Quote:

Anyone who uses this program and can give me some pointers on how to get started

Well, it's not easy but it's not too difficult either.

1-You can't play anything in the main window (patterns) until you create a sample. A sample can have Tone, Noise, Envelope and Volume. If you have this:

00|tne +000_ +(00)_ 0_

Than means the sound of a 1/50 of a second (at 50hz) of a sample. If you click on "T" you'll have Tone (Tne), on "N" Noise (tNe) and on "M" Envelope (tnE). You can have Tone and Noise (TNe), etc ... The volume is at the end and can be from 0 to 15 (that's to say 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b,c,d,e,f). So a sample with Tone and full volume will be:

00|Tne +000_ +(00)_ F_

2-Tone: The tone can be absolute or relative. If you are going to play C-4, for instance, you can create a kind of vibrato playing with the relative frequency of the sample. Like this:

00|Tne +000_ +(00)_ F_
01|Tne +003_ +(00)_ F_
02|Tne +007_ +(00)_ F_
03|Tne +003_ +(00)_ F_
04|Tne +000_ +(00)_ F_
05|Tne -003_ +(00)_ F_
06|Tne -007_ +(00)_ F_
07|Tne -003_ +(00)_ F_

In the "test field" you can try this:

....|..|C-4 1F.F ....

where the first field is the envelope value (4 points), the second the noise (2 points), the third the note (I pressed "Y" to get C-4), "1" means sample 1, F no envelope, the point means the ornament (0 to v; 31 ornaments) and the volume (which is F=15). The last 4 points are the commands.

Which means that if you play C-4 (which has a frequency of $01A2, if I'm not wrong) then you'll play first just the normal C-4 ($01A2) than you'll add 3 to the frequency ($01A2+3), then you'll add 7 ($01A2+7), etc ... And at the end you'll have a loop to the start.

The absolute tone is different. If you do this with the relative values:

00|Tne +000_ +(00)_ F_
01|Tne +003_ +(00)_ F_
02|Tne +007_ +(00)_ F_

You'll have these 3 frequencies: $01A2, $01A2+3, $01A2+7

But if you use the absolute values:

00|Tne +000^ +(00)_ F_
01|Tne +003^ +(00)_ F_
02|Tne +007^ +(00)_ F_

You'll have these 3 frequencies: $01A2, $01A2+3, $01A5+7

3-Volume: At the end, as I said. Try to change the volume of the last line of the sample to "minus" and you'll have a fade out; every time you play the 8 lines the volume will be one point less (e,d,c,b,a,9,8,...,0). Never forget to set some volume or you won't hear anything!!!

00|Tne +000_ +(00)_ F_
01|Tne +003_ +(00)_ F_
02|Tne +007_ +(00)_ F_
03|Tne +003_ +(00)_ F_
04|Tne +000_ +(00)_ F_
05|Tne -003_ +(00)_ F_
06|Tne -007_ +(00)_ F_
07|Tne -003_ +(00)_ F-

Play C-4, for instance, in the "test field".

4-Envelopes: In the sample you just can turn this feature ON or OFF. There are two types, basically: with Tone and without Tone: Let's turn it ON ("M" key, not "E" with Tone.

00|TnE +000_ +(00)_ F_
01|TnE +003_ +(00)_ F_
02|TnE +007_ +(00)_ F_
03|TnE +003_ +(00)_ F_
04|TnE +000_ +(00)_ F_
05|TnE -003_ +(00)_ F_
06|TnE -007_ +(00)_ F_
07|TnE -003_ +(00)_ F_

If you play C-4 in the "test field" you'll see no difference but if you set envelope to 8, for instance, and value 68 you'll hear it:

..68|..|C-4 18.F ....

But you better create two newsamples. Let's create sample 2 with just:

00|TnE +000_ +(00)_ F_

And sample 3 without Tone:

00|tnE +000_ +(00)_ F_

If you go to patterns you can play better with the 8 escales. Go there and write:

00|..68|..|C-2 28.F ....|--- .... ....|--- .... ....

If you click with the mouse on the number 2 (which means sample number 2) you'll have the sound of the envelope and it will continue as long as you keep "2" pressed. You can also try pressing "3" (which is the sample number 3: Envelope without Tone).

5-Ornaments: it's just an arpeggio. You add or substract relative notes to the main note ... for instance, something very very easy. Create a new sample (sample number 4) with just Tone and maximum volume:

00|Tne +000_ +(00)_ F_

Now go to Ornaments and let's create a very simple one:

Set length to 4 and write:

00|+00
01|+03
02|+07
03|+12

Go to the test field and set C-4, sample 4, ornament 1 and volume F (15), like this:

....|..|C-4 4F1F ....

You'll hear:

00|+00 C-4
01|+03 D#4 (C-4 + 3 tones/semitones)
02|+07 G-4 (C-4 + 7 tones/semitones)
03|+12 C-5 (C-4 + 12 tones/semitones)

6-Noise: It's used, basically to play drums. But you can do more things, obviously. Drums ... there are too many examples ... You can even create drums with envelopes, which are really effective. You better take a look a different modules but basically consist on starting a sample with a lot of noise and volume and decreasing them while you increase the frequency.

7-About commands I don't have anything to say. It's very clear in the manual on VTII.

Regards,

Alfonso D. C. (Dioniso)

Thank you so much. This will surely help me. Its already much more understandable than the manual.

gotta LOVE them HEX number input

Thank you Dioniso. I will study this weekend. No it's time to code.

ro - reminds you of Oracle?

yes it does. So, whattaya see. bring back the HEX input? (works faster too. harf harf)

Nooooo.... But did you already release an update of Oracle 1.1?

uh yeah, just recently... http://www.msx.org/forumtopic6968.html

Yeah, but I was mostly annoyed by the HEX MEM counter... anyway, I'm still very glad that you made that update. I remembered it, but I forgot the details. Anyway, what else did you do besides the HEX->DEC stuff?

Time for the next update??

annoyed by the HEX mem counter? While ORC is the ONLY music editor that allocates patterns on the fly and shows how much mem is left you say you are annoyed? How about I remove it completely?

Besides the hex/dec input I did ziltch. You HAVE to know by know that I'm prolly the most lazy user here onboard
(tho yer right 'bout updating da shizl)

If you're not very used to HEX, the mem counter isn't very useful, and I was (for some reason) often interested in the amount of free MEM. But OK, it was almost 10 years ago I used the program

For the rest: terrific program! The things you mentioned in that other post would be very welcome of course
It's only a tiny bit away from becoming the ultimate MSX music tracker. (Although: what happened with Meridian? ;-) Well, the ultimate tracker for older sound chips then!)