B's Pro Tracker by Sorcerers
B's Pro Tracker (BPT)
Version 0.05ß3
Copyright 1990-1992
Kim Heino
All rights reserved.
===============================================================================
Contents of this manual:
1 General information
2 Commands
2.2 Hotkeys
3 Setup
4 Technical information
5 Last words, version information
5.1 Last words
5.2 Version information
===============================================================================
1 General information
BPT is a music module editor and player for IBM PC and
compatibles. It requires EGA or VGA display adapter and 256kB of
memory. More memory (up to 640kB), VGA and a fast computer are
recommended. BPT supports JDAC (or other D/A converter), Sound
Blaster/ThunderBoard card (8086 and 80386 modes), Sound Blaster
with MIDI interface, Roland MPU-401-compatible MIDI interface
(Roland MT-32, Roland LAPC-1), Akai Professional Sampling
Keyboard X7000 (with MIDI), Akai Professional Sampler S700 (with
MIDI), BriteSounds' stereo-DAC card and the PC internal speaker.
BPT can load BPM-modules, BPS-songs, BPP-patterns, BWC-samples,
STM-modules, STS-songs, MTM-modules, MTS-songs and MOD-modules
and it can save BPM-modules, BPS-songs, BPP-patterns,
BWC-samples and MOD-modules,
JDAC is a simple 8 bit D/A-converter to be connected to your
parallel port. Also a product called Covox Speech Thing seems to
be compatible with the JDAC. It is possible to use it with BPT.
The internal speaker routine plays the modules only with 6 bits.
It is IBM's fault! Another internal speaker playing routines,
like RealSound, plays the samples just like I do. But BPT
converts the 8 bit data to 6 bit in real-time to get the best
result. Note that you can easily hang your computer by playing
modules with too high PHertz.
MPU-MIDI routine uses your synths original instruments. PHertz
and IHertz doesn't affect to MIDI, the playing speed is always
768 hertz. If you have Akai sampler you can dump some or all of
the samples to Akai and BPT commands Akai to play them. Note
that you can use Roland MT-32 / LAPC-1 and Akai simultaneus!
IHertz should be near to some value Akai supports.
Don't panic if you find some undocumented features in BPT. Just
report them to me and they will be mentioned in the future
versions.
And remember, if you want to get good background music buy
CD-player!
2 Commands
Try everything! This is beta-version, you can't expect the full
documents yet, do you?
Just few things:
BPT is buggy!
Try all and see what happens. All the commands are found from
the menus.
You can specify the playing speed by changing PHertz (Alt-H).
Trying to play too fast will hang your computer. But it also
sounds better. My 386/33 plays in 25000Hz without problems.
For PC, 4000Hz may be too much!
Tempo (Alt-T) is given in BPM (Beats Per Minute) as in MIDI. If
you change the tempo in moduledata (command "A") it is given in
timebase-format (96=120BPM, 48=240BPM).
Command A (set tempo), B (go to) and C (break) are the only
supported commands at this time.
First row is notes, then instruments, commands and note volumes.
You can press enter to "Filename?"-prompt to get a list of the
available files.
Sample/Memory:
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| 00: 00000B 100% ----- ----- -- --- |
| 01: lzsynth.snd 10405B 078% 00435 10000 03 --- |
| 02: yeah 34594B 100% ----- ----- *13 --- |
| 03: hihat 02045B 060% ----- ----- 10 C 4 |
^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^
1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9
1 = Instrument number
2 = Instrument name
3 = Size in bytes
4 = Volume (0-255%)
5 = Loop begin offset, "-----" means no loop
6 = Loop end offset
7 = An asterisk means dump this instrument to Akai
8 = MIDI channel for this instrument, "--" means none
9 = Fixed note for this instrument, "---" means normal
Program Changes per MIDI channels can be configured in
Sample/Program.
And remember, Real Programmers do it in hex!
2.2 Hotkeys
This is the list of the hotkeys:
Key Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------
Alt-1 Toggle track 1 on/off
Alt-2 Toggle track 2 on/off
Alt-3 Toggle track 3 on/off
Alt-4 Toggle track 4 on/off
Alt-A Toggle arrange on/off
Alt-B Bosskey
Alt-C Copy
Alt-G Toggle trace on/off
Alt-H Change PHertz
Alt-I Change IHertz
Alt-L Load BPM-module
Alt-M Samples in memory
Alt-O Change output
Alt-P Play
Alt-S Stop playing
Alt-T Change tempo
Alt-V Change volume
Alt-W Save BPM-module
Alt-X Exit
Backspace Scroll one char left
Ctrl-Backspace Delete one noteline below the cursor
Cursor keys Move cursor
DEL Previous pattern
ESC Go to menus, last selected
Enter Next line
F1 Edit notes
F2 Edit orders
F3 Edit sample names
F4 Go to menus, File
F5 Go to menus, Play
F6 Go to menus, Edit
F7 Go to menus, Samples
F8 Go to menus, Options
F9 Go to menus, SetUp
F10 Go to menus, last selected
INS Next pattern
PgDn Move down fast
PgUp Move up fast
Tab Next channel / next samplerow
3 Setup
You can specify the output in the command line. Type "BPT /?"
for help. And there's a setup-menu in BPT's menu structure. All
the setups can be saved with "Save setup"-command.
4 Technical information
BPM/BPS file format version #01:
Offset Meaning
0000 (32 char) Song/Filename
0032 (byte) File type: bit 0-6 = file version
bit 7 = song (0) / module (1)
0033 (8 char) Tracker name
0041 (word) Tempo hi
0043 (word) Tempo lo
0045 (word) IHertz
0047 (byte) Signature hi
0048 (byte) Signature lo
0049 Instruments (0-1F)
Offset Meaning
0000 (12 char) Filename
0012 (word) Length
0014 (byte) Volume
0015 (word) Loop begin
0017 (word) Loop end
0019 (byte) bit 0-3 = MIDI channel
bit 4-5 = free
bit 6 = Dump to sampler (1)
bit 7 = Play (0)
0020 (byte) 00-7F: Fixed note (00=None)
0721 (16 byte) Program Changes for MIDI-channels
0737 (byte) Patterns saved
0738 (255 byte) Pattern orders
0993 Extra infos
Offset Meaning
0000 (byte) Number of bytes in info,
if zero then go to Pattern #0 name
directly
0001 (byte) Info type (00=Text)
0002 (??? byte) Info
???? (10 char) Pattern #0 name
[????] Patterns
Offset Meaning
0000 (10 char) Name
0010 (word) Length
0012 Notes
Offset Meaning
0000 bit 0-3 = note (0=C, 1=C# ... 11=B)
bit 4-7 = octave
0001 bit 0-4 = instrument
bit 5-7 = volume bit 0-2
0002 bit 0-3 = command
00 = No command
01 = Set tempo (timebase)
02 = Go to order
03 = Jump to next order
04 = Volume slide
05 = Portamento down
06 = Portamento up
07 = Tone portamento
08 = Vibrato
09 = Sample Offset
0A = Tone p. + Vol. slide
0B = Vibrato + Vol. slide
0C = Arpeggio
0D = Tremolo
0E = Misc. commands
1x = Fineslide up
2x = Fineslide down
3x = Glissando control
4x = Vibrato control
6x = Pattern loop
7x = Tremolo control
9x = Retrig note
Ax = Finevolume up
Bx = Finevolume down
Cx = Note cut
Dx = Note delay
Ex = Pattern delay
Fx = Invert loop
bit 4-7 = volume bit 3-6
0003 bit 0-7 = command value
[????] In modules: Samples
BWC's samplefile format is following:
Offset Meaning
0000 The header, always letters "BJH"
0003 (word) Digirate of the sample in hertz.
0005 (word) Type of the sample.
0007 The sampledata starts here. Or, if (type and 1)=1 then
0007 (word) Loop begin offset.
0009 (word) Loop end offset.
0011 Begin of real sample.
5 Last words, version information
5.1 Last words
This program has no copy protection. Only thing is your name
displayed after exiting. It can be changed, but remember, it is
not the only one. It is crypted all over the EXE file too.
If you have ideas, have found some bugs, or anything, contact
me. See BPTREG.DOC for more information.
Thanks to...
Patrick Aalto, David Komatsu, Tapani Salmi, Tomi Aarnio, Tomi
Engdahl, Veli-Pekka Suuronen, Jari Ahmavuo, Timo Haanpää, Timo
Seppälä and BriteSounds.
To keep lawyers happy...
IBM PC, XT and AT are registered trademarks of International
Business Machines Corp.
RealSound is a registered trademark of Steve Vitzel.
Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs, Inc.
AdLib is a registered trademark of Adlib Inc.
DESQview is a registered trademark of Quarterdeck Office
Systems.
Akai Professional Sampling Keyboard X7000 and Akai Professional
Sampler S700 are registered trademarks of Akai Electric Co, Ltd
(Japan).
Roland MPU-401, Roland MT-32 and Roland LAPC-1 are copyrights of
Roland Corporation.
BWC is a copyright of Kim Heino and Arttu Kontkanen.
MidiTracker is a copyright of Patrick Aalto.
ScreamTracker is a copyright of Sami Tammilehto.
5.2 Version information
v0.02 This is the first released version. Some bugs, lots of
missing stuff. But I had to release it now or never.
v0.03 Bugfix: Changing PHertz after loading the module didn't
change instrument table correctly.
Sound Blaster's IO-address can be configured.
Sound Blaster's 80386-mode added.
v0.04 Better MOD-loader (still buggy?).
EGA-support added, see command line parameter /E.
Editor to Sample/Memory added.
Runs correctly under DOS 5.
v0.05ß MIDI player added.
Roland MPU support added.
Akai sampler support added.
BriteSounds' stereo-DAC card support added.
MTM- and MTS-loader added.
Sample/Program added.
Sample/Memory and file format changed to support MIDI.
Sound Blaster check added.
Play/Play Repeat added.
Volume slide command added.
Portamento commands added.
Limits to PHertz.
Better STM- and MOD-loader.
Bugfix: Go to order command.
Bugfix: Change IHertz.
Bugfix: Load instruments.
v0.05ß2 Save Amiga's MOD command added.
v0.05ß3 Mouse support added.
Sound Blaster's MIDI player added.
Scope added.
Vibrato command added.
Sample offset command added.
Tone portamento + volume slide command added.
Vibrato + volume slide command added.
Fineslide up command added.
Fineslide down command added.
Vibrato Control command added.
Finevolume up command added.
Finevolume down command added.
To do: Arpeggio command.
Tremolo command.
Retrig note command.
Glissando control command.
Note cut command.
Note delay command.
Pattern loop command.
Pattern delay command.
Tremolo control command.
Invert loop command.
MIDI transpose.
MIDI in.
Record mode.
AdLib player.
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