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Scream Tracker Manual (1990)
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st.txt
Scream Tracker
<<<<< USERS MANUAL >>>>>
(C) 1990 Sami Tammilehto
==============================================================================
Contents by reference number:
1 The Scream Tracker enviroment
1.1 The directory structure
1.2 Using the program
1.3 The piano keyboard
1.4 The display
1.5 Machine requirements
1.6 Global commands
1.7 Color setup
2 Instruments
2.1 What are they?
2.2 Instrument disks
2.2.1 What are they?
2.2.2 Creating instrument disks
2.2.3 The instrument disk 99
2.3 Different parameters describing the instrument
3 Setup
3.1 Playing mode and speeds
3.2 EditSound, Enable Timer and Instrument Disk Drive
3.3 Directories
4 Instrument Library
4.1 What is it?
4.2 Moving around in the instrument library
4.3 The fields in the upper section
4.4 Commands specific to the Edit Library mode
4.5 Creating the instrument library
4.5.1 Creating a library manually
4.5.2 Easier creation way
4.5.3 Adding separate samples easily
5 Orders
5.1 What are they?
5.2 Editing orders
5.3 Commands specific to Edit Orders
6 Patterns
6.1 What are they?
6.2 Editing patterns
6.3 Commands specific to Edit Patterns
6.4 Special commands
6.4.1 What are they?
6.4.2 List of special commands
7 Sample list
7.1 What is it?
7.2 Test fields and beat testing
7.3 List of commands
8 Loading, saving and playing songs
8.1 Loading a song/module
8.2 Saving song/module
8.3 Playing songs
8.4 Infopage and status line info
8.5 Scope
8.6 Tracking and Recording
8.7 Loading amiga modules
==============================================================================
1 The Scream Tracker enviroment
1.1 The directory structure
The Scream Tracker is situated in its own directory,
normally C:\ST. Under this parent directory you can
find files and directories used by Scream Tracker.
The SONG directory contains the songs and modules
for the Scream Tracker. The STINS99 directory
acts as an instrument disk, which contains
the instruments stored on hard disk. The INS directory
is used for caching the instrument disks and
the ADD directory is used for adding new samples.
1.2 Using the program
When you load the Scream Tracker (by executing ST.EXE)
you'll see the startup-screen. From this screen you
can go to the main menus by pressing left arrow key.
You can toggle menus fast with their hotkeys (the
capital letters) or move between them with cursor keys.
By pressing enter you can select the menu choice highlighted.
The three rightmost menus contain commands specific to
Edit Patterns, Edit Samples and Edit Library functions,
and the hotkeys shown in them apply only in each of
these edit modes, respectively. The other hotkeys can be
executed anytime (except in Dos Shell of course).
1.3 The piano keyboard
The computers keyboard is divided into 2+ octaves and used
to emulate the common piano style keyboard. The octaves are
the following:
2 3 5 6 7 9 0
octave 2+: q w e r t y u i o p
s d g h j
octave 1: z x c v b n m
The keyboard is used when testing instruments or entering notes
to a pattern. Remark that the letters are small, not capital ones.
There's also a special beat entering keyboard:
Q W E R T Y U I O P - Uppercase (with SHIFT)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 - These letters will play the sample shown
here in C1. It's easy to make drum beats
by putting the drums in the beginning of
the sample list (<11 in number) and set
their C2SPD:s so that C1 sounds good.
Then you can enter the drums with
the beat keyboard. The beat keyboard only
functions in pattern editing. (you can
use beat testing in Edit Samples)
1.4 The display
The display is divided into four parts, of which the first one
tells the Scream Tracker version number and username (if ST is
registered).
The second part of the display is reserved for some often used
values, which define the lower piano keyboard octave, default
sample, default volume, songs start tempo, songs name, current
pattern, Current channel, Global volume for the song, and finally
channel on/off status.
The third part, whose background is brown, is the editing area,
where all editing of the song is performed. It has several edit
screens, of which more is told later.
The last part is the bottomline, which acts as a statusline,
and displays things like loading, saving, and, while the music
is being played, the current position in song.
1.5 Machine requirements
The Scream Tracker requires a fast machine. In this case this
means at least an 8Mhz AT. 12Mhz at is suggested, for with
slower machines the PC-Speaker will function poorly. Although
Covox & SoundBlaster will work with 8Mhz machines with good
guality. The machine should NOT be slowed down by 386 specific
memory enhancement utilities using the VM86 mode. These include
QEMM, 386^MAX and Windows 3. If the sound seems to be too low
and its pitch varies rapidly, the machine has not enough power.
The VM86 products should be removed while using ST. Scream Tracker
also requires at least CGA to use scope. All other functions use
text screens.
1.6 Global commands
CTRL-D..This command shells to DOS. Remember that if you leave the
music playing when shelling to dos, it might interfere with
programs run there
CTRL-W..Save (write) song
CTRL-L..Load song
CTLR-R..Load (retrieve) module
CTRL-A..Load amiga module
ALT-F1..Toggle channel 1 on/off
ALT-F2..Toggle channel 2 on/off
ALT-F3..Toggle channel 3 on/off
ALT-F4..Toggle channel 4 on/off
SH-F5...Play song. This (as all play commands)
also views the infopage
SH-F6...Play from current order. The current
order is the one the cursor is on in the
Edit order mode.
F6......Play current patter. The pattern will
be looped.
CTRL-Z..Play with scope. The scope requires CGA
or compatible display and also faster
machine than normal playing.
CTRL-T..Track song
CTRL-X..Record song
F5......Show infopage
F8......Stop playing
F7......Load instruments from disk. This function
is needed if the samples contained in
the Edit Samples list are modified. It's
not needed if only parameters are changed,
only when samples are removed or inserted.
F1......Edit Order
F2......Edit Patterns
F3......Edit Samples
F4......Edit Library
{.......Decrease global volume by 3
}.......Increase global volume by 3
1.7 Color setup
You can find the color setup in the 'Other' menu. When it's selected,
a window with colornames pops up and on the right side a hexadecimal
value for each color is shown. You can edit this value for quick
changes or press SPACE to select the color the cursor is on from
a palette. If you want your changes to take effect, exit color
setup with ENTER, otherwise press ESC.
2 Instruments
2.1 What are they?
The instruments are samples, which might be considered to
be sort of a record of a real instrument. To play the instrument
at different notes, its speed is altered. Also a few other
values can be changed for an instrument. These include possible
looping and volume. Also vibrato and other special effects
can be used. The instruments are often quite long, about 10K
average, so it's best to store most of them on disks. Remark
that within this document and the program, the words sample
and instrument are both used interchangeably.
2.2 Instrument disks
2.2.1 What are they?
The Scream Tracker supports 99 instrument disks, of which
number 99 is the harddisk (and 00 undefined). The instrument disks
are used to store the samples (and ONLY the actual data, not
the parameters). In both the library and edit samples screen
you can specify the disk where a particular instrument can
be found. When loading an instrument, the ST first looks
for it in the cache directory, and if it's not found there,
ST will prompt for the correct disk (if it's defined). After
you have insterted the correct disk and pressed a key, the ST
will also transfer the sample to the cache directory, for faster
access.
2.2.2 Creating instrument disks
Creating an instrument disk is a straightforward procedure.
You simply format a disk and make a following directory into
its root: STINSxx where xx should be replaced with the instrument
disk number you are creating. (The samples stored to the disk will
then lie in the directory) Do not make several disks with the
same number, and remember that disks 00 and 99 should not be
made, for the numbers are used for different purposes in ST.
2.2.3 The instrument disk 99
Instrument disk 99 differs from other instrument disk because
it's situated in the harddisk. It works just as a normal
disk, but its instruments are NOT cached. It's automatically
created when ST is installed.
2.3 Different parameters describing the instrument
Instrument parameters are shown in fields inside the ST. The fields
are named: File, C2SPD, Ds, Vl, LpBeg, LpEnd.
The first field descripbes the filename for the sample. The next
one is the speed (in Hz) at which the sample should be played so
that it would sound like C2 (mid C). The next field specifies the
instrument disk in which the sample can be found. The next value
is the default volume, the volume used when not otherwise specified.
The last two next fields describe the possible looping of the sample.
When the first value is 0 and the last 65535, no looping should be
performed. When the values differ from those, the last value defines
the byte at which the sample should be halted, and restarted at
byte defined by the first value. Inside ST these fields are often
followed by Test fields, which can be used for testing the instrument
with the piano keyboard.
3 Setup
3.1 Playing mode and speeds
You have currently four choices of hardware to play songs.
The one everyone has, is the PC-Speaker. The other options
include SoundBlaster, a PC sound card from Creative Lab's inc.
and Covox in LPT1/2. The term Covox means a device simply
acting as DA converter in printer port datalines.
The other important selection is machine speed. It theoretically
specifies how fast your machine is, so that the program can know
how good guality sound it can output. Generally 12Mhz is sufficient,
so in practice even if you have 33Mhz machine, it's better to keep
speed in 12Mhz, for there is practically no quality difference with
it and higher speeds. In addition when running sound at lower speed,
the machine will work faster while editing songs the same time they
are being played.
The current version of ST also supports very slow speeds, down to
5Mhz, which may enable ordinary PC's to play songs. Although the
quality is quite low, and these low speeds are only available for
Covox and SoundBlaster.
Note that you can select different speed for both the Scope and
normal Playing. It is strongly suggested that you use lower speed
for scope, for it needs more power.
3.2 EditSound, Enable Timer and Instrument Disk Drive
If timer is not enabled, dos timer interrupt 8 will be masked off while
playing. It generally produces better sounds, especially with PC-
Speaker, but makes little difference with Covox or SoundBlaster.
The main advantage from keeping the Timer on is the fact DOS clock
will run in DOS shell (the machine keeps the time right when playing)
and disk drive motors will be stopped in time. (When timer is off,
the floppy disk drive motors run on forever after started)
The EditSound option tells the program whether or not play a note
when it's written to a pattern. It's generally easier to make music
when the option is on, but playing notes slow the machine down a bit.
The Instrument Disk Drive specifies the drive into which you'll
insert the instrument disks when requested.
3.3 Directories
You can specify five directories:
System directory contains the exe, help and library files.
Instrument directory is used for instrument caching from disks.
Song directory is used to store songs and modules
Instrument disk 99 directory specifies the path for idisk 99,
which should lie on the harddisk.
Add directory is the directory used for quick adding of samples
to the library.
4 Instrument Library
4.1 What is it?
The instrument library is used to store the parameters of
instruments. It contains 99 usable sublibraries with 100
instruments each. In practice it means you can define 9900
instruments into the library. The library also provides
an easy way to select instruments when making a song. You
can write descriptions for each instrument, and then choose
the instruments for the song by descriptions. You can also
test instruments within the library, but it's often not
practical, for most instruments are probably on disks, so you'll
have to dig the correct instrument disks for testing...
The instrument library also contains a sublibrary called
clipboard (#99). Don't mix this clipboard with the one used
for copying stuff in the edit patterns mode. The clipboard
can be used for transferring and adding instruments to the
library. Remark that the clipboard is NOT saved to disk, so
it's emptied when you exit the program.
4.2 Moving around in the instrument library
To get to the instrument library one must either press F4 or
select it from the edit menu. In the menu, the bright block
is your cursor, which can be moved with the cursor keys.
The screen is also divided into two parts. The lower displaying
the sublibraries, and the upper one contents of the current
sublibrary (one with grey background on the lower side). You
can toggle the sides with TAB key. In the lower side you can
edit the names of the sublibraries, and in the upper one, the
instruments contained in the instrument library.
4.3 The fields in the upper section.
The upper section is divided into multiple fields, containing
the information about a sample. The first field from the left
is the description field. It (as all text fields in ST) can
be edited with only BackSpace. The other fields are same
as in edit samples. (see 2.3)
4.4 Commands specific to the Edit Library mode.
TAB.....Used for toggling the upper/lower side. The current side
is displayed with triangles in the middle left side screen.
<,>.....Select previous/next sublibrary.
DEL.....Delete current instrument from the library
INS.....Make room for a new instrument
ALT-M...Move instrument to different disk. The disk will be prompted
after selecting this command. The sample will be deleted form
the old disk.
ALT-C...Copy current sub-library to clipboard.
ALT-F...Fill clipboards disk values with the disk value in the first
instrument in the clipboard (the one on row 0)
ALT-P...Begin place function. Place can only be started in the
clipboard. When ALT-P is pressed, the instrument under cursor
appears to the middle of the screen. Then the cursor can be
moved to a library this instrument should be situated. When
pressing enter the instrument will be inserted to cursor.
After the instrument is placed, a next instrument in the
clipboard will appear to the middle of the screen and can
be placed. ALT-P also terminates the place function. When
place is in effect, all TEST fields will play the sample
which is to be placed.
ALT-S...Will skip the instrument currently being placed and selects
the next instrument for placing.
SPACE...When pressed on the filename field, pops up a filepad which
displays instruments in cache, and from where you can quickly
select an instrument on the harddisk.
4.5 Creating the instrument library
4.5.1 Creating a library manually
To simple but hard way to create the library is to copy
instruments as you gather them to instrument disks, and
then add them to the library by writing their name, description
and other parameters.
4.5.2 Easier creation way
If you have many modules already, you can extract the instruments
and their parameters from the modules. This can be accomplished
by loading a module at a time, and then executing ALT-T from
the edit samples mode to copy the instrument information to
the clipboard. The ALT-T also saves all the samples in the module
to instrument disk 99 (hard disk). After ALT-T has been pressed,
one must go to the clipboard in edit library mode, and move,
if he wants to, the instruments to other instrument disks, and
thus freeing space on the harddisk. This can be accomplished with
ALT-M. Then the instruments must be moved to their correct
directories with the ALT-P (place) function.
4.5.3 Adding separate samples easily
To add a group of samples easily, copy them to the ADD directory.
Then execute ALT-A, which will transfer them to instrument disk 99
and copy their names to the clipboard, from where you'll only have
to place (move) them.
5 Orders
5.1 What are they?
The orders are used to define the order in which the patterns are
played.
5.2 Editing orders
The get to the editing mode, you must either press F1, or select
Orders from Edit menu. The edit orders display is divided into
two columns, the left one specifying the order number, and the
right one specifying which pattern to play at that order.
5.3 Commands specific to Edit Orders
DEL.....Deletes the order the cursor is on
INS.....Makes room for order to the cursor
ALT-C...Clears the song/samples. When ALT-C is selected, the
program will ask whether samples should be preserved,
so you can save the instruments, but clear only the
patterns in addition to clearing the entire song.
6 Patterns
6.1 What are they?
The patterns describe the actual notes to be played. The music
is divided into patterns mainly to make it easier to repeat
some parts of it. This can be accomplished by simply playing
patterns many times.
6.2 Editing patterns
The edit patterns mode can be entered with either F2 or with
menus. The screen is divided into 5 main columns, of which
the first one specifies the row, and the last four ones each
represent channels (leftmost is number 1, rightmost number 4).
Each channel consists of 6 subfields:
C#1 02 ùù H08
³ ³ ³ ³ ³ÀInfo byte
³ ³ ³ ³ ÀSpecial command
³ ³ ³ ÀVolume (ùù = default)
³ ³ ÀInstrument (ùù = last one)
³ ÀOctave (0-4)
ÀNote
The note field, as its name suggests, specifies the note to be
played, and the octave field at which octave the note is to be
played. The instrument field specifies the instrument used
for this sample. It has no effect if note is not specified.
It can also be omitted. If so, the last instrument for that
channel is used. The next field specifies the volume for
an instrument. It can be changed while a note is being
played to create volume slide effects. If it's omitted, the
default volume for the current instrument is used. The last two
fields specify a possible special command.
There are also defaults for some values. They are shown on the
screens upper section. Defaults include octave (for the keyboards
bottom row), volume and sample. Defaults can be changed with
approriate keys or by writing a new value to volume/sample/octave
field. Last value written to any of the previously mentioned fields
will make it a default one for future operations.
6.3 Commands specific to Edit Orders
+,-....Change pattern
/,*....Change default octave
<,>....Change default sample
INS....Insert row. This command inserts an empty row to the cursor.
Notes beginning from the one the cursor is on are moved one
row downwards and the last note in the pattern is deleted.
DEL....Delete row. This command deletes the row the cursor is on
and moves all the rows below one row upwards. It empties
also the new last note in the pattern.
.(dot).Deletes the note currently on writing empty on top of it
ALT-B..Mark area begin. The area is displayed with blue background.
ALT-E..Mark area end.
ALT-T..Mark entire pattern to pattern. Handy for copying entire
patterns!
ALT-L..Mark entire channel to area.
ALT-U..Unmark area. This removes the blue background.
ALT-C..Copy marked area to clipboard. This command copies the
area with the blue background for later copying.
ALT-P..Insert clipboard to cursor. Inserts the clipboard to
the current cursor position moving notes under it
downwards in the pattern.
ALT-O..Overwrite clipboard to cursor. This command copies
the clipboard to cursor and deletes any notes it is
placed upon.
ALT-S..Set sample in area. Sets every sample number on the
area selected to current sample.
ALT-V..Set volume in area. Sets the default volume to entire
area.
ALT-A..Substract halfnote from area. This command decreases
every notes value by a halfnote on the selected area.
For example C#2 becomes C-2 and C-3 becomes B-2.
ALT-Q..Add halfnote to area. Same as substract, but adds
instead of substracting.
ALT-M..Toggle polymode for channel. With this command you can
include/exclude channels from polymode note-entering.
in polymode entering, the cursor is moved to the next
channel having the polymode set whenever a note is entered.
Thus in polymode notes pressed will be divided between
selected channels. This allows notes to play longer;
a new note can start while the old one is being played.
Of course this takes more channels. Polymode is disabled
if no channels are selected. The selected status is shown
on the bottomrow.
ALT-Z..Erase marked area. This command clears the area selected
to empty note values. Use it with care!
6.4 Special commands
6.4.1 What are they?
The special commands can be used to change the way a note is played
and also alter songs order and other things. They consist of a letter
secifying the command, and a hexadecimal infobyte. (volume and
instrument are decimal). There is one important (and complex) thing
one should know about special codes. That is WHEN they are processed.
It matters only with codes altering pitch, volume or other things
which will be changed softly. For every row, these commands will
be run by TEMPO/10-1 times. For example if tempo is 60, the volume
slide will be run 5 times, which means that command D02 slides
the volume down 5*2=10 units every row.
6.4.2 List of special commands
A - Tempo. This command sets the tempo for the song. The tempo
can be changed anytime, and effects all four channels. The
default tempo is 60.
B - Jump. This command breaks the current pattern, and jumps
to order row specified by the infobyte. It can be used
to create a beginning for a song, which is not repeated
when the song ends. i.e. it can be jumped over.
C - Break. This command breaks the current pattern, and
plays the next one in orderlist.
D - Slide volume. This command slides volume up/down.
If the hi-nibble (the left hex digit) is specified, the
volume is increased by the amout the digit specifies.
If the lo-nibble is set, the volume will be decreased.
E - Portamento up. This command slides the notes pitch
up by a specified amount.
F - Portamento down.
G - Note Portamento. This command slides to a note. It's
most easily clarified by an example:
C-2 01 .. .00 On this line, instrument 1 starts playing
.. .. .. .00 note C2.
E-2 .. .. G05 On this line, note E2 is NOT played, but
... .. .. G05 the pitch is slided by amount of 5 towards
... .. .. G1F the E2 note. Remark that the amount must again
be multiplied with the TEMPO/10-1 told about in the previous
chapter. When the pitch reaches the note specified when it was
started, the command has no effect. If the infobyte is zero, the
previous value of the infobyte will be used.
H - Vibrato. This command vibrates the sample, at a speed specified
by the hi-nibble (bigger is faster). The lo-nibble specifies
the vibrato size. (bigger is more vibrating). If the infobyte is zero, the
previous value of the infobyte will be used.
I - Tremor. This command rapidly turns the sound on/off.
the hi-nibble specifies the time the sample is to be on
(subrows, specified by the TEMPO/10-1) and the lo-nibble
the time it should be off. The sound is tremored as long as
the tremor commands are set.
J - Arpeggio. Play chords. Alters the notes pitch fast. Three
stages: Note, Note+lo-nibble halfnotes, Note+hi nibble halfnotes
O - Tone slide and volume slide at the same time. The infobyte is
for the volume slide.
K - Vibrato and volume slide at the same time like command O
Lx,M,N - ProTracker commands converted, but not implemented
7 Sample list
7.1 What is it?
The sample list, as its name suggests, lists all samples used
in the song. It also contains different parameters for all
samples (parameters have been described earlier in this document).
When instruments are added or deleted from the list, the samples
should be reloaded by pressing F7. The fields are the same as in
Edit Library, with two exceptions. First the description field is
not available, and second, there are two 'Test' fields. You
can also edit the song name from sample list by pressing ALT-E.
7.2 Test fields and beat testing.
There are two test fields after each sample name. By pressing
the pianokeyboard keys while in this field, the sample will
be played. The 'Test1' field tests the sample in one channel,
thus each keypress starting a new note stops the previous
note. The 'Test4' field enables you to play multiple notes
so that they all play together. This is accomplished by
playing the instrument in each of the four available channels,
so if the first note goes to channel 2, the next one goes to channel 3
and so on. When all channels are used (4 notes played simultaneusly)
the next note goes to the first channel and removes the oldest
of the 4 notes from playing.
There is also an Beat Test (ALT-B) option. In this mode you
can easily play multiple instruments and test rhythms etc. When
in this mode, a text will be displayed and numbers '1'..'9'
play samples 1..9 and keys 'A'..'V' samples 10..31. The samples
are played at C2. To alter height in beat testing, change the
C2SPD field from sample list.
7.3 List of commands
<.......Substract 10h from tempo
>.......Add 10h to tempo
/.......Substract 1 from tempo
*.......Add 1 to tempo
ALT-E...Edit song name (on upper screen)
ALT-S...Save samples to disk(s). Every sample will be saved to
the disk named in 'Ds' field. Disk 00 means to cache
directory (INS).
ALT-O...Save one sample. The sample the cursor is on.
ALT-L...Load one sample from disk. As F7, but for the one cursor is on.
ALT-B...Beat testing
ALT-C...Copy all instrument to library clipboard.
ALT-M...Move instrument to different disk
ALT-T...Same as ALT-C + moves all instruments to disk 99.
ENTER...Pick instrument from library.
SPACE...When pressed on the filename field, pops up a filepad which
displays instruments in cache, and from where you can quickly
select an instrument on the harddisk.
8 Loading, saving and playing songs
8.1 Loading a song/module
To load a song/module, select Load from main menu, or press
either CTRL-R (for module), CTRL-L (for song) or CTRL-A
(for amiga module). The use the file selection pad to
select the correct file.
8.2 Saving song/module
Saving is similar to loading, with one exception. Amiga modules
can not be saved. They must be saved as ST modules.
8.3 Playing songs
There are many ways to play a song. The simpliest one is
pressing F5, which starts song in memory and displays infopage.
If song is already being played, the infopage is only redisplayed.
To restart song, press SHIFT-F5. There are also two playmodes
useful when composing a song. First one is play pattern (F6).
It will play the current pattern (the one the cursor is in in the
Edit Patterns window) over and over again, until stopped with F8,
which will always stop whatever is being played. The another
playmode is Play from order (SHIFT-F6) which starts playing from
order row the cursor is in in the Edit Order screen.
8.4 Infopage and status line info
The infopage is displayed when the song is being played.
Infopage can be exited with ESC and recalled with F5. It shows
current instrument for each channel and a sort of volume meter
for each channel. The meter is not realistic, but paractically
works and shows when notes are struck, and at which volume.
The statusline will also give information about the music
while it's being played. From there you can see the current
order row, pattern, row and loops, which tells how many times the
song has been played (It doesn't always work, if jump to order
command is used.) The statusline also displays the percentage telling
how much of the song is played. All information is not displayed
when playing patterns.
8.5 Scope
There is also alternate 'infopage'. It is a scope display, and
you can view it with CTRL-Z (or from menu). It displays the actual
(and realistic) curve displaying the data values ouputted to the
speaker. It is in fact songs 'waveform' in a way. Mainly the use
from scope is purely entertaining. The scoop display requires CGA
or compatible graphics display.
8.6 Tracking and Recording
There are two quite similar playing modes which can also be used
for easy song entering and sort of song debugging. The Trace Song
function starts from the beginning unless the song is already being
played. In this case it acts like Scope, and continues from the
current song position. It shows the patterns as they are played.
The cyan bar in the middle of the screen shows the current position
in song. The screen is updated while the song is being played.
The record option is otherwise similar to Tracking but you can
select the current channel with arrows, and all notes you play,
will be put to the current song position, on the channel you are
on. Thus you can play a song from keyboard directly to memory.
The tracking is not yet very exact, so you'll probably have to
modify the pauses between notes afterwards. It's also suggested
that you use faster tempo than normally. For example with tempo
30 the recording works quite well.
8.7 Loading amiga modules
The load amiga module command (CTRL-A) prompts for filenames as normal
load. It converts amiga modules from MasterSoundTracker, SoundTracker
(..V2.4), NoiseTracker (..V2.0) and ProTracker (..V1.1). It requires
modules to be unpacked. After the conversion is started, you
can see the number of patterns converted in the right hand
corner of the screen. On the screens right side will also be
dislayed all commands used in the song. The left side will view
the amigas 20 char filenames, which sometimes contain a message
rather than instrument names. The amiga names will be truncated
in the conversion. In the middle of the screen possible errors
are shown. Errors mean that something in the module is not
recognized by the converter, and doesn't always mean the song
won't work. Most often the song works fine, but sometimes little
differently than in Amiga. It's also possible that the
conversion totally failes resulting in something no one can call
a song. If you plan to use the instruments in the amiga module,
check that the filenames are legal for MS-DOS, before saving
them. (The converter removes most illegal names). Especially
remember to fill 'empty' names. Normally you can recognize
whether or not a sample in sample list is empty by looking at
the volume. Amiga files normally have volume 0 in samples not
used. Please note that the filenames are truncated to fit the PC
file naming convention and also some new ProTracker commands
are not implemented, though they are converted. The commands
are converted to unused letters L,N,M and will be implemented
in the future Scream Trackers.
===============================================================================
This document, the help file and the Scream Tracker are constantly
being enhanced, so it's possible they differ a bit from each other.
The help files quickhelps should always be accurate. Some recently
added commands might only be found on quickhelps! But as always:
try everything, and something may work out!
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