CDFM Tracker by Renaissance
Ok, first off... This is not a major release or anything...
This is the digital+FM composer some people asked for after we released
RBGDEMO2 with the DFM muzik driver... It is a very basic, bare-bones composer.
This is because it was never meant for public distribution... But for the
curious, here it is...
I don't feel like typing up major long dox on this thing, so youre gonna
have to figure most of the stuff in this thing out for yourself... (Someone
out there, type up dox if ya can if ya figure this thing out... Or maybe one
of us will do it sometime in the future...)... But for some basic help, hit
'?' once youre in the program...
These are the main filez you should have:
CDFM.EXE - the DFM composer...
CDFM.DAT - the FM instrument bank file...
PLAY670.EXE - a standalone 670 file player...
and one or two sample filez...
Run CDFM without any parameters to get the syntax to run it, then create
yourself a little batch file to run it quickly... (The -c# parameter takes
a number right after the 'c'... This specifies the color scheme you want to
use, the defined color schemes are between 0 and something, but you can
experiment with letters and other ASCII symbols, you will get some very weird
colorz)...
The two type of filez this thing saves are '.C67' filez and '.670' filez...
only the 670 files are actual 670 muzik filez... They can be saved (with
ALT-F12) but not loaded... The C67 filez are the filez the composer uses to
load and save, it contains the muzik and some misc info that only the
composer uses... (BTW: You can play the 670 filez in RBGDEMO2 by specifying
them on it's commandline)...
The 670 format is not meant to be a major muzik format or anything. Like
I said, the composer was done, and people wanted it, so you got it...
Oh well, enjoy this thing... and if you do any good tunez, u/l em to the
sound barrier, we might wanna hear 'em...
Oh yeah, for those interested, the digital mixing in the composer is at 22k.
Also, this thing is not totally bug free I think... hmm, but I have not
encountered any major problems... CC and Mozaik tell me that the digital
instruments sometimes fuck up after reloading... but I have not ren into
this problem myself...
Notes on this thing to help you out:
0) This is sorta like a combo of my other composers, many keys are the same
as them, many especially like composer 669...
1) The digital instrument directory MUST have a trailing backslash...
2) In the FM instruments, If 'C' is 0 then ALWAYS leave the second 'Tl' at
0. If 'C' is 1 then leave BOTH 'Tl's at 0.
3) If you set the Loop to an order at which there is no pattern, you will
suffer!!!
4) There better be some filez in the digital instrument directory you specify
or the thing will fuk up!!!
5) Changing an instrument sound in the FM channels takes a physical amount
of time during playback, so for the sake of speed in playback in the game
or demo or whatever, try to keep the instrument and volume changes in the
FM channels down to a minimum... (that is if the previous note was on
instrument 13 and volume B, another note on 13 and B would take faster
than one say on 14 and B, or 13 and D, ect...
6) The octaves are 0-3 (4 actually cuz of the upper row of note keys) for
digital, and 0-6 (7) for FM. If ya try to do anything for the digital
channels with the octave above 4, it will automatically be adjusted to
3 (for the lower keys, 4 for the upper)
7) Heres some keys before I forget, = and \ for volume, / and * for octave,
+ and - for pattern, < and > for loop, ; and ' for tempo...
8) The '-c' switch sets the color palette for the composer, without it the
default pal is used, but you can specify 0-6 as a substitute color palette.
You can use numbers higher than 6 and even any letter or character or
anything, but there are no defined color schemes for those so you might
get some pretty weird colorz...
9) Use F12 to save the song for reloading l8r, ALT-F12 creates a plain bare
bones data file which you have no use for...
A) There are a lot of channels here, you dont have to use all of them on a
song, but ofcourse all channels will sound better. One way is to first
write the muzik with as many or as few channels as you need, then come
back and add some counter-melodies on the free channels...
B) The FM channels can very easily totally overwhelm the digital channels, so
take care when composing a muzik...
C) The digital and FM instruments are sometimes out of tune with each other,
that means a mid-C on the digital instrument would sound out of tune with
a mid-C FM...
D) All the block commands of 669 are here, and ` and ALT-M too... And the
first letter thing works in the instrument selection thing...
E) Hmm, i was a little mistaken in 'B)', with good enough digital instruments,
it is the FM that can be totally overwhelmed... oh well, you gonna have
to try for yourself...
F) This is a very nice driver and format I just invented, even if we want
only FM or only digital muzik, you can do it with this compozer and I'll
probably use the new driver to play it in the game or demo... Meaning
when youre compozing your muzik with this, youre not LOCKED into using all
the channels, but rather the channels are all at your disposal, do with
them whatever you want to create good muzik...
10) Marking and copying tracks between digital and FM channels can be a little
tricky cuz of the different octave ranges...
11) The instruments included are the standard MIDI instruments, grouped
alphabetically instead of they would be in a MIDI system. I ripped em
outta SPJr and converted em... It seems I got the conversion right for
most of the instruments, but a few seem to be fucked up, specifically
the second 'Rr' parameter seems to be too high for some instruments...
if it seems this way, simply decrease the second 'Rr' parm and it will
sound ok maybe, but if the instrument sounds fine, then leave it... this
is 128 instruments here, that means out of the 666 you got 538 to create
yourself... (you will probably never create this many...)
12) There is one other 'instrument' I included... it is called 'STOP!'... all
this is meant for is stopping the output of any other FM instruments on a
channel... (you put it in the muzik trak wherever you wanna stop output).
To stop output on a digital channel, simply play a nonexistant instrument.
13) The digital samples are stored in extended memory... Thus this thing will
refuse to run if you do not have at least 384k of the stuff...
[ back to the prod ]