MBWAVE WAVE MENU EN
Contents
4. WAVE MENU
4.1 Waves, tones and samples
Before a description is given of all wave menu options the general concept of the wave principle is explained here. MoonBlaster knows three different types related to the PCM/wave channels: samples, tones and waves
A sample is a small piece of digitised sound as known on as well MSX (Turbo-R, PSG sampler) as on other computers (Amigo, Apple and PC). The only restriction MoonBlaster has is that the sample format should be 8 or16 bit PCM data. This is also known as ‘raw’ samples.
But the OPL4 has the capability to add some effects to these samples. These effects can be set by adding some extra information to the sample. A sample with this extra information (header) is (in MoonBlaster) called a tone.
However, the disadvantage of a sample remains that this will sound best when it is played at approx. the same frequency as its sample frequency. To create an instrument that does sound well in a wide frequency range, several samples are desired. A Wave as MoonBlaster supports is a collection of tones with some extra information like the start note of a tone. Common formats like this Wave is also known as a patch on other computers, but to avoid confusion with patches that remove program bugs we chose the name Wave.
Note that the drums are also input as a wave now. So they are handled the same as an instrument. The type of drum sound will depend on the note that is played. These drum waves can be made by yourself of course, but one wave is already available that contains all ROM and GM drum sounds. The tone order here is similar to the GM drums. Some extra sounds are added at the end of the wave. See Appendix B for an overview.
The explanation above may be a bit short, but after reading this chapter and some practice, everything should be clear. All these settings are done in the wave menu. Press <F3> to go to the wave menu.
4.2 Select Waves
With the first option from the wave menu you can select instruments (waves) with their start volumes for the song. You will see a table with numbers on the left of the screen. These are the numbers that should be typed after the ‘W’ in patterns. This table contains all the waves that will be saved in the song. You can move through this table with the cursor keys.
When you press space now, you will go to the wave list. This list contains all standard instruments MoonBlaster offers. These are the waves as they are stored in the Yamaha ROM. Some of the waves in these list are almost or even completely the same. Often an instrument is used separate and as a part (A or B) of an instrument. These waves are listed more than once to make it easier for the user to use the dual voices. The reason Yamaha did this is obvious: It saves a lot of memory. It would be impossible to put all GM instruments in the 2MB ROM if they did not do this. An other disadvantage is that the tone boundaries can be heard very clearly with some waves.
With [CTRL] + cursor left/right you can move through the wave list. The last columns of the wave list contain the ‘Own Waves’. For more information on own waves, see section Edit Waves. When you have found the desired instrument, press space bar and you will return to the instrument table. With [ESC] you can leave the wave list without selecting an instrument. You can put an instrument on every line in a similar way. These selected instruments can be used for an instrument (wave) change, (see Fout! Verwijzingsbron niet gevonden.) or as start voices. The start volumes of these instrument (displayed behind the instruments in the instrument table) can be modified with [CTRL] + cursor left (decrease volume) and cursor right (increase volume). With [CTRL] + cursors up/down the Level Direct can be switched on or off. This sets the moment where the volume is changed for a wave. When it is switched on, the volume changes immediately, when it is switched off, the volume changes with use of interpolation.
4.3 Set Start Waves
This option of the wave menu shows the channels with their instruments. The instruments with the channels are the instruments the song will start with. If for example on channel W 1 and W 2 instrument 1 is selected, and if instrument 1 is a violin with volume 13, the song will play a violin with volume 13 on channel 1 and 2, until this is changed with a V or W event to another volume or wave plus volume. 4.4 Edit Tones Here you can modify the 64 available tones. Like mentioned earlier, a tone is a sample with some extra information about the effects with this sample. In the left part of the screen are the tones. You can select a tone here with the space bar and cursors. After a selection, the header information can be modified in the right screen.
We tried to bother the user as little as possible with the locations of the samples in the sample RAM. This only happens when you are out of sample memory or there is too much memory fragmentation. The sample addresses that can be set here will not alter the length of the sample in the sample RAM! It will set the part of the sample that is played of course. To shorten the length of a sample a separate sample editor must be used. Maybe we will make one ourselves in the future. Below is a brief explanation of the several possible settings:
Start address: Point within the sample where playing starts. It is not possible to change this. End address: Point within the sample where playing will continue at the loop address. Loop address: Point within the sample where playing will loop. Sample type: Sample type: 8 or 16 bits. You cannot change this. This is set when a sample is loaded. Freq. table: Frequency table to use when the sample is played. A choice can be made between 22050 Hz, 8363 Hz or 7875 Hz as a base frequency. The frequency will be doubled for every higher octave. The first table is a common one for PC samples, the second is common for Amiga samples and the third is used for most Turbo-R samples. Attack Rate: Sets the attack speed of the tone. Values 0 - 15 Decay Level: Level where the 1st Decay will change to the 2nd Decay. With decay level 0 only 1st decay will be used. Values 0 - 15. 1st Decay: Speed of the decrease in volume after the attack maximum was reached. Values 0 - 15. 2nd Decay: Speed of the decrease in volume after the Decay Level is reached. Values 0 -15. Release Rate: Fading time of a tone. This is the speed the volume decreases after an OFF event. Values 0 - 15. Vibrato: Sets the vibration of the tone. Values 0 - 7. LFO speed: Sets the LFO speed. Values 0 - 7. This speed is used for vibrato and AM (Tremolo). Rate correction: Values 0 - 15. This will set the speed off the attack, decay 1 ,decay 2 and release rate depending on the octave that there played on. Amplitude modulation(Tremolo): Values 0 -15. Modulates the volume of the sound.
The end and loop address can be changed by 10 with [CTRL]+ cursors op and down. You can set the loop address to the end address and the end address to the start and sample end with the [SELECT] key. The tone name can be changed with the F6 key. Saving a tone on disk is done with F5. After the error message that there is not enough sample RAM left too much memory fragmentation (and on any other moment) F4 can be used. The program will now re-order all samples and place them sequentially in the sample RAM. All small empty memory pieces will be combined to a bigger part of available memory. You can use the DEL key to delete a tone.
4.5 Edit Waves
With this option from the wave menu you can create your Own Waves. In the left part of the screen all own waves are shown. On the right the structure of the selected Own Wave is displayed. You can set transpose for this wave on and off with [CTRL] + cursors. Clearing a wave is done with the [DEL] key.
As you can see an Own Wave usually contains several tones. Per tone you can set on what note should be switched to the tone. Next, you can also set the first note of a tone. This makes it possible to for example play a drum tone on note D#3 while the actual play frequency is a C4. An example of a wave structure is shown below:
START NOTETONEFIRST NOTE
C 1 My Great Bass C 4
C 3 My Other Great Bass C 4
In this example at notes C1 - B2 the tone My Great Bass will be played and with noted C3 - B8 the tone My Other Great Bass is played. The first note is equal on both tones. This can be the result of the used sample frequency with the instruments. Low notes of instruments are often still sampled on high frequencies to keep a reasonable quality.
The explanation above probably sounds complicated at first, but it is not that complicated. It is a matter of experiments and practice, things will become clear after some time.
Own Waves can be named just like Own Voices with the F6 key and saved on disk with F5. Playing the waves is also done the same way.
