--- NEW FEATURES IN JOHN PLAYER V2.0 BETA --- + Doubled the steps in sound table ($7F) + Doubled the sequencer steps ($7F) + More sounds ($1F) + More convenient sound looping + Initial Tempo/Filter/Volume setting - Slightly slower (still under 8 raster) - Compiled tunes are approx. 0.4k bigger - Songs not compatible with V1.0-V1.6 --- COMMON KEYS ------------------------ Space Play Run/Stop Silence Cursors Move around + and - Block select [ and ] Sound select < and > Keyboard octave C=+C Copy C=+V Paste C=+H Help on current screen F1 Block Edit Screen F3 Sound Edit Screen F5 Sequencer/Info F7 Disk/Options Menu --- BLOCK EDIT SCREEN ------------------ Most of the keys comprise a two octave keyboard which is used to enter notes. Hold Shift to enter tied notes (no retrig, only frequency is changed). Del Delete step <- Enter 'Off' (gate bit off) Home Go to top left corner Shift+ Enter command in cmd column Letter (see Commands below) Shift+ Cut block Home C=+C Copy block C=+V Paste block C=+R Replicate block at cursor C=+T Copy track C=+P Paste track C=+S Swap track with buffer Replicate fills the block with the range above current cursor position: If cursor at step $10 steps $00-$0f are copied to $10-$1f. If cursor at step $08 steps $00-$07 are copied to $08-$0f, $10-$17 and $18-$1f. --- SOUND EDIT SCREEN ------------------ Shift+ Play sound (Reads filter table Keyboard only if block cursor ar ch 1) C=+C Copy sound C=+V Paste sound <- Key up (same as 'Off') Shift+ Play entire song instead of Space repeating current block only All sounds share the same 64-step sound table. The columns are (left to right): Waveform 11:Triangle 41:Pulse wave 21:Sawtooth 51:Triangle+Pulse 31:Tri+Saw 81:Noise 15:Ring mod 43:Pulse/Sync 23:Saw/Sync Arpeggio 00-7E:Rel. note (semitones) 80-FF:Absolute pitch/2 Filter 00-FF:Cutoff (added to Flt) Sound looping has changed! To define a loop enter $00 in Waveform column and the desired loop position in Arpeggio column at the same step. If you have a stable sound which at the end plays just one waveform you should optimise the loop by repeating the last value a couple of times. If you want a hard restart the first step of all sounds should play waveform $09 (see preset sounds). Either use it with all sounds or none of the sounds! Otherwise the player can't keep the timing. Hard restart is not hard-wired to the playroutine because sometimes not using it gives a more desirable sound: The attack is softer and for example when using an initial click with the noise waveform at high pitch you get a nice sounding 'small soft click'. The same click with hard restart is more stable, but also much more harsh. Absolute pitch works in a special way: The value is shifted to left and written to high byte frequency register. 81 (low) $02nn (low byte nn of 82 $04nn frequency is not 83 $06nn changed from that . of the last note) . FF (high) $FEnn Filter cutoff value is added to which- ever value is set as filter base by the Flt command. For example, you can set up a filter envelope which ramps down from 7F to 00 and then 'tweak' the filter using Flt. Wrapping is never checked so in this case the Flt values should never exceed 80. (Unless this is the desired effect) SOUND PARAMETERS: Attack/Decay AD (nybbles) Sustain/Release SR (nybbles) Sound Trig Pos. First step in table PWM Init 01-0F (00 for no init) PWM Rate 01-FF (slow to fast) PWM Top Limit 02-10 PWM Bottom Limit 00-0E Filt.Reso/Ch.Sel reso 0-F, ch. sel 0-7 Filt.Type/Volume ftype 0-7, volume 0-F Only channel 1 notes read the filter parameters and filter table. Some ADSR settings bug: For example a repeated hihat sound using waveform 81 doesn't sound as expected if release is set to zero (A:0 D:1 S:0 R:0). To get accurate trigging set release to a much higher value (A:0 D:1 S:0 R:F). Sustain value F might cause some notes to be skipped... PWM Init must be bigger than PWM Bottom and smaller than PWM Top Limit! Values out of this range or equal to either of the limits may cause the modulation to stop. PWM Init 00 skips all PWM parameters and keeps the current PWM on channel (PWM is continued). SONG SETUP Step 00 of the sound table is not used by sound data! It's used to store the initial song parameters instead. I know this is a quick and dirty hack but... 1st column of Step 00 sets the filter resonance and selects the channels to be routed thought the filter ($d417) 2nd column sets filter type and master volume ($d418) 3rd column sets the initial song tempo. Example of Step 00 setup: F1 1F 0C Resonance F, fileter channel 1. Low pass filter, master volume F. Initial song tempo 0C. --- SEQUENCER/INFO --------------------- Return Insert current block at cursor Del Delete block under cursor Shift+ Play starting from cursor Space T Edit tag I Edit info (6 lines) Only tag is attached to packed music. Info is saved with music data files and it's also used as scrolltext with Save Executable. Extra spaces are skipped when scrolling the text. (The scroller routine hangs if there's no text at all. I won't fix this because it's a good punishment for not writing a scrolltext) Loop position is entered after a zero: 00 Loop at position 08 08 --- BLOCK COMMANDS --------------------- Shift+1st letter to enter command in block command column. Brk Block break End Block end (used internally by the player and can't be changed/removed) Tmp 0C Set tempo (06-FF) Flt 00 Set filter cutoff base value (this is added to cutoff values read from sound table) Ini 00 Initialize modulation (used with both vibrato and slide, vibrato width 00-02) Mod 01 Select channel for modulation (channel number 01-03) Off 01 Stop modulating channel (channel number 01-03) Vib 02 Set vibrato rate or stop slide (01-04, 00 stops slide without resetting frequency) Sli 00 Start pitch slide (00-7F up, FF-80 down) There is only one modulator which can be either vibrato or slide. You can modulate more than one channel at the same time, but all channels use the same modulation settings. Here's an example of using vibrato: Ini 00 Initialize, small vibrato width Mod 03 Select channel 3 modulation --- --- (any number of steps, vibrato --- is not yet activated) --- Vib 02 Start vibrato at rate 02 --- --- (any number of steps, vibrato --- continues) --- Off 03 Stop vibrato on channel 3 Vib 00 Vibrato off (saves cpu time :) --- --- There's also a simplified way but then you never know at which point of sine wave the modulation is started: Ini 01 Just initialize vibrato width Vib 02 and rate at start of song --- --- (let the song go on) Then whenever you need it: --- Mod 01 Start vibrato on channel 1 --- --- (any number of steps, vibrato --- continues) --- Off 01 Stop vibrato on channel 1 --- --- Here's an example of using pitch slide: Ini 00 Initialize modulation Mod 03 Select channel 3 modulation --- --- --- (again, slide is not --- yet activated) --- Sli 10 Start sliding, speed 10 --- --- (slide continues) --- --- Off 03 Stop modulating channel 3 --- --- Command Off also resets frequency to the original note. Alternatively, you can use the command Vib 00 to stop sliding - The reached frequency is then kept. Don't forget to stop modulating (Off 03) the channel before trigging a new note. --- NOTES ------------------------------ - In case of emergency hit run/stop and restore and type sys2061 or sys16384 (or sys4^7) to restart the editor - The player uses $0D zeropage locations which are $40-$4C by default John Player Editor Version 2.0 Beta (c)2002 by Aleksi Eeben (aleksi@cncd.fi) http://www.cncd.fi/aeeben