Category : Music and Digitized Voice
Archive   : SBTIMBRE.ZIP
Filename : SBTIMBRE.TXT

SBTimbre Version 2.00 04-23-92


SBTimbre FM Editor

SBTimbre is a Timbre editor -- it lets you create and modify instrument
sounds for the Sound Blaster and Adlib FM Cards. You can audition sounds
using an MPU401 compatible interface and a MIDI controller (a piano
keyboard for instance). The present version of SBTimbre operates only
on IBK format bank files, but you can use the SBANK utility to convert
between IBK and BNK file formats.

Setting up SBTimbre

Unzip all the files to a directory (You might want to create another
directory for your IBK bank files), change to the directory containing
SBTIMBRE.EXE, and type: SBTIMBRE to load and start the program. If your
FM Card is properly installed, you should hear a chordal sequence as the
About dialog box is displayed (the chordal sequence can be disabled if
you'd rather not hear it -- see Configuring SBTimbre).

General Information

SBTimbre is a text based windowing program. You select options by pulling
down menus with a mouse, or by using the cursor movement and function
keys. The top line on the screen is known as the menu bar -- it contains
drop down menus from which items can be selected. Any option that is
followed by three dots indicates that a dialog box will be displayed when
this item is chosen. The bottom line is called the status bar and
contains options which are generally available. When the text of an item
is grayed out it means the item is not currently available.

Configuring SBTimbre

You may change certain program parameters by selecting the
Options/Configure... menu choice. The dialog box presented contains the
following items:

MIDI OPTIONS

None No MIDI interface is installed.
MPU401 An MPU401 compatible interface is installed

MIDI IRQ The IRQ Number that the MIDI interface is installed on
MIDI I/O Port The Hexadecimal based number of the I/O port that
the MIDI interface is using

FM I/O Port The hexadecimal based number of the I/O port that the
FM Card is using
MIDI Note The number of the MIDI note for auditioning tones

VIDEO OPTIONS

25 Lines Uses a 25 line standard text mode display.
43/50 Lines Will display 43 lines on an EGA monitor or 50 lines on
a VGA montor

About Box Unchecking this item will prevent the opening chordal
sequence.

The default setting of the I/O Port should work on all Adlib, Sound
Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, and any other compatible card. This is
because all Adlib compatible cards are addressable at the 380 hex I/O
Port setting, regardless of the hardware setting on the card. Note that
the Port is entered as 380 hex (NOT 388 hex). All the FM Chips begin at
an xx8 address, but the Sound Blaster register set begins on a xx0
(220, 240 ...). All this is just to say: put an xx0 number in this
field unless you have some oddball compatible scheme.

The program will determine that it can not find a card at startup, but
will not alert you to that fact upon changing the I/O Port address:
you won't hear any sound though. You can verify this by opening the
About box on the system menu -- if a card is found, a brief chordal
sequence is sounded. The program supports 43/50 line modes on EGA and
VGA graphics cards. The higher resolution allows a much less cluttered
view when many IBK files are open at once (I personally like it best).
The current settings may be saved to an SBTimbre.INI file by selecting
Options/Save Setup. This file may be edited by hand, but is overwritten
by selecting the Save option. The INI file is written in the same
directory as SBTIMBRE.EXE.

The amount of remaining memory is displayed in the About box -- you may
want to monitor this if you have very many (60 or more) IBK files open
at once.

Opening Files

IBK files are located via the File/Open... menu. You can double click
on one to select and open it (for those without a rodent, you can use the
cursor keys -- then press enter). The program prevents you from opening
the same file twice -- this is to prevent loss of data involved when
modifying two copies of the same file. You can open a copy of the same
file, by first saving the file with a different name (using
File/Save as...) and then reopening the original file. Once a file is
opened, you will see a list of the instrument timbres it contains.

Locating Files

You can move to a different current directory using the File/Change Dir
Menu selection, or you can navigate from the File/Open menu (by double
clicking on the "\.." item). A new IBK file may be created by using the
File/New option. When you create a new IBK, all the names are blank, and
a default Piano instrument is stored in each Timbre slot.

Saving Files

IBK files can be saved either with the name they were opened with
(File/Save), or with a new file name (File/Save as...). When saving New
files a name is always requested.

Selecting Timbres

You can open multiple IBK files at the same time. The current window and
the current timbre are highlighted. If an MPU401 compatible MIDI
interface is installed you may audition a timbre by simply highlighting
its name in the IBK file window.

Copying Timbres

Timbres may be copied from one IBK to another, or within a single IBK.
You can select Timbre/Copy from the Timbre menu, select Copy from the
status bar, or press F5. The copy dialog box contains a list of open
IBK windows. After selecting one of the IBK's from the list, you can
select which position within the IBK to copy the current timbre to.
The number displayed in the dialog box is the current timbre position in
the target IBK.

Editing Timbres

You may select timbres to edit by double clicking on the timbre name, or
by selecting Timbre/Edit. The Edit dialog box is where all the different
parameters that comprise an FM timbre are displayed and edited. All the
numbered fields have Spin controls: clicking on the up arrow increases
the value -- the down arrow decreases. You may also use the + and - keys
to achieve the same effect. You may audition a tone by pressing the Note
or Chord buttons (the single letter short-cut keys work on all fields
except Timbre Name -- for this field you must use Alt-N or Alt-h as
shortcut keys).

You can rename the timbre by entering a different name into this field,
but it will replace the original timbre when you press OK. If you like a
change, but don't wish to overwrite the original timbre, you can press
Cancel within the Edit dialog and then Recover the sound to a different
IBK and position by using the Timbre/Recover option. You may use any
characters to name the Timbre, but imbedding spaces and other illegal
DOS filename characters will prevent you from extracting INS and SBI
files (Using SBANK or some other extraction utility). To abandon changes
press Cancel. You may also rename a timbre by selecting Timbre/Rename...
from the menu bar.

Final Notes

To use your IBK files with Twelve Tones Systems' Cakewalk Sequencer, copy
your IBK file to a file named ADLIB.IBK in the Cakewalk program directory
-- it will automatically be loaded by the FM card driver when Cakewalk
starts up.