

GUS Musician's Digest       Fri, 19 Nov 93  3:36         Volume 2: Issue  19  

Today's Topics:
                         Feeling clueless...
                GUS Musician's Digest V2 #18 (2 msgs)
                        KB MOD/669/MTM Support
                             MOD creation
                              mod files
                         MOD Players, editors
                            Pitch bending
          Slurs, portamentos, tremelandos, legatos, etc, etc
                             unsubscribe

Standard Info:
	- Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest.
	- Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ.

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Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 06:30:15 PST
From: deraud@power.amasd.anatcp.rockwell.com (Robert Lee DeRaud)
Subject: Feeling clueless...

>From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
>Subject: MOD creation

>I've recently gotten into listing to MOD files. I have the Sound Site CD ROM
>with over 1300 MOD files on it, plus 669, MED and other files (some of which I
>havent figured out how to play yet).

No kidding: I downloaded a bunch of 'klf' mod files from EPAS last week and 
STILL haven't heard them. They sound like absolute shit with ultramod or 
gusmod, and dmp (version 2.71) and winmod both lock the machine up solid 
after a few seconds, kinda like what a bad MIDI file does to playmidi :-)
Any clues?

>From: dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu
>Subject: windows driver opinion

>OK, I'll throw in my opinion of the new drivers...

>One complaint is that due to space limitations I have of course killed off
>all the original un-vmapped MIDI files...  (*sigh*)  ..and as such I would
>like to have control over liner/log volume from the mixer instead of
>having to go into the control panel driver setup.

Phat Tran, with remarkable foresight, put a '-r' switch into vmap to 
reverse the effect. A little magic with the batch file 'for' command did 
the trick of processing a whole directory at once.

Meanwhile, back in DOS...is there a new(er) version or an undocumented
switch or something to make playmidi handle linear volume? [It's a lot
more convenient than using Recording Session or whatever to browse
through a whole stack of files...]

***********************************************************************
Lee DeRaud                             Will program Windows for food.
Rockwell Int. AESD                   (Hey, I'm easy but I'm not cheap!)
   DoD #985 - Fast and ugly beats slow and cute any day of the week.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
     My employers would certainly endorse my opinions if they
    could only understand them...for now, they just ignore me.
***********************************************************************

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 11:06:21 -0500 (EST)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Musician's Digest V2 #18

> Date: Wed, 17 Nov 93 17:24:48 GMT
> From: james@maths.exeter.ac.uk
> Subject: midi FAQ
> 
> If you want a copy of the drivers they are in 
> gus0035.zip on pub/pc/ultrasound/submit at 128.100.160.36
> I had to frig about with the ultrasnd.ini file to make them work on my D:
> drive and the old patch manager doesnt work with them, so beware...

Just make sure that the new ultrasnd.ini goes into /ultrasnd, and edit
the directories to reflect those on your system.  Patch Man should still
be able to work with the new drivers.

> Date: 17 Nov 93 10:22:41 EST
> From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
> Subject: MOD creation
> 
> First off, what's the best program for MOD creation?
>

Instead of just MODs, why not go for ULTs or FARs?  These formats
have more channels than MODs and can use 16-bit samples instead of
just 8-bit.  UltraTrack and Farandole are the two "trackers" that
you would use to create ULTs and FARs, respectively.

> Second, how do you get samples into a MOD file?
> 

MOD trackers let you load raw samples into the songs.  Farandole
supports a sample format that keeps track of loop points, sampling
rate, etc., I think.

> Third, is there an easy way to extract samples from MOD files, and turn them
> into UltraSound patches, or even .WAV files? It seems like there would be
> piles of patches there if this process was simple.
> 

MOD samples are relatively easy to extract.  There are "ripper" programs
that do just that.  I don't know of any specifically though.

However, MOD samples are 8-bit and tend to be noisy and have low sampling
rates.

> Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 11:25:41 +0100
> From: f93-maj@nada.kth.se
> Subject: New windows driver beta
> 
> Does anyone know how this (long awaited) bank switching feature actually works?
> You can type in severan [Melodic Patches n] where n is bank number in the
> Ultrasnd.Ini but how do you activate them?
> I thought it would have been implemented in the Roland GS-style, i.e.
> * Control change 0: Bank
> * Program change: Patch
> but having tried it in CakeWalk I got no response whatsoever to Ctrl-Ch 0.

I'm not sure how the bank switching works, but it's not implemented
through the controllers.  You have to go lower than the MIDI level, I
think.

Phat.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 20:16:30 CST
From: cowles@hydra.convex.com (John Cowles)
Subject: Re: GUS Musician's Digest V2 #18

Eric Bell writes:
> >to go from -1 semitone to +1 semitone in units from 0 to 8191. It would be
> > nice if GUS would have a 'settable' pitchbend sensitivity
> 
> It does! It's settable via the standard RPN commands for PBS. (pitch bend
> sensitivity).
> 
GREAT! As soon as I get back from my trip (December 5th) I'll try
some of my files that make use of this. Do ALL of the RPN's work?

dmcintyr writes:
> 
> Also a sysex command for the GUS to switch between volume modes might be
> nice, as I could then just imbed the message in all...  Oh hell, that's
> right..  You can only do that with .WRK files anyway.  Ikxsne that idea..

That's not true - at WinCake2.0 embedded sysex works fine in standard
midi files.

John Cowles

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 07:34:48 -0500
From: art3twg@cabell.vcu.edu (Timothy W. Golden)
Subject: KB MOD/669/MTM Support

  Uh... here's a pretty obvious question.

 Why aren't there any trackers that support MIDI keyboards? I KNOW that all
these great demos aren't being programmed in note for note. Its just so
%!$@ annoying having to do it that way it makes composing unfun.

 just a thought

   Tim

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 13:11:19 +1030 (CST)
From: Gavin <SCARMAN@hfrd.dsto.gov.au>
Subject: Re: MOD creation

Eric Bell writes ...

>I've decided I want to learn more about MODs and try to create some.
>First off, what's the best program for MOD creation?

Well if you have a GUS, don't bother! MOD's are only 4 channel, and though you 
can do some nice stuff with them you're not getting the best out of your system. 
Have a look at Ultratracker (file is ultra14.zip at epas), it gives you all 32 
channels plus can read .SND files to use as samples ie.16 bit. The docs explain 
how to create ultratracker files, which are very similar to 32 ch MODS (tho I 
haven't seen more that about 10ch used so far). Also converts MODs and 669s to 
 ULT(ratracker) format.

>Second, how do you get samples into a MOD file?
Ultratracker has a built in sample editor too!

>extract samples from MOD files, and turn them into UltraSound patches...
Well the samples in MODs are 8 bit, tho doesn't mean they aren't useable, and 
they are sometimes sampled at quite low rates meaning poorer quality, tho this 
is hiiden somewhat in the style of music sometimes. However you can use 
MODedit3.1 to extract the samples, tho it only supports SBOS. I have extracted 
all the samples from SC2 - commandr.mod made patches of them and done a mod2mid 
conversion - doesn't sound the same since MODs and their ilk use many 'effects' 
to get their sounds, many of which are not supported in MIDI.

Also to check out if you're desperate to know about MODs is a file called 
MODFIL10.??? , definately on ftp.wustl.edu in pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/programming but 
I think I saw it on epas too - it describes MODs and the effects used (written 
by someone in Gravis I think).

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 12:40:25 GMT
From: james@maths.exeter.ac.uk
Subject: mod files

>From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
>Subject: MOD creation
>First off, what's the best program for MOD creation?

I liked farandole ( despite its horrid user interface )...there must be at
least ten of them though that work with the gus.  Im no mod expert...

>Second, how do you get samples into a MOD file?

convert them to 8 bit signed byte format and then load them up

>Third, is there an easy way to extract samples from MOD files, and turn them
>into UltraSound patches, or even .WAV files? It seems like there would be
>piles of patches there if this process was simple.

Theres a program called ripper (archive ripper10.zip in 
pub/pc/ultrasound/sound/mod/util on epas ) which removes the files to a signed
byte format.  Then you can just convert them to wavs with
sox -tsb -r16000 acid.1 acid.wav
a rate of 16000 is usually about right, I dont know what speed mods are
supposed to be.  Or for patches patch.exe will load the files straight off,
just press c after loading.

I've made several (mono sample) patches in this way.  The quality of the
samples in mod files isnt usually the greatest though.

-- 
James Andrews, Computer Development Officer, Exeter University Maths Dept

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 07:40:23 -0800 (PST)
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Re: MOD Players, editors

Not the GUS Musician's Server once wrote...
$  
$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: 17 Nov 93 10:22:41 EST
$  From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
$  Subject: MOD creation
$  
$  I've recently gotten into listing to MOD files. I have the Sound Site CD ROM
$  with over 1300 MOD files on it, plus 669, MED and other files (some of which I
$  havent figured out how to play yet).
$  
$  Some of these are just terrific, and I've decided I want to learn more about
$  MODs and try to create some.
$  
$  First off, what's the best program for MOD creation?

MODEdit 3.01 is very good, but it doesn't support the GUS, so you have to
use SBOS to preview your MOD, or drop out and use a GUS MOD player.  There
is also GUSTrack, which supports GUS only, and is pretty good, easy to
use.  They can be found in all the usual places, including epas and orst.

MODEdit is worth getting just for the docs, which describe the MOD format,
and all the effects you can do.

You might also want to try Farandole, the 16 channel tracker for the GUS. 
It handles MOD 669 and FAR, and is supposed to handle STM soon. 
Unregistered, it saves only in FAR format, but registered, it saves in any
supported format.

$  Second, how do you get samples into a MOD file?

You use the MOD editor, which has facilities for loading a sample, and
assigning it to a track.

$  Third, is there an easy way to extract samples from MOD files, and turn them
$  into UltraSound patches, or even .WAV files? It seems like there would be
$  piles of patches there if this process was simple.

As easily as you can add a sample, you can save a sample out of a MOD with
GUSTrack or MODEdit.  MODs use 8 bit unsigned sound data, so it is a snap
to convert to something like WAV or SND using SOX or whatever.


-- 
Mike Batchelor      |
mikebat@netcom.com  |                  This space for rent
mikebat@qdeck.com   |

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 23:44:36 -0500
From: Carl Pettypiece <pettypi@gaul.csd.uwo.ca>
Subject: Pitch bending

Well, I can't be the only GUSser who has discovered the pitch-bending trick,
can I?  In Windows, I can pitch-bend a full octave up or down.  In DOS,
playmidi let's me pitch-bend the full range.

This is illustrated with my WESTSIDE.MID which is currently in the submit
directory at epas.

The trick is in using controllers 100 and 101 in combination with controller
6 (which is apparently pitch-bend sensitivity).  There maybe a better/easier
way to do this but I haven't found any.

First, you must set contollers 100/101 off, i.e. 0, before you set the 
sensitivity.  You then set controller 6 to the number of tones you wish the
pitch bend to be sensitive to (>12 is equal to 12 in Windows--still).  Then
you must set controllers 100/101 on, i.e. 127 (or whatever max is).  When
this sequence is played for a particular channel, the pitch wheel will
then respond with the given sensitivity.  Panic (in Cakewalk) will reset this
to the standard 2 semitones, but to reset it during the same sequence you
have to repeat the above and set controller 6 to 2.

I discovered this trick by 'taking apart' one of the JARRE*.MID files because
it was bugging me.  I don't know how standard it is, though.

So, fellow GUSsers, pay up...what other 'secret controllers' has anybody else
discovered.  I can't find a decent book on this aspect of MIDI so this is
all experimentation.  What are the 127 or so controllers supposed to be for?
Which ones are really implemented in the GUS drivers and will they be
introducing new ones?  Will they be documenting them?  Why is there an option
to turn off aftertouch in playmidi, when the GUS seems to ignore it anyway?

What's the use of patch banking info in the ultrasnd.ini file when there's
no way to switch them?  The docs said there was no librarian yet, so the
file had to be edited by hand.  So...?  I added my own banks, now what?

Sorry for this if it's unreadable...not enough sleep lately.

Thanks Gravis for the new drivers: "Never in the field of human/computer
interfaces has so much been owed by so many to so few." (-:

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Pettypiece (pettypi@gaul.csd.uwo.ca)        Disclaimer:  Hell, I don't
Department of Computer Science                   even know if these are MY
University of Western Ontario                    opinions!
London, Ontario, Canada
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Clever quote goes here
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 10:46:26 -0500 (EST)
From: Bryan Cass <BC@VTI.dnet.idx.com>
Subject: Slurs, portamentos, tremelandos, legatos, etc, etc

OK.  I'll add my 2 cents.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 13:52:11 MET
From: Broderdue <iqivar@hp1.cbs.dk>
Subject: unsubscribe



------------------------------

From: (null)

The terms legato, stacatto, "tongued", etc. refer to the attack time of an
individual note played.  The terms slide, portamento, slur, glissando, etc.
refer to the relationship between different notes, i.e. how closely notes are
played in succession and what the attack/release envelopes are.

A good example of a slur is in the beginning of Gershwin's Rhapsody in
Blue, where the solo clarinet does a trill then a slur up two octaves - I think
this could also be called a glissando.  An example of a slide is the typical
untongued trombone sound from one note to another - this is similar to the
portamento effect on a synth.  I think the difference is that a slur is a
succession of distinct notes that are run together, and a slide is a continuous
change of pitch from one note to another.

Now, I have a question about this subject.  I am trying to notate (using
MusicPrinter Plus) the sound that is made on a Hammond organ when you run your
finger over the keys from, say, C4 to C6.  I think the notation is a glissando
symbol (the wavy line leaning right) but I can't get the software to create the
correct MIDI events to reproduce the sound.  I could use 32nd notes, but that
takes up a lot of room for two octaves, the notes played really shouldn't have
a definite beat value, and besides, it looks messy.  Is there a way to do this
in Recording Session (I think "RAGTUNE" does it, but I can't figure out how
they got it in there)?

Another notation problem:  the sound made on a Hammond when you rapidly
alternate between two notes that are, say, a major third apart.  Is it the
arpeggio symbol?  the trill symbol?  How do you get the software to play this
without lots of 32nd notes?


Thanks,
Bryan

------------------------------

End of GUS Musician's Digest V2 #19
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