems and is widely used by their sampler-software. Main advantages of this standard are: ABILITY TO RECORD FULL SAMPLENAME and ABILITY TO SAVE THE LOOPSTART AND LOOPEND marks. The Octalyser will be able to load AVR, IFF, signed and unsigned samples in the registered version. When SAVING AVR samples you will therefore not need to write down the LOOP marks, which is a pretty neat thing. I would like to send a message to all musicians out there: 'Please, learn how to make a good loop, and preferably sample the synthesizer sounds that are actually LOOPed with a constant velocity! NEVER sample decaying or attacking sounds and then try to loop them! I hate those awful clicks and beeps!' In case that you want to delete a file, there is an option available. Even though it will warn you before actually deleting a selected file, be careful with this button, you wouldn't like to kill the wrong file, would you? And finally, one of the power-options of the Octalyser STE: Shelling to the GEM. Due to the fact that the Octalyser uses an internal custom-written MMU (read more about it in CHAPTER 3) so it allocates most of the memory available, so that you will not have that much memory left for the system programs. If you register you will be able to change the amount of memory used by the internal MMU. However, in most cases, (such as shelling to a terminal program installed as ACC) you won't be needing that much memory after all. Things get real exciting when you are running the MultiTOS on your system, because you can then easily access not only ACCessories, but the complete GEM/Desktop. It reminds of the shell-functions in many PC-programs, the difference being that on PC you would get into a CLI (MS-DOS), and with Octalyser and MultiTOS you get into a graphics enviroment. Please note that the Octalyser cannot actually MULTI TASK, because it takes up much of the processor time and because of some technical specifications that make it inappropriate for a GEM-environment. Instead you can shell-out from Octalyser into a fully multitasking enviroment and then easily return to the Octalyser to continue your work, or to continue listening to modules. Our suggestion is however that you save your work before shelling. If you know that you will use shelling, then be sure to load the Octalyser LAST, after having loaded all programs that you want to use. This will make sure that other programs allocate enough memory so that you won't have any problems later. (Registrated owners won't have to go through this procedure of course, as they will be able to limit the amount of memory that Octalyser allocates.) Compatibility problems: The Universal Item Selector doesn't seem to be working fine when used for loading functions from Octalyser (when the MultiTOS is installed). This couldn't be fixed by us, sorry. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 5 - THE EDITOR :::> //////////////////////////////// The editing options available in the Octalyser are many, advanced and powerful. Some less experienced users might find the tracker concept hard to use, but everyone felt that way when first trying to use a tracker, so... Let's start from the very basics of the module editing: PLAYING it. The Octalyser offers you a somewhat standard play/stop options. The main sequencer buttons are: PLAY As the name says. Used to play the whole song from the current pattern to the last pattern (unless stopped) PATTERN Short for PATTERN PLAY. Used when only the current pattern is to be played. EDIT Turns the edit-mode on, and allows you to actually program the pattern-data. STOP Stops the replay (cuts the sound too) Somewhat unstandard button is the MONITOR-button. When its active, moving through the pattern will cause the Octalyser to play the current pattern-line This works even when you move upwards. (I see no reason why you should want to do that, but here it is anyway.) Remark: To change the replay speed, use the key-repeat sliders in the options menu. (More about it later!) To move through the pattern, you will most commonly use the arrow-keys on the keyboard, however there are some alternatives which you may find more or less comfortable. You could use the mouse to click the cursor to just about every position you could get it to by using the keyboard. If you press at the pattern line that is NOT the current line, then the Octalyser will automatically jump to that pattern line, allowing you to scroll up and down through the whole pattern... ... or you could simply use the vertical slider in the left border of the screen to move the pattern up or down. Remark: Note that you can actually move through the pattern even when the Octalyser is playing a module. (Both the keyboard, the mouse and the slider methods will work!) This could however have some rather disharmonic effects to the module being played, so be careful not to use this while playing your latest masterpiece to a friend. The normal editor is only capable of showing 4 channels at the time. To scroll between the channels use the leftmost and the rightmost arrow just above the pattern-window, or simply use the arrowkeys on the keyboard. To your help, there are channel markers for each of the shown channels showing you which channels are currently shown on the screen. To play a selected sample, simply press one of the octave-keys on the keyboard. There are two octaves available. Because that we assume that if you have come this far, you already know how the synthesizer-keyboard (not to say piano) looks like, we will only give you the C-note key for upper and lower octave. For lower its the 'Z'-key and for the upper its the 'Q'-key. (Considering of course that you have a english or similar keyboard layout! French dudes will need to press the 'A'-key for the upper octave, if I remember right.) Even though you only can play two octaves from the keyboard, the actual tracker is capable of playing a range of three octaves. To select which pair of octaves you want to have available on the keyboard simply press the button named 'FREQ' and toggle it to 'U' or 'L'. Or press 'F1' on the keyboard. We encourage you to use the upper octave set, because it means that the samples you are using are sampled at the greater frequency, resulting in better sound- quality :) One of the options that most musicians find useful is the STEP-option, which basically allows you to change the normal 'step' value of ONE to another value. The 'step' will affect the amount of lines that the Octalyser skips when you record a note. The 'step' can be combined with other commands and you should read the keyboard shortcuts list to get full advantage of the STEP-option. The pattern itself consist of a maximum of 64 lines, numbered 00 to 3F (hexadecimal). If you have problems with hexadecimal numbers, then this is a good chance to learn how to use them properly. The main reason that the hexadecimal numbers are used in Octalyser is that the length of the textual output is shorter and more suitable. You shouldn't think that we did so just to make you pissed. The notes and the control data are written in the following format: Note-code, Octave, Sample, Effect-ID, Effect-parameters... ... and could look something like this: A-31DC20 Now don't panic, it's quite simple actually. A-3_____ means 3rd octave, note A. ___1D___ means that the sample number 1D is to be played. _____C__ is the effect command-ID. This one is for the velocity. ______20 is the effect parameter. This one means 1/2 of the volume. All effect commands and their IDs will be listed separately and you can also find them in the info menu of the Octalyser as an on-line help! It may take a while before you learn the basic effect-IDs, but you shouldn't worry about that. You might have noticed a set of flags that you can change. These are positioned right above the pattern-window and might look like this: F AAA W R We are going to be a bit cruel and not explain you what these letters stand for here. These are however a bit advanced options and not really very important for a regular use, so you can do without them quite well. If you register, then you will also get a detailed description of these flags! Please try to understand why we are doing this. The sequencer of the Octalyser is quite simple as in all trackers. The leftmost parameter block might look like this: POSITION 1C TRACK 15 LENGTH 20 RESTART 00 The position is a current song-position and starts with 00. (Hexadecimal values!) As the songs is being played the position-number will advance too. TRACK is the pattern assigned to this specific song-position. You may of course assign the same pattern to several song-positions, but try not to use one pattern too often, because the song will then most certainly sound a bit boring and unprofessional. LENGTH marks the length of the song measured in song-positions. RESTART points at the song-position from which the song will be looped after it has reached the end of the song. To change the values of any of these options just use the arrows available to the right of the value, or click at the value you wish to change and use the keyboard to enter the new value. Two small + and - buttons at the right side of the positions-counter are used to insert or remove a new position after the current position. It will also move all upper positions one step further and change the LENGTH of the song The pattern assigned to the new position will be the same as the one that is assigned to the current song position. You will most certainly find this very usable, once you get a grip on how it works! Finally, the sample section allows you to alter the loop marks, change the sample and even alter the length of the sample. The buttons here are: Sample number - Maximum of 31 samples can be loaded into the memory. This has nothing to do with Octalyser, you could easily be able to load 100 samples if you wished so, but current module-formats do not support more than 31 samples. Sample volume - the default volume of the specific sample. 00-40 (hex) Sample length - shows the length of the sample in bytes. (Hexadecimal). You can shorten the samples if you want. This can be of use when the sample ends with a click or buzz! Furthermore, you can make samples longer. In fact, you will add empty bytes to the end of the sample, the sample itself will not be converted to fit the new length. When making samples longer, you will have to wait a few moments while the memory is being remapped. This has to be done to avoid irrationate memory consumption required if normal resize methods would have been used. Loop start - Points at the start of the sample loop. Loop end - Points at the end of the sample loop. Sample looping is used with strings,chorus and other sounds that to not decay after a while. The sample will be played from the beginning to the loop end. When the LOOP END mark has been reached, the playing will be continued from the LOOP START mark, making an endless loop. A practical advise when using looped sounds is that you should FADE the sample down, before playing another note. If possible, you should use TWO channels for this. It doesn't sound very good if you just cut eg. the string sound, without any sustain effect or 'reverb' afterwards. Finding a perfect loop can take some time, especially if you are inexperienced. You should always make sure that the sample you intend to loop actually is meant to be looped. The best way to get strings is to sample an actual synthesizer string. Listen carefully until you hear the natural loop points, as used with the synthesizer. Sampling analog synthesizers is even easier, because you often can actually SEE where the oscillation ends. However, it can be quite hard to reproduce the analog quality of a good synthesizer with only 8 digital bits. :( Sample name - We won't give you any help on this one. Selecting the samples can be achieved thru either pressing the Sample Number arrows, or by clicking at the SONG button. This will have a list of 31 samples as a result. If you click at the timer, you will enter the fullscreen editor, which will automatically switch the resolution to ST(e)-medium. The lower border is however removed. Unfortunately, the left-border routine doesn't work properly in the medium resolution. Though luck. There is no menu in the full screen editor, so you must use keyboard shortcuts. However, once you master the keyboard, you will not want to use anything else but the fullscreen editor when creating new modules (assumingly that you have a good monitor!). To exit the fullscreen editor, press ESCape or CONTROL-E or click the mouse at the leftmost upper corner of the screen. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 6 - THE OPTIONS MENU :::> ////////////////////////////////////// If you haven't got a registered version of Octalyser, then you will probably have to enter this menu first. This because there's no save-options button available in the shareware version... The options menu offers you a wide range of parameters that have to do with screen update, replay routines and some other functions. The most important parameters are the ones that alter the replay frequency and the amount of channels to be reproduced.The built-in replay routines offers you 4 sample frequencies: 12.5kHz, 15.5kHz, 18.9kHz, 25kHz. These sample frequencies will also be the replay frequencies if the A-alias is turned off. In the case that A-alias is turned on, the replay frequency will be doubled, meaning that 12.5kHz will be replayed in 25kHz, and 25kHz will be replayed in 50kHz. 15.5kHz and 18.9kHz will however NOT be replayed in 30.1kHz respectively 37.8kHz, but in 50kHz! This is quite logical because the STE chip cannot replay in neither 31kHz nor 38.8kHz. A-aliasing will improve the high-pitched sounds, such as hi-hats, crashes and other cymbals, and upper spectrum of most of the other sounds such as snares, strings etc. As you probably figured out, Octalyser is an 8-channel tracker. This however does not mean that it cannot replay 4 or 6-channel modules. It's actually quite the opposite, Octalyser beats all trackers we've seen so far for STE in the 4 channel mode. The ProTracker 2.0 offers you 50kHz multiplex mode, which produces similar quality as 25kHz A-alias mode used in Octalyser, because in both modes the chip is set to 50kHz. The difference is that A-alias mixes the channels, while multiplex does not! Octalyser however, supports external routines, and thus gives you true 50kHz replay in 4 channels (8MHz STE). Furthermore, you can replay 8 channels in 50kHz multiplex mode, thus beating the shit out of the ProTracker 2.0 by 4 channels!!! For faster machines (such as Falcon030) there is an optional 8 channels player in true 50kHz. And no one can tell what Blade/New Core will come up with next... You will probably want to alter the bass and treble too. This is done by moving the first two sliders in the options menu. There are no special rules on which values these parameters should be set to. It basically depends on your own taste AND on the audio characteristics of your amplifier, equalizer and speakers. Furthermore, it depends on the wallpaper you probably have in your room, and also the materials that the furniture is made off. But then again, if you've come this far, you should use the headphones!!! A general advice is that if you increase bass and treble a lot, you better lower the main volume, otherwise the sound might be distorted. On the Falcon these sliders doesn't work since the Falcon has no tonecontrol circuit. The sliders are as follows: Bass - Adjusts the bass boost Treble - Adjusts the treble boost Main volume - Adjusts the main output volume Left volume - Adjusts the boost of the left channel Right volume - Adjusts the boost of the right channel Keyboard rate - Adjusts the rate at which the keyboard is repeated Keyboard delay - Adjusts the delay before the keyboard starts repeating Mouse delay - Adjusts the delay before the clicking starts repeating Furthermore, there are some flags that have the following meanings: B - Toggles the TEMPO-command. This flag should be always set, unless you have problems with the CPU-time. The TEMPO-control is achieved thru the upper values of the F-command, and means that you can set the speed to a more precise BPM-tempo instead of the vertical-sync based timing. Most new modules take advantage (specially Amiga-ones) of this! R - Toggles the keyboard repeat. If set, the keyboard will repeat when you edit the pattern (when you enter a new note, you should depress the key!). If not set, you will be able to hold down the key after you have entered a note. Seems quite pointless to me, but here it is anyway. NOTE: This won't affect other repeat factors others than those of the keyboard! V - Toggles the VU-metres in the leftmost upper part of the screen. L - Toggles the looping. Set it when you use a mega STE or other cache-based accelerator-card. T - Toggles the trash-update.Doesn't look very nice when you play the module but is very useful when editing the modules. It means that the whole pattern will be shown and in case that the CPU time is short, it will be 'trash'-updated meaning that different parts of the pattern will be updated during the different VBLs. If you use this, you should alter the amount of patternlines shown to 17, otherwise you will not notice any difference (almost). A-ALIAS - Toggles the Anti-aliasing. This sets the chip replay frequency to the nearest upper hardware frequency as in REPLAYFREQ*2. Eg. 12.5*2=25. The chip will be set to 25kHz. And 15.5*2=31. Nearest upper frequency is 50kHz therefore the chip will be set to 50kHz. L-NOISE - Low/Line noise toggle. This is shareware 'version' of the noise reduction routine. This one isn't dynamic, but instead only lowers the amount of noise when nothing is played. The 'real version' will change the amount of treble dependingly on the samplewaves currently played. As you probably don't know, unless you are rather experienced (or have read some of our previous manuals), most trackers cannot actually play the samples that were sampled at 50kHz. The limit lies around 30kHz. This is because the highest playable note when the base-freq of 16kHz is selected limits the upper frequency of the replay! If you do not believe us, then sample a sample in 50kHz and try to replay it in a NORMAL tracker. You will NOT be able to replay it in the same rate as the sample-rate. Fortunately, we have thought of this as well,so you can change the base-freq to either 20kHz or 25kHz. To replay a 50kHz-sample, set the base-freq to 25kHz and maximize the FINE-TUNE of the specific sample. This will give you 49.89kHz which is quite acceptable. Please note that modules made in 20kHz/25kHz will not sound right in 16kHz because the frequency will be lowered and the sound will be deeper. Nor will the 16kHz modules sound right in 20kHz/25kHz mode. The Octalyser will save the 16kHz/20kHz/25kHz mode info if you have used 20kHz or 25kHz mode. Just to give a picture of what I'm talking about, here is the list of the maximum frequencies that the samples can be played in with 16kHz and 25kHz as a base frequency: | 16kHz | 25kHz ----------------+-------------+------------- FineTune +0 | 31.39 kHz | 47.68 kHz FineTune +7 | 32.84 kHz | 49.89 kHz If the default timings for the border-routine are incorrect, and you are not using an external border-routine then you could change the timing of the built-in border-routine from the options menu. The routine will try to avoid bitplane-errors automatically, so you will avoid funny-screen that aren't very funny actually. (Like Neochrome Master if you have the timings set wrong...) If there already is a border routine installed on TIMER B, then the Octalyser will not install an own routine. You should use CODE's border routines, especially on 8MHz routines, because you will then be able to see the border even when the disk is loading, unlike the built-in routine (It's more secure this way, and you won't have any problems if you wish to jump to the GEM later!) For you that do not have enough memory, there is a special button marked SM (Save Memory) with which you can limit the max. amount of pattern that the memory is reserved for. The options menu has a few submenus: UCDM submenu, which allows you to load external replay routines (or whatever the external routine is supposed to do, you could easily control the stroboscope or whatever with such a routine!). A total of four UMPs can be held in memory at once. Of course you can only have ONE activated. The buttons are: LOAD - Loads a new module and replaces the old one (if there was one) USE - Use the currently selected module instead of the internal routine. This will make some of the options unavailable, for security reasons CLEAR - Removes the currently selected module from the memory INFO - Shows you an information text about the selected module There is also a BP button, with which you can change the amount of patterns shown at the screen. Use it when loading UMPs, AND with TRASH-UPDATE! The COLOURS submenu needs no commenting. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 7 - THE BLOCK FUNCTIONS :::> ///////////////////////////////////////// The menu marked EDIT contains block editing functions. The principle used in Octalyser is NOT copy&paste, but instead we used a system where you mark the start and the end of a block in an actual pattern. The functions are: BEGIN - When this button is pressed, the current pattern-cursor position will be used to mark the beginning of the block END - As above, but this one will mark the END of the block When you mark the block, there will appear an extra status-pointer in the status-line in the middle of the screen. This might look like: 00-3F, meaning that the block starts at position 00 and end at 3F. HIDE - When the block is marked and you press this button, all marks will be lost. COPY - Copies the marked block to the new pattern and/or new pattern position (use the cursor to point the exact position) MOVE - Same as above, but it will delete the original block after having copied it to the new position. CLEAR - Erases the block INS - Not a BLOCK operation. Inserts an empty pattern position to the current cursor-position. All other data under the cursor will be moved one step 'downwards' DEL - Not a BLOCK operation. Deletes the current cursor-position and moves all other data under the cursor one step 'upwards' LOAD - Loads the previously saved block SAVE - Saves the currently marked block to a disk UP ARROW - Make the tones higher in the current channel or block. If Cur is set then only the current sample will be changed, if All is set then all tones will be affected. DOWN ARROW - Make the tones deeper in the current channel or block. If Cur is set then only the current sample will be changed, if All is set then all tones will be affected. Cur/All toggle between the current channel and all channels. If all channels are selected then block functions will use all possible channels to perform operations, otherwise only the currently selected channel will be affected. Unused buttons in this menu will contain a simple quantitization utility. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 8 - Additional functions and menus :::> /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Additional submenus found in the Octalyser are: INFO - Brings up an informational text and on-line help MEM - Gives you some statistics upon the usage of the memory SAMPLE - Activates the sample-editor MIDI - Currently unused, reserved for MIDI configuration menu MODULES - Currently unused, reserved for external modular routines INFOrmation menu is quite easy to handle. The actual text will replace the pattern data and three buttons will replace the menu selector. The buttons are PREV (shows the previous page of the text), NEXT (shows the next page) and EXIT (closes the text and exits the INFOrmation menu) The MEMory menu will give you following information: SYS-MEM - System memory available after the internal memory management unit has been installed. REQUEST - Amount of memory that the MMU has reserved SAMPLES - Amount of the reserved memory used for samples SONG - Amount of the reserved memory used for song data TOT USED - Total amount of the memory currently being used FREE - Free internal memory left NOTE that SAMPLES + SONG isn't equal to TOT USED. SAMPLES + SONG will give you the amount of memory the module will take on disk. Some parts of the statistic need closer explanation. The amount of memory that the Octalyser reserves for itself (as in REQUEST) can't be adjustable in the Shareware version. You might have noticed that 'TOT USED' is 40000 (hex) bytes even though you haven't loaded anything into the memory. This is because of the fact that Octalyser immediately allocates the memory needed for the pattern data. If you don't have enough memory to load big modules or long samples, then you can adjust the number of patterns to allocate in the options menu! Also, note the difference between the SYSTEM memory and OCTALYSER (INTERNAL) memory. Internal memory is used by a custom MMU of Octalyser and the SYSTEM memory is the memory left after the internal memory bank has been allocated. The system memory is the memory left for you (and the programs you wish to run) to use when you jump to the GEM. The sample editor isn't quite finished yet and we didn't want to include parts of it into the shareware version before most of the routines are finished so it is very limited. Basically, the only thing it does is to the display waveforms of the selected samples. You have three display modes and these are FAST, TRUE and PLOT. Plot is the fastest and True is the slowest. Amongst the miscellaneous functions, you can find: Playtime timer - Shows the time offset from the beginning of the module replay start in minutes and seconds. Can be found in the middle of the screen just above the status line. Pattern slider - Used to move through the pattern and show the current position in the pattern. The filled area shows also how much of the pattern is shown. Velocity meters - Used to represent the velocity peak and other velocity manipulations on either 4, 6 or 8 channels. Error handler - Custom error routine that COULD save your work from going down the toilet in case of an error or a bug in the program. Most errors of the low-danger level have been removed during the betatesting period... We hope. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 9 - Optimising the usage of the CPU :::> ///////////////////////////////////////////////////// To calculate the music takes time. The total amount of time used to refresh the pattern, calculate the music, draw the mouse pointer and do some other things must not take more than 0,02 seconds during a VBL. Sounds impressive? It's not. In this chapter, we'll try to give you some hints about optimising the usage of the CPU in case that you would like greater frequency or more channels and sometimes are ready to sacrifice some other things instead. Let's begin with simple options. If you have problems with overloading the CPU, then try one, or several of these methods: BPM-flag - The TEMPO command requires some additional bother to the calculation, so if you do not use TEMPO commands, feel free to switch this off. This won't affect the sound quality, unless the module is set to a BPM-rate not supported by the normal routines. (It will either slow down or faster up, depending on the closes supported BPM-rate) TRASH-flag - If you havn't set the trash update flag, do so. It will force the graphic to be printed whenever there is some spare CPUtime. Fullscreenedit - If you are in the fullscreeneditormode, exit it! N. of Patterns - The number of patterns shown on the screen is proportional to the amount of time required to draw them. You could lower the number of patterns and save the valuable CPU time. This makes it a bit harder to edit the modules of course. This will not affect the sound quality. NOTE! If TRASH-flag is set then this action will have no effect! Anti-aliasing - Is quite fast, but it will take up some of the CPU time as well! Switch if off to save CPU time. Sometimes, it's better to lower the replay frequency and have the A-aliasing ON, but this depends on the quality of the samples and of course on the audio characteristics of the system that you are using. The sound quality will be affected. LOOP-flag - If you have a cache (like in the Mega STE and Falcon) in your CPU this flag should be set, else it should be off. Faster CPU - Probably the best solution. Unfortunately, also the most expensive one. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 10 - How to exit the Octalyser :::> //////////////////////////////////////////////// There are several ways to exit the Octalyser and the ones that I can recall at this very moment are: 1. Press ESC 2. Click at the leftmost, uppermost pixel accessible with the mousepointer 3. Enter the GEM-shell and select the EXIT OCTALYSER option in the drop down menu 4. Enter the GEM-shell and select the closing gadget on the window. 5. Force a critical error and exit thru the error handler 6. Use the reset button to reset the computer 7. Switch off the computer 8. Open the computer and remove the SIMM-memory 9. Open the computer and make an 1" hole in the middle of the CPU 10. Cut the power-cable with the scissors 11. Cause a global overload in your town causing the power to go off There are of course even more ways to exit this wonderful piece of software, but these were the ones that are used most often. By the way, why would you want to exit the Octalyser? _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: CHAPTER 11 - How (and why) to register the Octalyser STE :::> ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// If you take music seriously, or at least semi seriously, and you would like to get a registered version of Octalyser, then please continue reading this chapter for more information. First, we will list some of the functions and improvements that the registrated version contains: Loading samples - The registrated version can of course load samples. Furthermore, you have the ability to choose between the normal non-header SPL format and the far more superior AVR format when saving and/or loading the samples. (Will be able to load AVR, IFF, unsigned RAW and signed RAW). Save options - The registrated version will allow you to save the options such as the colours, the bass/treble/etc. parameters blocks, default paths, default frequency default flags etc, etc. Possibly, there will also be a separate SETUP utility which will allow you to customize the Octalyser from a single menu. Editing functions - Registrated version will include some nice editing functions and a simple effect processor allowing you effects such as echoing and fading the samples. Reverbs, flangers etc. could be include, but I have not got enough information about them yet. Make - Makes it possible to create a sample from a patternblock. Flag descriptions - You will receive a detailed explanation on what the block-editing flags are used for, and also some hints on how to take advantage of them. MIDI support - Enables you to use the Octalyser as a sample-module connected to MIDI. The Octalyser will be able to replay the samples according to the Program-change commands and Note-On commands received on a selected MIDI channel in up to 8-voice polyphony with dynamic voice allocation. Memory setuping - This will enable you to limit the amount of memory that Octalyser allocates for itself, and thus make GEM-shelling far more convenient. Faster Quitting - You will not have to wait 5 seconds before the Octalyser quits. These were just a few of the advantages that you get when you register. Of course, new updates of the Octalyser will be sent to you without any extra registration charge, other than the price of a disk plus postage and package. The registration price is 100 swedish crowns, for the Swedish users. If you are not living in Sweden, then please send œ12, or an equal amount of money in some other convertible currency. Fill in the registration form and send it to the address found at the end of the registration form, together with the registration fee and your own address. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: APPENDIX A - The effect commands :::> ////////////////////////////////////////// Here is the list of the effect commands supported: Code | Short Description | Format description -----|---------------------------------|--------------------------------------- 0 | Normal play or Arpeggio | 0xy : x-first halfnote add, y-second 1 | Slide Up | 1xx : upspeed 2 | Slide Down | 2xx : downspeed 3 | Tone Portamento | 3xx : up/down speed 4 | Vibrato | 4xy : x-speed, y-depth 5 | Tone Portamento + Volume Slide | 5xy : x-upspeed, y-downspeed 6 | Vibrato + Volume Slide | 6xy : x-upspeed, y-downspeed 7 | Tremolo | 7xy : x-speed, y-depth 9 | Set SampleOffset | 9xx : offset (23 -> 2300) A | VolumeSlide | Axy : x-upspeed, y-downspeed B | Position Jump | Bxx : songposition C | Set Volume | Cxx : volume, 00-40 D | Pattern Break | Dxx : break position in next patt E | E-Commands | Exy : see below... F | Set Speed | Fxx : speed (00-1F) / tempo (20-FF) -----|---------------------------------|--------------------------------------- E0 | Set Filter | E0x : 0-filter on, 1-filter off Hehe E1 | FineSlide Up | E1x : value E2 | FineSlide Down | E2x : value E3 | Glissando Control | E3x : 0-off, 1-on (use with tonep.) E4 | Set Vibrato Waveform | E4x : 0-sine, 1-ramp down, 2-square E5 | Set Loop | E5x : set finetune E6 | Set/Jump to Loop | E6x : jump to loop, play x times E7 | Set Tremolo Waveform | E7x : 0-sine, 1-ramp down. 2-square E9 | Retrig Note | E9x : retrig from note + x vblanks EA | Fine VolumeSlide Up | EAx : add x to volume EB | Fine VolumeSlide Down | EBx : subtract x from volume EC | NoteCut | ECx : cut from note + x vblanks ED | NoteDelay | EDx : delay note x vblanks EE | PatternDelay | EEx : delay pattern x notes EF | Invert Loop | EFx : speed _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: APPENDIX B - The keyboard :::> /////////////////////////////////// ESC = QUIT MENU/OCTALYSER CURSOR UP = UP 1 STEP CURSOR DOWN = DOWN 1 STEP SHIFT CURSOR UP = UP STEP STEPS SHIFT CURSOR DOWN = DOWN STEP STEPS CURSOR LEFT = GO LEFT CURSOR RIGHT = GO RIGHT SHIFT CURSOR LEFT = LEFTMOST CHANNEL (1) SHIFT CURSOR RIGHT = RIGHTMOST CHANNEL (4/6/8) CONTROL CURSOR LEFT = PREVIOUS TRACK/PATTERN CONTROL CURSOR RIGHT = NEXT TRACK/PATTERN CLR HOME = HOME RETURN = PLAY SHIFT RETURN = PATTERNPLAY SPACE = STOP/TOGGLE EDIT SHIFT SPACE = STOP/TOGGLE MONITOR TAB = NEXT CHANNEL SHIFT TAB = PREVIOUS CHANNEL F1 = TOGGLE OCTAVES (UP/LOW) F2 = TOGGLE WRITINGMODE (REPLACE/SET) F3 = CLEAR CURRENT CHANNEL (USE CONTROL V FOR BLOCK) F4 = MARK WHOLE CURRENT CHANNEL AS A BLOCK F7 = GOTO 00 F8 = GOTO 10 F9 = GOTO 20 F10 = GOTO 30 SHIFT F1 = TOGGLE EDITMODE SHIFT F2 = TOGGLE BLOCKMODE SHIFT F3 = CLEAR WHOLE PATTERN CONTROL B = BLOCK START CONTROL K = BLOCK END CONTROL C = COPY BLOCK (IF SHIFT, ALL) CONTROL V = MOVE BLOCK ---- " " ---- CONTROL Z = CLEAR BLOCK ---- " " ---- CONTROL I/INS = INSERT ROW ---- " " ---- CONTROL Y/DEL = DELETE ROW ---- " " ---- CONTROL E = TOGGLE FULLSCREEN EDITOR ON/OFF (EXIT WITH CONTROL E OR ESC) ALTERNATE 1-8 = TOGGLE CHANNEL ON/OFF CONTROL 1-8 = Sets the STEP accordingly ON KEYPAD: -------------------------------------- 0 = STOP * = PATTERNPLAY/TOGGLE EDIT + = NEXT SAMPLE - = PREVIOUS SAMPLE SHIFT + = NEXT POSITION IN SONG SHIFT - = PREVIOUS POSITION IN SONG ENTER = PLAY SHIFT OTHER = CHOOSE SAMPLE ( = 0 ENTER = 0F CONTROL OTHER = CHOOSE SAMPLE ( = 10 ENTER = 1F _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >::: APPENDIX C - Sound tips :::> ///////////////////////////////// To obtain the best possible sound quality, we recommend you to connect your STE or whatever, to a nice and powerful sound system. You should of course fiddle with the treble and bass until you find the best combination. For more advanced users, here are some hints and tips: Connect the output of your STE to a mixer! The ideal would be if the mixer had ability to panorate the channels. The sound that an STE produces is put to either extreme left or extreme right channel, and this doesn't sound very nice, especially not when using the headphones. The stereo pan is quite important and improves the overall production of the sound, thus making it sound more professional. You should panorate the channels to a slight left respectively slight right, and to get more feeling, lower the treble on one channel, and lower the bass on another. Be careful not to overdo it! When you panorate or try to get a quazy stereo fillness, use the headphones, because they allow you to get a clearer picture of what you are changing. You could also connect a processing unit or a compression device, to produce reverbs, delays or whatever and/or remove the back-noise. You might have noticed, that the output level of an STE is a bit too high, especially when you pump up the bass. Lower the overall output volume (main volume) until you are sure that all distortion is gone. Then lower it a bit more to make sure that no other parts of the module will produce distortion. If you have some experience and the right equipment, you could get a semi professional sound quality and fool most of the listeners to believe that you aren't using an 8-bit sound system. :-) Actually, I have a certain compilation CD where one of the groups use nothing but trackers to produce their techno tunes. They use an Amiga, so it doesn't sound very good, but hey, those Amiga dudes don't know any better... I mean, Prince uses an Amiga, and we all know how his music sounds. (Put that gun away, he is not worth it...) Personal greetings and thanx from Alan F. go to: Unit 17, STeinberg, Alan Wilder/Recoil, Kraftwerk, Best Babies, Deity and Dux Dead Hackers Society, Scum of The Earth, Sharon STonE, Douglas Adams and me family. ...also to: Authors of the BR, T2 and some other movies for making those movies. Anarchists, hackers, cyborgs and all active androids out there. A bunch of kisses sent to Tina, the only girl I think about nowadays. (Yeah I know it is sick, but boy she is great!!!) Fucks to all people that I do not like and even more fucks to those people that I hate. _______________________________________________________________________________ ............................................................................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ............................................................................... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------