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******** The official manual for ALL SOUND TRACKER / EMU8000 sampler ********
                                                       Dated: July, 25th 2000

** 0. **************************** Content **********************************

 0.         content =o)
 0.1.       copyrites and disclaimer

 1.         what is AST / EMU8000s
 1.1.       features
 1.2.       system requirements

 2.         the tracker itself
 2.2.       handling
 2.2.1      the Pattern window
 2.2.2      the Sample / instruments windows
 2.2.3      the drumset window
 2.2.4      the AWE reverb & chorus effects
 2.2.5      the mixer (or the sampler as far it will stay in AST)
 2.2.6      a small midi-prelude

 3.         the FX-column in AST

 4.         the AWE chapter
 4.1.       effects
 4.2.       handling of the AWE filters, LFO's and envelopes
 4.3.       using the AWE's ROM-instruments
 4.4.       some hints for cool sounds

 5.         the OPL chapter
 5.1.       effects
 5.2.       how does FM synthesis work
 5.3.       creating instruments

 6.         the MIDI chapter
 6.1.       how to get midi to work in AST
 6.2.       effects
 6.2.       programming the controllers
 6.3.       get the midi-information protocol

 7.         three words to the pc speaker

 8.         A few different things to say...
 8.1        known bugs
 8.2        history of AST
 8.3        future perspective
 8.4        thanx to...
 8.5        greatinx to...

 9.         ByeBye!


** 0.1 ************************** Disclaimer ********************************
This program is freeware and may only be  distributed  without  charging  any
fees. If you want to put this program on a CDROM compilation together with
other programs and tools, you'll have to contact us first and make sure, you
will only take the newest verion of AST in the FULL package, esp. containing
AST.TXT.
!!! AST/EMU8000s  is  distributed  in  the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of  MERCHANTABILITY
or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. !!!
This means, we can't guarantee for any loss of your work or damage to your
hardware. YOU USE THE PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK!

** 1. ****************** What is AST/EMU8000s? ******************************
All Sound Tracker / EMU8000sampler is a music tracker program especially
written for creative's (TM) Advanced Wave Effects syntesizer soundcards
using the E-mu(TM) 8011 sample processor. Furthermore full MIDI support and
FM synthesis in tracker form keeps you making music in studio-quality.
Err, what I wanted to say is.... AST is a freaktool, so use it like!!!!
And, if some of you said, turbo pascal had died, don't worry, AST is fully
coded in it.

** 1.1 *********************** Features *************************************
- 32 Channels
- Support of EMU8k, MPU401 (midi) In/Output, OPL3/FM and PC-Honker
- programm and use your AWE-card like an professianal sampler (like AKAi...)
  with the advantage of an integrated pattern-based sequencer.
- Direct hardware control about Filters, LFOs, Envelopes, Reverb and Chorus
  effects
- Very fast Midi timing. Extremely low latency
- More than 40!!! different effects, even 16 Pitchshifters possible in
  realtime
- Groove and shuffle effects for every channel
- Dynamic track allocation
- High quality, fast and intelligent player-routines (sends only real
  necessary midi data)
- Use AWE-Rom samples or load *.wav's / FT2 *.xi's into the AWE-Ram (or load
  anything you want)
- User defineable font and colour style

** 1.2 ******************* System Requirements ******************************
- Any 486 IBM compatible machine with at least 40 MHz and 1024kB RAM /
  1 MB Hdd-space (prolly even less)
- DOS 6.2 or Win9x (no Windows2000)
- any SB compatible soundcard for OPL/FM and MIDI output
- an SB-AWE32 / 64 compatible soundcard with RAM onboard for using all the
  features

** 2. *********************** The TRAKKER ***********************************
Have you ever heard of a trakker? Prolly you have, because if you had not,
you would do better downloading somewhere else "Modplug Tracker" or "Mad
Tracker", since these programs are a lot easier in handling (but don't offer
all those features u can find in AST of course). Try to get firm in trakkers
first, anyway, I'll try my best to explain everything as good as possible
if u don't dare to try AST =o). For all others: AST is a little FT like and
a litte IT like, but is different in some more ways. First, you will miss the
"instrument column", since, if u trak any MIDI, the instrument changes on
channels are not very popular. Then, don't try to find any self defineable
envelopes, because the AWE has got an Hardware evelope, where u can't change
the style, but see, what u can do with it in chapter 4.2. Then, you might
already have figured out, AST is for DOS. This is, because we use direct
access to any registers on the soundcard, where within Win9x a *.vxd driver
would be necessary, and neither Feilei nor me are very lucky to code any!
Handling of the notes is the same as in every trakker, but if u seek for
FX u might be shocked (rofl)! there is the whole alphabet used with small
and capital letters, and now we get problems while adding any new effects
=o). Just press F1 to see the list. And, don't use the sampler for more than
the mixer, the sampler is an crappy instable part of the trakker, where AST
itself should be stable now... Bugreports, u know, to: roxx@gmx.li
The foreword and stupid comments so far... blah, don't wanna bore u any
longer. Have fun!!!

* 2.2 ********************** The Handling ***********************************
A difference to any other DOS based trakkers is, that u have to use your
mouse for the menus. Just take a look at all the menus at the top of the
screen. I'll explain them short (I didn't say short, did I?).
 "AST" > "Quit"      - U don't need this function, do you? U can also press
                       ALT+X for same result.
         "Config"    - Here u may change every paramtre, which is annoying
                       you.
                       *"Color": Color schemes etc.
                       *"Directory": my advice, change it to some final
                       directories, not all in the same, but make sure, your
                       directory exists, since anyway else, you'll find your
                       stuff in the AST directory.
                       *"Keyboard setup": If u change to "french keyboard"
                       (err... this mode is only in for cagliostro, since he
                       is from france ;o) ) make sure u have any french
                       keyboard, or u'll have some problems using AST. I don't
                       think to add any more keyboard sets, since these are
                       the most necessary, and the american is most popular
                       and does not differ much to e.g. the german layout.
                       *"Sound setup": Here u may change any parametre of
                       your soundcard, but AST will pop up the screen any-
                       way if the settings on your soundcard have changed.
                       Play a little around with it. Defaults are for SB:220h
                       AWE:620h MIDI:300 to 330. SB is only used for the mixer
                       and the sampler, if none appears, because you are
                       playing some SB music within win9x don't care for,
                       u can use the awe-part of the soundcard anyway. This
                       makes sometimes cool effects, yeah, show your friends
                       the REAL power of your AWE. Don't try to start AST
                       while MIDI is playing, this necessarily WON'T work.
"File" > "Open Song"   Self explaining menue to load any *.ast's. Please do
                       not try to load any corrupt files, since AST will hang
                       in most cases. Neither try to load anything from drive
                       B: if u don't own any (geeez).
         "New Song"    Ever seen the function to change the pattern lenght?
                       Here it is: "Number of commands in a time" is the
                       hidden thing thats makes u change the pattern lenght.
                       Default is 4. If u change it to 8, you might notice
                       the pattern replay speed changing. This is correct,
                       because this command is to do effects like retrigger
                       an realtime. the BPM rate keeps the same if u go from
                       one highlighted bar to the next. So, this changes only
                       the speed of the pattern, not the BPM-rate.
                       Clear AWE/FM/Song data should be clear, keeps the
                       data if set to "off" from the last song.
         "Save Song"   Saves the song with the already given filename, or if
                       no filename given, with noname.ast. Notice: if there
                       already exists "noname.ast" it will be overwritten
                       without any warning. So be careful!
         "Save Song as" There u may change the filename. But enter a filename!
                       If u don't prolly AST will hang. Writes to song
                       directory.
                  !!!!!!At least: save your work as often as possible, and
                  also under different filenames, since you never know, what
                  bad things can happen!!!!
         "Message to listener" Here u can enter a few words about your music
                       and some greetz if you want. If you need some special
                       ascii's just press after highlighted the char "PrintScr"
                       on your keyboard.
         "Order"       Here u can formate your song. Just enter the pattern
                       number and make sure, pattern 0 is played first for init.
                       everything else should be clear. 255 means NONE.
         "Load Pattern" Load any *.asp saved pattern, but make sure it is in
                       the same pattern length, or you'll get only half of it.
                       Or, prolly, AST will hang, I don't know.
         "Save Pattern" Save any *.asp. Make sure a name is entered. Or weird
                       things may happen. No warning, if file already exists.
"Edit" > "Block begin" Marks the beginning of a block (seldom used function)
         "Block end"   Marks the end of a block. You'd better use Shift+Cursor
                       for marking a part of the pattern.
         "Mark the track" Marks a track. Double pressing Alt+L marks whole
                       pattern.
         "Unselect"    Unselects all marked area.
         "Copy"        Copies any marked area to a buffer.
         "Paste"       Fills the pattern from cursorposition with the buffered
                       parts of the pattern.
         "Undo paste"  If you made a mistake... =o)
         "Increase halftone" Pitches up all marked area one halftone
         "Decrease halftone" Pitches all marked area a halftone down
         "Set volume"  Sets the volume at cursorposition to all marked area
                       whether a note stands by or any volume is set to the
                       row.
         "Set effect"  Applies any effect at cursorposition to all marked
                       area.
         "Volume ramping" Slides the volume column from the value at the
                       beginning of the marked area to the value at the end
                       of marked area.
         "Effect ramping" Same as volume ramping, but applies to the effects
                       column.
"Play" > "Stop all"    Stops all playing.
         "Play pattern" Plays the current pattern.
         "Play song"   Plays the whole song and changes to replayscreen.
                       Press ESC to leave the replayscreen.
         "Play from line" Play the current pattern from the line the cursor
                       is at.
         "Reset controller" Resets the midi output, makes sense, if your midi
                       hangs after playing (sometimes does not work, since
                       midi does not work properly at all).
         "Mixing"      Starts the sampler. Use the mixing part of it in the
                       lower left corner. Gain means a kind of "amplification".
                       But be careful, clipping may appear on the scope!!!
         "Player"      Shows the replayscreen.
         "Record pattern" Enter notes on keyboard or midi input in realtime.
                       Affects only one pattern. No chords are allowed.
         "Record song" Same, but whole song.
         "Record from order" Same as record song, but from a specified part
                       of the song.
                  !!!At least you'll do best, not to use these functions of
                  record, since they are not really applicable till now, but
                  we're working on it!!!
"AWE"  > "Sample"      Opens the sample screen. More in chapter 2.2.2.
         "Instrument"  Opens the instrument screen.
         "Customized chorus" You can change there the chorus values and load
                       any presets. Be careful while playing around with it,
                       due to low information on the values there may
                       distortion or feedback appear, which may damage your
                       HiFi set or your ears. It will NOT cause any damage to
                       your soundcard, don't worry!
                       Chapter 2.2.4
         "Customized reverb" Same as chorus, but reverbation.
         "Reverb and chorus type" Here u can try your presets for chorus
                       and reverbation. Be careful since empty slots can
                       cause feedback.
         "Drum instruments" Opens the drum instruments window. This was
                       included, beacuse it could be taking too many channels
                       just for drums if every hihat got it's own. Sure,
                       in IT2 or FT2 there is every instrument able to be
                       a "drum". But AST is NEITHER IT2 NOR FT2.
"Sampler" >            You'd better leave this menu alone, except for mixing.
"Midi" > "Midi message editor" Here u can make a data dump from your midi
                       device. In most cases used to reprogram any settings
                       for an AST song session. Or dump data. More later in
                       chapter 6.
         "Customizeable effect" Here u may setup for your device any effects
                       as described in your devices handbook for direct
                       access use, eg filters and envelopes on your TB303 or
                       so on.
         "Controller affectation" How the controllers of your midi (eg. reverb
                       or foot pedal) are assigned to AST.
         "Midi in setup" Some settings to make life with midi easier. =o)
"OPL 3">               This is original FM synthesis. You can build your own
                       FM instruments here or load any presets. More in
                       chapter 5.
"Help" >               Guess what! =o)

** 2.2.1 *********************** The pattern window *************************
The pattern consists of tracks (think of a track like a channel you can play
one tone at a time, when pressed a key on your keyboard and a letter and a
few numbers appear on the screen, for those out-of-towners). You have to
assign a track to an output source first. Midi, or AWE, or beeper or drums.
You do this with dXX in the effects column of the appropriate track, or yXY
where X stands for the first 16 tracks output source and Y the second 16.
E.g. y30 means, first 16 tracks assigned to AWE and second 16 to MIDI.
d03 means the current track is assigned to MIDI channel 3.
Instruments must be set with iXX where XX stands for the instrument on midi
or AWE and may not override the value 7F, or strange things may happen.
By default if AWE is assigned, the instruments are destined to the track
dirctly. E.g. instrument 6 is set to track 6. But in most cases you'll have
to change it. The volume column must be always set. But never forget, 7F is
the full value of volume, if want to have half volume of the sample, you'll
be somewhere at values form 5F to 64. This is, beacause, as any other things
on the AWE the volume is set logarithmic too. But: Midi velocity may be
interpreted in an other way. Depends on your midi hardware.
How to enter a melodee: Have a melodee in mind. Enter with the keys on your
keyboard:

           2 3   5 6 7   9 0              S D   G H J      (german keyboard
          Q W E R T Z U I O P            Y X C V B N M          layout)
                becomes                     becomes
           # #   # # #   # #              # #   # # #
          C D E F G A B C D E            C D E F G A B

or simply use your midi-keyboard, if it works with AST (my Roland E30 doesn't)
Pressing "*" on the num-pad switches one octave up, pressing "/" on num-pad
one octave down. In the instrument window u can try any chords on the keyboard
this won't work in the pattern window, since no multichannel keyjazz is
supported. If enabled, the velocity of your midi keyboard will be set too, use
only, when you're really a professional =o).


########################### Note from JamRam #################################
 I know, this file is not finished, but I got bored today. You may continue
 it if you like, prolly I would, when there's enough time left, but I think 
 you all know, how to handle AST, don't you?            ...love u all, JamRam.
##############################################################################