Hints and tips

An AMPLE bibliography (continued)

Julian Benton

Following on from the AMPLE bibliography published in the Hints and Tips section of AMPLINEX 009, here are details of two more articles of interest, both from Electronics Today International.

1) September 1987 - 'The Hybrid Music System' - A general introduction

2) October 1987 - 'Inside Hybrid's Music 5000' - A description of the synthesiser hardware written by Chris Jordan.

More 'Hooked on Tchaikovsky'

Andrew Leahy

The piece 'Hooked on Tchaikovsky' from Hybrid's 'AMPLE Bytes Back' album, has some parts which have not been included in the RUN word. Parts 'e' and 'f' have been left out. Part 'f' is another arrangement of 'Sugar Plum Fairy'.

To add them to the PLAY sequence change the RUN word to "123-abcdefgh"PLAY.

Use of *TYPE

Lol Taylor

When, in the middle of developing a program, you wish to add (say) an *EXEC instrument, and you are not sure which file it is in, it is possible to *TYPE several probable files and read them on the screen without them being added to your program. When you have found the right one it can then be *EXECed in.

Korg DDD-5 drum machine

Ivor Abiks

For those members who own a Korg DDD-5 drum machine and Music 2000 MIDI interface, here's a tip. If you can't be bothered to program a song into the DDD-5 which needs, for example, a pattern for verses, and a different pattern for the chorus, here is a way of changing from one pattern in the preset bank to another.

 Simply send the following at the appropriate point in the score:

&FC MIDIOUT    % Stops the DDD-5
&nnF3 MIDIWOUT % Sends song select
               % message to change to
               % pattern number nn)
&FB MIDIOUT    % Sends continue % message

I usually define this as an AMPLE word, and insert the word at the point I wish the change to occur. I have not (so far) encountered any timing problems - the change appears instantaneous.

Here is a simple example:

"startdrums" [ &FC MIDIOUT
               &02F3 MIDIWOUT ]

"changedrums" [ &FC MIDIOUT
                &11F3 MIDIWOUT
                &FB MIDIOUT ]

"part1a" [ leadverse ]
"part2a" [ bassverse ]
"part9a" [ startdrums X ]

"part1b" [ leadchorus ]
"part2b" [ basschorus ]
"part9b" [ changedrums ]

"RUN" [ "1239-ab" PLAY ]

This will start with the preset pattern 02 ("Rock3") and then change to pattern 11 ("Ballad2") when playing the chorus.

Music 1000 amplifier headphone output

Neil Walker

The problem of headphones and the Music 1000 amplifier found by Tony Walduck in his review (News and Reviews AMPLINEX 12), would seem to point to the headphone output being taken directly from the speaker output. On most amplifiers this gives a high level of hum and noise, originating from the amplification after the volume control.

A solution is to fit, in series with the headphones, a resistor of 1000 ohms in each pair of phone leads. The value or wattage are not critical - if too low an ohmage is fitted the volume control range will still be restricted. The resistors may be fitted externally in either of the two leads going to each headphone. The modification will have no effect on the sound quality.

Printing AMPLINEX text

Jim Brook

For what it is worth, I would just mention that I print out AMPLINEX text on a daisywheel printer (Juki 6200) by spooling it to Interword and using the latter's two column option. It's very easy, requires no brain input at all (otherwise it would be useless to me) and produces a very neat and attractive printout. We dilettantes hate having to work out how to do anything and who knows, I may not be the only one who is also an AMPLINEX member!

Printing AMPLINEX text

Ken Hughes

I have tried using the 80-column print utility from AMPLINEX 005 and found it very good, except for printing out any AMPLE programs that are included in the text. Unfortunately it also prints these across the page making them very difficult to read. My solution to this is to use a multi column printer utility, set to two columns 39 characters wide. This allows printout of AMPLINEX files exactly as they appear on screen.

The program that I use is one from the May 1988 edition of BEEBUG magazine. As I use punched hole paper to print on I use the following short program to set up the printer for Elite type and to leave a margin on the left.

10 REM PRINTER SET-UP (AMPLINEX)
20 VDU2,1,27,1,77,3
30 VDU2,1,27,1,82,1,0,3
40 VDU2,1,27,1,108,1,16,3
50 CHAIN "PRINT"

Where "PRINT" in the name of the multi-column printer utility.

Making longer programs

Roger Sapolsky

Some further comments on using a modified !BOOT file without the MENU module (see the Features section of AMPLINEX 012). To access Notepad with no MENU module present use

"PAD" MLOAD

Which will load the module. To go into Notepad, type

PAD

To get rid of the Notepad module, get out of it via

QUIT

and then delete it using

"PAD" MDELETE

Doing without the MENU module in this way will give you an extra 1034 bytes.

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Published in AMPLINEX 013, September 1989