TUNE MAKER (128K only)

by A Sherwood



[Over half of the listing was missing from this issue. The rest was printed]

[in the July issue, with further corrections in the Oct&Dec'92 issues. Plus]

[the layout of the graphics for the keyboard display in the July issue was ]

[all messed up, so I had to sort out that as well. Even so, the program has]

[little error trapping, so it's easy to make it crash.                 JimG]



I know that I appealed for less 128K- exclusive programs so that

everybody could get the most out of Pitstop, but this one really was

the best of the bunch and I just had to print it. Unfortunately,

printing it meant testing it. And testing it meant spending an

extremely frustrating couple of hours in search of a +2 (cheers to

Rachel and family for coming to my aid). Thankfully my labour was not

in vain.



If you fancy yourself as a bit of a muso, then A's program will be a

godsend. Now, instead of having huge great chunks of your program used

up as PLAY commands, you can just load up A's imaginatively titled

TuneMaker. Simply compose a tune using the keyboard as a, erm,

keyboard and then save it off for use in your own programs. In this

way you can have 20 funky grooves, each containing up to 300

"messages".



Tune notes are messages, but there are also messages at the beginning

and throughout the tune representing octave changes, voice changes and

that kind of thing. It's similar to MIDI.



All these messages are saved in the one array, l$. You can then load

it back into your own program and be musically aware at your leisure.

Alternatively, if you prefer to have ginormous PLAY commands

throughout your program, TuneMaker will show you exactly what data to

type in in order to recreate your tune down to the last quaver.



There's good news on the typing-in front too - there's no machine code

to worry about, just good old BASIC. Hurrah! Simply type it in, not

forgetting to enter underlined As in graphics mode, and save using

SAVE "filename" LINE 1. If you use this save option you'll end up with

a copy of l$ on tape which contains the messages you then have to PLAY.



The controls are displayed on screen at all times. Worth checking out

are the piano/flute voice changes, and the program's ability to play

back tunes with bass or accompaniment parts. From what I've seen, the

backing tunes don't seem to be saved along with your creations. Mind

you, I haven't gone through all the fifteen zillion variables and I'm

sure all you 128 experts can find a way to derive the backing tracks

from the main track.



Oh, and don't store your tune 'til you're sure you've finished it.

Cos, from that point on, you can no longer edit it. As far as

compatibility goes, TuneMaker will run on any +2 or +2A, but I don't

see why it shouldn't run on a 128 or +3 either. Go on, give it a try!