************************************************************************** A very quick written manual for the (TB-) 303emulator, by Jeroen Schellekens 16-12-96 for version 2.1 (87) ************************************************************************** ! Read the included README-file first if you haven't done it yet ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shortcuts and mousefunctions in program: F1=Render single sample/sequence (Always renders FIRST SET OF PARAM's (A)) F2=Save sample (only single) F3=Load parameters F4=Save parameters F5=Load script F6=Copy first set of params (A) to last set (B) of params F7=Copy last set (B) to first set (A) F8=Swap first set (A) with last (B) F9=Prefs-screen F10=Undo [TAB]=View rendered sample [SPACE]=Set potmeter step level (1x=fine/5x=medium/20x=rough) [HELP]=This helpscreen [DEL]=Toggle preview on/off [ESCAPE]=Quit [?]=Print end-value of the period (or tuning) of the FIRST SET OF PARAMETERS (A), when a glide is set - All numberkeys and characterkeys represent a piano-like-klavier; when a sample is rendered you can play the keys with their pitches (as Protracker) - Mousepointer pointing on potmeter: Mousekey-status - Effect Nothing pressed : Reports current value in display (on center of screen) Left button : Decreases value with factor 1x,5x or 20x depending on roughness, set with [SPACE] bar Right button : Increases value with factor as above Both buttons : Enter a new value for the current potmeter - Mousepointer clicked on the head of parameterbox A or B: With right mousekey: Able to swap parameterbox with B With left mousekey: Able to copy selected parameterbox over other You see a rectangle flashing while holding a mousebutton, while you hear a sound. Drag it to the other and loose the mousebutton: A copy or a swap will follow! - When rendering, and you want to break the process, press BOTH the mouse- buttons a while, until you hear a bleep (end of rendering) and you get back to the main program. The part that IS rendered, you can hear (so it plays the sample until the rendering has cancelled) by playing the keyboard or click on the HEAR-button. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-Introduction -------------- What's the meaning of this program? Well it generates samples sounding like the Roland TB-303, an analog box made in the early eighties. It produces a raw basssound, and is very useable for techno-style music (and other styles). Many of you know what it so no words anymore about the use of it. What I try to reach with this program(s) is to emulate the real thing. The problem is that you can't do this by calculating, or sampling the sound and then program a bassline or melody with it, because the kick comes when the sound gets sharper and duller while playing and altering the parameters, on a real 303 (or clone). So you can't just play one sample. What's the solution? -What most people do is sample a real 303 or any synth or cd and sample the sharpest and the dullest version of it. Then they emulate the cuttof frequency by fading between the sharp and the dull sample. THIS SOUNDS LIKE SHIT! Because the basics of sound don't work that way but with harmonics in related amplitudes related to the basic waveform. Every sound we hear is a package of movements of air, you can see them as sine-figures, and the frequency and volume of all those air-movements added in specific proportions we hear as one typical sound. I hope I explain it a bit well in my crappy englisch. When you fade from a sharp to a dull sound, and the sharp sound contains a sine at frequency 1000 Hz and the dull one contains a sine of 200 then the mix of the two samples in perfect balance would be a 50% volume of 1000 and a 50% volume of 200. But what should have been done is to get the middle of the two FREQUENCIES, so a new frequency of (1000+200)/2=600 should have been generated. Get it!? -You can try to write a program that can calculate the sound just like a 303, in realtime, and immediately plays the rendered sound. Sorry enough for you I m not a very good programmer, especially not in Assembler, wich is neccesery to get it quick and clean. I don't know it is possible on a bare Amiga, but with a 68060 or a PowerPCboard it is feasable. Also, on a Pentium 100 it must be possible, so... I am trying at the moment to get people organised to rewrite in ASM, so keep alert for a realtime version (I've seen Rubberduck for PC and I was pretty impressed of it, with its realtime controls and quite easy programming, but the sound was a bit low-quality, altough the weight of the sound, say the impact, was quite like the original TB). -What's another option is to calculate a range of samples, each a bit duller (a lower cutoff frequency) than the other, and then play that range of samples in any order. To get smooth results, you got to have a range of samples that are very the same, in length and pitch, but each with another cutoff frequency, and also, many samples are needed not to hear a very big difference between the current and the next sample. So if you start with 8 or 16 samples, you can still hear that it are single samples, but with 32 samples, you get the idea of a sweep. Now what you can do is generate or sample that range and then use it in a music program like Protracker or Octamed, but with 32 samples of only one instrument there isn't much space left for other samples. So what I've made is: 1-a program that calculates a single 303-sample or a range (sequence) of samples where each sample differs in CUTOFF, RESONANCE, ENVELOPE, DECAY, ACCENT and/or PITCH amount. It's called 303emulator. 2-a program that can load and play a range of samples, limited by memory and not by the number of samples. It can be programmed as a tracker-like program, and can be synced via MIDI with another computer. It's called 303sequencer. The problem is: you need 2 computers!. 3-a program (problably implemented in the calculate-program) that can be programmed as the 303sequencer, but renders the track or pattern to one sample, a loop, wich can be still used in Octamed or Protracker. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2-Setting up --------------- Before you start, make sure you have the following system: Amiga with a harddrive with 4 Mb free space, 2 Mb memory (1 Mb Chip). Prefered is a turboboard (altough I haven't one myself). To use the 303sequencer in full function, you need a second Amiga, or sync your only Amiga to another MIDI-device. That means you need respectively 2 and 1 Midi(-interface(s)). The 303sequencer needs at least 1 Mb Chipram. How it syncs with other MIDI-devices, you can read in the '303seq.help' -file, in the directory 'help'. *IMPORTANT* The 303emulator, also called the main-program, needs some extra files to run. These files are of course included, but they must stand in a directory called '/system'. This 'system'-directory is a subdir of another dir or device wich is assigned '303emu2:'. For example, if your harddrive is called 'Work:', and you have made a subdir for this program called '303', an assign has to be made (in your startup- sequence, your user-startup or in the Shell) to it: Assign 303emu2: work:303 (Be sure the systemfiles are present in the subdir 'Work:303/system/'. The program looks namely to 303emu2:system/* (* stands for a couple of files with names, that may differ from version to version, so a README-file is added to each version, with a list of system-files that are included).) When you want to make use of the 303sequencer (thus NOT the 303emulator) but you don't have a harddrive on your second computer (on wich the sequencer will be running), and your copy of the programs does NOT contain an exclusive disk called '303sequencer-disk-version', then do the next thing: -format a disk -install the disk via 'Install df0:' (found in your 'C'-dir on the Workbench) -make the following directories on that disk: 'S' (for the startup-sequence) 'libs' (for the math-libraries) 'devs' (for the serial.device) 'l' (for the port-handler) -copy the following files to it: '303sequencer' to the root 'serial.device' to 'devs' 'system-configuration' to 'devs' (see next point) 'mathtrans.library' to 'libs' 'mathieeedoubbas.library' to 'libs' 'diskfont.library' to 'libs' 'port-handler' to 'l' -make a system-configuration with your preferences and copy it to the disk: 'system-configuration' to 'devs' * What you have to to is change your serial.prefs to: * * Baud Rate=31250, No Parity, No Handshaking, 1 Stopbit * -make with a texteditor a file called 'Startup-sequence'. Type in the textfile the name of the program, in this case '303sequencer'. Save the file to the 'S'-dir on the disk This should do it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3-Examples included ------------------- All the programs include some examples, in different formats: -Samples (8 bit Raw-format, can be loaded in many music-programs, these are samples rendered in the 303emulator, and are single sounds but also loops) -Parameters (Settings of the Pots, Switches and Sliders, the parameters can only be loaded in the 303emulator) -Songs (These songs can only be loaded in 303Sequencer, they contain pitch- data and other data except samples) -SampleBank (This bank can be loaded in the 303Sequencer, and is a large file containing 128 samples: 32 of LowNormal, 32 of HighNormal, 32 of LowAccent, 32 of HighAccent. this file is in fact also a Raw-sample) -Scripts (These scripts can only be loaded in the 303Emulator and the 303Scriptor, and the last one generates and saves them also. Scripts contain data about each single sample, in a list of more samples. In fact, it are ASCII-textfiles, so you can edit them in a text-editor! To get a list of commands available and some guidelines about affecting and creating these scripts with a texteditor, read the '303script.help'-file) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4-Getting started ----------------- - If you are curious about the 'Real'ness of the sound, wich is I think very important, first listen to the prerendered samples, by loading them in a sample-player or tracker-like-program. I hope you like them. Also, you can start the 303sequencer and load the example SampleBank. Then, load a Song and press 'Play Pattern' (For instructions about the 303sequencer, read the included docfile '303seq.help in the help-directory). Now, while a melody is playing, drag the mouse to the left, and to the right. You hear something changing, don't you!? I hope you are impressed by the effect of it (And so not, I am sorry for you)! - Now, when you have heard and seen this, start the 303emulator. This is where all the sounds are generated. With each subject or parameter in the program I will describe, a simple drawing is included. For example, you see in the middle of the screen a black box. This is a display, that displays the current value of a rotating control, better called a potmeter. You can see a simple drawing of it in figure 4a1 as I told you. _________________ | | | 0.96 1x | |_________________| (fig 4a1: the display in the middle of the screen) The left value is that value of the potmeter, you are pointing on with your mouse. The right value is the setting of the step-factor (or a grid) when you change a potmeter by clicking on it with the left or right mousebutton. When you press the space-bar, this setting changes to a bigger value. If you keep pressing it, you see the first value is getting back. It's a sort of cycle-effect. The following settings are possible: 1x - means increase or decrease a value with one 5x - 5 times the effect of 1x 20x - 20 times the effect of 1x - Down the screen, you see a button called 'Render Sample' (fig 4a2).Push on it with your left mouse-button. __________________________ | | | SAMPLE | | | | Render Save Hear | | ___ ___ ___ | | |_| |_| |_| | |________________________| (fig 4a2: buttons) Now, a sample will be calculated. You see a graphic of the calculated piece. A sound exists out of a series of this pieces, joined after eachother. Such a piece they call a period. (fig 4b) __________________________________________________________________________ | /\ | | / \ | | / \ | |/ | __ | | | / \ ____ | | | / \ / \ _____ ________________| | \ / \ / \ / \_______/ | | \ / \___/ \_____/ | | \_/ | | | | | |________________________________________________________________________| (fig 4b: graphic of one period) If it is ready, a short beep-sound will note you that it is. You are back in the program. Now, beside the 'Render Sample' and 'Save Sample' buttons, you see 'Hear Sample' (fig 4a2). Click on it. You hear the rendered sound! You can also use the number-keys and character-of-the-alphabet-keys (sorry, I'm not an englishman!) to play in the style of Sound- Pro- and so on- trackers. If you want to see a graphic of the whole sample, you can click on 'View', in the middle of the screen. Press [ESC] if you want to go back to the Main-screen. - Why does the sample,you just rendered, sounds like it that? Well, you see above in the screen a kind of box with 6 parameters (fig 4c). /----------------------------------------------------\ |[A] First Sample Parameters (or single) | | | | Tuning CutOff Resonance Envelope Decay Accent | | _ _ _ _ _ _ | | /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ | | \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ | \----------------------------------------------------/ (fig 4c: Parameter-box with potmeters) Every parameter or potmeter in this box has influence on the sound you render. Before I tell you about these parameters, read the following very well! * Under this box you see a same-kind-of box, but with the name : * * 'Last Sample Parameters (only in Sequence mode)' (fig 4d). These * * parameters have NO effect on the rendered sound in 'SINGLE MODE'!!! * * (See fig 4e) If you are working with one sample, thus in Single Mode,* * only the First Set of Parameters have effect on it!! * /----------------------------------------------------\ |[B] Last Sample Parameters (only in Sequence mode) | | | | Tuning CutOff Resonance Envelope Decay Accent | | _ _ _ _ _ _ | | /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ | | \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ | \----------------------------------------------------/ (fig 4d: Second parameterbox with same potmeters) _____________ | | | Single | | _ | | \\__ | | |\\ | | | |___| | | | | Sequence | |_____________| (fig 4e: Single & Sequence Mode) Effect of the 6 potmeters (from the first and second parameter-box): Tuning - determines the period of the sound. A higher value will cause a a lower note!!! This because the bigger the period, the longer it will take to hear the next one, so the sound gets lower. (A period is one wave of a sound) So it is a little confusing in the beginning (I think I change it for the next release). If you want a low sound, try a Tuning (period so) of 360. If you want an octave higher, you'll have to enter 180. This is a normal tone, when played on a frequency of ± 20 kHz (key '3' on the keyboard). CutOff - sets the cutoff frequency of the filter that influences the sound. The lower the value of it, the lower it starts to cut of the higher frequencies of the sound. This type of filter is called a lowpass-filter. It passes the low frequences and filters out the frequences (drop them) that are higher than the value of the cut- off-parameter. So a high value means a crispy sound, and a low value means a dark, dull sound. A value of 10 to 20 has a very dull and bassy sound. Between 40 and 80 it's a bit normal, and values of 90 to 130 get very tjilping and chirping. When you pass the border of 150 and higher, you get very electro-static sounds (because of aliasing effect, but its effect is nice!). Resonance - sets the volume of the extra harmonic that comes with the lowpass-filter. The frequency (or pitch) of it is determined by the cuttof-frequency. Namely, the resonance is a peak- frequency precisely at the same frequency as the cuttof-point. The form of this resonance-sound is a sine. With the Resonance- parameter, you change the volume of this sine. This parameter is tricky (I'm working on it to get it better gripped) A value of 0 means there is NO resonance. A value of 1 means there is MAXIMUM resonance. BUT, If you think that a value of 0.5 is half the resonance effect, you're WRONG! Check the following table and you can guess how it works in a way: Reso-value Description 0 No resonance 0->0.9 No resonance hearable, but volume of oscillator gets lower 0.91 Very little resonance 0.96 Normal resonance 0.97 0.98 Very many resonance 1 Extreme resonance *** Values with 3 floats are possible, like 0.965 *** Envelope - determines the drop down level and speed of the filter-frequency (the cut off-frequency). The higher the value, the higher the drop-down. Note: it's a very sensitive parameter. A value of 0 means no decrease of the cuttof-freq. and a value of 1 means that in 2 periods the cutoff-freq reaches the lowest frequency possible! So here's again a table: Envelope-value Description 0 No freq-decrease 0.01 Slight drop-down 0.2 Normal drop down 0.3 Heavy drop-down 0.5 Enormous decrease of cuttof-freq. Decay - sets the length of the sound. You can only enter integer values. The value of the decay (scaled to a period of 360!) represents the number of periods. So if you enter a value of 18, The number of periods is, if the Tuning is 360, also 18. But if the same decay-value is used and the Tuning (thus the period) is 180, the finally rendered number of periods is (360/180)*18=36 periods! Why, you think? Well, it means that a note with a high pitch (thus a low period) has the same length as a low one, without affecting the decay-button. Try to experiment with decay-values such as 20 and 30. This is not too long, so it renders quick, and it is long enough for you, when you play at freqs. of 18 kHz. (Often with TB-303_like sounds, you play short notes staccato) Accent - gives the sound more aggressiveness. A value of 1 (lowest) means NO accent, and the maximum of 2 means MAXimum accent. It gives the sound more reso, more drop-down of the filter-freq. and mor volume. If you use it, I think you'd better set it to the MAX, or else totally not. - Now we've had the description of the two (they are identical) parameter-boxes, I'll tell you about the params and switchers, at the top right. First you see the switch [Single/Sequence], (fig. 4e) Where you can switch between rendering 1 sample or a bunch of it. If it directs to SINGLE, only the first_parameter_box (A) of the two ones has effect on it (already explained above). 'But what if I want to hear the second_parameter_box-settings?' Well, when you get one of the boxes by his head (like a Workbench-window), you can drag it, while holding a mouse-button. If you drag it to the other (place OVER it) an operation happens, when you loose the mousebutton. The LEFT-mousebutton REPLACES the old values with the holded ones, and the RIGHT-mousebuttons SWAPS the two parameter-boxes its values. So if you want to hear box (B) you get it with the right-mouse-button and lay it over box (A). If the switch directs to SEQUENCE, and you click on RENDER SEQUENCE (fig. 4f) a FILE-REQUESTER will be opened. Then, you must give a basename of the samples that are going to be rendered (eg. '303sound.). The program renders the sounds after clicking [OK] and places its number after the filename ('303sound.001). If you click in the FILE-REQUESTER on [Cancel], you cancelled the whole rendering-process and end up in the main-prog again. ______________________ | | | Sequence | | | | Render Samples | | ____ _ | | | | /|\ | | |____| \_/ | | | |______________________| (fig 4f: sequence render options) The number of samples to be rendered in this mode, you can adjust with the 'Samples'-potmeter (fig 4f). If you change it, the value will change, as you can see in the display in the middle. No tricks and jokes here: the number displayed represents the number of samples (default 32). What the Sequence-rendering process does, is rendering the inbetween- settings between Parameter-box A (fig 4c) and Parameter-box B (fig 4d). Parameter-box A are settings for the first sample, Parameter-box B for the last, and everything between that the program calculates. It's a sort of key-framing effect. For example, if you have set the number of samples to be rendered is 8 (set with potmeter in fig 4f), each sample will have these kind of settings: Sample Tuning Cutoff Reson.... (and so on) 1 (First Key) 200 80 0.99 <-----These are set by you 2 200 74.3 0.98 3 200 68.6 0.97 4 200 62.9 0.96 5 200 57.1 0.95 6 200 51.4 0.94 7 200 45.7 0.93 8 (Last Key) 200 40 0.92 <-----These are set by you - Then we get to right top with the switch [SAWTOOTH/SQUARE]. It's obvious that it changes the oscillator (the soundsource) between a square-waveform and a sawtooth-waveform. The trick of the square, as used on the original TB-303, is that (I think but am not sure!) it is a combination of two sawteeth at double frequency, and the second on reversed vertical and placed after the first one. Look at figure 4g. Sawtooth: Square: |\ | | \ |\ | \ | \ ______| \______ ___| \__ ___ | / | / |/ | (fig 4g: graphic of a sawtooth and a square) - Glide-parameters. A glide makes a sound glide, change in frequency, to another pitch. On a real TB-303, the glide- or portamento-effect lets note 1 glide to note 2, while note 1 is playing. In the 303emulator, it works a little the same, but also different. Because in the older version of this program I had implemented a stupid way of the glide-function, I rewrote it, but it had to be somewhat compatible with the old routine. That's why it works not exactly the same as the original, altough the effect is the same. Look at the figure (fig 4h) and you see 4 thingies: 3 potmeters and a switch. The switch lets you decide wheter the note glides UP or DOWN. The problem of the glide-functions is, that you can't give an end-note where the sound glides to. Instead of it you can set the LEVEL of the glide, so the frequency-change (per period). Then you set the START-period, so when it has to start gliding in the sound. You can set the stop-period with the STOP-meter. __________________________________ | | | GLIDE | | Level Up | | _ _ | | /|\ \\__ | | \_/ |\\ | | | |___| | | | | Down | | | | Start Stop | | _ _ | | /|\ /|\ | <--- Note that in the program, the | \_/ \_/ | word 'stop' is not a label, but |__________________________________| a hand written word, aside of the potmeter! So don't think the label 'down' directs to the (fig 4h: the glide-parameters.) potmeter! 'But how can I know the end value of the pitch of the note!!!!?????' I hear you scream. Well you see a small button with a questionmark in it (fig 4i) and when you push on that button, the end-period-value will be displayed on the monitor! So I think it's often clicking on the '?'-button, hahaha!!!! ___ | | | ? | |___| (fig 4i: the button to get the end-tuning-value!) - The monitor or tv-screen down-right. This monitor gives information of what you are doing with some functions (Sorry 4 bad english). For example, it can show the sample while rendering, but also gives some (error-)messages. - With the parameters-buttons (figure 4j) you can load and save all the settings you've made in the program, including the settings of the plug-ins (explained later) and the prefs-screen (also explained later). However it does not save or load a rendered sound, or a script. The parameters can only be loaded in this program and are also only made by this program. You can't do anything else with it in contrast with a sample. ________________________ | | | Parameters | | Load Save | | ___ ___ | | | | | | | | |___| |___| | |________________________| (fig 4j: load and save parameters: the values of all switches & potmeters) - The Volume options. There are two potmeters for it (see fig 4k); one called CLIP, wich boosts the sample until it gets to the clipping-level, this means that the sound can't be registred harder, so a treshold or a border cuts the waves that come over that border, with the effect of square-like level-downs. It sounds more aggressive. (In fact it only boosts the sound that comes beneath the 0-line, because above that 0-line the sound is often maximum.) The second is distortion. But it's not kind-of guitar-distortion! +- | (If you truly want guitar-like distortion, then go to one of the plug-ins | by clicking on the plug-in button middle left and search for 'OVERDRIVE'. | But all this is explained later, so just read on and let it rest!) | +--> It's more a sort of sub-dis-harmonic that is synced with each period of sound, but its form changes every period. The effect is a low growling effect, wich fattens the sound (Nice for Moog-like sound!). It sounds the best with the sawtooh. ______________________ | | | Volume | | | | Clip Distort | | _ _ | | /|\ /|\ | | \_/ \_/ | |______________________| (fig 4k: Volume-controls) - Now let me explain the middle of the screen, with left a PREFS-button, aside it a PLUG-IN-button, and then 6 small buttons from_left_to_right: QUIT, UNDO, NEW, HELP, VIEW, SCRIPT. See fig 4m. PREFS-button: Once you click on this boy, a new screen appears, layed over the main-screen. This prefs-screen (fig 4l) contains some parameters (they also are saved and loaded with LOAD & SAVE PARAMETERS (fig 4j)) wich you will not use very often (I hope). ________________________________________________________________________ | | | OSCILLATOR SQUARE-CUTOFF PREVIEW | | _ normal _____ on PLAYBACK-RATE OK | | /|\ _ | _ _________ ____ | | \_/ \\_ | \\_ | | | | | | |\\| type |\\| | 18000 | |____| | |__| +---+ |__| | |__| +---+ |__| |_________| | | | 1 | | | half +---+ off | |________________________________________________________________________| | (fig 4l: the pref-screen) The potmeter OSCILLATOR changes the shape of both the sawtooth and square. Directing to the left it is become very straight waveforms, and to the maximum right it become more electric, more natural waves. I prefer the last one (max to right) coz it sounds fatter, and also the original 303's shapes are like these. The SQUARE-CUTOFF switch determines if the cuttof frequency is the half sensitive for the square, so it means the sound of the square will be twice as sprankling, the cutoff is twice as high. Sorry it's very confusing, but HALF means DOUBLE! But most of the times you will keep it NORMAL, so set it to normal (default is also normal). The only use of it is if you want very bright electro-like sounds. The preview-option selects if you want the preview ON or OFF. OFF means no preview while rendering, but only a status-screen of how much is rendered. If you select Preview ON, you can select with the cycle-button (left of the switch) wich kind of preview you want. There are 4 previews: 1=Preview the just rendering period in the little monitor bottom-right. 2=Preview in a new,large screen the same graphic with little extra info. 3=Preview as 2, but with more information. 4=Preview in the form of a horizontal status-bar. PLAYBACK-RATE determines wich Hertz the sample is played at, when you push on the button PLAY SAMPLE on the main-screen (see fig 4a2). Click on the box with the value in it to edit it. A range of 1000 to 28000 (Hz) is possible. OK will let you go back to the main-screen. If you have made wrong choices in the prefs-screen you can get them back with the UNDO-button on the main-screen (fig 4m). +----+ +----+ +---+ +----+ +----+ +------+ PREFS PLUG-IN |QUIT| |UNDO| |NEW| |HELP| |VIEW| |SCRIPT| +-----+ +-----+ +----+ +----+ +---+ +----+ +----+ +------+ | | | | _____________ +-----+ +-----+ | | |_____________| (fig 4m: middle of the main-screen's buttons) The PLUG-IN button. Clicking on this button gives you a list of plug-ins available for you to select and use it. A plug-in is a little program that can be 'plugged' to the main-program. The power of plug-ins is that a program can be updated by new plug-ins. So a program can by time be expanded or some plug-ins can be updated. For now, probably only one lug-in is available. Read the plug-in-helpfiles for instructions about them. The settings that you can change in the plug-ins, are saved with the LOAD & SAVE PARAMETERS (see fig 4j). QUIT - means you leave the program. It asks 1 time if you are sure, and then it really quits if you confirm. All settings changed but not saved (including rendered but not saved samples) will be lost. UNDO - undoes the last action NEW - sets all the parameters to the default. READ THIS -> if you start the 303emulator the settings of the parameters are NOT the default- ones! So if you click on NEW, you'll get other settings! This is because it now is possible to make a good example for the persons who begin for the first time with the program and get a good idea of the sound if they press render. Altough maybe it's more confusing to understand this story (sorrrry!!!) HELP - Get this help-file VIEW - (ONLY WHEN A RENDERED SAMPLE IS IN MEMORY) Gets you to the view-screen where you can see the whole sample. You can zoom in with the cursor-keys and the + and - keys. Press [ESC] or [TAB] to get back to the main screen. (In new versions the view-screen may be updated and have new functions, so watch out.) SCRIPT - Wow! When you select this, you'll get a file-requester where you can select. Once pressed OK, it loads and executes it. With this script it is possible to generate a whole bunch of samples with all different parameters and if you want there can be made a loop of all thos samples to one big sample. To read more about this script-stuff, search for the file 303script.help. --------------------------------------------------------------------------