**** **** * * * * * * * * * * **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***** **** * * * * * * * * * * * **** **** * * **** * * **** **** Softones Piping. ----------------- DOUG ROBERTSON and JOHN McLEOD (1990) Welcome, Amiga owners, to the Softones piping music. One of the hardest things that we found when starting out to copy the bagpipes was the unique reedy sound of the pipes, plus getting the small grace notes to form and sound correctly. Although we have made a very good job of it (I'm sure you'll agree) there are one or two notes that you should bear in mind. If you remember these points you should get as much enjoyment out of this music as we got programming it, and still get, listening to it. 1. Remember the sound of the pipes is usually a harsh reedy sound, hence the 'skirl' so you MUST connect your Amiga to a stereo amp of some sort with a minimum of seperate Treble and Bass controls. We find that with no bass and full treble, the sound is extraordinarily similar (I would go so far as to say impossible to detect any difference). 2. These tunes were programmed by pipers so we feel that there is no need for many adjustments at this stage. Feedback will be welcomed, both varieties, as long as it is constructive. We will try to brush-up the drones a bit, later, but the portamento up of the start of the drones is practically impossible so we hope that you can live with the sudden comimng-in of the drones... 3. We have a number of classic piping tunes on offer and if the sheet music is available will gladly convert any particular tune that you would like. It doesn't matter whether it's a jig, reel or march... 4. Probably the MOST IMPORTANT point. We MUST know what setup you use with your system, whether you have two drives, extra memory,etc: The tunes will play when their associated icons are double-clicked, but the paths to the tune and the instruments MUST be in the .info file of the icon to function correctly. 5. The switching of the A500/A1000 hardware high-pass filter is done automatically for you by the PipePlayer program, so when you see your Amiga`s power LED go out, don`t be alarmed, it`s just the filter being switched OFF. 6. At the moment the tunes are programmed to be selected by their neat little icons from the Workbench environment, but we can make them run from the CLI, if anyone is interested. 7. After double-clicking on a tune`s icon, in the usual manner, a small window will open on the Workbench title-bar showing another small title- bar saying "PipePlayer...", to stop playing at any time, or at the end of a tune, just click on this window`s close gadget. If you don`t close the window, the tune will repeat from the beginning ad infinitum... 8. For obvious reasons, two tunes cannot be played at the same time, so selecting a tune while another is running will force a player-task error. -----*-----*----- We would like to express our greetings and thanks to the young man from Finland,Teijo Kinnunen, who produced the MED music editor that we use, very much more friendly than Soundtracker.....Also our love to Arthur McLeod of Douglas, Dundee for his help and his sheet music... thanks mate. Thanks to John Robertson for the use of his Yamaha PS80 from which we were able to get the bagpipe IFF sample. -----*-----*----- For a demo of a couple of tunes, or as many as you require, contact....Softones. 28,Ambrook Road, Whitley, Reading, RG2 8SL, Berks. 0734 871536