Effects: MED can create several different effects: slides up and down, changing the volume, vibrato, arpeggio and changing the tempo. As you have probably noticed, there are four numbers after the note name. You can modify them in edit mode. The first number is the number of the sample. It can be in range 0-U. If it's 0, the note will be played with the same sample as the previous note. The second number is the number of the effect. It can be from 0 to F. Number Effect 0 If the last two numbers are 0, no effect, otherwise arpeggio. 1 Slide up 2 Slide down 3 Vibrato 4-B Reserved for future expansion C Change volume D,E Crescendo,diminuendo F Set tempo The last two numbers contain more information about the effect, e.g. a new tempo. Arpeggio (0) It's possible to create chords with one audio channel. It is done by changing the pitch of the note very fast (6 times/note). MED can use the pitches of three notes at a time. If both of the righthand-side numbers are 0, there'll be no effect. If not, the effect will be determined as follows: E.g. The arpeggio of the major chord is 47 (or 74), because the second note of the chord is 4 half steps from the first note and the third note is 7 half steps above the first note. G-2 E-2 C-2 G-2 E-2 C-2 (MED will play the arpeggio from up to down) \_____________________/ 1 note C-2 C#2 D-2 D#2 E-2 F-2 F#2 G-2 G#2 A-2 A#2 H-2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B \_______________|___________/ | Major chord Slide up (1) Slides the note up 6 * (two numbers on the right side) periods. (or 5 * (2 numbers on the right side) if set in tempo-requester). Period is a pitch of the note used directly by Amiga audio hardware. Here's a table of periods for notes if samples are digitized with the same frequency as the samples included. MED uses these values. Octave Note 1 2 3 C 856 428 214 C# 808 404 202 D 762 381 190 D# 720 360 180 E 678 339 170 F 640 320 160 F# 604 302 151 G 570 285 143 G# 538 269 135 A 508 254 127 A# 480 240 120 H 453 226 113 How to use this table? For example: You want a nice slide from C-2 to G-2. C-2's period is 428 and G-2's 285. So we must slide it 143 steps up. Let's divide it by six: 143/6=23.833333... rounded to 24. If we wanted to do this slide in one note, it would be C-2 x118 because 24 is (hex)18. Because the note was slided actually 24*6=144 steps, the final note is a little untuned, but not many people can notice it. If you liked to make the slide a bit slower, you could do it for example: C-2 110C C-2 1106 --- 010C or --- 0106 --- 0106 --- 0106 Slide down (2) Just like slide up except this one slides it down. Vibrato (3) Vibrato changes the period of the note between two frequencies. The first is the normal period of the note and the other is the normal period plus the last two numbers: the bigger the number, the bigger the vibrato. E.g. C-2 1305 would change the period between 428 and 428-5=423. Volume (C) This one sets the volume of the note. The volume can be a number between 0 and 63. This is not a hex number. In fact it's a BCD-number, but you don't have to worry about it. Example: C-2 1C35 plays the note with volume 35 D-3 1000 --- 0C00 suddenly the note disappears E#1 1C10 <- begin quietly --- 0C63 <- to full volume Slide volume (cresc., dim.) (D) This effect does the crescendo/diminuendo, with formula Dxy If x > 0 crescendo 6 * x units. else diminuendo 6 * y units. Examples: C-3 1000 --- 0D02 <- diminuendo 6*2 = 12 units D#2 2000 --- 0D10 <- crescendo 6*1 = 6 units E-1 5000 --- 0D45 <- crescendo 24 units, number five is not used Effect E works like D. It is provided for SoundTracker compatibility. Set tempo (F) This command sets the tempo. It can also cause moving to the next block. This command is NOT SoundTracker-compatible. The two righthand-side numbers are the new tempo. This is a hex number. If they are 0, the song pointer will move to the next block of the sequence. Examples: C-3 8F20 <- New tempo 32 (hex 20 = dec 32) F-2 1F00 <- Move to the next block. This makes it possible to create 3/4-songs or upbeat. Here's a table for SoundTracker to MED-conversion: SoundTracker MED F07 F1B F06 F20 F05 F2F F04 F35 F03 F40 F02 F6A F01 FD4