Apparently-To: john.smith@gravis.com


GUS Musician's Digest       Sun, 16 Jan 94  3:04         Volume 4: Issue  16  

Today's Topics:
                     GUS Musician's Digest V4 #15
               Power Chords Pro has the features u want

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	- Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest.
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Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 00:59:14 -0500 (EST)
From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion)
Subject: Re: GUS Musician's Digest V4 #15

> From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" <rutledge@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu>
> Subject: Powerchords comments
> 
> 1.	Windows have to be moved around a lot to make for convenient access to
> the various icons and palettes.  I really don't have enough room on the screen
> for all of it.  I suggest we dispense with the palettes, and use the desktop
> itself, or perhaps just one big window, for a palette.  The icons identify an
> object as a drum rhythm or melody or whatever, so having separate palettes is
> unnecessary and wastes time.

NO! I may have 10 drum rhythms, about the same in bassline, plus chords...
it all add up and would clutter the desktop in a crazy way. I really like
the way it is done. BTW, run in 800x600 if you are lacking space (or 1024x768).

> 6.	I'd also like to be able to play a wav file at a given time in the song.

Powerchords is not really a sequencet you know... it's a composing tool. .wav
should be done in a real sequencer (as controllers and other hardcore stuff),
like cakewalk pro.

> You've got a foundation for a great product, but I'd sure like to see lots of 
> improvement on the next version.

You want powerchords pro to have all it's current features plus all the
features of cakewalk pro, for the same price. Isn't that a bit non realistic?

> From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
> Subject: Power Chords Pro - patches and upgrades
> 
> Most of the patches I've checked (not many) had no useful information in the
> name part of the patch file. However, this is a good idea, and we will
> probably add it as an option in the future.

All my patches have that, and i think that Chris, David, Chris #2 all put
the name in that field.

Ciao,
-- 
Francois Dion
    '  _   _   _ 
 CISM (_) (_)  _) FM       Montreal , Canada       Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA
      (_)  / . _)             10000 Watts          Telephone no: (514) 343-7511
_______________________________________________________________________________
Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-...

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Date: 15 Jan 94 12:58:56 EST
From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Power Chords Pro has the features u want

Shawn T. Rutledge had some Power Chords comments in yesterdays digest...

> I've been learning and experimenting with Powerchords.  It's a neat concept,
> and I basically like it, but I have a lot of ideas for things that could be
> done to make it better.  (I'm using the one that came with the GUS.)

The upgrade to Power Chords Pro, which has many new features and covers a lot
of the things you mentioned, is available for $75.00 US. There is a demo
version on epas (PCPRODEM.ZIP)

1.  Windows have to be mov> ed around a lot to make for convenient access to
> the various icons and palettes.  I really don't have enough room on the
> screen for all of it.  I suggest we dispense with the palettes, and use the
> desktop itself, or perhaps just one big window, for a palette.  The icons
> identify an object as a drum rhythm or melody or whatever, so having
> separate palettes is unnecessary and wastes time.

An interesting idea. Power Chords Pro alleviates this problem by having scroll
bars in the palettes. A button bar allows you to quickly locate the palettes
and windows you want to access.

> 2.  The cleaver should be able to make more than just three breaks in a
> measure.

Agreed. Perhaps in a future revision.

> 3.  The so-called "instrument" window (which is really used to create chords
> and should be labeled as such) should show a keyboard as well as the guitar
> strings, or be switchable.  In either case it should simultaneously show the
> staff view too; thus the separate staff window could be eliminated.

The so-called instrument window is reconfigurable in all versions but the GUS version (up to 12 strings, 24 frets) so it wasn't labe

Power Chords Pro has a keyboard window in addition to the stringed instrument
window.

The simultaneous staff view is a good idea!


> 4.  Do you really expect me to enter pitch bend information one data item at
> a time?

No I don't. String bending is recordable in Power Chords Pro to any part type.
There still is no graphical editor for this though. 

> There should be a graphical view for controllers of all kinds, with a
> "controller fill" feature like Cakewalk has.

Yes, I agree, and we will be putting this in in future.

> 5.  You've got to add the ability to put more than one melody track in a
> bar!

Power Chords Pro has 16 melodies per bar.

> 6.  I'd also like to be able to play a wav file at a given time in the song.

Again, a future enhancement we'd like to see. One thing you can do is to make
the .WAV file into a .PAT file and trigger it that way.

> You've got a foundation for a great product, but I'd sure like to see lots
> of improvement on the next version.

I guess I've made my point about the Pro version, although as I've mentioned
there are still more features to be included in future versions.

Thanks for all your input!

Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems

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End of GUS Musician's Digest V4 #16
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