Appendix T

Troubleshooting

This is a compilation of the most common problems and ways in which they can be corrected.

1/The Disk Drive has problems reading the disk.

Possible Cause
 The disk may not be correctly seated in the disk drive.
 The disk may be damaged.
 There may be dust on the disk.
 The spring in the disk shutter may be stiff.
 The drive may not be aligned properly.

Possible Solution
 Remove the disk from the drive and re-insert it.
 Play with the disk shutter and spin the disk inside its casing manually 
 (by rotating the metal hub) then Retry.
 Try the same disk on a different drive. 


2/MIDI Out data seems to be doubled up or garbled when using MIDI In/Out ports. 

 The Atari ST MIDI Out port uses pins 1 and 3 
 for MIDI Thru.  Pins 4 and 5 are the two signal pins in MIDI.  Some cable manufacturers   cross connect pins 1 and  to these wires causing  short circuit. Use MIDI spec cables. Try  another brand of MIDI cables.


3/The computer crashes when an underscore (_) is typed in a dialog box.

 A GEM bug occurs in ROM versions through 11/20/85.  This does not occur in TOS 1.2 or later  Don't type in an underscore in dialog boxes unless you understand where the underscore will  work (for example, they won't work any time a number is requested).


4/Computer crashes when a disk error occurs.

 Repeated disk errors (such as no disk in drive) can sometimes lead to system hangups. This  does not occur in TOS 1.4 or later ROMs.

 After getting one error such as no disk in drive, it's safest to save the song file and   reset the computer as soon as possible.
 If you get an error because of no disk in the drive, insert a disk and choose Retry (don't  Cancel).

 When the program is loaded, sometimes the key click chatters continuously (monitor volume  turned up).
 If you move the mouse while the program is loading, it may get the computer confused.
 Press the Esc key.


5/The metronome can't be heard even though it is enabled.

 Turn up your monitor volume.

6/Menus fail to drop.

 Click the Left button once while pointing at the menu bar.

7/The menu sticks when the cursor gets part way down and none of the functions can be  selected.

 Move the mouse back up into the menu bar and then retry.


8/The date and time on some songs comes up blank. The date and time are 
displayed only if valid (later than 1985).

 Use the Control Panel accessory to set the correct date and time. When you turn your computer off, it loses the time unless  you have a battery backed-up clock.


9/Some .SNG files won't load.

 The song could have been created with a different program.  
 Some other sequencers also create files with the .SNG extension.
 You can only load .SNG files created with Barefoot Software or Hybrid Arts programs.


10/SysXpress Accessory or Diary20 Acessory is not in the Desk menu.

 The Accessory was not properly loaded.
 Any accessory you want to use must be on the disk in drive A (drive C if using hard disk) when the computer is turned on or  reset.  Quit out of the program and reboot with the BOOT disk in drive A.



11/Every time the song plays, instruments change patches when they should not.

 Patch changes are recorded the same way as Note Events.  When the sequence gets to a patch change event, it changes the  patch setting on the assigned instrument.

 Don't change patches while you are recording the music.  Instead, record all music with one patch setting (you may want to  filter patch changes with the MIDI Input Filters option).  Then go back and record all the patch changes on a separate  Track.  You can then turn off the patch Track and the patches won't change. Use the Event List and Display only Patch  Changes.  Then Delete all of them.

MIDI Synths can only play a limited number of notes at once.  This is a limit of the instrument, not the sequencer.  (Observe the Track Activity Indicators to get an idea of how many Notes are being played at one time.)
If the instrument has Mono Mode (also called solo mode), this causes it to play only one voice at a time per channel. Some instruments have different patch settings. One patch may play 8 voices at once; another may only allow you to play up to 4 notes.  Be aware of these settings.


12/The song that was saved doesn't appear in the File Selector when Load SNG File is performed.

 You may have named the song with an extension other than .SNG. The filename is 8 characters long.  The extension consists of  the 3 characters after the period.  When you name your song, be sure to only use the first 8 characters. Quit the program  and rename your song with an .SNG extension (refer to Renaming Files in your Atari manual).


13/When I load my song in, I don't get the most current version. 

 It is possible to save different versions of the same song  to  different disks with the same filename.
 Make sure you have the correct disk in the drive. Also make sure you are accessing the correct drive.

14/I can't load a MIDI file. The file selector doesn't show .MID files, and if the path name is altered to show them, they  will not load.

 Use the Right mouse button to select the Load SNG/MID File item in the File menu. This makes the program accept .MID files.

15/A digit (or plus sign) appears to the right of the KEEP button while I'm recording or transferring from a drum machine or  other sequencer via MIDI.

 Mouse movement while recording lots of MIDI data may lead to data errors.
 Place the mouse on a surface where it won't move unintentionally.
 Disable the mouse (see Appendix A) while you're recording.
 Rerecord the take at a slower tempo if possible.
 MidiPlexer users use input B.


16/A message says that the MIDI input buffer overflowed.

 If continuous MIDI information is being received at the MIDI input, selecting a menu or dialog box may cause the MIDI memory  buffer to overflow.  The source of this continuous data may be Clock from a drum machine, or data from a loose joystick,  wheel, or lever on your keyboard.

 If the input is from a drum machine, disable its MIDI Clock output.
 If the source is a loose pitch wheel and you don't need to record pitch bend, filter Pitch Bend with MIDI Input Filters in  the MIDI menu.

 If the source is a joystick, wheel, or lever and you don't need to record any continuous controllers, filter out Control   Changes. You can ignore the problem in most cases, as it usually occurs when you don't have important data in the KEEP   buffer anyway.

 The KEEP button lights when you're not doing anything.

 Some sort of MIDI information has been received. The source may be data from a loose joystick, wheel, or 
 lever on your keyboard.
 Filter out Pitch Bend and/or Control Change messages (in the MIDI Input FiIters option) if you don't need to record those  types of events. The KEEP buffer will be cleared when you Click on PLAY to start recording.


17/When a note is played on the keyboard or the sequence is started, the computer locks up until it is rebooted.

 There is a MIDI feedback loop through your system.  This can be verified by unplugging the MIDI In to the computer and  seeing if the computer will respond after a moment. You have the MIDI Thru function turned on, as well as a similar function  on your master keyboard. Disable the Thru function on your keyboard. (Some instruments refer to this as MIDI Echo or Soft  Thru.)


18/While I'm recording or editing, or just playing the keyboard, a memory limit message appears.
 The KEEP buffer's capacity has been exceeded by MIDI input, or there wasn't enough unused memory to hold the temporary data  needed during an edit operation.
 If you want to play on your keyboard while the sequence is not playing, Click on the Counter Reset Button to reset the   counter to the beginning of the song.  If the counter is at 00000.00 and the KEEP buffer overflows from MIDI input, no   message will be shown, and the program will automatically clear the KEEP buffer.
 If a Track edit runs out of memory, you need to either delete some unnecessary Tracks, or make more memory available to the  program (after quitting). See Chapter 3 for a note about song memory capacity.



