Aley Keprt wrote:
> Thanks.
> I tried it but can't manage to get it work in WinCoupe (I need to test i
> there). Whenever I start playback, the message "press symbol to exit"
> shortly appears and then it immediately closes (going back to main menu),
> like I presses symbol shift. But I don't press anything.
Thanks for giving it a go...
It sounds like you are not loading an e-tracker file (there a one or two on
the disk). The Midi-tracker file is just a bunch of settings specifying how
each instrument in the e-tracker file should be played (program number,
velocity, etc.). So to hear anything you have to load both an e-tracker
file *and* its corresponding Midi-tracker file before pressing play.
> Other MIDI program "MIDI Sequencer" works in WinCoupe, but there are some
> other problems with it. I'd like to know whether the emulation isn't
> correct, or the original program is ehmm... not-very-good. It
> takes over 10
> seconds to redraw whole screen in edit mode, and whenever I start
> playback a
> very loud "home-less" tone is generated before starting the
> actual playback.
Yes, I remember MIDI Sequencer being quite slow! A lot of the user
interface is in BASIC IIRC (as is my program!)
> Also, I think it wouldn't be very clever to use MIDI simulator in DOS,
> because it would degrade digital-audio playback quality. Of course, this
> doesn't affect using real MIDI devices like MPU401.
Btw.. SimCoup� does no internal sequencing at the moment to give correct
MIDI _output_ timing (it tries to get the timing as SAM sees it correctly of
course!) - it just writes the data straight out to Windows when it gets it.
An implementation would be a lot easier than managing the SAA output, but
has not been done yet...
> Adding MIDI interrupts for demos gives more sense. I'd like to see it.
> Please could you tell me where can I get those demos?
I can put mine up soon... I might just, err, sort out the scrolly text
first.. :-) I'll reply again when it's sorted.
I'm not sure if anyone else thought about using MIDI for timing...
> Note:
> PAL speed is 1/64MHz. MIDI speed is 1/32MHz. It means that 2 bits are
> transmitted per line.
> Am I right?
Yep, that's right...
> How many bits are transmitted to complete one byte? If you say
> interrupt is
> generated 5 lines after issuing MIDI out, it means that one or two
> (start/)stop bits are added to each byte. I assume MIDI out interrupts are
> generated on line basis, exactly as the line and frame interrupts. Am I
> right?
Two extra bits are sent, yes. The interrupts are not linked to screen lines
though. When an output is made to a MIDI port the transmission starts
more-or-less straight away... although the MIDI hardware seems to have a
resolution of 32 T-States (apparently at offsets of 12, 44, 76, etc from the
beginning of the frame). The interrupt occurs one half-bit (96 T-States)
before the transmission completes, and lasts for those last 96 T-States (so,
shorter than other interrupts). The TXFMST bit in LPEN is set throughout
the transmission, and outputting to the MIDI port is ignored if a byte is
already in the process of being sent.
Dave.
> Aley
