Short: MIDI SYStem EXplorer - PatchEditor+MORE Author: dhomas@youngmonkey.ca (dhomas trenn) Uploader: dhomas@youngmonkey.ca (dhomas trenn) Type: mus/midi ========================================================================== young monkey studios ANNOUNCEMENT MIDI SYStem EXplorer If you have not already done so, download mus/midi/MSE.lha from your favourite Aminet site. Or from our website (www.youngmonkey.ca) follow the main page through the 'hands on' section through 'Amiga Software' to the 'MIDI SYStem EXplorer' support area. ========================================================================== WHAT'S NEW ---------- More! More! More! New Enhanced modules! Automation! ARexx! Automation gives you complete programmable control of all gadgets. Imagine having a mixer module with dozens of faders... now with a click of a button, you can have programmed logarithmic, smooth, random, spasmodic fades... whatever you want! NOTES ----- For newcomers... be sure to have a look at the "Readme-FIRST.demo" file for a walk through of the many featues of MSE. If you've tried out MSE before... check out some of the new demo modules included with this release... in particular: One of the best and newest features of this MSE is automation. To see it in action load the TEST module and click on the automate gadget in the upper left hand corner. This gadget has been linked to an external ARexx script which will do some fun things with the slider gadgets below it. ABOUT MSE --------- Many, so called, UNIVERSAL PATCH EDITORS have come and gone for the Amiga. One of our biggest complaints, and the reason why we are making MSE, is that these editors are not anywhere near UNIVERSAL. The approach others have taken is in requiring 'modules' to be purchased for each MIDI device to be controlled. This is fine as long as you can get a module for EVERY device you have. But we all know that, especially on the Amiga, this has not ever happened. Then of course, when the company goes out of business or discontinues the program, no further modules are ever made. So, along come a few other public domain and shareware authors to try and fill in the hole. These programmers either chose to code individual editors or make an another attempt at a UNIVERSAL EDITOR of their own. These UNIVERSAL EDITORS require you to be able to program in C or Assembler in order to make your own editors. If you wanted to do that why would you bother with their patch editor at all? Well, MIDI SYStem EXplorer has arrived... we do not claim that MSE is a UNIVERSAL PATCH EDITOR... we are not sure such a thing is even possible, but MSE does strive to solve a lot of these problems: 1) Development of other programs stopped because nobody was buying it, and no editor exists for my new one of a kind MIDI ZEN-ZAMBULATOR. MSE is being developed for our own studio use, first! Even if nobody else wants to use it, we will continue to develop it. Its development will continue regardless of whether anyone buys it or not. We have been using our Amigas for over 10 years, and we do not see that stopping for a long time. Even if we did stop developing MSE, you would very likely still be able to create new modules, because MSE already supports most MIDI formats. 2) You are a musician, you do not know how to program in C, or Assembler or any other language. And if you did you would rather be composing than programming modules! MSE supports modules created by the MSE-Compiler. It converts text definition files into modules that MSE can use. The compiler uses an easy to learn language specifically written to be as easy to understand as possible. In many cases, you can simply modify an existing definition file to work with another device. If you can use a text editor and you understand X/Y coordinates you will likely learn MSE's definition language fast. See the definitions directory for samples of definition files. Once you get a hang of things, making modules is FAST. And once you have the editor done, you will be amazed at how much time is saved and how much more creative the process of sound generation becomes! Definition files and modules will be freely available. So, if you are not interested in making your own modules you can still use modules made by us and others. 3) Other editors do not work while my sequencer or other program is running. MSE will run in conjunction with programs that use the public domain MIDI.library, BlueRibbon.library or CAMD.library. Imagine being able to edit patch data while having that MIDI information recorded directly into a sequencer. It is possible and opens up great creative possibilities. 5) Other software is too expensive! We think so too. WHAT WILL MSE DO? ----------------- MSE has been designed to control all types of MIDI data through a programmable graphic user interface or by external software control. MSE can be used as a simple MIDI Controller or a complex patch editing system. Some possible applications: - MIDI Volume/Pan Mixer (with automated fading) - Patch Editor - Patch Librarian With the definition language you can design the entire user interface to meet your needs. Screen mode/size (Amiga/CyberGFX/etc.), window size and position, fonts, borders, colors, gadget placement, etc. can all be customized. As well, you can define the character set, MIDI port (Triple Play Plus is supported) and much more. FEATURES -------- - Fully automated control. - ARexx support. - Openable on any public screen. - Extensive customization allows the user to design standard interfaces for all MIDI products connected to the system. - Graphic interfaces are designed external to the main program. This minimizes memory requirements and increases the interface speed. - Just about everything is customizable, including: layout, fonts, gadgets, colors, images, menus, MIDI events, etc. - Allows the user to enter MIDI information from a device's user manual and configure a custom interface to access parameters. - Supports ALL MIDI events. - Patch/Librarian data is stored in MIDI standard format, for easy importing to other software. - Has the ability to edit individual parameters on devices that only support patch dumps. - MIDI communication can operate with realtime feedback and/or through user interaction. - Edits can be made without connection to a MIDI device, if required. - Includes lots of examples and common device interfaces, to get you started. - Supports MIDI.library (PD), BlueRibbon.library (B&P), TriplePlayPlus, and CAMD.library (DeluxeMusic) allowing simultaneous use with other programs that also use these libraries. WHAT WON'T MSE DO? ------------------ - Waveform editing (samplers) is not supported. Another program WaveFormer (under development) is being designed for this. - Probably some other things too, but that first one is the most commonly asked about. THE FUTURE ---------- MIDI SYStem EXplorer is updated regularly. There will be lots of other things added in, making MSE even more useful. As always, we are happy to listen to any suggestions you might have. REQUIREMENTS ------------ - WB 2.x+ - Text editor - MIDI interface - MIDI.library, BlueRibbon.library or CAMD.library (included). - Some understanding of MIDI documentation to create custom modules RECOMMENDATIONS --------------- - Simple paint program for layout design - WB 3.x SYSTEMS TESTED ON ----------------- MIDI SYStem EXplorer is developed on an A3000T/060/50MHz with 2 Meg CHIP / 68 Meg FAST memory and Cybervision64/4 Meg at 1280x1024. It is beta-tested on an A3000T/030/25MHz with 2 Meg CHIP / 12 Meg FAST memory at 640x400, and an A600/000/7MHz? with 2 Meg CHIP at 640x400. MIDI SYStem EXplorer has been tested under Kickstarts 2.x and 3.x. + registered users have many other system configurations. FOR MORE INFORMATION SEND EMAIL TO: ---------------------------------- MSE@youngmonkey.ca ---- dhomas trenn young monkey studios ============================= Archive contents ============================= Original Packed Ratio Date Time Name -------- ------- ----- --------- -------- ------------- 1188 625 47.3% 01-May-97 20:57:00 MSE-DEMO.info 9147 1904 79.1% 03-Jul-97 23:00:24 +SE-50_Ambience.def 46180 5193 88.7% 10-Jul-97 18:13:16 +Matrix-6R.def 38015 4585 87.9% 05-Jul-97 14:05:08 +SDX-330_Stereo8PhaseChorus.def 7009 1832 73.8% 10-Jul-97 16:55:10 +Test.def 524 42 91.9% 01-Jun-97 23:39:02 +Topaz2.font 3564 1677 52.9% 01-Jun-97 23:39:02 +11 2888 1529 47.0% 01-Jun-97 23:38:42 +8 264 31 88.2% 01-Jun-97 23:42:42 +Topaz2N.font 2440 1487 39.0% 01-Jun-97 23:42:42 +8 524 43 91.7% 01-Jun-97 22:02:14 +Topaz2p.font 3864 1946 49.6% 13-Sep-96 14:42:54 +11 3684 1803 51.0% 29-Sep-96 23:44:20 +8 87748 38948 55.6% 10-Jul-97 18:44:48 +MIDI-SYStemEXplorer 456 95 79.1% 15-Sep-96 22:27:04 +MIDI-SYStemEXplorer.data 191 147 23.0% 28-Jun-97 20:01:08 +MIDI-SYStemEXplorer.data2 3095 2140 30.8% 03-Jun-97 21:49:48 +MIDI-SYStemEXplorer.info 2264 969 57.1% 10-Jul-97 18:16:42 +S612.mse 812 364 55.1% 09-Jul-97 17:08:20 +S612.rexx 4486 1762 60.7% 10-Jul-97 18:17:26 +Ambience.mse 4156 1658 60.1% 10-Jul-97 18:17:34 +GateReverb.mse 4668 1796 61.5% 10-Jul-97 18:16:52 +Hall1.mse 4134 1647 60.1% 10-Jul-97 18:17:00 +Hall2.mse 6424 2031 68.3% 10-Jul-97 18:17:16 +MultiDelay.mse 8748 2832 67.6% 10-Jul-97 18:18:08 +MultiPitchShifter.mse 6432 2038 68.3% 10-Jul-97 18:18:48 +MultiTapDelay.mse 4134 1645 60.2% 10-Jul-97 18:19:08 +Plate.mse 4668 1804 61.3% 10-Jul-97 18:19:24 +Room.mse 5792 2167 62.5% 10-Jul-97 18:19:42 +RotarySpeaker.mse 4678 1908 59.2% 10-Jul-97 18:19:52 +SpaceChorus.mse 5296 1846 65.1% 10-Jul-97 18:20:04 +StereoDelay.mse 5068 2009 60.3% 10-Jul-97 18:20:14 +StereoFlanger.mse 4346 1829 57.9% 10-Jul-97 18:18:58 +StereoPhaser.mse 7574 2614 65.4% 10-Jul-97 18:18:34 +StereoPitchShifter.mse 4676 1806 61.3% 10-Jul-97 18:18:18 +StereoReverb.mse 4232 1548 63.4% 10-Jul-97 18:17:42 +Vocoder.mse 17556 5056 71.2% 10-Jul-97 18:22:00 +Matrix-1000.mse 17552 5057 71.1% 10-Jul-97 18:21:02 +Matrix-6R.mse 1768 662 62.5% 10-Jul-97 18:10:58 +A-880.mse 3464 1268 63.3% 10-Jul-97 18:10:52 +Juno-106.mse 5760 1967 65.8% 10-Jul-97 18:19:32 +MKS-50.mse 10462 3704 64.5% 10-Jul-97 18:15:36 +16PhaseChorus.mse 12916 4400 65.9% 10-Jul-97 18:11:52 +2BandChorus.mse 14904 4943 66.8% 10-Jul-97 18:11:26 +3BandChorus.mse 10284 3650 64.5% 10-Jul-97 18:12:44 +3DPanner.mse 16156 5124 68.2% 10-Jul-97 18:14:52 +4BandChorus.mse 9650 3465 64.0% 10-Jul-97 18:14:06 +Ensemble.mse 9918 3548 64.2% 10-Jul-97 18:14:22 +SpaceChorus.mse 11596 3999 65.5% 10-Jul-97 18:13:06 +Stereo3DChorus.mse 18262 5108 72.0% 10-Jul-97 18:13:46 +Stereo8PhaseChorus.mse 11210 3867 65.5% 10-Jul-97 18:12:22 +StereoChorus.mse 10840 3808 64.8% 10-Jul-97 18:15:16 +StereoFlanger.mse 9618 3452 64.1% 10-Jul-97 18:15:58 +VintageChorus.mse 10878 3819 64.8% 10-Jul-97 18:16:18 +WaveChorus.mse 2644 1237 53.2% 10-Jul-97 18:16:26 +Test.mse 1915 590 69.1% 09-Jul-97 20:54:26 +Test.rexx 172 128 25.5% 09-Jul-97 00:45:02 +Test2.rexx 8285 3656 55.8% 10-Jul-97 19:14:22 +MSE.readme 1201 762 36.5% 01-May-97 20:57:00 +MSE.readme.info 275 152 44.7% 17-Aug-96 16:43:28 +Matrix6R-Patch1 11292 4688 58.4% 10-Jul-97 19:07:40 +Readme-FIRST.demo 1201 762 36.5% 01-May-97 20:57:00 +Readme-FIRST.demo.info 7068 2570 63.6% 29-Jun-97 00:24:16 +Readme.FAQ 1197 757 36.7% 01-May-97 20:57:00 +Readme.FAQ.info 16140 5949 63.1% 17-Aug-96 21:29:36 +Readme.youngmonkey 1201 762 36.5% 01-May-97 20:57:00 +Readme.youngmonkey.info 390 214 45.1% 17-Aug-96 22:55:16 +Registration.txt -------- ------- ----- --------- -------- 559144 187424 66.4% 11-Jul-97 16:19:06 67 files