@database Dominator.guide @author "Luc De pauw" @(c) "Copyright © 1995 Luc De pauw" @$VER: Dominator.guide 1.5 (12/05/96) @font topaz.font 8 @wordwrap @node Main "Contents" -= Dominator Midi Sequencer V1.50 (c) 1993-1996 Luc De pauw =- @{" Technical Info AKA what's new " link part20} @{" Introduction " link part1} @{" Copyright " link Copyright} @{" Registration " link Registration} @{" Quick-start " link part2} @{" The Control-Window " link part3 } @{" The Song Window " link part4} @{" The Track Select section " link part5 } @{" The Part Arrange section " link part6} @{" The Song Menu " link part7} @{" The Track Window " link part8} @{" The Track Menu " link part9} @{" The Midi-filter window " link part10} @{" The Patch-select window " link part11} @{" The MIDI-Mixer window " link part12} @{" System Exclusive (SYSEX)" link part19} @{" Cursor keys " link part13} @{" Keyboard short-cuts " link part14} @{" Tips & troubleshooting " link part15} @{" Installation + Updates " link part16} @{" Program History " link part17} @{" Future plans " link part18} @endnode @node Copyright "Copyright, License & Legal stuff" Copyright ========= This program, Dominator MIDI sequencer is written by Luc De pauw. (c) 1993-1995 Luc De pauw. License ======= This license applies to the product called "Dominator", a program for the Amiga computer, published by Luc De pauw under the concepts of ShareWare, and the accompanying documentation, example files and anything else that comes with the original distribution. The terms "Program" and "Dominator" below, refer to this product. The licensee is addressed as "you". * You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the program's executable code and documentation as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish only the original, unmodified program, with all copyright notices and disclaimers of warranty intact and including all the accompanying documentation, example files and anything else that came with the original. * You may not copy and/or distribute this program without the accompanying documentation and other additional files that came with the original. You may not copy and/or distribute modified versions of this program. * You may not copy, modify, sublicense, distribute or transfer the program except as expressly provided under this license. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, distribute or transfer the program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights to use the program under this license. However, parties who have received copies, or rights to use copies, from you under this license will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance. * By copying, distributing and/or using the program you indicate your acceptance of this license to do so, and all its terms and conditions. * Each time you redistribute the program, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute and/or use the program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. * You may not disassemble, decompile, re-source or otherwise reverse engineer the program. * You agree to cease distributing the program and data involved if requested to do so by the author. * You may charge a fee to recover distribution costs. The fee for diskette distribution may not be more than the cost to obtain a public domain diskette. * You have to register if you wish to save your arrangements. Registered users receive a key-file. You may NOT redistribute this key-file. No Warranty =========== THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAMS, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAMS "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAMS IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAMS PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAMS AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAMS (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAMS TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. @endnode @node Registration "Registration" There are 2 options on how to obtain a registered version of Dominator, directly by me or via the Belgium Amiga shop 'R2B2': If you have any questions about ordering, pricing just send me an E-mail or a letter. I reply as soon as possible. The unregistered version doesn't allow you to save any changes or to export midi-files. To register send 1500 BEF (Belgium francs). Please pay with Eurocheck, written to Luc De pauw, St.-Amandsestnwg. 166, B-2880 BORNEM, BELGIUM. Amount must be in BEF. International money-orders (post/bank) are also accepted (Must be in BEF). Or send cash, NO COINS, at your own risk -> (1500 BEF (Belgium francs) or equivalent in UK Pounds (+- 30£), German Marks (+- 75DM) or Dutch Guilders (+- 85FL) or same amount in US$. -FOREIGN CURRENCY ONLY FOR CASH PAYEMENTS NOT FOR EURO-CHECK'S OR MONEY-ORDERS, PLEASE- DO NOT SEND ANY MAIL ADDRESSED TO DOMINATOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, THIS IS NOT A COMPANY-NAME. ALL MAIL, PAYEMENTS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO LUC DE PAUW. -CREDIT-CARD ORDERS- If you find it easier to pay with credit-card please use the service of R2B2, address below. I will send you a 3,5" DD disk with the latest version and a personal key-file, you may NOT copy the key-file. Updates will be made available via public-channels like aminet, BBS, etc... Or can be obtained directly by me, for a small fee. CD-ROM version should be available soon... ask for details. Fill in the next lines and send it to the address below: Registration Form ================= Name : .................................................................... Firstname : .................................................................... Address : .................................................................... .................................................................... Country : .................................................................... EMAIL : .................................................................... Computer : ................. Workbench version : .......................... Midi-equipement : ................................................................ CD-ROM : ................. My address: Luc De pauw E-mail: Luc.DePauw@ping.be St.-Amandsestnwg. 166 B-2880 BORNEM BELGIUM Amiga-Shop R2B2: (Please call them for pricing & packaging) (they accept VISA cards) R2B2 BeNeLux Joris Ronny Naamsesteenweg 202 E-mail: Ronny.Joris@ping.be B-3800 St.-Truiden Tel: 011/69.48.19 BELGIUM Fax: 011/68.86.54 Bug-reports & suggestions are also welcome on the same address. To get tech-support please include an self-addressed envelope. Or contact me via E-mail at Luc.DePauw@ping.be (internet) Or fax : +32(0)3/899-33-82 (24/24) @endnode @node part1 "Introduction" Welcome to Dominator MIDI Sequencer This text will help you to use Dominator as fast as possible. 1 Introduction Dominator is designed to make MIDI music in an interactive way. Before starting with Dominator read the install chapter and the full doc-file. It's also recommended to have some expierience with Workbench & MIDI in general, this is not explained in the manual. So some external reading maybe required. So let's get on with it... Dominator's screen on start-up shows the 2 main windows: Song & Control window. The song-window is split into 2 sections, on the left side the track-select section on the right the part-arrange-section. The track section lists all 250 multi-channel tracks available, you can scroll thru the list with the scroll-bar/arrows. Clicking on the track name makes it the current-track and the track-name will be highlighted. This is important because some functions will use the current-track selection. Each track contains an certain number of events like notes, channel messages etc... Tracks can contain multi-channel events, so you can play notes on channel 1,2 or 6 in 1 and the same track. Although it's best to keep each track mono-channel, if you have lots of tracks with multi-channel events it's hard to tell which tracks play for in- stance a piano sound and which don't. These tracks can be arranged in the part-arrange section, above this section are a number of gadgets, these will help you to add/copy/paste/cut/resize/replace/... a part. A part is simply a track that can be positioned on a time-line. This time-line has a scale in measures:beats:ticks. Creating a song is a matter of the following steps: -Selecting a track -Record a track or edit it in the track-window -Positioning a part on the time line. @endnode @node part2 "Quick-start" 2 Quick-start Select New in the File menu of the Song-window, you're ready to create some kick- ing tracks. Press the BEGIN button (or B on the keyboard) in the Control-window, this posi- tions the song at 000:00:000, the beginning , yep. Select track 0 in the track-section, by clicking once on the track name. Go to the Track-menu and select EDIT, the Track-window appears, in the right-top you can choose the grid-size, let's select a quarter note. On the left side you can select the note-size, select also a quarter-note. The Buttons numbered from 1 to 16 displays the current-midi-channel. Select chan- nel 1, now select on your midi-synthesizer on channel 1 a bass-drum sound, other- wise we won't hear a thing. Click on the ADD-button, the one with the text 'add' in, you are now in add-mode. Position the arrow in the part-arrange-section on position 000:00:000, press the left-mouse-button down, don't release it yet. While holding down you can move the note, releasing the left-button add's the note to the current track. Repeat this for positions 000:01:000, 000:02:000, 000:03:000. While you move the mouse-pointer the position is displayed in the left-top corner below this is the number of the note. Put the track-window to the back-ground by pressing it's depth gadget. The song window will pop to the front. Make the window active by pressing on it's drag-bar, select INFO in the track-menu and give the track a name 'BassDrum', click on the OK gadget. Select the ADD-button and position the pointer on position 000:00:000 next to the track-name BassDrum. Press the left mouse-button down like in the track-window you know can move the part. Put it back on it's original position and release the mouse-button. Select the MOVE/POSITION button, the one with the black-pointer on it, and click on the right lower-edge of the part while pressing down the left mouse-button move the pointer to the right, you know can make the part larger in duration, the part will be automatically looped. Now add another part to the right of the first one but keep a space of one full measure between them. Press the PLAY-button on the control-window (or the P key on the keyboard), you have made your first song. Pause the song by clicking on the pause button or the SPACEBAR continue by pressing again on the PAUSE-button or SPACEBAR. Stop the song by clicking on the STOP - button or S on the keyboard. The controls are much the same as those on a regular tape-deck or VCR. Cueing forward or backwards even while the song is playing is no problem. You can save your song on disk by selecting the SAVE AS option in the file-menu of the song-window. Give it a name and select OK, the song will be saved on the disk. You can load it back with the LOAD option selecting the file-name in the file-requester and clicking OK. When you have modified it you can save it back under the same name by selecting the SAVE menu, no requester will appear. Recording a track from an external MIDI-keyboard is also simple. Press the BEGIN button, select track 4, press the Record button in the control-window, make the start-position measure 1 -> 001:00:000. Be ready to play the keyboard and press OK. The song will play and when the song is at position 001:00:000 all data send from the midi-keyboard will be recorded in track 4. So play a simple tune and press the STOP-button when finished. Then add a part on position 000:00:000 for track 4. Press BEGIN and PLAY. Volia your first dance tune created with dominator. A simple demo song has been included in the song directory, this simple tune uses the internal sound-chip. Before loading the song you have to assign SAMPLES: to the path where the samples are actually located on your drive. ex. From the workbench-menu WORKBENCH->EXECUTE COMMAND... and type Assign SAMPLES: hd1:dominator/samples Remember the path could be different on your drive. @endnode @node part3 "The Control-Window" The Control-Window This window has buttons on it which looks like VCR-style buttons. It works the same way, press: > to play the song, stop to stop. >> to increment the time, << to do the opposite. || to pause the song. O to Record a track. You can adjust the tempo of the track by adjusting the slider marked Tempo. There are 3 select-buttons on the right side. The first puts loop-mode on/off. When in loop-mode the sequencer passes the right-locator it will jumps to the left locator without interrupting the song. (Please notice that only parts with there start-time greater than the left locator will be looped) The second switches sync on/off, sending Midi-sync-codes to the midi-out port. This is especially important if you want to synchronize for example a Korg Wavestation. The last enables/disables the click-track (metronome). Make sure you have selevted a click-track first. @endnode @node part4 "The Song Window" 3 The Song Window As briefly explained in the introduction the Song-Window is split into 2 sections, to the left: the track-select section, to the right: the part-arrange section. @endnode @node part5 "The Track Select section" 3.1 The Track Select section The Track Select section displays all 250 available tracks listed from 0 to 249, scroll thru the list by clicking on it's scroll bar. Each track has it's own name, modify it with the INFO option in the Track-menu. You can Mute a track while playing by clicking right from the track-nr under the M, a letter M will be printed, unselect muting by clicking on the M. To display the MIDI-channel number before the track-name select Display midi-chan n° in the Extras menu, select it again to remove the n°. @endnode @node part6 "The Part Arrange section" 3.2 The Part Arrange section It's here where you construct your song. A toolbar with the edit-buttons & grid-buttons are above the part-arrange section. From left to right on the first row we have these buttons: - Move/Size In this mode your able to move the part on the time-line, or when clicking on the right-edge of the part your able to resize it in duration, the track will be automatically looped or truncated (virtual) while playing. - Add In this mode you are able to add parts on the time-line, the part is adjusted in start-time according to the grid position. If the grid-size is one whole note, the part will always be positioned on a multiple of 768 ticks. - Remove This speaks for itself, any part clicked on will be removed from the song. - Kick left Kick the part x-ticks to the left, the ticks are defined with the grid size. Suppose the part is at start-time 180, the grid size is 1 tick, after clicking once on the part, the start-position of the part is 179. - Kick right Same as kick-left but to the right - Mute Click once on the part to mute it, that is, prevent it from playing events, click again to undo the mute. Muted parts will be displayed in another color than the others. The second row: - Select Selecting a number of parts, multiple selecting is possible. Position the mouse-pointer on the left top-edge from the parts you want to select, press down the left-mouse-button, move the pointer to the lower-right until the box encloses all parts you want to select. Then release the mouse-button, all selected parts will be highlighted. - Copy Copy selected parts to the clipboard, this is a temporary storage-buffer which holds the parts until it is overwritten by another copy or cut instruction. - Paste Paste the parts from the clipboard into the song. Position the mouse-pointer into the part-arrange section, hold the left-mouse-button down, a box will appear, move the box to the start-position you desire, release the mouse-button, all parts in the clipboard will be copied to the song starting at the given start-position.. - Cut Delete selected parts. Notice that all parts are first copied to the clipboard. Use this function also if you want to move a large block of parts. Just cut it and position it on another position with a paste statement. - Unselect Unselect parts, which where currently selected. @endnode @node part7 "The Part Arrange section" 3.3 The Song menu File menu Load... Load a previously saved dominator song to the computers memory. Select path & file-name in the requester. The song in the memory will be erased. Save Save a song to disk, with the same name as it was previously loaded. No requester will pop up. Save as... Save the song to disk with a given name, type the name and select a path where you want to locate the file on disk into the requester. Import Music-X Imports music-X files (.perf) into dominator, automatically creates a song from the first track it encounters with play-sequences in. Songs which don't have a track with play-sequences will have one part for each track on the time-line positioned next to the track-name. Import SMF Imports Standard Midi-files format 0 & 1. Most of the time these filenames end with the extension .MID. Some programs on other platforms (PC/Atari) need the exten- sion .MID attached to the file-name. Keep this in mind while exporting midi-files to other systems. Export SMF Exports Standard Midi-files format1. New Creates an empty song and erases all tracks, be careful with this option. About Displays the version number and copyright message. Edit Select all Make all parts selected, and all are copied to the clipboard. Track Edit... Opens the track-window and displays the currently selected track. See more about the track-window in the next chapter. Info... Displays more information about the currently selected track. You can change the name of the track by clicking on the string-gadget and typing in the new name. You can change the backgound & text color of the tracks parts. This is nice if you want all percussion parts in the same background color or just to highlight a track's parts. Selecting the 8-BIT-AUDIO flag causes all notes played in the track on channel 1 to 4 sounding thru the AMIGA's internal sound-chip. Channels 1-4 are still accessible via MIDI on other tracks who don't have this flag set. You change the sound played on the internal channels by adding a program-change event(s) in your track. (Same principe as with your midi-gear) Select OK to save the changes. Copy... Copies the currently selected track to another track, select the destination track in the requester. Select OK to execute. Initialize Erases the currently selected track. Import Music-X track.... Imports a Music-X track (.seq) into the currently selected track. Extras menu Midi mixer Opens the MIDI-mixer, a MIDI-mix-console is displayed showing on the first row the MIDI-channel, on the second the controller-number. You can freely change the val- ues. (Controller 7 is Midi-volume) Moving the silders will transmit the corresponding MIDI-message to the MIDI-out-port. Be aware that these messages are recorded when in record-mode (see Con- trol-Window recording) Many moderns synthesisers, samplers support so called modulation-matrix, meaning that you can assign different controller-values to different synthesisers functions for example you could assign a contoller to a resonant-filer, changing the silder in the mixer would then result in changing the filter. SampleManagement Opens the sample-management window, here you can load AMIGA 8SVX IFF samples, these sampels are usually suffixed .IFF or .8SVX but not necessary. The samples are numbered 0 to 63 and are called program-numbers, meaning if you send a program-change 5 on channel 1, sample nr 5 will be played on that channel until you change it of course. With the delete button, you delete the sample from the Amiga's memory not from disk. Is worth mentioning that the samples are not saved with the Dominator song-file, only the full file-name is saved along. Position locators Left/Right Locators are used in loop-mode (See Control-Window Loop/LoopOn). For example select Position locators Left. Position the mouse-pointer somewhere in the part-arrange section, about 2 mea- sures from the left-side. Hold the left-mouse-button down , a vertical dotted bar will appear, you can move this bar around by moving the mouse, releasing the left-button will save the locator on that position, the position can be read in the up- per-left corner of the song-window. Keep in mind that the left-locator can't cross the right-locator and vice versa. Neither can you move the right locator behind the end-marker. Position Cue points. Cue points are position markers, a cue point with position 058:00:000 will scroll the screen to a position where the position is visible on screen. Using them is much the same as like the locators, holding down the left-button, posi- tioning, releasing the button. Click on the cue-point buttons in the Control-Window to see the effect. Position Endmarker. Type the end-position in the requester, clicking OK will move the Endmarker to the desired position. The Endmarker defines the duration of the song. Don't position parts behind the end-marker although it's possible there not saved to disk. Please notice that you can not move the endmarker before an event. Time signature Define the time-signature by adjusting the requester OK will make the changes effec- tive. Define Click-track Selected the desired click-track in the requester. A click track is a metronome track, that is a track which always plays and is not visible on the screen. The click-track only plays when the ClickOff/ClickOn button is on On. Select patch Opens the patch-select-window. Select a patch program via MIDI for your sound-module. Click on the desired chan- nel, select a Program-change number and/or a bank-select number. See your instruments manual if it can receive these messages, also check the pro- gram-change-switches on your module. If they are turned OFF for receiving, don't blame Dominator. Display Midi Chan(s) When selected, the midi-channels used in the track will be displayed before the track-name, use it to find out what channels are free. @endnode @node part8 "The Track Window" 4.0 The Track Window The Track-Window has two areas: the note section & the event-section below. A button bar is above and to the left of these sections. The left button-bar shows: -The note-size buttons, these define the duration of the notes added in the note sec- tion. -The midi-channel-select-buttons define the midi-channel for the edited events. -The selection button defines which midi-events are displayed/edited. -The 2 string-gadgets shows the values of the currently selected event. They can be changed but be careful to type a valid value. Close the track-window by clicking on its close-window-gadget. Most of the actions/modes described below have effect on note/midi-events so I will refer to these as events making no difference between them. From left to right on the first row we have these buttons: - Move/Size In this mode your able to move the events on the time-line, or when clicking on the right-edge of a note-event your able to resize it in duration. The notes duration is se- lected with the note-size-buttons on the left side. - Add In this mode you are able to add events on the time-line, the note is adjusted in start-time according to the grid position. If the grid-size is one whole note, the event will always be positioned on a multiple of 768 ticks = 1 whole note. - Remove This speaks for itself, any event clicked on will be removed from the song. - Kick left Kick the event x-ticks to the left, the ticks are defined with the grid size. Suppose the event is at start-time 180, the grid size is 1 tick, after clicking once on the event, the start-position of the part is 179. - Kick right Same as kick-left but to the right - Sculpt Helps you to change the value from some events by drawing the values on screen. Posi- tion the mouse-pointer on the event-section, be sure the selection button on the left reads Volume and there are some notes displayed on the window. Now press the left mouse button down and move over the volume bars displayed in the event-section. You'll see that there value has changed since you moved over them. Releasing the left-button makes the changes effective. The second row: - Select Selecting a number of events, multiple selecting is not possible. There is also a dif- ference between note selecting and event-selecting. You can't select both at the same time. Position the mouse-pointer on the left top-edge from the notes you want to select, press down the left-mouse-button, move the pointer to the lower-right until the box encloses all notes you want to select. Then release the mouse-button, all selected notes will be highlighted. It's the same for selecting events but the selection-button on the left defines which events are selected. So if you select PGM then only PGM messages enclosed by the box are selected. A special case are controller-events, you must additionally specify which controller-type you want to select. This is done in the Extras menu, Select Controller. - Copy Copy selected events (highlighted) to the clipboard, this is a temporary stor- age-buffer which holds the events until it is overwritten by another copy or cut in- struction. - Paste Paste the events from the clipboard into the song. Position the mouse-pointer into the note section, hold the left-mouse-button down, a box will appear, move the box to the start-position you desire, release the mouse-button, all notes in the clipboard will be copied to the song starting at the given start-position. The same with midi-events, but you can't move the box in a vertical position. - Cut Delete selected events. Notice that all events are first copied to the clipboard. Use this function also if you want to move a large block of events. Just cut it and position it on another position with a paste statement. - Unselect Unselect events, which where currently selected. @endnode @node part9 "The Track Menu" 4.1 The Track Menu Track Menu Load... Load a previously saved dominator track to the computers memory. Select path & file-name in the requester. The track in the memory will be erased. Save Save the current track to disk, with the same name as it was previously loaded. No requester will pop up. Save as... Save the track to disk with a given name, type the name and select a path where you want to locate the file on disk into the requester. Init Erases all events in the track. Edit Menu Select All Notes Selects all note-events in the track. Quantize... Brings up the quantize requester. Select the size with the size-buttons or type the value direct into the string-gadget. There are 6 different quantize-options: -Start only -Duration only -Stop only -Start + Duration -Start + Stop -Start w/Duration You can quantize on the whole track or just some selected events. Adjust the corre- sponding radio-buttons to do this. Change Velocity... Brings up the velocity requester. You can automatically shape the velocity with this requester. Define the initial-velocity & end final-velocity. Define if you want to flatten the velocity with a given percentage (Flatten ON) or want to change it's absolute value in time. (Flatten OFF) . Select whole track (All events) or just some selected notes (Selected events). Click OK to shape the velocity. The computer then computes the velocities between the initial & final values. Change MIDI-channel. Changes the midi-channel of the selected events. Select the midi-channel with the channel-buttons, select 'Chnage MIDI-channel'. Auto Adjust PGM This macro function, kicks all PGM-message 1 tick to the left. When a note & PGM-event overlap eachother, this function makes it certain that the PGM is executed first. Auto Add PGM This macro function, searches the first PGM in the track and add's before every note in the track the same PGM-event. The found PGM is deleted after completing the macro. If you're using 8-bit Amiga samples this can be quite useful. Restore Before you went into the Track-editor Dominator made a backup of the track. When you select restore this back-up makes all changes you did in the track undone. Extras Menu Position End-Marker... Type the duration of the track in this requester, a track with four measures will have an end-position of 004:00:000. Please notice that you can't move the end-marker before any midi-event. (You have to remove them first). Display Menu Select controller... Brings up the controller-requester. Select here the controller-type you want to use. This type will be used whenever you use a controller. (Display/add/delete...) Display Midi-chan(s) Select this option if you want to know the specific midi-channel of each event. @endnode @node part10 "The Midi-filter-window" 5.0 The Midi-filter-window Use this window to filter-out, reassign midi-events in real-time. Midi-in -> filter -> song & tracks -> filter -> Midi-out. The first row are midi-in-channel-off buttons. The second row are midi-out-channel-on buttons. The first four channels can be rerouted to the internal-sound-chip, just selected the channel. Any note played on the midi-keyboard will then be played on the AMIGA. Also program-changes and pitchbend messages will be processed. @endnode @node part11 "The Patch-Select window" 6.0 The Patch-Select Window Use this window to select a patch-program on your midi-module. Select midi-channel, program-change number and/or bank-select number. Each time you select a value, a midi-message will be sent on the appropriate channel. If the channel is routed to the AMIGA, it's possible to change the program-number on that channel. Ideal for choosing the right sample. @endnode @node part12 "The MIDI-Mixer window" 7.0 The MIDI-Mixer Window This is a fully configurable midi-mixer, use this to mix all your tracks or to shape the sound of a patch. The first row displays all midi-channels, the second the controller type. Change this if you like. (Controller numbers & functions are described in your syn- thesiser manual) Moving the silders will sent an appropriate message. These messages are recorded when in record mode. @endnode @node part13 "Cursor Keys" ° Song Window - Cursor up : Selected parts 1 position higher - Cursor down : Selected parts 1 position lower - Curosr left : Selected parts 1 grid-position left - Cursor right : Selected parts 1 grid-position right - Cursor left + shift : Selected parts, duration 1 grid position shorter - Cursor right + shift : Selected parts, duration 1 grid position longer. ° Track window - Cursor up : Selected notes 1 position higher - Cursor down : Selected notes 1 position lower - Curosr left : Selected notes 1 grid-position left - Cursor right : Selected notes 1 grid-position right - Cursor up + shift : Selected notes, 1 octave up. - Cursor down + shift : Selected notes, 1 octave down. - Cursor left + shift : Selected notes, duration 1 grid position shorter - Cursor right + shift : Selected notes, duration 1 grid position longer. 8.0 Cursor Keys @endnode @node part14 "Keyboard short-cuts" 8.1 Keyboard short-cuts P,p Play S,s Stop Spacebar Pause * Panic button (Midi-equipment must react to midi-panic message) B,b Begin N,n Place last selected note, on the note, last played on the midi-keyboard. u Move selected notes 1 note up. U Move selected notes 1 octave up. d Move selected notes 1 note down. D Move selected notes 1 octave down. e Open track-window. E Close track-window A,a Select all events in track-window. T Enables update tempo-silder t Disables update tempo-silder, manual tempo-adjust possible (default). @endnode @node part15 "Tips & troubleshooting" 8.2 Some tips & troubleshooting - Midi-equipement can be bought cheap second-hand, if you want something new and cheap check out the Boss DS-330, it's the GS wavetable synth-module for the poor and makes some great sounds. If you have the cash, check out Future Music or Keyboard Magazine they have lots of ads with expensive gear. - Make sure all midi-equipement is turned-on, midi-cables are connected, and don't forget to hook them via audio-cable on a sound-system. Remember to turn the volume up for each piece of midi-gear, it can be frustrating to find out you didn't. - Dominator fails to start-up and leaves a message : can't find ... library. Take a look at your WB-disk and search through the libs directory, copy the lib to your libs dir on your dominator-disk. Dominator needs libraries that come with Workbench V2.04 or higher. The library version must be higher or equal to V37. - Some functions refuse to start-up, probably you're low on memory, try to stick some extra memory in your Amiga. Or you could lower the number of events you're using. (See Installing Dominator). - Can't move the right-locator to the left or right. Check the position of the end- marker, this must be higher or equal to the righ-locators position. Check the size of the grid, locators are always moved to the nearest grid-step. - Can't load the demo-song included in the drawer Songs. Since Dominator doesn't save the samples with the actual song-file, all samples are referenced via there path+name. The samples on my computer are created in the drawer SAMPLES: The only thing you have to do is to logically assign SAMPLES: to the drawer on your computer. ex. From the workbench-menu WORKBENCH->EXECUTE COMMAND... and type Assign SAMPLES: hd1:dominator/samples Remember the path could be different on your drive. You can place this assign command in your s:user-startup, don't forget to reboot afterwards. - How to use Amiga IFF (8SVX) samples ? See SongWindow - Info paragraph See MidiFilter - For other problems, register and ask me a tech question. :-) @endnode @node part16 "Installation + Updates" Requirements: ============= Amiga with at least 1,5 MB of memory. Kickstart 2.04 or above with Workbench 2.0 or above. Some early versions of WB 2.0 as delivered with the first A3000 are not sufficient. These are V36 libs, Dominator needs at least V37 or higher. Recommended : A1200, 2MB with multi-scan monitor. And naturally some midi-equipement and an Amiga MIDI-interface connected to your serial-port. Harddisk users: =============== - Place the Drawer Dominator to a location on your harddisk. - Be sure the Helvetica font is installed on your harddisk. (The helvetica font can be found on the fonts disk of the workbench disk-package) - If you have registered, copy the file DMKEY to your S: directory. Floppy users: ============= - You can run Dominator from the suplied disk if you boot from your workbench disk. Or make a copy from the workbench disk and remove some unnescesary files until you have enough space to install Dominator. - Be sure the Helvetica font is installed in the fonts: drawer on your WB disk. (The helvetica font can be found on the fonts disk of the workbench disk-package) - If you have registered, copy the file DMKEY to your S: directory. IMPORTANT: ========== Before running the software it's important to edit the icon-info. Click once on the icon, and select the icon/info menu in the workbench window. * If you have kickstart 3.0 or up, Dominator asks your prefered screen mode on startup. If you have kick 2.xx: Change or add one of these lines according to your monitor setup. SCREEN DBLPAL -> DBLPAL 640x512 50hz (Commodore 1942) SCREEN PALHIRESLACE -> PAL 640x512 50hz interlaced (all 108x & TV's) SCREEN PRODUCTIVITY -> VGA 640x480 60hz (standard (S)VGA monitor) (best) Or use a screen-promoter like NewMode to choose a scgreen-mode. Use a screen mode with at least 640x480 dimensions, the bigger the better. * To change the number of events allocted on startup of the program add this line to the information menu: (recommended for 1MB users = 4000, normal usage 10000 or more) If you intend to load Standard Midi Files or create big Sysex events, increase the event size (20000 or more) EVENTS=size (with size a number between 4000 and ...) (default=4000) The same for the number of parts: PARTS=size (with size a number between 1000 and ...) (default=1000) * CLOSEWB=TRUE will close the workbench, only recommended when low on memory. * NOCOLOR=TRUE if you're low on memory or use a non AGA/non GFX board set this flag to start a black & white Dominator. * NOWALLPAPER=TRUE set this flag if you do not want a wallpaper in the song-window. Please check in your workbench-preferences serial-preferences that the next options are set correct: - Baud-rate 31250 - Buffer 1024 - Handshaking none - Parity none - Bits/char 8 - Stop bits 1 If you can record events but can't playback, check the information above. Please note: When installing an update please keep your original icon, otherwise you have to re-edit the info-menu. @endnode @node part17 "History" Tested on A4000/030/25 10MB A4000/040/25 10MB with Cybervision 64/2 cgfx A4000/040/25 18MB with picassoII A4000/060/50 with Cybervison 64/4 and 20" screen A1200 2 MB A1200 + DKB 1228 6MB A1200 + Phase5 1230 50Mhz A600 2MB (a bit on the slow side) A500 with kickstart V2.04 and V37 libs (Please check libs, no-go V36 or below). My current MIDI-setup - A4000/040/25 10MB - Waldorf Pulse Analog Solo synth-module - Korg Wavestation SR - E-Mu ESI 32 sampler 2MB & a SCSI Removable Syquest. (V2.1) - Roland Juno 106 (The real thing) - Roland R70 (kicking 808 & 909) - Fatar CMS61 midi-keyboard - Boss SE50 FX (nice effects) - Alesis Microverb (nice SP FX & cheap) - Soundcraft Folio Si (18:2) - Sony DTC 670 (DAT recorder) - Peavy Phase Reference Monitors Please note every little detail when you come along a bug: ° Programs already running. ° The previous actions you've made. ° Try to repeat a bug situation. ° Please note which program-version your using, with release date when you send back your bug-report. ° Use the form at the bottom to send in a bug report. First Beta release: 13/03/94 V0.60 Control nearly full functional except: left & right locator display, cue points. Display of the time has a big (no guru) bug. Song Window half functional. Possible to import Music-X files (file import music-x). The first track containing PSEQ is transformed into the song-sequence.(Important) Possible to mute tracks (click under the M column) 248 tracks, 32 vertical positions possible. Click track not yet available. Zooming works 100%. 28/04/94 V0.62 Added edit-stuff for the SongWindow. Move, Size, Add, Delete song parts. (Size = click on right-lower-edge part) Added Mouse position display. Fixed some bugs in the quick reverse & forward line-display. Edit while playing a song at the moment can cause some troubles, dindn't had the time to properly fix this. 22/01/95 V0.95 Most stuff written The import&export functions for Standard-MIDI-Files not yet written. But you can use the public-domain tool for Music-X to convert any SMF to a Music-X file and import it as an Music-X file. Also in the Track-menu the Load/Save routines are missing. The good news everything else is there + a patch select window. Sorry the doc file isn't ready, oops! 06/02/95 V0.951 Program now works with Kick 2.0 and Workbench 2.04, with the 2.0 release there are 2 diskfont.libraries a V36 & V37 (Compugraphic Support). The program crashed on the V36, fixed this, was very easy to find on a bare A600. Bug fixed in the channel-display routine (+1). Added the track-name in the drag-bar of the track-window. A part of the doc-file written Some bugs noticed in the track-window while selecting/adding events, no guru. 05/04/95 v0.98 Added support for import of type 0 & 1 midi-files, export of type 1. These files can be imported in Notator-X & DMCS or in Steinberg's Cubase. Added track-save/load functions. Fixed fault in record-requester when (not) in loop-mode. Rubber-band in track-window now behaves correct. Some users complained about selecting notes & parts on the zero position, now selection of notes/parts starts when rubber- banding position is < half the part/note duration. Fixed solo-mode, could only be used 1 time. Fixed bugs while in record-mode & pressed a key on the keyboard. Transpose menu-function added, Octave up & down. (Keys -> U & D, lo caps -> up/down 1 position.) Fixed note display & added some extended info. Fixed display of scale, sometimes some lines where drawn on fault-poistion, was a division by zero fault. Possibly this fix also fixed another bug -> while displaying very large parts. Place-note function in menu applies selected note to the last note played on midi- keyboard. Added support for a key-file. Fixed bugs in midi-file-import. Added boundary checking in midi-mixer. Fixed click-track, due to a bug in the solo-mode-source. Made some cosmetic changes. Some A500 & A1200 have problems when quickly switching between pause & play mode. Couldn't reconstruct this on my A4000/030 even when I'm headbanging on the keyboard and simultaneous doing some illegal stuff with the mouse. 01/07/95 v1.00B Fixed bug in insertpart routine which caused in some cases to draw the part onscreen while not actually memorize it. Fixed bug in midi export-routine. Fixed bug in track-select-mode which caused to select the end-marker !! Finalised the midi-filter window, almost forgot it. Fixed some other bugs which I can't remember. On some Amiga's the OK buttons, are transformes into an "an" or blanco button. Changed the compiler options, I hope it's fixed because I works fine on my system. 16/08/95 V1.00 Added an option for the the tempo-slider. Fixed the 'OK' button-bug. Did some minor bug-fixes, nothing big. 26/11/95 V1.02 Fixed bug in play-solo routine, stopped after a few beats. Enforcer hit on size-part fixed. Bug fixed in kick-left/right. Track-window, when you typed another value or a PGM event nothing happend, fixed. Also added a channel display when you edit a PGM event. 09/12/95 V1.02 Fixded some annoying bugs. Bug fixed when you had a part which had a duration 2 x track-duration, sometimes the track wouldn't play, when played with << & >> buttons. Bug fixed when recording, sometimes all tracks played twice. 12/05/96 V1.5 Added 8-bit Amiga sound support. Added Real-time SysEx support. Meaning recording, playing, saving and ex/importing to SMF. Added Color support (Many users asked for it) Added Music-X alike cursor keys. Removed some bugs, SMF, Restore. An important bug concernig allocating less or more events has been fixed. My beta-testers: Filip Sneppe, Wim Van Ranst. BTW if you have some mega-sounding 16-bit samples of analogue-synths they are always welcome! Luc De pauw St.-Amandsesteenweg 166 B-2880 BORNEM BELGIUM FAX: +32(0)3/899-33-82 Contact via EMAIL: Luc.DePauw@ping.be /*****************************************************************************/ /* BUG/WISHES REPORT DOMINATOR */ /*****************************************************************************/ From (fill in your address): Version: Hardware (including all expansion boards): Kickstart/Workbench version: Software running at startup (startup-sequence/WBstartup) : MIDI-hardware: The problem(s): I wish dominator includes ... : @endnode @node part18 "Future plans" - Sample Dump Standard (SDS/SMDI) build in. - Adding 16 bit digital-audio-support, probably Delfina with the AHI library. - Inclusion of SYSEX librarian - Event-list editor. - AREXX-port with support for plug-ins. (Synth-Editors,) (Let me know which synths, modules you have) - More musical functions, chords, fx, arpeggiator etc... - Event selector/transformer. NEW NEW NEW - CD-ROM version with lots of good quality samples. (16-bit/8-bit) (Spring/Summer 96) (Ask me something and maybe I'll support it) @endnode @node part19 "System Exclusive (SYSEX)" -How to record system exclusive ? ° Simple, first check that the sysex flag in the midi-filter-page is enabled. ° Hit the record button and seclect Record, no loop recording please. ° Transmit Sysex messages with your synthesiser, all messages will be recorded until you stop recording. Please keep in mind that sysex messages needs lot's of midi-events, so before you start Dominator, allocate a high volume of events. Each midi-event has the possibility to contain a maximum of 7 sysex bytes. Longer messages are internally broken-up. Do not quantize tracks which includes sysex data, you could mess-up the data contained in the message !. -How to play it ? ° If you previously had recorded some sysex-events, hit the play-button to transmit the data. It's nice to know that SMF-midi-files with sysex data can be imported and transmitted, most commercial sound-banks or patches for synthesisers can be uploaded this way. -How to view it ? ° Go to the track-window and select Sysex instead of velocity. The first few bytes of every Sysex message will be printed on screen. - What's the use of it ? ° Most systhesisers have the option to dump there voice/patch and/or bank data thru midi, via the sysex protocol. Check your synthesisers manual for more information about this. Some synthesisers even enables you to change parameters in real-time via sysex, ex. the Roland Juno 106. ° The best way to make use of it is to record the sysex data in a seperate track. After recording, place a part with the same duration as the sysex-message in the song, mute that track. It's best to place the part before the start of your song. Every time you need the sysex-data, un-mute the track and play it. Since your song starts after the sysex-data, the song will not interfere with the sysex data. @endnode @node part20 "Technical Information" - 250 Multi-channel midi tracks - Easy GUI with Parts/Events Window in living color. - MIDI-mixer with assignable midi-channels and controllers - Imports Music-X songs - Import/Export Standard Midi Files (Type 0 & 1) - Supports standard Amiga Samples Samples react to MIDI note/velocity, program-change and pitchbend events. (You can have 8 channels of Amiga sound if you link two Amiga's up via MIDI) - Program/bank selected window - Real-time editing of events - Uses locators - Able to record & save Sysex messages - Runs from kickstart 2.04 and higher. - Needs a minimum of 1.5 MB of memory. (1 Meg free memory) - Engine uses Running Status and was build from the ground up, completly written in C with porting to the AMIGA POWERPC in mind. - Updates are freely available on the Internet (AMINET) @endnode