Crumple: TMS to AMPLE converter

A J P McMaster

Crumple (ConveRsion Utility for aMPLE) takes a music file created by Island Logic's 'The Music System' (TMS) software and produces from it a text file which contains AMPLE words corresponding to the actual music (part1a etc.) plus a 'RUN' word and basic 'info' and 'mix' words. This text file can then be *EXECed into AMPLE and played through the Music 5000 synthesiser.

Use of the Crumple program is simple: all that the user need do is enter names for the TMS file, the AMPLE text output file, the name of the tune and the name of the author (tune and author are optional). Once this is done the program will do the conversion and finish.

For simple TMS files it should be possible to *EXEC the output file straight into AMPLE - but for more complex music files things may be a little more complicated.

Converting files from TMS to AMPLE is not quite as trivial as it might seem. A certain amount of manual 'post-processing' may need to be done to the resulting file but this is fairly easy since the file can be loaded into a word processor for adjustment.

One advantage of using a word processor is that it avoids the inadequacies of the Notepad editor in dealing with long lines or many of them. Restrictions within Crumple try to avoid these, but long bars could still overrun.

Another problem area is repeated sections. The best solution is to repeat the part(s) in the RUN word and I felt this could be better done manually (consider the problem of 1st and 2nd time bars, for example). I have thus taken an easy way out - when confronted with any kind of repeat symbol, Crumple introduces a comment describing the symbol and starts a new word. This should ensure that no repeats occur mid-word.

Crumple sets up the key signature and time signature but the tempo gives problems and so it is included as a comment only. The tempo is worked out by a function that, in theory, should give a correct value, but which in practice rarely works sensibly.

Crumple sets up a standard 'mix' word with the first three voices in the TMS piece being given an Upright instrument, and the fourth voice being given a Drum instrument. These can then be altered within AMPLE.

The 'info' word contains the title of the tune and name of the author if these were entered.

Members who wish to adapt or improve the program are welcome to do so, and shouldn't find it too difficult to change the program to suit themselves as it is extensively commented.

In spite of the failings outlined above the program does carry out the major work of converting the notes themselves.

Related file on this disc:

U.Crumple - TMS to AMPLE conversion utility (written in BASIC)