1) Studio 5000 waveforms

Tim Sketchley

The Studio 5000 offers 14 predefined waveforms which can be used as part of an instrument definition. When defining an instrument, it can be largely a matter of trial and error to find the ones you need for that instrument until of course you know them.

Details about the sound and purpose of each waveform are given at the back of the Studio 5000 User Guide (pp 127-129). However, I have some tips which I will now explain.

I find it convenient to divide the waveforms into three 'tone groups' thus:

Low tone: Pure Round

Mid tone: Bright Hollow Watery Hard Clear

High tone: Pipes Sharp Reedy Broad Metal High

The effect of these groups is similar (broadly speaking) to the effect of the tone controls of a radio set. You should easily notice that the two low-tone waveforms sound, so to speak, as if the tone is turned down; the waveforms in the mid-tone group as if the tone is half way up; and the high-tone group contain a fair amount of treble, as if the tone is turned up.

To put it another way, they are grouped according to the brightness of the sound, with the high-tone group being the brightest. I am missing out Syncer, which is a silent waveform.

We can now set up a simple instrument whose tone is easily adjusted.

"toneins" [ 2 CHANS

1 CHAN

Pure 128 AMP

2 CHAN

Broad 100 AMP

EVERY CHAN

ON PHSET Flat Long]

Note that channel 1 plays a low-tone wave and channel 2 plays a high-tone wave. The tone of the instrument is adjusted by varying the two numbers; for instance, in our example, changing '100 AMP' to '128 AMP' will make the instrument a lot brighter.

2) Ignored natural signs

Roger Sapolsky

If the first note entered in Notepad following SCORE, normal settings and the signature word (e.g. 'sig') happens to be preceded by the natural sign ('='), the effect of 'sig' will not be cancelled as it should. To play the expected natural note, simply enter 'sig' AFTER this note, the natural symbol being then unnecessary. All notes going after 'sig' will now play correctly when preceded by '='.

3) Three little words

Roger Calkwell

In the last issue of AMPLINEX both QUIT and 7 MODE were suggested as ways of clearing PAD off the screen to make way for disc cataloguing and the like.

QUIT has the disadvantage of switching PAD off, requiring PAD and "word"GET before it reappears.

To return after 7 MODE, "word" GET (or "word" NAME) suffices.

A screen-clearing utility word will speed up your programming. I use "q" to remind me of QUIT, thus

"q" [7MODE]

This may be prefixed to a variety of commands;

qSHOW

q"word"TYPE

q*CAT

If you wish to switch to other modes, omit the 7 from the definition. The q will now take a number prefix;

7qSHOW

1qdisplayword

Another approach is;

"q" [26#OUT 12#OUT]

#OUT is the equivalent of BASIC's VDU - it treats the preceding number as an ASCII code and sends it to the screen. In this case 26 is the control code for 'default windows' and 12 is 'clear screen' - the effect is the same as VDU26, 12 in BASIC.

If you're in a hurry and don't want to take the time to define a word you can send some control codes directly with the CTRL key. Pressing Z followed by L whilst holding CTRL down throughout is equivalent to the #OUT version of q.

Two more one-letter utility words;

"s" ["*SPOOL "$+]

"x" ["*EXEC "$+]

Both *SPOOL and *EXEC like to have a space between them and the filename, so this is built into the word. The result is that

xpiano = *EXEC piano

P.S. Why did I use "x" instead of "e"?

4) AMPLE abbreviations

Robin Johnson

One small tip, not mentioned anywhere that I have seen - AMPLE accepts abbreviations like BBC BASIC does.

So, you can enter, for example, 'TY.' instead of 'TYPE'. It works for Instruments and other words too. But beware of confusing the system as the abbreviation for 'VOICES' will give 'VOICE' - which may not help much!