Vivaldi User Guide

TrackPlay

TrackPlay is the music player. Clicking SELECT on its icon bar icon shuts all its open windows and opens all its closed ones; ADJUST takes you into the music monitor. Clicking MENU opens the main menu, described below.

The "Tune Info" window

The picture given here shows the tune information window after running a music file. More music files may be obtained from me, free of charge, if you send me a blank disk and an SAE - or you can try looking at the small music files index here.

The data speaks for itself; you may only change the music speed and the state of the internal speakers, by simply clicking on the relevant box.

Note that even when the speakers are turned off you may still be able to hear a very low level of sound. This is perfectly normal and happens with any program - it is a hardware fault.

The "Controls" window

This window contains the music controls. They act like those on a cassette or CD player.

The 6 buttons, from left to right, do the following:
Restart music, move back 1 position, kill music, pause music, continue music, and move forward 1 position.
Killing the music also removes it from memory, unless the music is loaded into Vivaldi.

The "Sample Info" window

This window displays the names of all the samples that the currently playing music file holds.

Clicking on a sample name brings up a save box like the one to the left (if there is a sample there to save), allowing you to save out samples from Public Domain music files and use them in your own compositions.

The "Channel Info" window

The leftmost column of boxes indicates whether or not a channel is connected to the music player - a tick means yes, a cross means no, and a ? means it is never used. Clicking on ticks or crosses toggles channels on and off.

Stereo settings may also be changed by clicking on the left and right arrows. M, L, R and A stand for Middle, Left, Right and Alternating respectively. S (Store) stores the current stereo settings in memory, and U (User setting) recalls them.

The "Playlist" window

A playlist is a sequence of music files, to be played in order. To create one, simply drag the music files into this window in the order in which they are to be played.

The leftmost icon will move to the previous tune in the playlist if there is one playing; the next icon will stop the playlist, although the currently playing tune will continue to play. The right arrow moves the the next tune, although if it isn't indented (it isn't in the picture) then it will start the playlist, if there is one. The icon to the right of the arrow, if selected (as it is in the picture) indicates that when the tune ends, it will simply repeat, instead of moving on to a different tune. Finally, the question mark, if selected, will make the files play in a random order (like "shuffle" on a CD player).

Basically, drag your music files to this window in order, then click on the right arrow to play them in order.

NB Quitting TrackPlay will stop any playlist that is running, but the currently playing music file will continue to play.

The "Quality" window

The quality of the music determines how much CPU time is taken up filling the sound buffer, which basically means that the higher you set the quality and the more channels there are, the slower your computer will run. "Medium" is the default setting, and 8-channel tunes can be played at this setting on most machines; however, 8-channel music will fail to play at the high-quality setting on older, slower machines (such as my A3000). For this reason, selecting "Automatic" will make TrackPlay automatically change the playback quality when playing a new tune, depending on the number of channels it uses. For best results on most older machines use the current settings (4-channel and below: high quality; higher than 4-channel: medium quality).

The "low" quality setting is to be avoided unless you really need your machine to be fast, as there can often be an annoying whine in the background and the upper frequency limit is noticeably lower.

In other words... play around with this window a bit and see what sounds best...

The menus

Clicking MENU over TrackPlay's icon or in any of its windows brings up a menu with many submenu arrows. Each submenu will be examined in turn, as will each of the choices in each menu.

"Monitor" activates the music monitor.
"Quit" quits TrackPlay and stops any playlists, but leaves the current tune playing.

"Windows" - this contains a list of the windows. Choose the window to open / shut.
"Playlist" - this will be greyed out if there is no playlist.
- "Jump to" lets you jump to a specific point in the playlist. Choose the tune from the list.
- "Save" allows you to save the playlist as a text file. You can then edit it in a text editor, and load it again later.
- "Delete" lets you choose a tune to remove from the playlist.
- "Clear" gives you the option of removing the entire playlist from memory.
"Music Dir" - this is to do with the music directory.
- "Open" opens the music directory, as does Shift + SELECT on the main program icon.
- "Edit" leads to a save box. Drag the icon into the new music directory's Filer window.
- "Save" saves your music directory selection permanently.
- "Reload" reloads the saved setting for the music directory.
"Volume" - this leads to a box controlling the music volume. It can be from 1 (quiet) to 127 (loud).

Keyboard shortcuts

The keys which Vivaldi allows you to use to control music playing also operate with TrackPlay:
F5 restarts, F6 moves back one pattern, F7 kills the music, F8 pauses it, F9 continues it, F10 moves forwards one pattern, and Ctrl+F4 enters the Music Monitor.