1.0 Introduction This is a very short explanation of CZL 1.0, in terms of the earlier released version (v0.8). If you don't have CZL v0.8 you may want to get the full set of documents, which should be in another ARC file where you got this one. This document is intended to give you an idea of what is different from earlier versions, and how to use the new features. CZL v1.0 is still SHAREWARE. If you are familiar enough with CZL v0.8 to have gone beyond the first paragraph, I trust that I received something from you, just as you have received something from me (SHARE, get it?). If you have contributed then thanks, and v1.0 is my gift to you. If you haven't contributed, try out v1.0 of CZL. If you use it beyond that test drive, I ask that you send me 10 dollars (is that going to break anyone?). If you don't like CZL (enough that you won't use it), drop me a note and make suggestions for improvements. CZL has come a long way since its first release, and with more encouragement I will probably make more improvements. Send your contribution or suggestions to: Steve Anderson 3913 W. 184th Street Torrance, CA 90504 2.0 Compatibility With Earlier Versions CZL v1.0 can be used almost right away with your CZL v0.1 or v0.8 disk. It is compatible with both v0.1 and version 0.8 *EXCEPT* for two small changes that will be necessary for the CZ.defaults file. If you want to be adventurous, you could just make those two changes and dive right in, ignoring the rest of this unless you get stuck (that's probably what I would do). 2.0 New Features Version 1.0 of CZL has several new features from v0.8, which had alot of changes from your v0.1. New to v1.0 are: - Cartridge support - CZL can now address the expansion voice cartridge available for the CZ keyboards. - Copy / Paste - Now copies and pastes the instrument name as well as the voice data. - Copy / Swap - A new edit function that lets you swap the positions (voice number) of two instruments. - MIDI Channel - A proportional gadget (slider) to set the MIDI channel (for those lucky folks with more than one MIDI device). - Bank files - Multiple instruments can now be stored in one file. - Command line arg - Defaults file can be specified on the command line (if CZL is started from the CLI). If not, CZL:CZ.defaults is assumed. - Comments in defaults file - comments can be appended at the end of each line of the defaults file. - Randomize - A new command on the Edit window to essentially create a "random" instrument. 3.0 Files There are now four types of files used by CZL, whereas v0.1 thru v0.8 used only three types. The four file types, their functions, and how they are different from earlier versions are described in the following paragraphs: o Defaults File - What CZL expects to see in the defaults file has changed in several ways: (1) It no longer has to be "CZ.defaults" but rather can be named anything and specified on the CLI command line (e.g. typing "CZL myCZ101.defaults" at the CLI prompt would load the file "myCZ101.defaults" as the defaults file). If no command line argument is provided, CZL will try to open the file CZL:CZ.defaults, in which case you will need to have done an "assign" of CZL: to the correct path where you keep the file; (2) The first two entries have been reversed in order - the first thing CZL expects to read is the number of Presets, then the number of Internals (this change won't matter for most folks, as the number of Presets and number of Internals are the same on almost all CZ's); (3) Two new entries have been added - the 3rd, specifying the number of Cartridge voices, and the last, specifying the path for "Bank" files (to be described later); (4) Comment fields are now allowed - CZL will read each line until a "white space" (space, tab, etc.) then ignore the rest. This all probably makes more sense with an example. Here is what the defaults file looks like for my CZ-3000 (comments and all): 32 <- The number of Presets 32 <- The number of Internals 0 <- The number of Cartridge voices BrassEns1 <- The first Preset name StringsEns1 JazzOrgan : : more Preset names... : MetallicSound Calimba Conga TyphoonSound <- The last Preset name CZL:current.env <- My current environment file CZL:env <- My default path for environments CZL:inst <- My default instrument path CZL:banks <- My default path for bank files Note that there is only room for 64 instruments on the screen, so the program will print an error and quit if (Presets + Internals + Cartridge) is more than 64. Maybe later versions of CZL will allow it to spill over to another window. o Environment files - These work the same way as before, but I've extended it to account for cartridge instruments. If you don't have a cartridge never mind; but if you do, you should note that the current environment file (loaded at startup) is different from environment files that you load during operation. The current environment file contains the paths and names for ALL of the writable voices (Internal and Cartridge), so that CZL will remember how you had your Cartridge configured when you quit. The other environment files only have as many entries as you have Internals OR Cartridge voices. That is if you go to the Internals menu and save the environment, only the names for the Internals are saved. Likewise, if you do a "Save Environment" from the Cartridge menu, the environment file will only have sixteen entries, corresponding to the sounds you currently have in the Cartridge section. o Instrument Files - Same as before - no change. The files are 128-byte packed voice data from the CZ, one voice per file. o Bank files - These are completely new to v1.0. Several people were pushing me to come up with a way to store multiple instruments into one file, reducing the time required to load or store a whole environment of instruments and increasing the efficiency in storage on the disk (AmigaDOS only stores one file per 512 byte sector, so that for each 128-byte instrument file you store using CZL, you waste 384 bytes). These files are simply a set of multiple 128-byte voice blocks. The two important things to remember are: (1) The number of voices in bank files, like environment files, is the number of Internal or Cartridge instruments (which one depends on which menu you Load or Save the bank from); (2) NO NAMES - Bank files don't have instrument names in them, so that when you load a bank file you don't get an updated display on the instrument window. This is dangerous because suddenly the voice names shown on the screen may have nothing to do with the data you just loaded. Doing a "Save All Instruments" would be disastrous, writing over the correctly-named instrument files with the just-loaded data. If the right order of things are done, this can be avoided. The intent here is that you would load an environment file (containing only names), then after verifying that it is the set of voices you want, load the corresponding bank for those instruments. To help in doing this, when you load an environment file, CZL copies the environment file name into the default bank file name. Thus if you load an environment then go to load a bank file, you could load the corresponding bank file. Anyway, 'til I come up with a good fail-safe, just *BE CAREFUL*. 4.0 Operation V1.0 operates pretty much the same as v0.8. While v0.8 and v0.1 had the same menus, v1.0 has completely different menus. Since menus have been restructured, there are many new functions but also a few functions are the same but in a different place. The changes fall into two catagories: New functions and slightly modified functions. The functions that were there in v0.8 but have been changed include: o Copy / Paste - Like in v0.1 and v0.8, CZL v1.0 has a copy buffer for copying voice data from one voice into another. You simply select a voice to copy, select Copy from the Edit menu (or hit right-Amiga / c), pick the instrument to be replaced, and issue the Paste command from the Edit menu. The Copy command reads the voice into CZL's copy buffer and Paste writes the copy buffer to the CZ. In v1.0, the copy buffer is accompanied by a path and name buffer, and "Pasting" pastes the copied name as well. This reduces the confusion of having the same instrument data represented by two different names on the screen. o Load Environment - In v0.1 and v0.8 loading an environment implied loading all of the instrument names from an environment file and then loading all the instruments. In v1.0 if you issue the command to load an environment, only the environment file is loaded. Therefore, you must be careful since the names don't correspond to the CZ's instrument data until you do a "Load All Instruments" or "Load Bank". Like I said, *BE CAREFUL*. If you have any suggestions on how to make this a safer operation please let me know. Several functions are entirely new to v1.0 of CZL. They include: o Internals / Cartridge menus - These two menus have the same choice items, and perform all the multiple-instrument functions corresponding to either all the internal instruments or all the cartridge instruments. The Cartridge menu is disabled unless the number of cartridge voices (defined in the defaults file) is non-zero. o Copy / Swap - This works basically like the Copy / Paste function, except that instead of copying one instrument to another voice, it makes a swap of the two instruments, so that the "Copied" instrument gets the "Swapped" data and name, and vice versa. I have found it real handy to use this function to move all my Pianos to one area on the screen, my Organs to another, etc., without wiping out the data that's there (as would happen in the copy / paste operation). o MIDI Channel slider - The proportional gadget in the lower right-hand part of the Instrument window allows the MIDI channel to be adjusted. Both v0.1 and v0.8 of CZL worked only on channel 1. In v1.0 the MIDI channel can be adjusted in the normal Amiga "prop gadget" way. You can either click on the knob and slide it left or right, or you can click to the left or right of the knob to adjust the channel up or down by one. Either way, the current setting is displayed above the slider. o Bank Files - See the above section describing the files used in CZL v1.0. o Randomize - In the Edit window under the Control Menu, this command generates a "random" instrument, setting each parameter to a random value within its range. Many such intruments will have no sound at all, but the ones that do are very strange. After doing a randomize try adjusting the line select and DCA levels before giving up on a quiet instrument.