Table of Contents
Table of Contents
TFX allows you to create music in a comfortable editing environment, while not sacrificing power for the privelidge of doing so. TFX is one of the most powerful C64 music editors available today, while still being easy to use for the musician (who usually isn't a coder ;)
It allows up to $50 (80) sectors per song, and up to 5 independent songs in one file, utilising a memory range from $1000-$2fff (8 KBytes). It can create music that udpates the sid in all channels at up to 600hz (12x each frame), and can create instruments that update the sid at up to 3600hz (72x each frame!).
The TFX editor is fully command oriented, with auto table reduction to reduce the size of your music to the minumum possible. The command tables can control (almost) any parameter of the sid.
Within the standard wave table, you can do such things as modify the AD/SR values, set the sid frequency registers directly, as well as the usual relative tables.
The filter table will allow you to set and modify any of the filter parameters from inside the table, including resonance, band, and type. This means that you can, for example, easily do a resonance sweep, or create an instrument which changes the filter type each frame.
In all tables, you have commands to add, delay, and jump around the table, in order to make your life as simple or as complex as you wish!
The TFX editor was coded by Ray ([email protected]), with some minor player modifications by A Life in Hell ([email protected]). It was originally designed by PseudoGrafx ([email protected]). This documentation was written by Ray ([email protected]) and A Life in Hell ([email protected]).
The songs included on the examples disk are by their respective authors, who are: (list of demo songs and authors would go here, if I'd done it).
Finally. TFX would not be the editor that it is today without the input of beta testing team, so thanks to you guys for putting up with the downside of late night coding binges.
Table of Contents
Less bugs, Better Tasting, More Filling. Now with 20% more waldorf.
Variable hard restart - Hard restart time can now be anywhere from zero to 255 frames. TFX will keep triger (i.e. when hard restart *finishes*) syncronised between channels, and so it is perfectly safe to use different values in each channel. At least, that's the theory. It usually even works.
Pulse width can no longer "overshoot" it's target - it checks less than/greater than now. (however, zero crossings are still an issue, so we don't recommend attempting to match on pulse=0)
Table variables - you can set one of six variables in the sector editor, and then use those in your tables, as if you'd written that number there. This allows you to change the behaviour of the wave/pulse/filter table from within your song (Note: This doesn't work with Jump commands, but it does work with everything else, including trigger). v2.97 also adds symbolic view/editing of the variables inside the pattern - press '=' to toggle display of variables as numbers or as notes (in either mode, you can enter either numbers or notes into them, depending on your needs).
Control Override - Now you can control Ring Modulation, OSC Sync, Test, Gate, and even the waveform from within the sector editor.
More Vibrato Control - Commands to change the vibrato speed/depth within sectors
Hard Note Mode - This will play the note value associated with that number, where $30 is middle c, $31 is c#, etc (a table of notes is included in this document). In TFX3, you will be able to specify a note symbolicly in this mode, but this is TFX2, so you have to use numbers - this is incredibly useful with the Table Variables, tho.
Jump while gated - all tables now have a 'JWG' command, which will jump *if* the gate is set.
Filter type 00 will turn the filter off, for your unfiltered drum/filtered bass sound :)
Pulse and filter carry in editor - you can now set a flag in the sector editor with the 'nopls' (c=p) and 'noflt' (c=f) commands, which will prevent the pulse/filter table pointers from being reset on new note trigger
Optional two operator pulse/filter programs (finalPulse = pulse1 + pulse2 only, right now) through the "split table" (SPL, c=q) command - use the 'complextable' version of the player.
Ability to change the speed at which the wavetable is executed - see the 'spd' wave table command.
Import for TFX v2.7, v2.8 and v2.9 files, and a new on-disk format that is portable between players, and there is multiple player versions included for varying needs (less ram/rastertime, better quality, etc). Be aware that when importing from another player, sometimes the "note count" parameter will be corrupted!
Greater filter control precision - control all 11 bits of cutoff frequence instead of just the upper eight.
The "hyperpacker" PC tool, for re-packing songs with reduced player/compressed data to save memory.
Table of Contents
These are the keys that you can use in any window or menu. (Note: where [Shift] is listed, it is only required when you are NOT in MIDI mode, and when you are in midi mode, shift is required for all other commands :)
| key | Description |
|---|---|
| F1 | Play the current song from the start |
| F3 | Stop playing of the current song |
| F5 | If nothing has changed in the song since it was stopped, continue from the current position, otherwise start playing from the song. (Note that loading and saving will also cause this command to restart the song) |
| F7 | Fast Forward (Only active while the key is held) |
| Control | Open up the main menu if it's not already open, otherwise cancel whichever window is open. |
| run/stop | Toggle between Edit and Play modes (This can be over ridden by holding shift with a key - i.e. if you're in edit only mode, holding shift will play whichever note you are holding, and vice versa for when you are in play only mode). In play mode, no matter where you are in the editor, the note that you pressed will be played with the currently selected instrument. In edit mode, things will behave as you would expect them to. Note that Play mode is refered to interchangibly as "Midi Mode". |
| [Shift] + - | Increase/Decrease working Octave |
| [Shift] : ; | Increase/Decrease working Instrument |
| a-z,@*^^:;=,./1-0.L | Plays the relevant note or instrument (see below) |
| [Shift] a-f 0-9 | Writes number onto cursor position |
| F2,F4,F6,F8 | Slows down playing 1,2,4,8x (You can hold down multiple keys at once to get differnt values... i.e. F2 and F6 for 5x (1+4) |
| Commodore+Restore | Reinitialize the Editor (Lifesaver! :) |
| cursor keys | Do the obvious thing ;) |
| [Shift] ,. | Page up/down |
| clr | Clears the contents of the current window |
| home | moves the cursor to the top of the current window |
| insert/delete | insert/delete line (if there is anything to delete or space to insert ;) |
The first thing you'll want to do, is configure TFX using the main menu. To enter the main menu, press control. Once inside the menu, you can press control to back out of any dialog or menu, and return to the previous menu/dialog.
You can navigate the menu and all dialogs using the cursor keys and return.
TFX Files have the prefix "_". This is how the editor knows which files belong to us. In front of files that can be used in editor is an additional charecter. For music it's "m", setup is "s", single instrument is "i" and a set of instruments is "ii".
When you select "Load" off the file menu, a dialog will be displayed, with a listing of all TFX songs found on the current disk.
You can press 'D' to reread the directory listing. Do the usual cursor/return navigating that you've always done. :P
If the selected file isn't a TFX file, the message "No TFX player found" will be shown, and the contents of the editor will NOT be overwritten. :)
*** *** *** *** *** *** Please Note *** *** *** *** *** ***
Due to a bug in VICE, you need to have it set to use Full 1541 emulation when loading files, or else it will show "No files found". We don't know why this occours ;). You can turn it off after you have loaded the directory listing. We have no idea why, or if this is a problem in other emulators. This is an emulation problem. We are not fixing it. SEP.
We also take this oppertunity to point of that all of the current sid emulators are not terribly TFX friendly (that includes resid/sidplay2, right now - for me, resid seems to require an additional frame for certain ADSR things to work, and some of TFX's filter effects sound TERRIBLE in it) when start using some of the more advanced features of the wave and filter table.
You have been warned. Real C64 rules ;).
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Files are automatically packed for you when saved to disk, with a $1000/$1003 (/$1006 for multispeed) player. When the packing is complete, the editor will tell you how much memory the actual file takes.
You also are given the oppertunity to add a message to the file. You know you want world peace ;) Oh, yeah, some people put credits here, too. Me, I put a message of world peace, but I'm an idiot :P
But I digress. Wildly.
Then, the music is written to the disk, and (if you're replacing a file) the older file removed. This happens in exactly the above stated order, so that any error that occours during saving won't clobber your existing file. :)
It is suggested to use "Save As" to backup your files, unless you're making very small changes. This way, you can always go back to an older file if you screw this one up :) (and yes, I've done that more times than I can count :P) (*USUALLY - TFX IS NOT INFALLIBLE. DON'T BLAME US IF YOU LOSE YOUR FILE, OKAY?* Ray says: It is removed by the "@:" disc command, so, if there is an error on disc, the original file is NOT destryed, but we still recomened you sometimes use the save as command. Never believe in the magnetic circle :D)
Note that when entering a filename for Save As (or any file dialog within TFX), the editor adds the required identifying charecters ("_", etc) to the filename for you, so you don't have to do this.
If everything goes to hell, an error dialog is shown telling you what went wrong (Disk Full, etc), and your file isn't saved!
TFX doesn't use any disc turbo's, it only relies on KERNAL or your cartrige/turbo. So, if you have problems with your cart/turbo, instead of sending us bombs, instead send us beer, money, and girls - and send the aformentioned bombs to the creators of your cart. TFX is tested with a FC III and works well with it's loader. We havn't tested any other carts.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| [Shift] Return | Switch between Table / Instrument editor |
| Return | Go back to the place from whence you came ;) |
| Commodore p | Save current instrument |
| Commodore l | Save all instruments |
| Commodore o | Load instrument into the current position (it's tables are rather handily merged into the current song :) |
| Commodore k | Load all instruments |
| Commodore f | Find next set of empty positions in the tables, and sets the current instrument to use them. |
After selecting "Instruments..." from the main menu, you are taken to a the instrument editor.
The first time you look at this screen, you will think "Goddamn, this is complicated!"
The second time you look at this screen, you will think "This is even more complicated than I thought!!!!"
The third time, it will look well arranged and easy to use.
The information window, at the top of the screen, shows the current filter frequency, pulse frequency and of course note frequency (including vibrato) of the channel which you have selected for "midi mode" (more on midi mode later).
There is two ways of displaying filter information. Direct resonance/type parameters, and a "graphical" representation of the type. Three F's are displayed in the status area, representing the 3 filter bands (Low, Bandpass, and High Pass). When the F is white, that band is enabled.
Below that, are shown the current table positions, and the current working octaves for the top and bottom of the keyboard.
ADSR | WT | PT | FT | FLAGS | VDL | VDP | VS 0000 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00000000 | 0 | 0 | 00
| ADSR | Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release. The standard sid envelope parameters, you know them, you love them ;). *** we should also write next note 'SID' - now sid works. Many ppl on #c-64 say that if SHOULD help coz majority of them 'know what ADSR' do, but don't understand "why" |
| WT | Initial wave table pointer. *** 'start of table' rather |
| PT | Initial pulse table pointer. |
| FT | Initial filter table pointer. |
| FLAGS | Miscelaneous Instrument Flags - explained below. |
| VDL | Vibrato Delay |
| VDP | Vibrato Depth |
| VS | Vibrato Speed |
On the bottom right of the screen, you will see a list of words that you can't actully get to (not at all conincidentally, the list below :). This list is a visual representation of what the flags setting contains. Items are highlighted when they are selected for your viewing convinence. The flags from left to right are on the list from top to bottom.
| No Pulse Reset | Don't reset the pulse table at each note trigger. Note that if there is no pulse table currently playing, the results will be unpredictable (the player will probably do bad things ;) (should we change this to only continue on same instrument ala sid duzz it?) |
| rnote pos hl | Changes relative note commands in the wave table from being relative to the frequency, to being relative to the note value right shifted 4 bits (so, say are using middle C, which is note $40, then the relative commands will be relative to sid frequency $400) |
| no flt set | Don't reset the filter table at each note trigger. This works exactly like 'No Pulse', but for the filter tables. If you are filtering multiple channels, then only one should have control of the filters - instruments that will be played on "slave" channels should have this flag set. TFX will atempt to resolve when you try and filter multiple channels - but only once can control the parameters, of course, and this allows finer control over which instruments will do so, than just letting TFX decide. |
| Filter | Turns on/off filtering for this instrument. |
| Hold manual | Turns off automatic gating of this instrument. If this is enabled, the instrument's gate will be held on until you explicitly issue a GATE command. *** see down about 'holdings' etc. |
| pulse off | Don't execute pulse table at all. Don't write anything to the pulse width registers. |
| hold off | Don't hold the note at all |
| hold gate | Hold until a GATE command is issued |
| Key | Table | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commodore a | wave | SPD | Set the speed at which the wave table is executed |
| Commodore c | wave | RHL | Set the wave table to relative low freqency mode |
| Commodore x | wave | RHI | Set the wave table to relative Hi Frequency mode |
| Commodore c | wave | RHL | Set the wave table to relative low freqency mode |
| Commodore w | wave |
SHI | Set the high byte of the sid frequency register to X |
| Commodore e | wave |
SHL | Set the high byte of the sid frequency register to $0x and the low byte to $y0 |
| Commodore r | wave |
AD | Set the attack/decay register to X |
| Commodore t | wave |
SR | Set the sustain/release register to X |
| Commodore n | wave | NRM | Set the wave table to use "normal" mode (i.e. transpose, like every other editor :) |
| Commodore j | wave, pulse, filter |
JMP | Jump to position X |
| Commodore g | wave, pulse, filter |
JWG | Jump to position X *if* the note is currently held |
| Commodore q | pulse, filter |
SPL | Jump opposite pulse/filter split program to position X |
| Commodore d | wave, pulse, filter |
DEL | Delay for X frames |
| Commodore h | wave, pulse, filter | HRD | Enter 'Hard Note Mode' - Each number represents a physical note, with $30 as middle C ($31=C#, $32=D, etc) |
| Commodore u | wave, pulse, filter |
USE | Use variable X (Note: actually variable X+1, to save raster time - so 'use 0' will use varable #1, 'use 1' will use variable #2, etc) |
| Commodore a | pulse, filter |
ADD | Add X to the current value until it reaches Y (Note: for pulse, this matches $yy0... for example, if your pulse table adds an odd number, it may not reach $yy0, but, say $yy1, and then the add will loop infinitly! Be careful :) |
| Commodore b | pulse, filter |
SUB | Subtract X from the current value until it reaches Y (Warning for ADD applies here, too :) |
| Commodore s | filter |
SET | Set the filter parameters (first parameter is type/ resonance, second is cutoff freq) |
| pulse |
SET | Set the pulse width to $xx0 |
The wave table display is split into 2 parts, like most editors.
In normal mode, The first byte is split into 4 bits and a nibble, these being wave type and parameter (Gate, Ringmod, Osc Sync, Test).
The meaning of the second byte is depends on the selected 'wave table mode'. The wave table modes, is switched by commands within the wave table, which can be specified at any time. The default mode is "Normal" mode. Is recomended that combine modes as you need them..
so the following:
l W G R S T i a a i y e n v t n n s e e e g c t | | | | | | v v v v v v 00 2 1 0 1 0 00
Would be an OSC Sync'd sawtooth waveform
If you place a command (nrm/shi - whatever) in the right column, then the left column (wave type) is ignored. ***(See general note about commands and how editor work with commands / its parametres)***.
When a note is triggered, assuming that restart length is greater than zero, the first line in this instrument's note table is sent to the sid to restart it, with the right column being placed in the SR register during the hard restart period. This should *not* be gated.
A few words about hard restart: There are many ways to restart the sid, and each of them creates a different sound. Setting "00000 FF" for a single frame will achieve a very quick restart, which sounds quite good. If you want to use the more traditional "00001 00" hard restart (09 00 in other players :), you will need to set the hard restart length to *2* frames, in order to make that useful. But, the advantage is, your notes will have a much stronger attack - you can hear this quite clearly on percussion instruments, for example. You can set restart length to zero, which will cause this line to not be executed at all, but if you are working for low raster time, you may wish to not do this, and hence another option, is to place the note's SR value there to create a note which doens't restart, achieving the same smooth sound, without the extra raster overhead of doing both trigger *and* wavetable play in a single frame.
The wave table will execute commands each frame until it reaches a non-command line. It is possible to create an infinite loop, for example:
00 0 0 0 0 0 SHI 01 0 0 0 0 0 JMP 02 0 0 0 0 0 00
Since no normal parameter is ever reached. You can break out of this loop by pressing commodore+restore to reinit the player.
00 0 0 0 0 0 SHI 01 0 0 0 0 0 NRM 02 4 1 0 0 0 00 03 0 0 0 0 0 JMP 04 0 0 0 0 0 02
SHI is here redundant, because it is overriden by NRM mode. So don't do this - you'll only waste raster time :)
Normal mode is set after note trigger or explicitly by 'nrm' command. In this mode, the second byte is a semitone offset, like most editors.
00 4 1 0 0 0 00
would correspond to 00-41 in the JCH/DMC/SDI editors (and most others), and will play a pulse tone with the gate on, not transposed, whereas
00 4 1 0 0 0 01
will play a pulse tone transposed up one semitone (c-4 -> c#4)
Hard frequency modes is set by using the 'SHI' or 'SHL' command. In this mode the second byte is written directly to the SID frequency registers. If you look at the percussion instruments in the demo track, these should make sense.
00 0 0 0 0 0 SHI (or SHL) 01 4 1 0 0 0 08 02 4 1 0 0 0 06 03 4 1 0 0 0 04 04 4 1 0 0 0 02 05 4 1 0 0 0 01
There are 2 hard frequency modes. "SHI" will set only the High byte of the sid, whereas "SHL" will set both the high and low bytes.
The SID frequency register takes a 16 bit value ($0000 to $ffff). If were to use $45 as a parameter:
SHI will set the frequency to $4500
SHL will set the frequency to $0450 (that why it is named 'hl' - it will set both the high and low bytes).
As you can see, SHL mode can be used only for low frequences. Right now, we don't have an additional command which to set high nibble.
Why do we have two commands? SHL mode allows you create much 'nicer' bass sounds than setting only the high frequncy register, since its steps are 16 times smaller.
Don't forget that you can combine modes. If you wish to play a hihat at the start of an instrument, for example, you can do it easily with following commands, as shown below in the class hard restarted pulse instrument example that you proabbly know from every other modern player ever:
00 0 0 0 0 1 FF 01 0 0 0 0 0 SHI 02 8 1 0 0 0 FF 03 0 0 0 0 0 NRM 04 4 1 0 0 0 00
On the first frame, the mode is change to SHI (Set Hi Frequency), and the frequency set to $ff00. On the second frame, the table is set back to normal more, and the original note is played. This instrument also resets the sid noise counter on trigger, to get a reliable sound from the noise waveform.
Relative frequency mode is set using the 'RHI' or 'RHL' commands. In this mode right column is a frequency to be added to current note frequency.
In other words, they take the current sid frequency, add our value too it, and push it back. This can be used to create, for example, a non-standard vibrato. (the example below is a sawtooth vibrato)
00 0 0 0 0 1 FF 01 4 1 0 0 0 RHI (or RHL) 02 4 1 0 0 0 08 03 4 1 0 0 0 06 04 4 1 0 0 0 04 05 4 1 0 0 0 02 06 4 1 0 0 0 00 07 4 1 0 0 0 JMP 08 4 1 0 0 0 01
If the 'rnote hl' bit is set on this instrument, then instead of the frequency of current playing note, it will its its index, like in hard note mode, but with different sized note steps (if you play note c-0, it is like hard frequency mode, but if you play C#0, d-0, etc, you will find that steps are muhc smaller than normal (the full seven octave range will only span a few actual notes).
Hard note mode is sets exlicitly by 'HRD'. In this mode, right column means 'hard note id' - $40 for c4. Sometime it is useful. Is recomened to combine with other modes / commands, in order to attempt to play two things in the one channel.
Hard note mode is most useful with table variables - you can create an arbitary two note sound with the following table:
00 0 0 0 0 1 FF 01 0 0 0 0 0 NRM 02 4 1 0 0 0 00 03 0 0 0 0 0 HRD 04 0 0 0 0 0 USE 05 4 1 0 0 0 0 06 0 0 0 0 0 JMP 07 0 0 0 0 0 01
And then you simply set variable 1 to the second note that you want to play.
You can set the ADSR values in the wave table using the AD/SR commands. A value of $00 will restore the original ADSR values.
DEL $xx will delay for a number of frames. This is useful in multispeed tracks, or when doing "combined" instruments (like hihat/bass/tone combos)
JMP $xx will jump to given line. When you insert into the table, the JMP's parameter will be modifed to point to where you told it to, because that would really wreck your afternoon, otherwise.
The pulse table is quite simple.... it works like a lot of other pulse tables you may have used.
l i v n a e l | | v v 00 56
Value can be command and its parameter or direct pulse width entry. The sid's pulse width is 12 bits wide ($000 -> $fff), but pulse table only represents 8 bits, hence a direct pulse entry will only set the high 8 bits. So, $56 means '$560' to be stored. There is no need to 'have' 4 lower bits in hard sets. However, all other commands (ADD/SUB) work over the full range.
| SET $xx | will set the pulse width to $xx0 |
| ADD $xx | add every frame $xx till it will reach freq in next line |
| SUB $xx | subtracts in the same way - but substracts |
| DEL $xX | delay for a number of frames. |
| JMP $xx | works just as it does in the wave table |
Example for ADD/SUB:
00 12 01 ADD 02 01 <- parameter 02 13 04 JMP 06 00
Causes a 'sawtooth' vibrato with pulse. It will go from $120 to $130 by $001 each frame. Note that if you try and subtract until you hit zero, the pulse width will wrap around to $fff, which is greater than zero, so better match 1 instead :).
TFX v2.97 introduces an experimental split mode for the pulse program, where you have two pulse programs executing simeltanously (which is useful if, for example, you wish to have a long pulse sweep, but also a small pulse vibrato on top of that, along with of course many other uses). This is activated by using the "SPL $xx" command, which will start the other program running from pulse table position $xx. You can use this command at any time in either program, to control the position of the other. TFX currently only supports additive mixing of them, with the second pulse table being offset rather than signed so that you can do negative adds easily well (finalPulse = pulse1 + (pulse2-$0800)).
The filter table mostly works just like the pulse table, but with pulse width of course exchanged for filter frequency. Because of filter is 8 bit, it coresponds directly with its frequency.
All commands work same way, except that 'SET' now takes two parmeters, 'SET $ab $cc', which sets Type of filter (a) and Resonance (b) and the cutoff to $cc. Additionally, "add" and "sub" only accept exact matches, and so you need to be careful with your add/sub commands :).
Example - filter for dum, going from 8 to 0.
00 SET 01 3F <- resoance: $f, type $3 (lo+mid) 02 08 03 SUB 04 01 05 00 06 JMP 07 05
Feel free to change filter type/resonance at runtime. It makes nice sounds :).
| Key | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|
| [Shift] Return | Enter the selected sector. | |
| Commodore m | Select the subsong to edit (press 1-5 after pressing c= m) | |
| Commodore s | Save the current cursor position (1-5) | |
| Commodore g | Recalk saved cursor position (1-5). | |
| Commodore x | eXchange the current track with another (1-3) | |
| Commodore @ | Copy the contents of the current position to the clipboard. | |
| Commodore * | Paste the clipboard at the current position. | |
| <- | Play in trace mode from the start of the song. | |
| Commodore <- | Play in tract mode from the current position. | |
| [Shift] <- | Start tracing the currently playing song | |
| Return | Go down to the next line | |
| Commodore + | TRANSPOSE +$xx | Transpose sounds down X semitones |
| Commodore - | TRANSPOSE -$xx | Transpose sounds up X semitones. |
| Commodore e | END | Stop playing the song. |
| Commodore l | LOOP line | Loop back to given line |
This is the window TFX starts in. It displays 3 coloums, being the sector lists for the three channels.
Enter the sector numbers in the track list, and hit shift-return on any given sector number to edit that sector. You can also enter commands into the track list by pressing the appropriate key combination (see the top of this file :)
When in trace play mode, the cursor will dissapear, and the currently playing track will be highlighted. You cannot edit while in trace play mode... you must either leave trace mode or stop playing first. (Pressing any key will do this).
The information window, at the top of the screen, shows the play time, the current sector/row number for each of the three tracks, the position in the track window, the current working instrument, and the current/max raster time used.
END - stops playing LOOP $xx - jumps in given line (again: editor cares about line and if you insert/delete something, it agains point to right value)
TRANSPOSE will transpose up/down your music by a number of semitones. As mentioned in the command list, it operates directly, not as an offset, which means that if you use, say, TRANSPOSE +02, you use TRANSPOSE +/-00 to get back to your original key, *not* TRANSPOSE -02!!
Note that this command *must* be followed by a valid sector, or else the player will get confused. If this happens, you can just hit commodore-restore, and you will regain control of the editor (phew! :)
it will start playing all channels from horizonatl position, e.g.:
| | 01 | 34 | | 56 | 31 | | 11 | 39 | | | | 02 | 34 | | 57 | 32 | | 12 | 3a | | | | 03 | 34 | | 58 | 31 | | 13 | 3b | | | | 04 | 35 | | 59 | 32 | | 14 | 3c | | <- here is cursor | | 05 | 35 | | 60 | 31 | | 15 | 3d | |
start play at positions 04/59/14... We recomend to use 'same' length for patterns, bue it is yours thing :)
| Key | Function |
|---|---|
| = | Toggle Symbolic/Numeric view of variables |
| Commodore , . | Go to the next/previous sector |
| [Shift] n m | Transpose notes from cursor to END up/down one semitone |
| [Shift] v | Toggles "Voice Mode" (wether notes are played as you enter them or note) |
| <- | Play the current sector in trace mode. Hit any key to stop playing, or the <- key to just switch off trace mode, but keep playing. |
| [Shift] <- | Play current sector in loop mode without tracing |
| Commodore <- | Play current sector from this line. |
| [Shift] Commodore <- | Start tracing the currently playing sector |
| Commodore (up arrow) | Copy from current position to clipboard (Doesn't copy the commands of the first note, but copies everything else until the end of the sector) |
| Commodore * | Paste at the current position |
| Commodore 1 | Instrument Mode #1 (Discussed later) |
| Commodore 2 | Instrument Mode #2 (Discussed later) |
| Commodore 3 | Instrument Mode #3 (Discussed later) |
+----+---+-------+ <-- sector editor window :) |NOTE|INS|COMMAND| +----+---+-------+ |A 4 |02 |VOL 0A | |--- |.. |... .. | |C#3 |02 |VOL 06 | |... |.. |DUR 07 | <- see note #1 |--- |.. |... .. | |END |.. |... .. | |--- |.. |... .. | +----+---+-------+
note #1: you can use multiple commands per note. When you do, the note and instrumnet columns are filled with dots, and are not editable.
There are two ways to create your sectors. You can:
Set the speed on the top row with DUR, or ever just use DUR 01, and set the speed globally in the options menu. Of course, if you take the global route, you can't change speed mid song ;)
Then, you can just use it like a standard track editor, with --- as an empty row as usual. This does, however, use more memory than the second method, which means that you can't put as much in each sector - each sector can only be up to 255 bytes!
Set DUR to be the length of each note. Some people (me ;) find this method more difficult, but some say it's worth the time. DMC/Future Composer/Et al use this method.
Because I use the first method, that is what I'll concentrate one. Extrapolate to the second at your own will :).
As you can see in the above diagram, the sector editor is seperated into three coloums, Note, Instrument, and Effect.
So, the first you will probably want to do, is select an instrument. Do this with shift : and shift ;.
Once you have selected an instrument, move up and down the sector with the cursor keys, and press one of the keys listed below to enter your note.
If you are in midi mode, you will need to hold shift with the key, in order to have it enter into the track editor (run-stop toggles this mode)
High octave +--+-+-+-+--+--+-+-+-+-+-+--+--+-+-+-+--+ | |2| |3| | |5| |6| |7| | |9| |0| | | +-+ +-+ | +-+ +-+ +-+ | +-+ +-+ | | q | w | e | r | t | y | u | i | o | p | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ Low octave +--+-+-+-+--+--+-+-+-+-+-+--+--+-+-+-+--+ | |s| |d| | |g| |h| |j| | |l| |;| | | +-+ +-+ | +-+ +-+ +-+ | +-+ +-+ | | z | x | c | v | b | n | m | , | . | / | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
As you enter a note, TFX will move the cursor onto the next line for you, unless the next line is an END, in which case the cursor will stop there (Isn't that useful? It is if you don't watch screen while playing... :)
To add an effect to a note, we move into the effect coloum, and simple press the approprate effect key (see the key combos at the top of this file). Then we can set any parameters which go with that effect in the same way that we enter everything else :)
Overwriting a note will not change it's effects, so if you wish to change a note *and* it's effects, you must do this explicitly.
Note that you cannot use "$ff" as a command parameter under any circumstances, as this is reserved for internal use by TFX. Don't worry, the editor won't allow you to enter it, even if you try :)
Two of the sector commands actully belong in the note coloum, END and GATE.
END signifies the end of the current sector. Once this is reached, TFX will move on to the next sector in the track list, as you would expect.
GATE will cause the currently playing note to switch off it's gate (i.e. a note off event).
There are 3 "Instrument modes" in TFX, selectable with commodore 1, 2 or 3:
Set both instrument and note, but all instruments following this one take the same instrument unless explicitly changed.
This is the default editing mode. This mode performs like most other editors when entering notes. However, when you change a value in the note coloum, all instruments of the same type below the cursor will also change. So if you have:
C-4 10 C-4 10 C-4 10 C-4 11
and change the second line's instrument to 12, you will end up with:
C-4 10 C-4 12 C-4 12 C-4 11
This makes it easy to change an entire sections instruments all in one go. Of course, you can just reset the next lines instrument to 10 to get:
C-4 10 C-4 12 C-4 10 C-4 11
The reason this behaves like this, is that it only actully internally stores an instrument change event when the instrument is changed, in order to save memory. so the original example is actully stored internally as
C-4 10 C-4 C-4 C-4 11
When viewed in this way, this behavior makes perfect sense :). What you need to watch out for, however, is the following. Lets say you have:
C-4 10 C-4 10 C-4 10 C-4 10
And then you change the 3rd value to 11, showing:
C-4 10 C-4 10 C-4 11 C-4 11
Which is stored internally as:
C-4 10 C-4 C-4 11 C-4
Now, you change that 11 back to a 10, and the internal representation changes to:
C-4 10 C-4 C-4 10 C-4
So, we're back to having 4 C-4 10's in a row. Now, change the first 10 to a 12, and you'll get the following result:
C-4 12 C-4 12 C-4 10 C-4 10
why? because the second 10 is still there, resetting the instrument back to 10. However, if you press delete in the instrument coloum of that row, the internal 10 will be deleted, and then you will get the result you would expect :)
Note always uses last instrument. In this mode, any note you enter will always use the instruments of notes above it.
Each note has seperate instrument. In this mode, each instrument has it's own note entry, and instruments can be changed completly independently. Note that when you leave the sector it will revert to mode #1 to save memory.
There are 5 important status displays in the top window for sector editing:
| Position | This shows the current cursor position in bytes (the first value) and lines (the second value). Two sectors with the same numnber of lines and the same DUR value will be the same length, whereas bytes is the actual memory taken up by the sector. Sectors can be a maximum of 256 bytes long. If you reachined position $f0 editor start flashing border on EVERY change to inform you: you're neraly at possibilites. |
| Length | This shows the length of your sector in *ticks*. This is the most accurate way to make sure that your sectors are all the same length, as position is affected by the DUR value of notes and such. However, it is not as simple as position, so lazy people (like me ;) won't always use it :P |
| (picture of 2 joined quarter notes) | The current selected instrument. |
| Treble clef | The currently selected octave for the top and bottom halves of the keyboard respectivly |
| Voice | The currently selected voice mode. When it is white, notes will be played as they are entered. When it is black, notes will be entered silently. |
| Key | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Commodore - | --- | Pause for one note/row (aka Empty Row, if you're using this like a track based editor :) |
| Commodore + | END | End this sector. |
| Commodore (up arrow) | GATE | Gate Off/Note Off |
| Commodore a | AD $00-$FE | Set the Attack/Decay for the *current* playing note. |
| Commodore s | SR $00-$FE | Set the Sustain/Release for the *current* playing note. |
| Commodore q | ADN $00-$FE | Set the Attack/Decay for the *next* note played. |
| Commodore w | SRN $00-$FE | Set the Sustain/Release for the *next* note played. |
| Commodore x | SWITCH | Toggle restarting the tables on a new note trigger. If switch is set, only the frequency of the notes will be changed when a new note is triggered. |
| Commodore d | DUR $00-$3F | Set the current Duration value (ticks per line) |
| Commodore g | GLIDE $00-$FE | Glide from this note to the note on the next line. |
| Commodore h | SLIDE $00-$FE | Slide from the current playing note to this note. |
| Commodore v | VOL $0-$F | Set the volume (actully sustain level ;) of this note. |
| Commodore b | FVOL $0-$F | Set the global volume |
| Commodore 7 | SETFF $00-$FE | Set the filter frequency. |
| Commodore 8 | SETFT $00-$FE | Set the filter type. |
| Commodore p | SETPF $00-$FE | Set the pulse width |
| Commodore y | A GATE $00-$FE | Set the auto-gate timeout to X frames (not as simple as it sounds, see notes below) |
| Commodore j | FADE+ $0-$F | Fade the global volume from 0 to X |
| Commodore k | FADE- $0-$F | Fade the global volume from X to 0 |
| Commodore 1-6 | SETVAR1-6 $0-$FE | Set table variable n |
| Commodore c | CTRL $00-$FE | Set control bits override (the control byte will be Or'd with this value) |
| Commodore r | RLEN $00-$FE | Set the length of hard restart for this channel (in frames) |
| Commodore t | SPED $00-$FE | Set the global speed |
| Commodore i | VSPD $00-$FE | Set the vibrato speed |
| Commodore o | VDEP $00-$FE | Set the vibrato depth |
| Commodore n | NOPL | Toggle 'no pulse reset' mode |
| Commodore f | NOFL | Toggle 'no filter reset' mode |
Most of the effects are self-explainitory, but some of them have some... interesting quirks ;)
GLIDE/SLIDE: If the note that this is invoked on, and the note on the next line do not share the same instrument, the player will crash, and you will need to press commodore-restore to regain control of the editor. If something went wrong, don't forget that fact, if you see 'same' instrument, doesn't necessary mean it is 'same' - see previous example and 'delete' at isntrument column !!! (this is needed due performance). These commands also NEED TO BE LAST in the command list !!!
(Ray says: it will not CRASH, it wil just do somethign what you for sure not expect. One way is to crash.)
(A Life in Hell says: It crashed for me! :)
SWITCH: This command toggles a flag which decides whether note events trigger a new note, or just adjust the frequency of the currently playing note. Like glide, this will cause the player to behave unexpectedly if you try and change instruments while the flag is set.
A GATE: When using automatically gated notes, this sets the number of ticks *before* the end of the current of the current line in which to gate.
What this means, is that if you're workign at DUR 04, and you select an A GATE of 01 (the default, btw), the note will be turned off after 3 ticks. If DUR is 6, it will be turned off after 5 ticks. Always X ticks before the end of the line, where X is the given to A GATE. This is quite usefull for multiframed music.
If you select an A GATE value of zero, notes will note be ungated, and you will have the same "Volume reudction" problems that occour in multispeed tunes with the default settings.
If you select an A GATE value of above the current DUR value, the note will never be turned off!
See note about 'note length' inside 'instrument' editor.
TFX allows you to have up to 64 effects per line. By default, each line only has one effect attached to it, however you can add a second effect by pressing insert *while in the effect coloum* of the line you want an extra effect on.
Thde note column for this new line will display "...", meaning that this line is not a real line, but just an extra effect line for the line above. It will also not be counted in the line counter, so you can safely use multiple effects per note without having to work to caluclate your sector lengths :).
Sweeet :P
TFX will allow you to create music anywhere between 1x and 12x for all channels, and up to 72x for any single channel. However, you need to keep the following things in mind when doing so:
Above 10x, you *must* use the ADC tables to position your rasters correctly, or else the player will run over itself sometimes, and cause your music to not play correctly. This is because, at these speeds, the TFX player is taking up to 90%-100% of the c64's CPU. Try to make vectors with 12 framed zak :)
If you do not increase the Note count parameter, you will have problems with notes running over each other, becasuse the sid does not reset the gate quickly enough. The sign of this, is the notes playing with ever decreasing volume. This applies less if you are using the $1006 player (see below) and you disable adding to the note count on $1006 calls.
There is 2 ways of making multiframe music in TFX. In the default mode, the player will simply be called several times per frame. There is another mode, selected by turning on the "Play mode" option, where the $1003 (main) player is only called once per frame, and the rest of the frames calls are to a $1006 player, which only updates the tables. The $1006 player can be configured to only update certain parameters, as seen in the defplay option. You can range anywhere from only updating the waveform, to a full player.
One useful thing you can do, if you wish to change a singleframe music into a multiframe one, is to select the $1003/$1006 player, and set the player to not update the note count. Then, all of the instrument parameters will be updated multiframe, but the note position will not, so your song will play the notes at the same speed, but all of the instruments will be updated multiple times per frame.
When using the $1006 player, you can choose how many times each frame that each channel is called, allowing you to have, say, 1 channel at 1x, and the other two channels at 4x. In the options dialog, there settings for Channel 1, 2, and 3 just below the speed option. If any of these are set to 0, the player will be called only once per frame for that channel.
If it is set to one or more, the player will be called that many times for each $1006 call. So if you have a 4x music, and you have a channel set to be called 2 times, that channel will be updated 8x per frame.
Engh theory, some example - let's say we have 5 framed zak:
ADC Table for 5x music:
ADC 3c > 3c > 3c
3c 3c 3c
3c 3c 3c
3c 3c 3c
If you select 'play mode' then you need to play song by: 1x $1003 (first one is always $1003) and 4x $1006.
If you don't select 'play mode' then you need to ply song by 5x $1003. For demos, etc. is recomened use $1006 (sounds) rather $1003 because it takes lees time. If you use $1006 (sound player) see 'defplay' and 'ch speeds' above. It have meaning then.
If you want to manually changes space between frames (necessary for high framed zak) select 'USE ADC' table switch.
Table is processed from left->right top->down. For 5 framed zaks, only 5 values are used. First is awlays ignored. Now move cursor to 'second' 3c. By commo +- you can change 'space' between its frame. If you want to save raster time, but you want to keep 'faster' duration, you can make song like:
$1003 $1006 $1003 $1006
How ? Pretty easy. 'Use adc', select play mode (so, you have 4 time zak with $1003 and 3x $1006). Now go to 3rd 'adc' value and press c= + $ (US currency). As you can see, now you have what you wanted. That why ADC can be changed by multiples of 2. 1 is used for determinning what to play ($1003/$1006).
Example: Demo song, 2 frames, SECOND frame max 3 raster lines.
'play mode' - on
'use adc' - on
ch 1 - 0
ch 2 - 0
ch 3 - 1
defplay -> 'filter' + 'wave'
adjust 'adc' to play second frame in correct distance (ask coder) - it is important for miscellaneous sounds ! (coder can play framed with $40 distance for ex.)
What it means ? Song will be played by $1003/$1006. For you it means:
Song is '1' time (duration, note lengths, etc.). Channel 0 and 1 is 'one framed'. BUT (it is a point :) channel 3 is 2 framed - its filter and wave table processing.
Don't afraid, it is not as complicated as looks :)
In the options dialog, accessable from the main menu, you can set a number of environment configurations for TFX. These include:
There are 4 color schemes available to you, to suit your eyes and/or monitor/TV :). Choose the one which you like :-P
This sets the parameters for the keyboard, specifically the delay and speed of key repeat, and the delay for destructive commands. All values are specified in frames (1/50th of a second for pal, 1/60th for ntsc ;)
This sets miscelanious options for editing your song :).
| Play Mode | Select wether the multiframe player should only call $1003, or wether it should also call $1006 to update multiframe instruments. When this is set, the $1006 players will only update the parameters set in the defplay section, otherwise it will update *all* parameters every call. |
| Edit Mode | Selects how the scrolling in the order editor works. When on, the orders will all scroll together. When off, they will scroll seperatly. |
| Use ADC | This will use the ADC table to specify the number of lines between each call of the multiframe player, instead of calling each one at an equal interval. |
| Note Count | The number of frames to be played BEFORE the note gate is turned on. This is required for, so that each note is released for long enough to allow the next one to start. This ia particularly important if you are not using hard restart on all of your instruments, and/or you are working on multiframe musics. Compare and contrast with the "A GATE" command, which works at the end of the note rahter than the beginning. |
| Midi Mode | Toggle wether the keyboard without shift plays notes only (on), or enters values into the editor (off). Holding down shift with a key always does the opposite of the default. |
| Midi Chan | Sepcifies which channel Midi Mode plays notes in. |
| ADC Table | When editing multiframe music, the ADC table, if enabled, specifies the numebr of lines between each frame. |
| Speed | Number of frames per tick. |
| Volume | The default global volume. |
| Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, | These specify the number of times per call that the parameters for each channel will be updated. See the section below on multispeed music. |
| Frame | The number of times per frame the music routine is called. Valid speeds are 1 (50/60hz) through 12 (600/720hz) |
| Defplay | This selects which parameters are updated in the $1006 player. This can be useful, for example, to update the note position only once per frame, while still updating the wave/arpeggio/pulse/etc, allowing you to easily experiment with different speeds. It is also useful for lowering the raster times of the $1006 calls, so you can use higher speeds more easily. |
This will erase everything. The apocalypse if coming! Well, only if you select "ALL" ;). If you select "Tracks", TFX will erase everything except for the instrument tables.
You will be asked one more time if you really mean it, and then it's all over ;)