from Hybrid Technology draft notes
The Music 500 was supplied with AMPLE BCE, whereas the Music
5000 is supplied with AMPLE Nucleus (ROM) plus Studio 5000, a much more
advanced model of the language.
In AMPLE Nucleus, musical notation remains substantially
unaltered from its BCE form. The structures used to initiate, direct and
co-ordinate the different players within the piece have, however, been improved
considerably.
BCE programs will not load directly into the new Nucleus
system, so transfer must be accomplished via a straight-text (ASCII) file. The
aim of this document is to help you transfer as much 'information' as possible
from your old BCE programs to your Nucleus system with the minimum of effort.
You will, inevitably though, find that a piece of paper and a pencil are invaluable
tools in the process!
The process of converting a program is as follows:
- Start up AMPLE
- BCELoad in your old BCE program
- Remove or edit words that are not Nucleus compatible (see below)
- *SPOOL <filename> to open a file
- WRITE
- *SPOOL to close the file
- Start up AMPLE Nucleus (*AMPLE)
- *EXEC <filename>
- Replace or re-edit words as necessary (see below)
- Save your converted program
- BCELoad in your old BCE program
- Remove or edit words that are not Nucleus compatible (see below)
- *SPOOL <filename> to open a file
- WRITE
- *SPOOL to close the file
- Start up AMPLE Nucleus (*AMPLE)
- *EXEC <filename>
- Replace or re-edit words as necessary (see below)
- Save your converted program
The conversion process is eased considerably if you have a word-processing
ROM, in which case it is best to SPOOL out the old BCE program to a file, read
it into your word-processor, edit it, save it back to the file, and then EXEC
it straight into your new Nucleus system.
Your BCE program will consist of three types of words -
instrument words ("bassins", "piano" etc.), control words
("play", "setup" etc.) and music words
("bassline", "part1" etc.).
Instrument words
You will have to choose from the preset instruments in the
"INS1" module, or recreate the original instruments using the preset
waveforms and envelopes. In the latter case, prepare a SPOOLed file containing
the required new Nucleus instruments.
Control words
The format of the control words in BCE are normally
something like this:
"setup" [
... % words to define envelopes
% and waveforms
]
... % words to define envelopes
% and waveforms
]
"play" [
2 PLAYERS 1000 TEMPO
1 PLAY( 3 VOICES chorgan
part1a part1b )PLAY
2 PLAY( 2 VOICES 1 VOICE drum
2 VOICE cymbal
rhythm )PLAY
GO]
2 PLAYERS 1000 TEMPO
1 PLAY( 3 VOICES chorgan
part1a part1b )PLAY
2 PLAY( 2 VOICES 1 VOICE drum
2 VOICE cymbal
rhythm )PLAY
GO]
Inspect the "setup" word and keep a note of what
envelopes and waveforms the different instruments use, and then delete it.
The "play" word has to be split into two parts:
"mix" which defines which instruments are used by which players, and
"RUN" which defines the order in which parts are played.
The BCE example above would translate into something like
this:
"mix" [ M5MIX
48, 125 =T % This sets the tempo
1 SHARE
3 VOICES Organ
2 SHARE
2 VOICES
1 VOICE Drum
2 VOICE Cymbal
PNUM SHARE
]
48, 125 =T % This sets the tempo
1 SHARE
3 VOICES Organ
2 SHARE
2 VOICES
1 VOICE Drum
2 VOICE Cymbal
PNUM SHARE
]
"RUN" [ "12-ab" PLAY
% use players 1 and 2
% to each play parts a and b
]
% use players 1 and 2
% to each play parts a and b
]
and, of course, the "rhythm" part would have to be
re-named "part2a" (see the next section). "play" can now be
deleted too.
Music words
The BCE music words ">" and "<"
(up and down octave) have both been replaced by '!' - this goes up or down an
octave depending on the case of the next note letter, i.e. it jumps an extra
octave in the appropriate direction. For example:
BCE Nucleus
>C is equivalent to !C
<c is equivalent to !c
<c is equivalent to !c
You can make the substitution by a global replace in a word
processor, or simply define
"<" [ ! ]
">" [ ! ]
before EXECing in the spooled text. If you like, you can
then manually replace the '<' and '>' by the true "!" in
Notepad, using
"<" FIND
and
">" FIND
to locate them.
'Contradictory' uses of '>' and '<', such as >c and
<C, need further attention, since the case of the letter must also be
changed.
Other changes
BCE TEMPO specifies the tempo in the number of 10us units
per tick. The Nucleus equivalent =T is more convenient - it sets the number of beats
per minute, the beat being the current ',' setting. Thus, for the standard
crotchet beat (48,) the =T number is calculated by:
125000 / <TEMPO number>
For example, '500 TEMPO' in BCE can be replaced by '48, 250
=T' in Nucleus.
The old default TEMPO was 1000, and this corresponds to 48,
125 =T. The more general formula is:
n, 6000000 / (<TEMPO
number> * n) =T
BCE BAR takes the number of time units ('ticks') in the bar,
but Nucleus BAR takes the number of current ',' units (akin to a staff time
signature). Hence, Nucleus BAR is used with a ',' setting. So, '192 BAR' in BCE
is equivalent to '48, 4 BAR' or to '92, 2 BAR' in Nucleus.
Keeping old and new programs
You should keep your BCE and Nucleus programs on separate
discs to avoid confusion. On a disc system, you find out the file type using:
*INFO <filename>
The second number (execution address) is:
000010 for a BCE program
FF0100 for a Nucleus program
FF0100 for a Nucleus program
If you have any hints to offer on AMPLE BCE to Nucleus
conversion please let us know in time for the next issue of AMPLINEX.
Published in AMPLINEX 003, January 1988
