This section is a focus for news about the workings of
AMPLINEX, corrections to items in previous issues, and other small items of
information which might otherwise be missed amongst the details of each issue.
Copyright and AMPLINEX
Several members have asked for clarification of the
copyright rules outlined in the first issue. We have sought advice from several
sources and have now written to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society to
advise us on the legal position. Although some bulletin boards have taken the view
that where no fee is being charged for downloading a program, no royalty obligation
exists, this seems to be more an assumption on their part than an established
fact.
Copyright law is complex and one aggrieved author could put
AMPLINEX out of business, so we are being deliberately careful.
If you have AMPLE music programs of which you are not the
full copyright owner you can still send these in to AMPLINEX. We will simply
hold on to these programs until the copyright issue is resolved.
AMPLINEX protection
We had a couple of complaints about the protection present in
the first issue of AMPLINEX. This was present mainly as a safeguard since copies
were being made available to the press and others outside of the membership.
This protection has now been removed and members are welcome
to examine the AMPLINEX environment program. If there is interest in the workings
of particular features, these can be documented and discussed in future issues.
File display in AMPLINEX
One member used the survey to request a means of escape from
the file display screen without having to read through to the end of a file.
Such a mechanism does exist - but we forgot to mention it in the instructions
for the September issue. If you press the ESCAPE key whilst the file is being read,
the "Press RETURN to continue" prompt will be displayed, and pressing
RETURN will take you back to the menu.
This technique only works whilst the file is being read -
pressing ESCAPE once the "Press RETURN to continue" message has been
displayed will have no effect.
Another request was for the ability to step back a page
during file display. Since the file is read in a byte at a time (using OSBGET)
this would require some complex file control programming and is unlikely to be tackled
at present. If any members can suggest alternatives to the current method we would
be only too glad to consider them.
Starting up AMPLINEX
In a couple of survey responses members asked for a method of
bypassing the title screen to speed up access to AMPLINEX. Such a method has been
incorporated into this issue - just press the CTRL key as the AMPLINEX display
appears and this will speed up the display process.
Another request was for the ability to boot the AMPLINEX disc
directly as opposed to using "AMPLINX"LOAD and RUN. We did originally
plan to use this method, but during tests discovered that the Studio 5000 waveform
information was being corrupted giving unexpected results when music was
played.
Index for AMPLINEX
A suggestion was made in one of the survey responses that we
should have an index of the AMPLINEX contents. We do not feel that this would be
possible for each issue given the short timescales in which we are working, but
we might try to create an index after several issues, of the main topics
covered.
KBgate utility
An omission from the instructions which accompanied the
KBgate utility in the September issue caused some confusion and disappointment.
What was not mentioned was the need to have set up the instrument on a voice
before using KBgate within Notepad. In this respect, KBgate is the same as any other
command used in a TRY line (including the default "RETGATE"). Typing 1
VOICES at the "%" prompt and then pressing the f1 (play) key will do this
(see Studio 5000 User Guide page 58). Sorry for the confusion.
Miscellaneous corrections
Chris Jordan of Hybrid Technology has written to point out that
the reference to a 'CZ505' drum machine in September's 'Acorn User Show Report'
is incorrect and should have read 'TR505'.
He also points out that the instrument template discussed in
the Hints and Tips section does not need the FM, RM or SYNC instructions on
channel 2 as these are redundant.
Commenting on the feature on Modules in the first issue, and
the reference to the module 'M5' as a 'sub-mix utility' Chris Jordan writes:
"A classic human anatomist believed that the function
of the largest organ in the head was the secretion of nasal fluids, on the grounds
of its proximity to the nose and the large quantity of fluid secreted during a common
cold."
A quick look at the results of the command
"M5"MSHOW confirms that the role of this module is rather different to
that implied in the feature, as it contains the words used in instrument
definition.
Comments
Your comments are always welcome on any aspect of AMPLINEX -
suggestions for improvement, problems with the contents, etc. Please remember,
each article expresses the opinions of its author and we cannot guarantee its validity
or completeness. So if you think something is wrong - let us know.
Published in AMPLINEX 002, November
1987
