Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Desktop Audio and Video => Topic started by: motorollin on September 10, 2006, 03:52:58 PM
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Well, might as well get the ball rolling with the new forum. I really want to get in to OctaMED SoundStudio but I don't know where to start. Are there any decent tutorials around to get me started?
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moto
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Thats the big problem with Octamed. Its interface is scary and there is a serious lack of documentation of how to use it.
There is a little bit of info on the Octamed web site but no actual manual. I know V6 of Octamed actually came with a printed manual but I have been unable to find it online. I know "the Goose" has a copy of it but I'm not sure if he could legally scan it and post it.
The PC version of Octamed works pretty much the same as the Amiga version so maybe you could get some info there?
I've thought about doing a short video tutorial of learning the basics of Octamed since getting started seems to be the biggest stepping stone.
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Thanks. Does the manual include a step-by-step guide, or is it just a reference?
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moto
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My copy of OctaSS has an AmigaGuide with quite a nice reference, but AFAICR it doesnt have a walkthrough style tutorial.
Amiga Format (or was it CU Amiga?) ran a few tutorial series with Tony Horgan, at least on the old OctaMED versions anyway. No idea which issues they will have been in though.
Are you new to tracking in general, or just OctaMED?
I too could probably make a few videos for you to show the basics and stick it on YouTube or something. Anything specific you want to know? :-)
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@motorolin:
I thought Amiga University had some tutorials on-line but I can't seem to access the site to check.
as someone already mentioned, there were tutorials in AF, issues 64-69. Don't know if you'd be able to find these on-line somewhere?
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@d0pefish
I'm new to tracking in general. Though I understand the principle behind it, I don't know what numbers to put where to get it to do anything :-) Your offer of making tutorial videos is kind. However, they would probably have to be very long to teach me what I need to know :-P Also, I don't know what I need to learn, since I don't know how the software works yet.
@Wilse
I'll try to find those copies of AF, and check out the Amiga University (never heard of it actually. Hello Google...)
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moto
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@motorolin:
Have you been able to load any samples in? (from memory Instrument>Load)
Once you load a sample in, the qwerty keyboard represents a piano-type keyboard. As long as Edit is ticked you should be able to move the cursor to the first blank space (it may already be there) and punch in a note.
Try punching in a kick drum every four lines on channel one, then hit 'play block', and you'll begin to get an idea of how it works.
Truly wonderful piece of software in my opinion.
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If you don't have any samples yet, go here:
http://www.octamed.co.uk/
Click the amiga link, then '8-bit samples' on the left hand side of the page. ;-)
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I've loaded samples in, but I don't know what to do next :-) I understand the matrix of numbers is where you specify the pitch and duration of the samples, but I also need to know how to use effects etc.
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moto
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As far as effects are concerned, I still don't use that many.
The list of five(?) zeros after the note is where you put control/effects commands. For example, "C" is volume. Volume levels are 0-64, so if you have:
10C32
then you are playing instrument 1 at half volume.
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10000 would play instrument one at default, full volume.
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I don't know if that's any use to you but I'd recommend concentrating on learning how to build up a basic song first, then worry about effects later.
Just my opinion of course.
:pint:
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Thanks - I'll have a play when I have more time. I'm using Reason on my Mac so I'm used to being able to insert effects all over the place :-D
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moto
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I personally prefer OctaMED 5 (I do have OSS on disk somewhere with no manuals), and always use the score sheets to compose music. It usually takes me about 2 hours to compose a decent (1 min 30 secs) piece of music.
If there are tutorials about changing the numbers to add sound effects I'd love to see them too.
I have Soundtracker, but don't like it at all.
Regards,
Lonewolf10
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I personally prefer OctaMED 5 (I do have OSS on disk somewhere with no manuals), and always use the score sheets to compose music. It usually takes me about 2 hours to compose a decent (1 min 30 secs) piece of music.
That's a part of the programme I've never used.
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I only use it as I have no keyboard and can't play any musical instruments! With all the sound samples I currently have (including some from Bars & Pipes aswell as others) I can play over 100 instruments! ;)
Regards,
Lonewolf10
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There are some basic effects that can come in really handy. Like using 0 volume to apruptly cut off samples. There's also the slide effect that will smoothly change the pitch if a sample over time.
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http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MED_Soundstudio_Amiga/ is the official mailing list/Yahoo group for Amiga's versions of MED Soundstudio. Assuming you select to have emails sent to your inbox, it will send instructions on how to download the latest 68k version of MED Soundstudio as well as a link to the Amigaguide instruction file as soon as you sign up.
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I had a printed manual (still looking for it...) for OctaMED it was really helpful. If I can get my hands on it I'll scan it / PDF it.
Anyone else have a copy of this? Was small, orange cover I think, sprial bound.
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motorollin wrote:
I've loaded samples in, but I don't know what to do next :-) I understand the matrix of numbers is where you specify the pitch and duration of the samples, but I also need to know how to use effects etc.
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moto
IMHO, the best way to get used to OctaMED is to load a few existing modules and seeing how the patterns build the music up. I find it's better to deconstruct an existing thing to learn about it than attempt to construct something I have no idea how to implement from scratch ;-)
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@TheGoose
Yes I have it too. It's called 'The Octamed Companion - A Complete Step by Step Tutorial for OctaMed v5'. There's about 220 spring-bound pages of poor quality typed text with a cover that's more of an 'Amiga buff' than orange. Three disks came with it when published by RBF Software in 1993. RBF is Ray Burt-Frost who collaborated with Teijo Kinnunen and many others to create the OctaMed phenomenon.
There is no doubt that this booklet is essential to anyone wishing to understand the complexities of the OctaMed series. You can certainly learn a little by 'reverse engineering' OctaMed modules, but 90% of the codes you see on the player interface are complete gobbledygook without this Tutorial to explain them.
The manual is of course copyrighted, so publishing a PDF version would be naughty. However, how the heck can today's Amigans hope to keep the OctaMed dream alive without bending the rules a little? I wish I had the time to do it, but I don't.
Maybe someone will....
JaX
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@Karlos wrote:
IMHO, the best way to get used to OctaMED is to load a few existing modules and seeing how the patterns build the music up.
That is how I started to! Back in 1994. After years I could get a small list from JaXanim with parameters for the samples. How to increase or degrease volume, pitch bend, and many more.
The only thing I still do not get is how to use special parameters for MIDI! and:
Somehow I can not get all the possible sounds out of my midi supported keyboards/synthersizers!
Any idea?:idea:
Frisby
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@Jax - Surrender the booklet and no one gets hurts. Make no mistake the ancient text is all powerful as Jax describes. We are nothing without this literature!
:laugh:
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@ElZorro
If your MIDI hardware is anything like mine, you probably have bank MSB / bank LSB messages you can send for a particular channel to select a variation on one of your basic GM sounds.
Alternatively, your hardware might allow NPRN bank selection, though I've never seen it implemeneted.
To be honest, I'm so lazy in that regard I tend to set up everything the way I want it on the hardware, then dump it to octamed and save it as part of the module.
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Karlos wrote:
IMHO, the best way to get used to OctaMED is to load a few existing modules and seeing how the patterns build the music up. I find it's better to deconstruct an existing thing to learn about it than attempt to construct something I have no idea how to implement from scratch ;-)
Very good advice. I've done just that several times myself. Good for learning little tricks, etc.
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I went through a phase where adjusting the track timing cyclically on every quarter beat so that all the even quarters had 7 and all the odd ones had 5 was my favourite effect. It basically gives it a bit of porn groove timing :lol:
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i really hope someone posts that book, i read that Aaron Funk uses octaMED to do his breakcore tracks, so i was really curious to learn it, (stilll not to sure HOW he does it in this) but it is really confusing ish to loook at, althugh seems simple once the main things are learned, but its really hard to learn them ;P
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ShadowHarl wrote:
(...) i read that Aaron Funk uses octaMED to do his breakcore tracks, (...)
Wow, now this is good music. Did'nt knew this guy. I just listened to the tracks previews on the HPage of his one-man band, "venetiansnares (http://www.venetiansnares.com/music.php)" ; Very good music, I like the sounds, the progressions, the ideas, the energy, wow. Though I'm more into songs, right now, than into pure techno music, I like my stompin" jungle fix :banana: sometimes.
Thank you very much for the information, ShadowHarl.
I made a lot of music w/ Octamed back in the days (mostly hardcore techno, lending to industrial noisy punk) and what got me started was the AF tutorial mentioned elsewhere in this thread. It was no big deal, however, just a quick :
Load a sample from the coverdisk
Make a pattern
Open the PatternList,
Copy the pattern 4 times
Edit notes values to make verses & a chorus
Edit some simple volumes, fades
Save it
:rtfm:
I remember vividly that one KEY info, that I really needed to be at home in the program, was how to manage the patterns in the PatternList (at this time I did'nt knew a *word* in english and I thought that "append" meant something negative like "remove"). :crazy: I was hooked, that was enough to put me on rails. Then I openend and looked w/ great strutiny (is that a word ? I think so) at the innards of *all* the modules I could put my pointer on, and discovered wonders. BTW, I now remember : There *was* a Manual in fact, a huge amigaGuide file that I tried to print on my matrix printer, but stopped at the request of my family, the upstairs neighbour, and the nearby airport, complaining about the noise.
After that I was flying, and making music w/ Octamed, occupied the best part of the two following years. Those were the days, although quite a fuzzy zone of my souvenirs :afro:
There is a song that we made one night in a pro studio where a friend was working, we recorded (on the end of a big customers tape, he never knew, I guess :roll:) a song using TWO A500, hooked via MIDI interfaces in both, syncin *two* 'med sessions with an old Midi ClockBox, after two hours trying to figure out how to do that (clock syncing) into Octamed.
This was, by the way, the day that we started looking seriously towards other HW platforms (at the time 12 bit samplers like the Ensoniq EPS, and the Akai SXXXX, and stupid Pro24, then later Cubase, on stupid Ataris, never got my sound engineers buddies to consider Bars&Pipes, that I got from an AF coverdisk), other than for joking about it) and yes, those are deeply nested parentheses::crazy:) because such a setup (picture the 2 A500s (and their STUPID external MIDI!!!)& the BIG ClockBox) was becoming silly.
The guy with which I made the music salvaged some floppies, I must encode them sometime soon so the world know how much horrid noise can come out of an Amiga 500.
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And as a nice bouncer2my loong reply, I wanted to point you toward one HELL of a valuable ressource if you're into serious music on a dead platform (great creative concept if you ask me) : This guy (http://fromwithin.com/liquidmidi/) :bow: took back b&p (source code & everything) under his wings (after Blue Ribbon SoftWorks was bought/killed/buried by guess who (http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx)), he updated the thing like he totally revamped the patch system, and is now offering (http://fromwithin.com/liquidmidi/archive.shtml) it, like it's Xmas ! Talk about abandonware ! :pint: