CHAPTER 7: INSTRUMENTS AND TABLES
7.1 Instrument fields
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| PRESET | the factory sound applied last (7.2) |
WAVE T S P N RNG SYN | triangle, sawtooth, pulse, noise; ring modulation, sync. SPACE + CRSR switches a bit on or off; 1 / 0 set it. RNG and SYN use the previous voice (voice 3 for voice 1). |
| AD, SR | attack/decay and sustain/release, as on the SID |
| PW | pulse width 000–FFF. SPACE + LEFT/RIGHT ±10, SPACE + UP/DOWN ±100 |
| SWEEP | pulse width sweep NONE, UP, DOWN, PING (up and down), and its speed per tick |
| FILTER | OFF: not filtered. USE: filtered; the filter settings stay as they are. OWN: filtered; this instrument sets cutoff, resonance and mode at each note. With several OWN instruments, the last note wins. |
L B H 3 | filter type: low pass, band pass, high pass, voice 3 off |
| RES | resonance 0–F |
| CUTOFF | cutoff 00–FF |
| FSWEEP | cutoff change per tick, + or − |
| HRESTART | hard restart ticks (0 = off, normally 2) and mode: GATE, ADSR or TEST. Hard restart gives each note the same attack. |
| HRSR | SR value used during the hard restart |
| VIBRATO | speed and depth, then DELAY in ticks |
| TABLE | the table started with each note (-- = none). SPACE, SPACE: a new table. CTRL + RIGHT: edit it. |
| SPEED | ticks per table step (0 = every tick) |
| STEP | ON: the table moves one step per note instead of per tick |
| TRANSP | ON: chain and project transpose apply. OFF: they do not (for drums). |
| PITCH | TICK or FAST. Not used by the player in this version. |
7.2 Factory presets
There are 32 factory presets, tuned for the 8580 SID.
- Move the cursor to
PRESET. - Hold SPACE and press LEFT or RIGHT to step through them, UP or DOWN to jump between groups. Or type the two-digit number.
Each change replaces the instrument and plays it while SPACE is held. Nothing plays if that channel is playing the song. Presets with a table also fill a table.
| Group | Presets |
|---|---|
| BASIC | 00 CUSTOM, 01 LEAD, 02 BASS, 03 DRUM, 04 PAD, 05 ARP |
| DRUMS | 06 KICK, 07 SNARE, 08 CLHAT, 09 OPHAT, 0A TOM, 0B CLAP, 0C RIM, 0D CRASH |
| BASSES | 0E PULSBS, 0F SAWBAS, 10 ACID, 11 SUBBAS, 12 FATBAS |
| LEADS | 13 PWMLD, 14 SAWLD, 15 SYNC, 16 RING |
| PADS | 17 SLOWPD, 18 PWMPAD, 19 STRING |
| ARPS | 1A MAJOR, 1B MINOR, 1C OCTAVE |
| FX | 1D LASER, 1E NOISUP, 1F ZAP |
00 CUSTOM is the default instrument. After you edit an instrument, PRESET still shows the preset it started from.
With an REU the list goes on after 1F ZAP: 42 more presets, 20–49, in six more groups (drums 20, basses 2C, leads 34, pads 3C, arps 40, fx 44). Step to them with SPACE + RIGHT; typing a number still reaches 00–1F only. An REU preset is stored as 00 CUSTOM: its name shows only on the instrument you gave it last, and a saved song shows 00 CUSTOM there (it sounds the same).
7.3 Kits
A kit is a group of instruments in a row.
Factory kits. On the INSTR screen, with the cursor on PRESET, hold CTRL and press SPACE. Eight instruments from the current one are filled (up to 3F). Each further SPACE with CTRL held puts the next kit there. Release CTRL to keep it.
| Kit | Instruments |
|---|---|
| DRUMS | KICK, SNARE, CLHAT, OPHAT, TOM, CLAP, RIM, CRASH |
| BAND | KICK, SNARE, CLHAT, PULSBS, ACID, PWMLD, SLOWPD, MAJOR |
| SYNTH | PULSBS, ACID, SUBBAS, PWMLD, SAWLD, PWMPAD, MAJOR, MINOR |
| ELECTRO (REU) | 808KIK, ELSNAR, MTLHAT, OPHAT, ELTOM, CLAP, COWBEL, 808BAS |
| CHIP (REU) | SHTKIK, SNARE, PDLHAT, BLIP, PLCKBS, CHIPLD, SQULD, FSTMAJ |
| ROCK (REU) | HRDKIK, BIGSNR, CLHAT, OPHAT, TOM, CRASH, POWER, FATBAS |
Kit files. To save your own instruments as a kit:
- On the INSTR screen, select the first instrument of the kit.
- Go to the FILE screen (PROJECT screen,
SAVE). - With the cursor on the
SVrow, press C= + SPACE.
The kit holds this instrument and the used instruments after it, up to the first default one, with their tables. The file is named NAME.Kxx, where NAME is the project name and xx the first instrument. The help line shows, for example, KIT SAVED 10-13.
To load a kit:
- On the INSTR screen, select the instrument where the kit should start.
- Go to the FILE screen.
- Move the cursor to the kit file and press SPACE, SPACE.
The help line shows, for example, KIT LOADED 20-23. If there are not enough free tables, it shows NO FREE TABLES and nothing changes. Loading a kit is one undo step.
7.4 Tables
A table runs while a note plays: one step per tick, per SPEED ticks, or per note in STEP mode.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CT | SID control byte for this tick: waveform bits plus gate. -- = no change. Examples: 81 noise, 41 pulse, 21 sawtooth, 11 triangle. |
| TR | semitones added to the note on this tick |
| CMD, CMD | two commands with values (CHAPTER 8), for example S pulse width, X cutoff, O filter type |
Hxy in a table jumps to step y, x times. x = 0 repeats forever.
To start a table from a phrase, use the A command.