OctaMED Soundstudio V1

           Octamed Soundstudio is nearing completion!

For full planned release details and to see the progress so far, why not
d/l the latest "beta" demo that has been placed into the Aminet biz/demo
area?


As part of our commitment to the loyal followers/users of our program we
are hoping to be in a position to accept credit card orders by post, email
and via our WWW Site by the time the new version goes on sale.

(MasterCard, Visa, Access and, in the UK, Switch will be accepted)

We will announce this, along with the actual release date of the program,
on our World Wide Web Site, the OctaMED User BBS and other available means.

                              ----------------

This file lists some of the changes and new features between OctaMED V6 and
OctaMED Soundstudio V1.  (still more to be added)

(if you haven't seen V6 and are only using V5, then you're in for a suprise)

                               --------------
                               
                               
                            Main Features  (more additions yet)
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Mixing Routine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the most significant new feature; instead of the old 4-channel mode
which was tightly tied to the audio hardware of Amiga, the mixing routine
is hardware-independent, and can use several output options.  Supported
output devices are Amiga (8- and 14-bit), Toccata (16-bit), Maestix
(16-bit) and Delfina (16-bit).  It's also possible to record digital sound
data directly onto disk at desired resolution (8/16) and sampling
frequency.

The mixing routine allows up to 64 independent audio channels, supports
both 8- and 16-bit samples, user-specified mixing frequency (constrained by
the limitations of the output device), trackwise panning, playing samples
backwards, ping-pong looping, playing samples from Fast RAM, a six-octave
pitch range, OctaMED synthsounds, stereo and mono modes, real-time
echo/cross-echo and stereo separation control and high-quality
interpolation for recording digital data on disk.

The mixing routines are written in optimized assembler code, for optimum
versions for both 68000 and 68020 + greater, though mixing is very slow on
the 68000.

As a rough example on the speed of the routine, the A3000/25 can play about
10 channels at 48 kHz thru Toccata.

Also, to support the mixing routine, OctaMED can now load S3M and also
FastTracker 1.0 modules.

As I said, you can store the module (or parts of it) onto disk directly as
digital sample data.  This could be used, for example, for creating a drum
loop sample by constructing it with several tracks, and then saving
it...the resulting sample only takes one channel and it can be used
anywhere.  A special "Smoothing" switch is available for recording onto
disk.  It filters unwanted frequencies away, resulting better audio quality
than what you would get in 4 channel mode.  On the 68060, it's useful in
real-time playing, as well :-)

The fact that the audio data is mixed by the processor also opens exciting
possibilities for performing digital signal processing at the same time. 
OctaMED Soundstudio offers digital 'Echo' and 'Cross Echo' in real time.  I
hope to extend the array of DSP functions in the future PC versions.

Playing 8 or more channels using this demoversion....

Choose "Set Options" from the Song menu, click 1-64 Ch Mixing.  Then choose
"Mixing Parameters" from the Settings menu and set Max.  Channels to the
desired number of channels.  Loading a S3M-module or an OctaMED module
using mixing (which are extremely rare at the moment, of course) will cause
these settings to change automatically.

Notation Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The notation editor, which didn't exist in V6, is now back.  It is vastly
enhanced.  Main highlights:

* Up to 16 staves, each tracker track can be assigned to any staff.  The
  staves can be named, and their vertical positions and width can be
  adjusted.  Treble, bass and alto clefs are available.

* Time signature freely selectable (instead of only two choices, as in V5).
  Measures can be added to a block at a single click.

* A Compugraphic notation font is provided for better print quality.

Some people have been longing for a top quality "professional" notation
editor, such an editor won't ever appear in the Amiga OctaMED version.  It
would be practically impossible to cross professional notation with
tracking, and the result would probably be a big kludge that nobody is
satisfied with.

For professional quality notation, OctaMED songs can be exported as MIDI
files to a dedicated "notator" program.


FastMemPlay
~~~~~~~~~~~
FastMemPlay is a new feature for use in the 4-channel mode.  As the name
implies, when this feature is activated, samples can reside not only in
Chip RAM, but also in Fast RAM.  You can therefore fully utilize all the
memory you have installed.  The FastMemPlay-feature also offers a few other
advantages; the samples may now be as long as the memory allows (the old
limitation was 131072 bytes), and you can also use odd offset and length
for repeat.  (All of these features are automatically available when using
the mixing routine.)

Triggering ARexx Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The new player command 2D is suitable for controlling events that must be
synchronized with playing the song.  You can define up to 256 events which
can then be launched in the song using the command 2D.  The possible events
are: sending an ARexx command to OctaMED or some other program, launching
an ARexx script or even launching another program.

Replace Notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a new window which allows you to do powerful search-and-replace
operations on notes, instrument numbers, commands, or any combination of
them.  For example:

    C-2 2xxxx -> D-2 3xxxx
    xxxxx0FFF -> xxxxx0000 (remove commands 0FFF)
    xxxxx09xx -> xxxxx0000 (remove all TPL change commands)

The functionality of this feature is fully available for use by ARexx
scripts.

MIDI Controllers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The set of command numbers 31 - 3F have now been reserved for MIDI users. 
The old way of using MIDI controllers required a combination of commands 05
and 00.  Now you can map any controller to a single command 31 - 3F.  Plus,
you can also control MIDI Registered and Non-Registered Parameter Numbers
with the same set of commands (3 pairs of 05/00 commands would be required
for that).

Instrument List
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A simple window for easy viewing and selecting of instruments in memory.

Improved ARexx Interface
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
28 new ARexx commands and 9 improved commands.  Some powerful new commands
include finding and/or replacing notes/instrument numbers/commands (see
Replace Notes above), direct handling of copy buffer contents, and sending
MIDI messages (useful for keyboard shortcuts).

The above features were the most significant changes since V6, but they are
not by any means the only ones.  But you can see the rest when OctaMED
Soundstudio is released, and I hope, after a years work, you will like it.


Smaller features (more to be added)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Default directories for loading songs, instruments and executing ARexx
  scripts can be set and saved.
* ARexx scripts can be executed with a new menu item + file requester
  combination.
* A menu item for opening AmigaDOS shells on OctaMED screen for quick
  command line jobs.
* Instead of requesting the file format when saving instruments, the
  Sample List Editor now has menu items for default formats.
* The Song Annotation window can be (optionally) opened automatically
  when there's information embedded in the song just loaded.
* Cut/Copy operations now optionally affect either all command pages of
  the block, or just the current page.
* Re-mark range resurrects the previously selected range.
* A special Slave Mode for using the Amiga as a MIDI slave (for sample
  playing).
* Changed settings can be optionally displayed on the title bar.
* The Generic Slide is now clever; it handles unsigned and signed slides,
  and special slides in which both digits are independent, depending on
  the command and whether MIDI is active or not.
* Command 0FF7 stops playing until all pending SysEx commands are sent.
* Fixed many (minor) bugs and problems.

 -Teijo Kinnunen  April 96

--------------------------

Now, if your still reading).....

A Quick Overview Of What The New Additions Do......

( These are the most important new functions to be added, so far...)

The Mixing Parameters Window

Probably the Soundstudio's biggest addition is a new channel mode: Mix. 
Based on the mixing technique used in 5 to 8 channel mode, it can play 64
notes at once using the normal Amiga sound capabilities!  You can also
bring your song to life with effects such as echo, and use it to record
part of your song direct to disk as a sample.

But before you get too excited, remember that the Amiga physically only has
four sound channels, so Mix mode uses very special tricks to cram all those
notes in and in the process, the notes can lose sound quality on slow
processors.  In fact, the faster your processor, the better quality the
notes can be.  For acceptable quality, you really need a minimum 68020
processor found in the A1200.

The Mixing Parameters window is used to set up Mix mode.  But before I
explain it, I'll list the enhancements and limitations that Mix mode has,
in comparison with 4 channel mode.


Other Enhancements at this time

1) Can play up to 64 notes at once.

2) Effects: Echo, Cross Echo, Stereo Separation.

3) Track Panning: Can alter the stereo location of each track.

4) Many additional player commands.

5) Sample length limited only by available memory (previous limit was
   131072 bytes).

6) Direct-to-disk recording.

7) Three new octaves: 2 low, 1 high. So the note range is now C-1 to B-6.
   The 4-channel notes C-1 to B-3 are now notes C-3 to B-5.

8) More precise sample loop setting. Previously, only even values of Repeat
   and RepLen (Instrument Parameters were possible.
   Now, all values are allowed.


Limitations

1) A probable loss of sound quality on old processors, but the faster your
processor, the better the quality.  In fact, very fast processors increase
sound quality.

2) Aura 16-bit samples can't be used, (were they ever that good anyhow?)

3) Multi-octave samples can't be used.

4) The oscilloscope equalizer doesn't function.


So although Mix mode is based on the old 5 to 8 channel mode, you will see
that it has hardly any of its previous limitations.



The Important Mixing Parameters window will now be described.


Mixing Mode section

The radio button at the top left selects the output device: the device
through which notes will be played.

* Amiga 8-bit/14-bit: Plays notes through the Amiga.  14-bit is much better
  quality than 8-bit, and doesn't put much more strain on the processor,
  but it plays at half the volume.

* Delfina DSP: (no further info available at this time)

* Toccata 16-bit: Plays through your Toccata card.  no further info
  available at this time-

* Maestix 16-bit: (no further info available at this time)

* Disk 8-bit/16-bit: Records the output to a file, as a sample.  See "The
  Recording Window" for more details.

The output will be in mono (the same on both speakers), unless you switch
the Stereo check box on.  Mono is faster than stereo.

Smoothing mode significantly enhances sound quality, but it's very slow. 
Because of its speed, it's only recommended for Disk 8-bit/16-bit modes,
although you're welcome to try it on other modes...


Mixing Frequency

The mixing frequency is a very important value.  It specifies, in Hertz
(sample values per second), how quickly the samples should be mixed.  The
higher the frequency, the better the sound quality, but also the more work
the processor has to do.

So - you've guessed it - the highest mixing frequency that you can use
depends on your processor.  If you try using a frequency that is too high
for your computer, the computer will hang: the mouse pointer will move very
slowly, or even not at all.  If this happens, do a panic stop by holding
down both mouse buttons for several seconds.

Believe it or not, the highest possible frequency also depends on the
screen mode!  If the screen is DblPAL, DblNTSC or Productivity, the Mixing
Frequency slider can take any value.  In other screen modes, the slider's
maximum value is 28375.

If the output device can't play at your requested frequency, OctaMED
chooses the frequency closest to your request.  Your request is shown in
the Requested numeric box, the actual frequency used in the Actual box. 
The reason for this discrepancy is that all of the output devices,
excluding Disk 8-bit/16-bit, can only play at certain frequencies.  (This
even includes your Amiga...)

Technical notes:
The frequency of each note is different in 4-channel mode from Mix mode. 
This is because in 4-channel mode, the frequencies are approximated to what
the Amiga DMA can play.  Mix mode doesn't use the Amiga DMA, so it uses the
correct freque- ncies.

The frequencies are very slightly off on Amigas not having an FPU and this
is because the integer version of the frequency calculation has some error.
The difference however is not audible.


Other gadgets

* Max.  Channels: The maximum number of channels.  For example, if you want
  to play notes on tracks 0 to 5, set this slider to 6.  Notes become
  quieter as you increase Max.  Channels, to make room for the new
  channels.  This slider doesn't increase processor load by itself: the
  load depends on the number of notes actually playing.

* Volume Adjust: Allows you to adjust the overall volume of notes.  The
  value is a percentage; when 100 %, the notes are at normal volume.  Set
  the notes to half-volume by sliding to 50%; double volume is 200%.

In practice, increasing the volume above 100% generally causes unwanted
distortion (noise), unless the samples in your song are quiet.  Also, using
effects can cause distortion, even at 100%.  If this is the case, turn the
volume down until the distortion is removed.  (You can't hear the volume
adjustment until you release the slider button.)

* Mix Buffer Size: The size of the mix buffer, an area of memory used by
  OctaMED to mix samples together. You needn't ever change it, unless:

  a) in Disk 8-bit/16-bit mode. Increasing Mix Buffer Size to, say, 30000
     greatly quickens direct-to-disk recording.

  b) using MIDI. MIDI notes are played immediately, while mixed notes are
     played after a slight delay. So it's recommended to set Mix Buffer
     Size to the lowest allowed value, 32. If sound quality suffers as a
     result, compensate by raising the mixing frequency (if possible).

  c) you use samples with very short loops. Playing a loop shorter than
     about a third of the Mix Buffer Size (i.e. usually 100 bytes)
     considerably increases processor load. So if you must use very short
     loops, try decreasing Mix Buffer Size.

* Panning and Effects: Open the Mix - Track Panning and Mix - Effects
  windows.  They allow you to adjust the stereo location of each track, and
  add effects such as echo to your music.


Other points of interest

1) 5 - 8 channel mode uses a frequency of 15768 Hz in non-HQ mode, and
   28867 Hz in HQ mode.  As a side note, you could *perfectly* reproduce
   the 4-channel mode with a mixing frequency of 3.6 MHz...  :-)...  Though
   48 kHz with smoothing is often better in practice.

2) With 16-bit samples, only volume values 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 can
   be used.  This means that note volumes may sound a bit strange if you
   change Volume Adjust or the track panning.  Also, the volumes you can
   use with some player commands (such as Set Volume, type 0C) are limited
   to the above values.

3) To allow old 4-channel and 5 to 8-channel songs to use the new Mix mode,
   the Miscellaneous Options window contains two new Use Mixing check
   boxes.  When on, the samples in loaded songs are transposed up 2
   octaves.  (This doesn't include synthsounds, MIDI instruments or
   ExtSamples.)

   When using old 5 to 8-channel songs with the new mode, don't try to set
   Volume Adjust to 200 % to allow for halved samples.  Halved samples are
   in 7-bit quality, so it's best to re-load the original samples.

4) Internally, OctaMED has three separate parts which control playing,
   called the players.  There's one player for 4-channel mode, another for
   5 to 8-channel modes, and another for Mix mode.

   When you play a note using the keyboard in 4 or 5 to 8-channel modes,
   the player is used briefly to start the note off, but then the note is
   left to play and finish of its own accord. The Mix mode player, however,
   is used throughout the note's playing, from its start to its finish.

   So the Mix mode player is switched on when the first note is started.
   But it isn't switched off when the note has finished. Instead, to react
   more quickly to other notes you play, it's kept switched on until you
   click STOP or press the space bar.

   This means that the player is switched on even when no notes are being
   played. On slower Amigas, this may slow down operation, so simply press
   the space bar to switch the player off. It also means that if you change
   anything in the Mixing Parameters window, such as Mixing Frequency or
   track panning, you must stop playing and restart it for the changes to
   take effect. (This doesn't include Stereo Separation, Echo Depth, or
   a change from Echo to Cross Echo or vice-versa.)

5) Do remember about panic stop! If the computer seems to lock up during
   play, try holding both mouse buttons down for a few seconds.

6) 5 to 8-channel mode's split channels don't exist! Amiga volume
   registers are set to a fixed volume. The volume is scaled by the mixing
   routine, so each track does have an independent volume.

7) Almost all settings in Mixing Parameters, Mix - Track Panning, and
   Mix - Effect are saved with songs. In particular, Mixing Mode and Mixing
   Frequency aren't saved. This is so that, for example, a song created on
   a fast Amiga using a high frequency won't immediately cause a slow Amiga
   to lock up.

   OctaMED uses a special file format for songs using Mix mode: MMD3.
   This is identical to MMD2. The only reason for its existance is so that
   older versions/player programs won't attempt to play Mix-mode songs.

8) You can play samples in either type of memory - Chip or Fast - in Mix
   mode. By default, though, samples are loaded into Fast memory, because
   Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem is automatically switched on.


The Mix - Track Panning Window
Here you adjust the stereo location of the notes played on each individual
track.  Do this using the sliders.

Track numbers are displayed to the left of each slider, the tracks' stereo
location to the right.  To begin with, all tracks have a stereo location of
0 (center).  This means that notes on all tracks are played with equal
volume on both speakers; in other words, they're played in mono.

To force a track's notes to be played entirely through the left speaker,
drag the track's slider all the way to the left (value -16).  Likewise for
the right speaker: drag the slider to the far right (value 16). 
Intermediate values play the notes at different volumes on each speaker.


Free Panning and Sum Of Balances

Because track panning is really altering the volume of each track on each
speaker, you must be careful that the volume on either speaker doesn't
become too high, causing distortion.  For example, setting all tracks to be
played on the left speaker (value -16) is bound to cause distortion on the
left speaker.

The Sum Of Balances display helps you prevent distortion.  It displays all
the tracks' stereo locations added together.  When the volume is perfectly
balanced between the two speakers, the Sum Of Balances is 0, so adjust the
sliders until it becomes 0.

Free Panning, when on, allows you to set the stereo locations to whichever
values you choose, without worrying about volume distortion.  Not
surprisingly, Free Panning is usually on.



The Mix - Effects Window add special effects to your music.

The one you'll be dying to play with is echo.  To switch echo on, set the
Echo cycle gadget to Echo or Cross Echo.  The difference between the two is
Cross Echo alternates echoes between the speakers; you must have Stereo
mode on to use it.

Echo Rate is the distance, in milliseconds, between each echo.  It can take
any value in the range 1 to 32767.

Echo Depth sets the depth of echoing.  The larger the value, the deeper the
echoes.  Technically, it specifies the relative amplitudes of successive
echoes.  For example, if it's 25 %, the first echo's amplitude is 25 % of
the original amplitude, the second echo is 25 % * 25 % = 6.25 % of that.

Stereo Separation is interesting.  Dragging the slider to the right
separates the sound on each speaker.  Dragging to the left brings the
speakers' sound closer together.  This feature is best understood by
experimentation.  (Technically, the stereo image is separated by feeding
part of the left channel to the right in inversed phase, and vice versa.)


The Recording Window
This window is displayed during direct-to-disk recording, the act of
transferring part of your song to disk as a sample.

To record directly to disk:

1) In the Mixing Parameters window, select Disk 8-bit or Disk 16-bit,
   depending on whether you'd like an 8-bit or 16-bit sample. Also set the
   Mixing Frequency to any value you wish (the higher the frequency, the
   larger the produced sample).

2) The next time you play a note or your song, a Record as file requester
   will appear.  In this requester, select the filename of the produced
   sample.

3) Next, you set the file type of your sample in the requester that
   appears.

4) Finally, the Record window will open and OctaMED will start recording. 
   The window displays information on the sample's file format (resolution
   (8/16-bit), IFF/RAW/MAUD etc, Mono/Stereo, frequency).  It also displays
   recording time in minutes and seconds, and file size.  These two values
   change as the song is being played.

Click the Stop Recording button to stop recording.  You must do this
because OctaMED doesn't stop recording automatically at the end of the song
or note.  You can now load your sample back into memory.


The FastMemPlay Window
This poetically-named window allows you to play samples from Fast memory. 
For background on this, see Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem.

By editing the Buffer Size box, you can alter the FastMemPlay buffer size.
A small value, such as 32 or 64, is recommended to minimise distortion if
your song contains synthetic sounds.

MIDI Slave Mode
Using the MIDI menu's Slave Mode Active item, you can turn your Amiga into
a MIDI device!  Why on earth would you want to do that?  Well, if you're
lucky enough to own two Amigas, you can use the sound channels of both
Amigas together, to play a total of 8 samples at once rather than the usual
4.  You do this by using one Amiga to control the other, as if it were a
MIDI keyboard.

It works best in 4-channel mode, for highest quality.  You compose your
song using one of the Amigas (call it the master), and use the other Amiga
(the slave) only as a note player.  The blocks in your song should be 8
tracks wide: use tracks 0 - 3 for instruments played by the master Amiga,
and tracks 4 - 7 for those played by the slave Amiga.

The idea is, the slave Amiga's first 16 instruments (01 - 0G) correspond to
the 16 MIDI channels.  So when the slave Amiga receives a MIDI message to
play a note on MIDI channel 4, it plays the note using instrument number
04.  One slight drawback is each instrument can only be played using one
particular sound channel, which you designate using the master Amiga.

Anyway, here's how you set it all up:

1) Attach a MIDI interface to each of the two Amigas. Connect MIDI OUT on
   the master Amiga to MIDI IN on the slave Amiga.

2) Load OctaMED into both Amigas. Select MIDI menu - MIDI Active on the
   master Amiga. Select MIDI Active, Input Active and Slave Mode Active
   (all in the MIDI menu) on the slave Amiga. Make sure both Amigas are in
   4-channel mode.

3) Now to set up the instruments. Go to each Amiga in turn, and load the
   instruments you want to be played on that Amiga. On the slave Amiga,
   you're restricted to instrument slots 01 - 0G; on the master Amiga, you
   can use any slots.

4) On the master Amiga, you actually need two categories of instrument:
   those to be played through the master Amiga (which you've just loaded),
   and MIDI instruments that correspond to each instrument you've loaded
   into the slave Amiga. OK, let's say you've loaded a sample named
   Fantasia into slot 06 on the slave Amiga. So on the master Amiga,

   a) Select any empty instrument slot

   b) Open Instrument Parameters

   c) Change the instrument Name to Fantasia [slave] (for example)

   d) Slide the MIDICh slider to 6 (because Fantasia is loaded into slot 06
      on the slave Amiga)

   e) You must also tell OctaMED which sound channel on the slave Amiga
      that Fantasia should be played through, using the Preset slider. So
      if Fantasia is to be played through channel 2, slide Preset to 2.
      Because there are 4 sound channels, each played using one of tracks
      0 - 3, you can slide Preset to 0, 1, 2 or 3.

      Be careful when deciding which instrument should be played through
      which channel. If you've loaded up to 4 instruments into the slave
      Amiga, you just need to assign a different sound channel to each
      instrument. If you have more than 4 instruments, though, you should
      take care that no two instruments are set to play through the same
      channel at the same time, because this is impossible!  This depends
      on your song.

   f) Close Instrument Parameters

   Now when you want to play, say, note G-2 using the Fantasia instrument,
   you should enter a G-2 using the Fantasia [slave] instrument on the
   master Amiga. Repeat steps a to f for each instrument you've loaded into
   the slave Amiga.

5) Now compose your song!  Use 8-track blocks.  For instruments played
   through the master Amiga, use tracks 0 - 3 as usual.  For those played
   through the slave Amiga, use tracks 4 - 7 and the MIDI instruments
   you've set up to correspond with the slave Amiga's instruments.  Then
   just play the song: it should be quite an amazing effect!

Other notes:

a) Slave mode only receives and handles MIDI Note On messages.  So any
   effects received, including player commands, will be ignored.

b) You can, however, use player command 0C (set volume) with notes played
   by the slave Amiga.  The instrument's default volume (in Instrument
   Parameters) changes to the appropriate level when a 0C is received.  The
   Instrument Parameters slider isn't updated, though, for effciency
   reasons.

c) To reduce the amount of MIDI data sent, you should really switch on
   Suppress NoteOff on all of the MIDI instruments defined on the master
   Amiga.

The MIDI Cmd 3cxx Window
As its title suggests, this is one of OctaMED's more technical windows!

Using a combination of player command types 05 and 00, you can set any MIDI
controller you choose.  Command 05's level is the controller number,
command 00's the controller value.  So if OctaMED came across this in a
song: 00509 --- 00004 then OctaMED would set MIDI controller number 9 to 4.
The obvious disadvantage with this is that it takes two lines: one to
provide the controller number, another to provide the value.

This window cuts the setting of MIDI controllers down to one line.  You
define command types 31 - 3F to set your chosen MIDI controller numbers to
the value given by the command level you use in the song.

For example, you can define player command type 35 to set MIDI controller
number 12.  Then, if you use command 3506 in your song, OctaMED sets MIDI
controller number 12 to 6.  So, only one player command is needed to set
MIDI controllers, instead of two.

The gadgets

Starting at the top, the slider selects a player command type.  A value of
5, for example, selects type 35.  Types 31 to 3F can be selected.

Clear Setting clears the selected player command type's setting.  Its
controller type is set to Standard [MSB], and its number to 0.  Clear All
does this to all player command types.

The other gadgets show the selected command type's setting: its controller
type and number.  The controller type can be Standard, RPN or NRPN,
together with [MSB] or [LSB].  More information as and when further
developed.

You can make a copy of the current shortcut by holding down Shift while
clicking Ins.  New or App.  New.  This is useful for making a new shortcut
similar to the current one.

You can now create an empty shortcut for the Help key, thus turning the
press Help for Help feature off - the Project menu item can be selected
instead.  This avoids situations where the rather large Help file is
accidentally loaded instead of deleting a note (i.e.  Help rather than Del
is pressed).


Playing PC Mods
OctaMED can now load modules created on two different PC sequencers:
ScreamTracker 3 (S3M) and FastTracker 1.0.  Not all S3M effects are
supported, but most modules play without trouble.  The effects that are
supported are:

Extra fine slides (commands EEx, EFx); Tremor (command Ixy); Retrig (+
volume-slide) (command Qxy)

Note that the more popular FastTracker 2 is not *yet* supported.

ARexx Script
Opens a file requester to execute an ARexx file.
You can also do this in the keyboard shortcuts window and ARexx Trigger Setup window.


ARexx Trigger Setup
Opens the ARexx Trigger Setup Window. Here you can set certain player
commands to execute ARexx scripts, run programs and much more.

AmigaDOS Shell
Opens an AmigaDOS shell, just like the shell you can open on the Workbench,
on the OctaMED screen.  You can now run programs or use AmigaDOS commands
like copy or dir.


The audio channels are now allocated when they are needed for the first
time.  So when using Mix mode with Toccata, Maestix or Delfina they aren't
allocated at all!


Notation Editor: Opens the main notation editor window with its Tools
window.

All Cmd Pages: When on (default), Cut and Copy affect all command pages. 
When off, only notes in the current command page are cut or copied.


Select: Opens the Instruments window.  This window lists all your
instruments, and allows you to select one from the list.



Load Samples To Fast Mem
There are two types of memory: Chip memory and Fast memory.  Fast memory is
much faster than Chip memory, so it's preferable to store things in there.
However, the Amiga usually needs all samples to be stored in Chip memory.

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