Sideways RAM and Integra-B
Patrick Black
There are some problems using Sideways RAM on an expanded
Model B. One I've met is with ZROM loaded into Sideways RAM on the Integra-B
board.
Loading ZROM and using AMPLE as normal is fine. The difficulty
comes when ZROM is called. If you then return to the Staff editor the display
is corrupted - though in other respects it still works.
To overcome this either blow ZROM on to a ROM and install it
in a spare slot, or do all the Staff work before orchestrating the piece. This
is what I do as I have no spare ROM slots. If you have room, but no facilities
for blowing ROMs, Taj Letocha did offer a ROM-blowing service.
The guitar - a transposing instrument?
Roger Sapolsky
The subject of transposing instruments was treated by Lol
Taylor in AMPLINEX 012. But I notice that the most popular instrument in
present days has been forgotten! Yes, many (amateur guitarists among them) may
not realise that the guitar actually sounds one octave lower than what is written
on the stave. Music written for the guitar has much to offer to the Music 5000
user nowadays. If you choose to program such a piece, lower it by an octave, so
that it plays in the register chosen by the composer.
Use of MIDIRT
Ken Hughes
For some reason MIDIRT (the MIDI command to send clock and
control messages to drum machines or sequencers) continues to send timing signals
after a piece of music has finished.
This affects some instruments, such as the Farfisa TS600
organ, and they need a READY command to stop the problem. The word below shows
how to get AMPLE to do a 'READY' automatically at the end of the music.
The word is based on the 'chain' word given in the Hints and
Tips section of AMPLINEX 009 by Bernie Dawson. See this for an understanding of
how it works. The READY command is called up by the 'chain' word and thus the
word 'chain' should be put in the final part of the piece (usually in a separate
part by itself, e.g., part1z).
"chain" [ REP( QTIME-100#< )UNTIL(
IDLE )REP $2
"" "READY" $+ ]
IDLE )REP $2
"" "READY" $+ ]
Multi-channel instruments
Michael Lefevre
As you may know, the Music 3000 Mixing Desk shows each voice
in one column regardless of the number of channels it uses. This means that it
can be difficult to tell how many channels a voice is using.
The easy solution to this is to put the number of channels
an instrument uses at the end of the name of the instrument, unless the
instrument uses 2 channels. For example 'piano4' would be a 4-channel
instrument, 'piano' would be 2-channel.
Doing this also enables you to use the instrument with the
Keyboard option from the main menu on the Music 4000 system, as this works out
how many voices can be used in this way.
Published in AMPLINEX 016, March 1990
