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│ SBStudio DEMO RELEASE v1.10 - (C) Henning Hellström 1991/92/93 │
│ All Rights Reserved. │
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│ │
│ Chapter 2 │
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│ SBStudio - Keys, buttons and commands. │
│ │
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G L O B A L C O M M A N D S
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LOAD MODULE - Invokes the LOAD MODULE menu, where you
also may delete files.
Remember to set your MODULE directory in
SETUP!
KeyBoard : ALT+L.
Mouse : 'LOAD MOD' button, page 1.
SAVE MODULE - Invokes the SAVE MODULE menu.
Remember to set your MODULE directory in
SETUP!
KeyBoard : ALT+S.
Mouse : 'SAVE MOD' button, page 1.
CLEAR SHEETS/SAMPLES - You may clear all 64 sheets and/or all
31 samples from here.
KeyBoard : ALT+C.
Mouse : 'CLEAR' button, page 1.
OCTAVE TRANSPOSING - SBStudio has 3 octaves. Use right/left
shift to increment/decrement.
The current octave is shown in the help
window, page 1.
SAMPLE SELECTION - The songedit sample is selected by
either inserting a number at the sample
position in the sheet, or by using the
, and . keys to decrement/increment it.
The current songedit sample is shown in
the help window, page 1.
PLAY MODULE - This may be useful.
KeyBoard : CTRL+P. ALT+P plays from pos.
Mouse : Play icon, page 1. Left button
plays from pos, right resets.
RECORD - Lets you edit current song while it is
playing.
KeyBoard : CTRL+R. ALT+R records from pos.
Mouse : Rec icon, page 1. Left button
records from pos, right resets.
STOP PLAY/RECORD - KeyBoard : SPACE
Mouse : Stop icon, page 1.
SCOPE - Will present the sound output graphically
on a separate page.
Not yet available with the UltraSound card.
Keyboard : CTRL+O. ALT+O 'scopes' from pos.
ESC exits. ENTER toggles between
scope types.
Mouse : 'SCOPE' button, page 1. Left
button 'scopes' from pos, right
resets. Any button exits from
scope.
MIXER - This feature is only available with the
SoundBlaster PRO card.
From this menu, you may adjust volumes
for MASTER OUT, VOC OUT, MIC IN, LINE IN
and CD IN. You may also select one of the
last three as a sampling source.
Input filter control is also included.
Holding both mouse buttons while adjusting
a volume slider will affect both channels.
Holding one mouse button will affect the
corresponding channel.
(Expept for the MIC IN slider, wich is in
MONO)
** All mixer settings are saved in SETUP **
KeyBoard : ALT+M.
Mouse : 'MIXER' button, page 1.
EXIT MENUS/ - The ESC key can be used to exit menus, to
STOP SOMETHING stop the sample tester or to unmark the sheet
field.
QUIT SBSTUDIO - Nice, eh? You will get a warning before all
is lost. :-)
KeyBoard : ALT+ESC.
Mouse : -
** IMPORTANT FOR GRAVIS ULTRASOUND USERS **
Because the UltraSound card uses its own memory for playback, samples
must be written to it before they can be played.
SBStudio will automatically update the UltraSound memory when loading
a module, but you will have to do it yourself if you change the
samples.
This is because the process takes a second or two, and you would be
pretty annoyed if SBStudio would do this every time you touched a
sample...
Anyway, press the 'F12' key to update UltraSound memory.
Also legal anywhere, are the piano keys. They are:
2 3 5 6 7
Q W E R T Y U
S D G H J
Z X C V B N M
They correspond to ordinary piano keys:
C#2 D#2 F#2 G#2 A#2
C-2 D-2 E-2 F-2 G-2 A-2 B-2
C#1 D#1 F#1 G#1 A#1
C-1 D-1 E-1 F-1 G-1 A-1 B-1
Transpose up/down using the SHIFT keys.
Using these on page 1 will write that note to the current sheet
at the song position you are, while playing it using the current
songedit sample.
On page 2, the note will be played using the current
sampleedit sample. It will not be stored anywhere.
---------------------------------------
C O M M A N D S O N P A G E O N E
---------------------------------------
SETUP - From SETUP, you can change your desktop
colors, your .MOD/.SMP paths, your playback
rate and much more.
For details, read the 'SETUP COMMANDS'
section.
KeyBoard : ALT+U
Mouse : 'SETUP' button.
TRACER - When lit, the sheet will follow the song
position when playing.
KeyBoard : ALT+T
Mouse : 'TRACER' button.
NORMAL/SPLIT - In NORMAL mode, the piano keys will operate
normally. In SPLIT mode, the piano keys
will operate according to the split point
map in SETUP, page 2.
See 'SETUP COMMANDS' for details.
KeyBoard : CTRL+S
Mouse : 'NORMAL'/'SPLIT' button.
SINGLE/MULTI - In SINGLE mode, the editing will take place
using the current channel only.
In MULTI mode, the editing will jump from
channel to channel after each note
according to the multichannel row in
SETUP, page 2.
See 'SETUP COMMANDS' for details.
KeyBoard : CTRL+M
Mouse : 'SINGLE'/'MULTI' button.
SET SHEET - Will use the current sheet number at the
current track in the song.
The sheet number will turn from red to
white to indicate that it has been set for
that track.
(if it hasn't already.)
KeyBoard : CTRL+H
Mouse : 'SET SHEET' button.
DELETE SHEET - Will delete current sheet.
KeyBoard : ALT+D
Mouse : -
SINGLE STEP - Will play one row from the current sheet
position.
KeyBoard : ENTER
Mouse : -
CHANNEL MUTING - Means to toggle one channel off/on.
KeyBoard : F1-F4 - Channel 1-4
Mouse : 1/2/3/4 buttons on right side.
SONG SPEED/BPM - Two different tempo timings are provided:
Speed - 01h-1Fh, 06h is default.
BPM - 32-255, 125 is default.
KeyBoard : F5/F6 - Decrement/Increment
song speed.
CTRL+F5/F6 does the same to
BPM setting.
Mouse : Up/down gadgets under speed/
BPM display.
DEFEAT - Removes the high frequencies in the sound
while playing.
Not available in STEREO mode.
KeyBoard : F7
Mouse : 'DEFEAT' button.
BOOST - Enhances the high frequencies in the sound
while playing, making most modules sound
better.
(Especially with SoundBlaster 1.0)
Not available in STEREO mode.
KeyBoard : F8
Mouse : 'BOOST' button.
GO TO SAMPLE EDITOR - KeyBoard : PgDn
Mouse : Button with arrow that points
down.
-----------------------
Setup commands, page 1:
-----------------------
OK - Will exit SETUP.
You may also press ESC from the keyboard.
NEXT - Will toggle between SETUP page 1 & 2.
You may also press ENTER from the
keyboard.
SAVE - Will save all the settings in SETUP,
together with the settings from the MIXER
menu.
LOAD - Will load all the SETUP & MIXER settings
from the SETUP file.
BLINDS - Will set every other color of the
volume bar palette to black.
Nice effect!
SCOPE/EQUS - Will toggle between editing of the scope
and the volume bar palette.
----------------------------------------
How to change a color or make a gradient
----------------------------------------
First, you select the color to change. Either one of the
four colors on the left side, or one of the scope/volume bar
colors on the right.
The selected color will be indicated with a blinking grey
dot, or line.
Then, position the three R G B sliders at the desired
intensity.
If you selected one of the scope/volume bar colors, why not
make a nice gradient?
To do this, just position the mouse cursor at the color you
want to fade TO. Then press the RIGHT mouse button.
* = Not available with the Gravis UltraSound card.
* TEST RATE - This is the frequency of the sample tester.
I added control over it because the
single-byte mode of the SoundBlaster PRO
is REALLY slow. If you own a SoundBlaster
PRO, you might experience a speed increase
if you lower this variable.
MONO/POLY - Click on the MONO/POLY textbox to change
between monophonic/polyphonic mode.
(Only available with the Gravis UltraSound
card!)
When in polyphonic mode, the sample tester
will use 8 channels. One by one.
* BIT GAIN - Will calculate back one of the 'lost' bits
of the sound. The volume of the sound will
be doubled, and the sound quality will be
enhanced.
(Turn it OFF if the sound clips, especially
while playing chip modules.)
BPM TIMING - Toggles BPM timing on/off.
* PLAY RATE - This is the playback frequency.
Decrease it if you have sound problems.
The legal frequencies are:
SB 1.0/1.5/2.0 : 17khz-22khz MONO
SB PRO/16 : 17khz-22khz STEREO
17khz-44khz MONO
* MONO/STEREO - Click on the MONO/STEREO textbox to
change between modes on SB PRO.
-----------------------
Setup commands, page 2:
-----------------------
MOD PATH/SMP PATH - Click on these text boxes to change the
module/sample directories. If the specified
directory is non-existant, an error message
will show each time you try to load/save
a module/sample.
QUANTIZE - This number says how many rows SBStudio
will jump after each new note inserted
to a sheet.
MULTI ROW - These four numbers represent each audio
channel, and what channel it will jump
to after each new note inserted.
Example: MULTI ROW 3 4 2 1
Will jump to channel 3 from channel 1,
then to channel 2, then to channel 4
and back to channel 1.
SPLIT - This feature lets you select an individual
sample for each note.
If you select note 'C-1' as 'KEY', 'EQUALS
SMP' as '09' and 'AT' as 'C-3', then each
time you press the key for 'C-1', it will
use sample '09' and play it at 'C-3'.
Get it?
----------------
Sheet edit keys:
----------------
* = Not available during playback.
F9/F10 - Decrements/increments current song track.
CTRL+F9/F10 Decrements/increments total
number of tracks.
The current sheet will be changed to the
one selected for the current track.
* -/+ - Decrements/increments current song sheet.
The sheet indicator will turn red if the
current sheet is not selected for the
current track.
* Left/Right arrows - These will move the edit cursor back and
forth on the edit row.
* Up/Down arrow - Scrolls current sheet one row up/down.
Will roll over to the bottom/top row
if row 0/63 is exeeded.
* ALT+Up/Down arrow - Will mark those parts of the sheet you are
scrolling through.
The marked field will be active on all
sheets, and will only affect the current
channel.
When a field is marked, the following keys
are available:
CTRL+B - Buffer block.
Copies the marked field to the
buffer.
CTRL+K - Kill block.
Copies the marked field to the
buffer and deletes it from the
sheet.
CTRL+U - Transpose block up.
Will increase each note in the
marked field by one halfnote.
CTRL+D - Transpose block down.
Will decrease each note in the
marked field by one halfnote.
When the buffer is filled, the following
keys are available:
CTRL+W - Write block.
Writes the buffer to the current
sheet position, overwriting notes
already there.
CTRL+J - Join-paste block.
Writes the buffer to the current
sheet position, but ignores the
blank notes.
Useful if you have made a drum
beat and want to 'fill in' with a
hihat. Just copy the drum beat to
the buffer, fill the channel with
hihats, position yourself at the
start and press CTRL+J.
Home/End - Jumps to row 0/63 of current sheet.
CTRL+Home - Jumps to start of song.
* INS - Inserts a blank row at the current song
position, pushing the following rows down.
Row 63 will be lost.
Affects current channel only.
CTRL+INS will affect the command only.
* DEL - Deletes the row at the current song
position, pulling the following rows up.
A blank row is inserted at row 63.
Affects current channel only.
CTRL+DEL will affect the command only.
* BACKSPACE - Pulls the current row up, taking the
following rows with it. The row
immidiately over the cursor will be
deleted, and a blank row is inserted
at row 63.
Will not work at row 0.
Affects current channel only.
CTRL+BackSpace will affect the command
only.
* TAB - Moves edit cursor to next channel.
-----------------------------------
What is a sheet? How do i make one?
-----------------------------------
A sheet is built up of four channels, each with 64 note rows.
A note row can look like this:
06 C-2 23 C02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
'06' is the note row number.
'C-2' is the note to be played on channel 1 at that row.
'23' is the number of the sample, or 'sound' to be used.
'C' is the effect to be used.
'02' is the command. It tells the effect how to behave.
(C02 means set channel volume to 02)
To find out more about the effects & commands available, you
can use the SBStudio online help system by selecting an effect.
Use the left and right arrow keys to move the edit box.
The blinking character shows your position in the edit box.
Since there are only 64 note rows on a sheet, a total of 64
sheets is available.
To program the order of sheets in the song, just select the
desired sheet number for the current track and press CTRL+H or
click on the 'SET SHEET' button. The sheet number will turn from
red to white to indicate that it has been set for that track.
(if it hasn't already.)
A total of 128 tracks can be programmed.
----------------------
Playback control keys:
----------------------
Left/Right arrows - During playback, these will invoke the
Rewind/fast forward modes respectively.
Keypad 5 - Will stop winding.
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C O M M A N D S O N P A G E T W O
---------------------------------------
DELETE SAMPLE - Will delete the current sample, and reset
all the settings for this sample.
KeyBoard : ALT+D
Mouse : 'DELETE' button
LOAD SAMPLE - Will invoke the LOAD SAMPLE menu, where you
also may delete files.
The sample will be loaded in signed/
unsigned format according to the sample
type selector.
RIFF/IFF is autodetected.
Remember to set your SAMPLE directory in
SETUP!
KeyBoard : -
Mouse : 'LOAD' button.
SAVE SAMPLE - Will let you save the current sample.
It will be saved in the format specified
with the sample type selector.
Remember to set your SAMPLE directory in
SETUP!
KeyBoard : -
Mouse : 'SAVE' button.
SAMPLE TYPE SELECTOR - Pressing this button will scroll through
the possible sample formats:
PC unsigned / Amiga signed / IFF
KeyBoard : -
Mouse : 'PC'/'AMIGA'/'IFF' button.
Clicking on this button with the
right mouse button will convert
the current sample between
signed/unsigned format.
VOLUME MENU - From this menu you may change the volume
of the current sample, as well as applying
fades and normalizing it.
See 'VOLUME MENU COMMANDS' for details.
KeyBoard : ALT+V
Mouse : 'VOLUME' button.
SAMPLE - From here, you may sample your own sounds.
They will be sampled at the rate specified
in the text box under the 'SAMPLE' button.
Press ENTER to start sampling, or ESC to
exit. The same keys will stop sampling.
Not yet available with the UltraSound card.
KeyBoard : ALT+A
Mouse : 'SAMPLE' button.
SAMPLE SELECTION - KeyBoard : Up/Down keys, Home/End jumps to
first/last sample.
Mouse : Up/Down arrows at the right side
of the sample settings box.
GO TO SHEET EDITOR - KeyBoard : PgUp
Mouse : Button with arrow that points
up.
---------------------
Volume menu commands:
---------------------
/ - Clicking on this button will select a fade
from 0% to 100%.
Click on 'RAMP' to apply it to the current
sample.
\ - Clicking on this button will select a fade
from 100% to 0%.
Click on 'RAMP' to apply it to the current
sample.
RAMP - Will set the volume of the sample according
to the START and END points.
If a marked area is active, only this will
be affected.
MAX - Finds out how much the volume of the sample
can be turned up before clipping, and sets
the START & END points accordingly.
CANCEL - Exits the VOLUME MENU without doing
anything.
START & END points are selected manually by clicking on one of
the sliders and dragging them back and forth, while holding the
mouse button.
If the LEFT mouse button is used, only the selected slider will
move.
If the RIGHT mouse button is used, both sliders will move.
---------------------
Sample editing tools:
---------------------
None of the sample editing tools can be controlled by the
keyboard.
CUT - Will cut the marked area away from the sample.
COPY - Will copy the marked area to the disk based clip
board.
KEEP - Will copy everything BUT the marked area to the
clip board.
PASTE - Will insert the clip board at the current
position.
MIX - Will mix the clip board into the sample at the
current position.
ECHO - Will apply an echo to the current sample.
Use the position bar to indicate length of echo.
VOLUME - Will invoke the volume menu.
See 'VOLUME MENU COMMANDS' for details.
TURN - Will turn the current sample or the current marked
area backwards.
X-MIX - Will mix the current sample or the current marked
area with itself backwards.
Useful for looping 'unloopable' samples.
x 2 - Will double the sample's length, lowering it one
octave.
/ 2 - Will halve the sample's length, raising it one
octave.
BST - Will boost the sample. (Enhance high frequencies)
DEF - Will delta filter the sample. Use to remove noise.
LOOP - Will use the marked area start/end as loopstart/
loopend points. If no area is marked, it will
loop the whole sample.
OFF - Will turn off loop points.
SAMPLE - Invokes sampler. Click on 'SAMPLE' or press ENTER
to start sampling or click on 'OOPS' or press ESC
to cancel. The same commands will stop sampling.
IN - Will zoom the marked area.
OUT - Will halve the zoom factor.
UNZOOM - Will display the whole sample.
-------------------------------------------------
How do i mark an area? What is the position bar?
-------------------------------------------------
To mark an area, simply position the mouse cursor at the
desired start, press and hold the LEFT mouse button and move
the mouse back and forth. When the desired area has been
marked, you can let go of the mouse button.
Now, several functions will only affect this area.
The position bar is 'positioned' by clicking on the sample at
the desired position with the RIGHT mouse cursor. The position
bar will appear a bit over the sample.
Now, several functions will start at this position.
---------------------------
Changing the sample values:
---------------------------
To change a setting in the sample info box, simply click on
the setting to change. The mouse cursor will turn magenta to
indicate that SBStudio wants input from you.
NAME - The sample's name. Will be saved with the sample
if you save it in the IFF format.
TUNE - This is the fine tuning of the sample. Clicking on
this with the left mouse button will decrease it,
and the right mouse button will increase it.
VOLUME - This is the volume of the sample. It will be used
in the song if no 'C' effect is issued.
LENGTH - This is the length of the sample in bytes.
The sample can not be larger than 65530 bytes.
LOOP START - If you want to loop the sample, this is the place
to put the loop START.
LOOP END - And here, you put loop END.
Well, that was all i had to say about keys & commands.
I hope you find composing in SBStudio easy!
Good luck!
BTW: If you make something *really* good, please send it to
me! I would love to hear it!
