From the Desk of Mark Feaver:                     11-12-95

Thank you for the interest in my music program.  I hope you will be able to
derive some benefit from its use.  I am not a professional programmer, only
a hobbiest/amateur.  Please keep in mind that I have had no help from anyone
on this project, except from a friend who wrote a neat Drawing program which
I used to create much of the artwork and icons.  He doesn't want his name
mentioned, so this is all the credit I can give.  He was the only other real
beta tester for the program as well.  Neither of us have hard drives, so the
File Functions and Auto checking of Disk Space could be problematic!  It
should run OK if booted from floppy and files are loaded and saved to floppy.

Please!  Tell me what happens with Hard Drives, as well as with later model
computers (Mega's TT Falcon, etc.).  I have TOS in ROM on a 1986 520ST that
has been upgraded to 720k drives and 2.5 meg ram (that's all).  I don't
know any local users of other models, so don't have the hardware to check
the program or debug it on!  I repeat, I am not a developer and don't have
a developer's resources!  Due to my limitations, and the programs, I have
decided to offer it at no charge (FREE) to all who are interested.  It would
be fun to get to know other users over the internet (which is making this
possible).  If I thought I had any kind of following on this program, I
might try to finish some things that weren't and upgrade it to run on those
machines that it may not run on.  All of this would depend on your feedback
as a user (or not).

Anyone that is in a position of having a BBS or FTP site that interested
parties could load the program from (without my having to Email it to each),
is encouraged to let me know you can or will do this.  You have my permission
to post the program (at no charge) anywhere it would be welcomed.

I don't want to mess with Shareware details, etc.  Anyone that finds the
program useful need not feel obligated to PAY for it!  I would appreciate
a thank you or other ego booster, and I won't turn down any US funds that
might be forwarded to me.  Until it changes or I go off the NET for some
unforseen reason (death maybe! ha ha), my Email address is:

    mfeaver@s3.sonnet.com     (Located in Stockton, California USA)

IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!

Please do not write over your old Music Studio Songs, or any of your Midi
Files.  Always work on copies.  I cannot be responsible if you trash any
of these.  If you do write over the old Music Studio Files, then the old
Music Studio program can't play them anymore.  I use a different file
format with different codes for measure bars, tempos, etc. that it will not
understand.  This had to be done to encode all the special effects that
I wanted to implement, including all the Midi Controllers.

In case I forget to mention it: one of the song files named LEYASONG.SNG
was included for those that might get a kick out of it.  It was actually
generated as an experiment (in a modified program) to convert a .mid file
to a .sng file.  There are lots of stumbling blocks to do this and keep
it accurate as possible.  This test file controls duration of notes using
ties!  The beginning note is the 'note-on'.  The ending note tied is the
time for note off!  It doesn't work too bad, but is impossible to edit.
It shows and sounds the pitch bend at work, and just how fast my custom
scrolling display can go!  One of the disadvantages of this method, is
that I have to run the tempo at max. to get the timing to come out decent.
This song, like all the others uses GM/GS voices for the Roland Sound Canvas.

Additional notes:

Please read, and even print out the various .txt files that make up all the
documentation I have at this point.  You will need them to navagate the
program, but you are certainly welcome to 'wing it' without reading or
printing the docs.  Please don't email me with questions that are answered
in the text files.  If you can't find the answer anywhere in those, then
of course sent me a note and I'll try to answer questions or help.

In an effort to 'rush' to fill requests for the program, I have editted
most of the old docs, and included some new ones.  The list of things that
need to be documented yet (Special Effects, Chord Composer, and maybe more)
will have to wait until I get the time.  With only 2 users of the program,
I didn't have reason to write myself documention.  Sorry for this oversite!
If you think you will be using the program regularly and like what you see
and hear, please email me back so I can put you on the list of users that
will receive any new documentation as it is created.  If I don't receive
your feedback, you will not automatically receive the new documentation!

Note: if anyone out there can organize and cleanup this mess of text files,
into something more user friendly, I and others would certainly appreciate
it!  I am not that great at doing documentation (as you can tell).  Please
forgive typos and strange wording.  The idea to offer my work for FREE
only came to me a few days after going on the internet!

If your only use for the progam is trying to convert .sng files from old
Music Studio programs to .mid midi files exchangeable on any computer...

    You will definitely want to get the original file playing correctly
    in my program.  Two things that need to be checked and adjusted if
    needed (both on the Midi Parameters Screen): 1. Octave Range for all
    parts  2. VELocity (base) and at least AC1 (accent 1) if you used any
    accents.  Music studios velocity was NOT adjustable by voice or channel.
    All you could do was set their master volume level which had fixed
    steps (this was the basic velocity for all parts).  To this you could
    add a single accent mark which was not adjustable (as I remember), and
    cranked the velocity to the maximum (127)!

    My program defaults the files to velocities of 90, 100, 110 ,120 for
    the base and accents.  Once you have changed these for a suitable
    sound or music rendition, they will be saved if you save the .sng from
    my program (remember - don't overwrite your originals!).  The Octave
    range is adjusted in the column (1 char wide) under the 'R' of 'RB' for
    Range/Bank.  Lots of files I used to get on PD disks had really crazy
    octaves set (maybe for the Atari Internal Sound?).  So if your music
    seems to be playing an Octave hi or lo, change the settings here.

    You may want to also add some standard controllers to the front of
    your song before saving as a .mid!  These typically would be Volume,
    Pan, Reverb, Chorus, Damper (sustain) off, and maybe center the Pitch
    Bend (the value would be 64).  Also, EXPRession should be set back to
    127 (a second volume controller).  Of course, if your synth(s) don't
    respond to these, then you can ignore them.

    Once you get your musical production to sound correctly, then you can
    save to .mid and the midi file will be identical to the sound and effects
    of the .sng version!  You could certainly save a 'raw' .mid without
    even listening to it, or adjusting it; but you would then have to do
    the 'changes or improvements' in a sequencer program of some kind.

    Note: .sng to .mid does not save notes played by the internal/experi-
          mental drummer.  Don't expect them to be there.  Also, the
          internal drummer is not available while playing Midi Files.

Lastly, some features of Music Studio and '88 that are NOT implemented and
you will lose:

    1. The ability to record (from a keyboard) a .sng file.  Try recording
       a real midi file.
    2. The lyrics are stripped from any song you load, and not saved back
       out.  I could never quite figure out how they were encoded.
       The Midi File Player part will display Karaoke midi's that are
       encoded properly.  You have to know ahead of time that the file
       is Karaoke, and manually switch to that mode (or back).
    3. There is no Print Song File function.  You could use the standard
       keys for a screen dump to a graphics page.  I do make an XBIOS call
       to initialize the driver which works fine on the main screen and
       others (although I don't remember if I tried on Medium Rez text).
       If it works on Medium Rez help screens (I think so) then you could
       dump those online text pages as a graphics page.
       I was working on a print function that would compete with Dr. T's
       QuickScore, but it was never 'realized' beyond preliminary stages.
    4. I think MusicStudio'88 did something with measure bars also, that
       is not implemented.
    5. Note stems will not be flipped ('88 feature) as I use the 'bit' for
       multiple accents (which I felt was more important than stems).  The
       bit is automatically cleared when an old file is imported/loaded.
    6. There is no Music Paint function/screen for 'drawing' music.  Never
       found it useful, sorry if you did.

There may be others I can't think of.  I hope the additions and improvements
I have made (graphics, controllers, midifiles, etc.) will out weigh the loss
of these functions.  If not, as stated earlier, DO NOT OVERWRITE OLD FILES!

That's all for now.  Read the other text files.  Looking forward to your
feedback.  Have fun.  Take it slowly.  Remember that it cost you nothing!

Sincerely yours.

   Mark Feaver

